Design - The Dis-Organiser (Research, preparation)

 The Dis-Organiser is the Discworld equivalent of a PDA or electronic diary. It essentially consists of a tiny imp living in a box that the owner can carry in their pocket.

Plan;

1. Gather descriptions of the object to be designed from the source text.
2. Compile a list of adjectives and determine what the design needs to communicate.
3. Gather references based on these needs and start to think how these references could inspire designs.
4. Do some quick brainstorming to consider ways in which the qualities could be communicated, through both actual real-world cultural components/objects and also through visual design language.
5. Define the things to try to capture in the design.
6. Draw thumbnails.
7. Select some distinct thumbnails that serve to communicate the requirements of the design for further refinement.

1. Written Descriptions

From 'Jingo'


'Bingeley–bingeley beep!' said a cheerful voice from his pocket.
'Damn!' said Vimes, but it was too late.
'It is,' said the voice, which had the squeaky friendly quality that begs to be

strangled, 'about... nineish.'
'Nineish?'
'Yep. Nineish. Precisely about nineish.'
Vimes rolled his eyes. 'Precisely about nineish?' he said, pulling a small box

out of his pocket and opening the lid. The demon inside gave him an angry look.

'Yesterday you said,' it said, 'that if I, and I quote, Didn't Stop all that Eight Fifty–Six and Six Seconds Precisely business I Would Be Looking at a Hammer From Below. And when I said, Mr Insert Name Here, that this would invalidate my warranty, you said that I could take my warranty and–'

'I thought you'd lost that thing,' said Carrot.

'Hah,' said the Dis–organizer, 'really? You thought he did? I don't call putting something in your trouser pockets just before they go into the wash losing it.'

'That was an accident,' muttered Vimes.

'Oh? Oh? And dropping me in the dragon's feeding bowl, that was accidental too, was it?' The demon mumbled to itself for a moment and then said, 'Anyway, do you want to know your appointments for this evening?'

Vimes looked at the smouldering wreckage of the embassy.
'Do tell,' he said.
'You don't have any,' said the demon sulkily. 'You haven't told me any.' 'You see?' said Vimes. 'That's what drives me lived! Why should I have to

tell you? Why didn't you tell me, ' 'Eightish: break up riot at Mundane Meals and stop Detritus shooting people," eh?'

'You didn't tell me to tell you!'

'I didn't know! And that's how real life works! How can I tell you to warn me about things that no–one knows are going to happen? If you were any good, that'd be your job!'

'He writes in the manual,' said the demon nastily. 'Did you know that, everybody? He writes in the manual.'

'Well, of course I make notes–'

'He's actually sneakily trying to keep his diary in the manual so his wife won't find out he's never bothered to learn how to use me,' said the demon.

'What about the Vimes manual, then?' snapped Vimes. 'I notice you've never bothered to learn how to use me!'

The demon hesitated. 'Humans come with a manual?' it said.
'It'd be a damn good idea!' said Vimes.
'True,' murmured Angua.
'It could say things like "Chapter One: Bingeley–bingeley beep and other

damn fool things to spring on people at six in the morning," ' said Vimes, his eyes wild. 'And "Toubleshooting: my owner keeps trying to drop me in the privy, what am I doing wrong?" And–'  

One of the universal rules of happiness is: always be wary of any helpful item that weighs less than its operating manual.

It cost Sybil three hundred dollars

and it can't even keep track of where I am.'

'Er... beep... error code 746, divergent temporal instability...'

'I am the Dis–organizer Mk II, with many handy hard–touse features,
Insert Name Here!'

'Er... I can maintain an up–to–the–minute contacts directory...' The Dis–

organizer felt movements that suggested the new owner had mounted a horse.


From Pratchett's 'The Truth'

'Congratulations!' said the imp. 'Warranty not applicable if said device is sold, hired, 
transferred, gifted or stolen unless in original packaging and extraneous materials which by then 
you will have thrown away and Part Two of the warranty card which you have lost has been 
filled in and sent to Thttv ggj, thhtfjhsssjk the Scors and quoting 
 the reference number which you did not in fact make a note of. DO yOU W3nt Hie tO 
WipC the 
 contents of my memory?' It produced a cotton-wool bud and prepared to insert it into one 
very large ear. 'Erase Memory Y,'N?' 
 'Your . . . memory . . . ?' 
 'Yes. Erase Memory Y,'N?' 
 'N!' said William. 'And now tell me what exactly it is you are remembering,' he added. 
273 
 'You have to press the Recall button,' said the imp impatiently. 
 'And that will do what?' 
 'A small hammer hits me on the head and I look to see what button you pressed.' 
 'Why don't you just, well, recall?' 
 'Look, I don't make the rules. You've got to press the button. It's in the manual--'

From Wikipedia:

