Description

Draw an object described to you in plain language through code. My object's description: flip phone; white body; big screen; same size as its upper shell; each button on the keypad is in rectangular shape.

Design Process

My partner (Jingwen Zhang) used general terms to describe her object. They were short phrases that were enough to imagine an overall image of the object, but also had space for various interpretations. I began interpreting with the first description that identified the object as a flip phone. It was white and had a big screen. These were key details that set up the foundations of the object where I started to create the form in my mind. The phone had rectangular buttons, which I imagined to be on the other half of the flip phone. I also thought there would be some sort of rotating hinge mechanism for the phone to fold and unfold.

Reflection

Looking back, I realized there could have been many ways the object could have been interpreted. A lot of my previous experiences or knowledge influenced the way I interpreted the descriptions and affected the decisions I made. For example, although the screen was the "same size as its upper shell," I made a distinction between the phone body and screen. I thought of the flip phones I used in the past and my interactions with old phones guided this decision. However, the screen could have taken up the entire top shell, like the touch screen flip phones we see today. The hinge mechanism is also my very direct interpretation of the phones I had used. Moreover, the keypad could have been individual, extruded buttons with space in between each other. However, I read it as one whole keypad with lines that divided the buttons.