Design Case Failures

The three design failures that most stick out to me from this semester are from the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, The Midwest Program on Airborne Television Instruction (MPATI) and Making Alcatraz Amazing.

The design failure that I recognized from the Nutshell Studies are that the studies are not mobile. The issue with that is this limits the audience to only those that are able to travel to where the studies are located (Mingle, 1970). The design failure that I chose from the MPATI was that there was no special equipment aside from a television set with an antenna that was required to access the programming. This ultimately led to many schools participating in the program without paying in any money and since funding ended up being the demise of the program this was a contributing factor that led to the ultimate end of the program (Tracy, & Stenfanlak 2014). The design failure that I recognized from Making Alcatraz Amazing was, “rather than recite facts about the different metals used for cell bars in the oldest part of the installation and in the newer cells, the tour invited visitors to place their hands directly on the bars and feel the difference in their warmth and sturdiness. unfortunately, the sweat and oil on thousands of hands over decades deteriorates the metal leading to degradation of the site” (Boling, 2014, p.80.) this was one of the many design failures that were identified from making Alcatraz amazing most if not all of which led to either the tour being changed, or the recording being changed in some former fashion

In terms of my own design case the product that failed was the empty coffee can that we chose to use as an air sampler. This failure was an unforeseen consequence of attempting to overcome an obstacle which was to keep the technicians from having to use PPE to perform the practical evaluation.

References:

Mingle, K. (1970, January 1). The Nutshell Studies. 99% Invisible. Retrieved June 30, 2022, from https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-nutshell-studies/

Monica W. Tracy, & Jill E. Stenfanlak (2014). MPATI: The Midwest Program on Airborne Television Instruction (1959-1971). International Journal of Designs for Learning, 5(2).

Elizabeth Boling (2014). “Making Alcatraz Amazing”: The Alcatraz Cellhouse Tour. International Journal of Designs for Learning, 5(2).