Design Survivor

Home Schedule Week 2 · Overview

An Iconic Opening

Week 2

Gallery Walk Disney · Apple Store · Apple Unboxing Challenge 2

Gallery Walk + Voting
An Iconic Opening (Cases)
Poland Spring Exercise
Challenge 2 Launch
Interview Your Partner
Studio Time
Wednesday

Home Schedule 10-Week Overview

01"Dear Data, Design Vision"Individual
02"An Iconic Opening"Dyads
03"The Heirloom"Dyads
04"Everything Is a World"Dyads
05"Invisible Senses"Dyads
06"Curating & Taste"Individual
07"Get Out of Your Head"Dyads
08"The Ugly Baby"Dyads
09"Less But Better"Dyads
10"Who Are You Now?"Individual

Week
2

Home ScheduleWeek 2 · Monday

Gallery Walk

Week 1 postcards and product visions displayedGallery Walk

Your Week 1 postcards and product visions are displayed around the room.

Two Post-it colors:

🟢 Green: what's working

🟡 Yellow: what could go further

Circulate. Look at everything. Leave feedback on at least 5.

Home ScheduleWeek 2 · Monday

Vote

OriginalityMost surprising approach

FeasibilityMost buildable

EmbodimentBest instantiation of the concept

Peer FavoriteYour pick

Anonymous digital poll after each presentation block. One vote per category. Results announced end of class.

Home ScheduleWeek 2 · Critique Protocol

Critique Protocol

I Like

Name what's working and why. "I like how _____ because _____."

I Wish

Name what could go further. "I wish _____ because _____."

I Wonder

Open a door. "I wonder what would happen if _____."

Not This

"I don't like it" or "It's good" — vague reactions don't help anyone improve.

Feedback is about the work, not the person. A good critique helps the recipient see what's working and what could be stronger.

Home ScheduleWeek 2 · Monday

Amabile Callback

Domain Skills

Who really knew their data?

Creative Processes

Who took a surprising approach?

Task Motivation

Where can you SEE that someone cared?

Home ScheduleAn Iconic Opening

An Iconic Opening

The first moment someone encounters your design is itself a design problem.

Three companies that turned the opening — the onboarding, the unboxing, the arrival — into an art form. Each teaches a different structural principle you'll apply in your own work this week.

Home ScheduleCase 1 · Disney

Disney

Home ScheduleCase 2 · Apple Store

Apple Store

Every surface is a controlled reveal

Glass facade — you see the products before you enter. Transparency as invitation.
Every laptop open at exactly the same angle (76°) — optimized so you have to adjust it, which means you touch it.
Genius Bar at the back — you walk past everything to get help. The journey is the store.
No checkout counter. The transaction is invisible. The last moment is leaving with the product, not paying for it.

Takeaway: Design the sequence. What does someone see first, touch first, feel first? Every moment in the journey should be intentional.

Home ScheduleCase 3 · Apple Unboxing

Apple: Unboxing

Unboxing as emotional choreography

The box resists opening at exactly the right speed — air pressure designed in. Every layer is sequenced. Nothing is accidental. Apple employs a dedicated box opener.

Takeaway

Design the sensory arc. Each moment should add a new dimension — sight, then touch, then sound. What does your design feel like at each stage of discovery?

Home ScheduleAn Iconic Opening · Your Takeaways

Anticipation Sequence Sensory Arc Emotional Payoff

Your Design Must Show

Anticipation — what happens before someone encounters your design? (Disney)
Sequence — what do they see first, touch first, feel first? Is every moment intentional? (Apple Store)
Sensory arc — does each stage of discovery add a new sensory dimension? (Apple Unboxing)
Emotional payoff — does the experience build toward something? What do they feel after?

These transfer to ANY product, service, or experience. That's the skill you're building this week.

Home ScheduleWeek 2 · Exercise

Analogical Transfer

Current Poland Spring labelPoland Spring

Exercise 5 Minutes

Sketch a label redesign that makes this water feel like it costs $12/bottle.

Same water. Same bottle. Just the label.

Home ScheduleWeek 2 · Exercise

5:00

Go.

