Exercise 1: Identifying Communication Design

Hi! My name is Jessie Chen and I am currently a freshman in the BXA program. I am unsure of what exactly to pursue for my future, but Design is definitely something I have an interest in. Lately, I have been really into DIY and home cooking.

Effective Design: Spotify Desktop App

This is a screenshot of Spotify from my Macbook. The app has a clear menu bar on the left that allows the user to find new music or access their own music library. While you are browsing, you are able to still see the song you are currently listening to on the bottom as well as options to pause, skip, adjust volume, or even a like button to add it to a Liked Songs playlist. This desktop app is very user friendly while achieving its goal as a music player as well as recommend music based on what you listen to.

Ineffective Design: Macbook Pro Ports

While the Macbook Pro is designed to be sleek and minimalistic, that design suffers in terms of user accessibility. There are very limited ports to the Macbook Pro, including two USB-C ports and one headphone jack. With one USB-C port as a charger, that leaves only one USB-C port left to connect a USB drive or a mouse, but not both. This leads to users needing to buy a USB-extender as well as suffering from bad cable management.