right on target...

i am a dea major concentrating in ergonomics. for those of you who either a. dont know what the fuck ergonomics is or b. think that its just designing more comfortable chairs, here is how i explain it:
ergonomics is the social science of how people interact with their environment both physically and cognitively.

the way ergonomics is approached at cornell is as a combination of behavioral psychology and design with an overall mission of better user experience within the internal environment. its option III in the department of design and environmental analysis (short: dea...us cornellians love them damn acronyms) in the college of human ecology. most cornellians dont even know it exists...and come may i will be one of 7 others graduating with a concentration in ergonomics, and one of maybe 30 with a bs in dea.

in almost all my classes the first thing we learn is that in order to come up with proper design solutions we first need to identify the problems we are trying to address with these solutions. in the words of the learned professor maxwell, "the first step in the design process is problem seeking." (oh what a wise woman that lorraine is)

today i was searching for interesting articles to kill time at work and i stumbled upon this.
essentially the reason for apple's success is because they ask themselves "whats the problem?" when designing and developing their products. so pretty much what i learn in my classes is the secret to apple's design success.

bottom line? dea majors are baller.