Home ScheduleWeek 2 · Exercise Debrief

Share + Debrief

VossVoss

FijiFiji

Acqua PannaAcqua Panna

Same product. Same water. Structural design choices (not content) changed perception entirely. This is analogical transfer: extracting a structural principle and applying it.

Home ScheduleChallenge 2

Challenge 2

The Onboarding & Unboxing Fix

The Challenge Interview your partner to find a product they love whose first-contact experience is broken. Redesign the entire arc — not just the object, but the full experience journey: anticipation, discovery, first touch, and what happens after.

Dyads You'll be randomly assigned a partner. You design for them, they design for you. Bring the actual product to show the before.

Home ScheduleChallenge 2 · Interview Design

Design Your Interview

Before you interview, design your questions. What did you learn in Week 1 about the gap between instinct and data? What questions will surface the real frustration?

Don't ask "what product has bad packaging?" — that leads to surface answers.
Ask about moments of disappointment — when something they love let them down.
Ask about the gap between expectation and reality — that's where the design problem lives.
Your job: find a product your partner genuinely loves whose first-contact experience is broken.

Home ScheduleChallenge 2 · Partner Interview

Interview Your Partner

45 minutes total — split across Monday class + X-hour

Listen First Find the Frustration Design for Them

You are redesigning their broken experience, not your own. The interview is how you find the right problem.

Home ScheduleChallenge 2 · The Journey

The Full Journey

Before

How does someone find, anticipate, or approach it?

During

What's the sequence of discovery and interaction?

After

What do they feel when it's over? What do they remember?

Apple and Disney don't just design the object. They design the journey. Your challenge: do the same.

Home ScheduleChallenge 2 · Deliverables

Deliverables

Hand-Crafted Physical PrototypeAny campus resources/tools. Bring the actual product to presentation to show the before.

Presented LIVESomeone interacts with it, not just slides.

Experience Journey Map3+ stages with intended emotion at each.

Sensory ChoiceOne deliberate sensory choice beyond visual — named and justified.

Principle Transfer Statement"The principle I transferred from [case] is _____, applied as _____"

Portfolio Entry PDFDocumented as a portfolio entry.

Home ScheduleChallenge 2 · Prompts

Show It In Your Design

Is your principle transfer structural, not surface?
Does your journey map include the invisible parts — before and after?
Does your sensory choice add something vision can't carry?
Would someone who only saw the physical prototype miss half the design?

Home ScheduleChallenge 2 · Milestones

Today — Design Your Interview
Before you interview, design your questions. What did you learn in Week 1 about the gap between instinct and data? What questions will surface the real frustration?
Today + X-Hour — Interview Your Partner
45 min total (split across Monday class + X-hour). Find a product they love whose first-contact/onboarding experience is broken.
Before Wednesday
Read your assigned reading (Gentner & Markman or Dahl & Moreau or Pine & Gilmore). Spend time with your partner's broken product. Document what fails.
X-Hour
Finish partner interview if needed. Room open with prototyping materials.
Wednesday
Reading discussion (10 min) then 80 min studio. Due end of Wednesday.

Milestones

Home ScheduleWeek 2 · Readings

Your Assigned Readings

Gentner & MarkmanGentner & Markman (1997)

Dahl & MoreauDahl & Moreau (2002)

Pine & GilmorePine & Gilmore

[ Groups will be assigned in class. Each student reads one. ]

Home ScheduleWeek 2 · Monday

Studio Time

25 Minutes

Dyad partners announced (randomly assigned)
Design your interview questions (10 min)
Begin interviewing your partner — find the broken product

Quick prototyping demo (~5 min)

Foam core walls, paper furniture, found objects for texture. Go.

Home ScheduleWeek 2 · Wednesday

Reading Discussion

10 Minutes

Gentner & Markman: What makes an analogy deep vs. shallow? (2 min)
Dahl & Moreau: Why does distance between domains matter? (2 min)
Pine & Gilmore: When does a product become an experience? (2 min)

Bridging question: Can you identify which kind of analogy YOUR idea is? Surface or structural? Near-field or far-field?

Home ScheduleWeek 2 · Wednesday

Studio Time

80 Minutes

Build your prototype.

"What's the PRINCIPLE I'm transferring, not the LOOK?"

Deliverables due end of class or evening.