Discussion Question

Our class has decided to explore five different facets of design and the problems/solutions that lie within them. My group, "Behavioral Studies" will be exploring the reasons why people behave the way that they do and how design plays a role in this. We will each be designing our own project, which is both exciting and somewhat intimidating. I am confident with time and research, we can come up with a great experiment.
When we first began to discuss this project, it seemed a little bit ambiguous. However, I feel now that our group has started to narrow down some key concepts in the study of behavior and how it relates to design. "Design is the conscious and intuitive effort to impose meaningful order". This is a very broad definition of design, and I am actually a big fan of it. Design, in some way, can be related to or taken from almost anything, and that is what makes it so meaningful. Likewise, behavior, whether conscious or unconscious, is relevant to so many decisions that we make as humans. The experiences, genetics, outlook and so many other factors effect how each of us behave, and thus how we impact design. Perhaps more importantly, how it impacts us.
I am not quite sure yet how we will test the relationship between design and behavior, but I feel like the options are almost limitless. This is maybe why it might be so hard to pinpoint just one thing and effectively demonstrate it through an experiment. One thing that first came to my mind was some sort of public "node", be it a sign or or some sort of poll that people will react to differently. It is crucial to this "node" that there be several options or choices for the person to have at their disposal. These options should be designed differently in some sense, in order to determine perhaps why each person is impacted by it, and thus why they behave the way that they do. For instance, a billboard sign reading "Slow down, arrive alive" may impact some people differently than others. We are all receptors of design thousands, perhaps millions of times per day and that is the beauty of people's different behavior.
Although this is just the beginning of a long road, I am feeling a little bit better about the concept of this project and the variables that will make our project unique and efficient. Good luck to all of the other groups!

Michael