There are several different "generations" of Dis-Organiser, which were probably based on the imp-powered watches; the watches themselves fell out of fashion once people decided clockwork was more reliable. All of them have a relentless enthusiasm that distinguishes them from "single function" imps; they want to show off all their abilities, all the time.
The basic Mark I is an imp, in a box, that (theoretically) remembers your diary and memos. It can also recognise handwriting (a reference to the Apple Newton) but can't understand it; it also claims to be able to tell you what the time is in Klatch, but obviously this is not very useful as they are made in Ankh Morpork, and don't know what time it is anywhere else. It can use precognition to find out what your appointments are before you do, but this may lead to it following a different timeline, which can be disturbing ("...beep... Things To Do Today: Die..."). The Mark II is similar, but also has the ability to change colour, knows several different alarm calls, and can memorise an entire conversation (running its memory backwards to recall it). The Mark V, also known as "The Gooseberry" (a play on the BlackBerry) can deliver messages through Bluenose (cf. Bluetooth), which involves running extremely fast down to the nearest clacks tower, as well as play games and whistle songs through iHUM (cf. iTunes). It can also, unlike the Mark I, read, and its most useful function (to Commander Vimes, at least) is an ability to sort through large amounts of paperwork quickly—Vimes eventually lets it out of its box and employs it as his unofficial secretary.
The name Dis-Organiser is both an obvious pun, and a play on "Dis", the name given to the city in the center of Hell in Dante's Divine Comedy^{[citation needed]}. In The Art of Discworld the Mark I and Mark II are drawn to resemble the Series 1 and Series 3 Psion organisers.

Imps are tiny demons that perform minor tasks rapidly. A number of Discworld labour-saving devices exist which function by trapping small imps (it is implied that they are made using magic, and in Making Money they are described as a "living spell", but small 'wild' demons have also been used). The most notable is the iconograph, but others include watches (The Colour of Magic, Reaper Man, Thief of Time), food processors (Nanny Ogg's Cookbook), razors (Thud!) and personal "dis-organisers" (Feet of Clay, Jingo, The Truth, Thud!).

The imps in these devices seem not to mind their jobs, although they get sarcastic if overworked or asked to do things outside their purview. They also seem to lack imagination making them (theoretically) more reliable to do things correctly.

2. Relevant Extracted Information

The Mark II as seen in 'Jingo'
An 'imp powered device'
Imps - living spells/small 'wild' demons
Box with a lid
Can see into future to book appointments
Temporally unstable - trouser legs of time 
Analogue of contemporary software-based diaries
Price - $300
Manual heavier than DisOrganiser
Show-off
Recognise handwriting
Time-keeper
Change colour
Variety of alarm calls
Memorise conversations
Registration card - defaults to 'Insert Name Here'
Uses a large ear-bud (ear cleaner) to reset memory
A 'recall' button on the box hits imp on head with hammer and he looks to see what the last button pressed was.
Turns out there are buttons


Important adjectives to look for in ref. hunting - things we want to portray:

• Intelligent
• Annoying
• Memory
• Future-seeing
• Expensive
• Buttons
• Small/Pocket-sized
• Imp Inside

3. Collected References:
Sourced on Pinterest, click here to view

Note: Here I introduced a new way of using pinterest - adding my own thoughts regarding the reference image in the description of the image. Denoted from regular image information/captions by the use of [square brackets around my added thoughts]

4. Brainstorming and general written Ideas
How the adjectives could potentially be communicated (a question mark denotes something that may not be appropriate in this particular instance):

Cultural components that might communicate some of these things

• Expensive - elaborate carving or metalwork, valuable materials, ornate, clean and tidy, delicate(?), jewelry box
• Handwriting recognition - imp gets out to see what's written on paper, user writes on carts and feeds into slot, user writes on roll of paper attached to box, user writes on glass pane which imp reads backwards
• External shape - opens like a diary/book, matchbox, cube, large air vents like cat box, buttons on outside, pocket-sized,
• Annoying - big speaker/grammaphone on outside, big bell, vuvuzela
• Communication between imp and owner -  external screen made of cards/paint on glass/etc, speakers, microphone, vent, window, hatch that opens, slot, 
• Style - Japanese/Agaten influence, medieval influence, mixture, Japonism (Art Nouveauish)
• Memory  - said to be imp-based (i.e., the imp's brain holds the thoughts) but we could alter this, add-on by inserting little stacks of paper or memory cartridges
• Future-seeing - crystal ball, magic cards, tea,

Visual language that might communicate some of these things

• Intelligent - grids, lines, numbers, buttons, rectancular forms, rounded rectangles
• Annoying - 
• Memory/recording - book forms, computer memory, lists, tapes
• Expensive - elaborate forms, flowing lines, fancy trim,
• Small/Pobcket-sized - large protrusions in comparison to actual box, chunky detail
• Contains imp - vents, lines/grids/grates, hatches, door shapes, window shapes, house-like forms, vehicle forms, office cubicle 

5. What do we want to communicate with the design?

 

• Annoying - KEY attribute
• Complex
• Intelligent
• Has memory
• Expensive
• Small/Pocket-sized
• Contains an imp
• Functional/Practical 

What could we also think about communicating (lower priority)?

• Ability to see into future

Roadblock - how do we pick which designs to continue on with?

How do we define which visual aspects to focus on most?
I need a clear way to set rules. Do I do this arbitrarily and create a mock-brief, or do I find or devise some sort of process to figure out what should be set in stone and what should be explored creatively?

Richard's Advice: Use the description as written in the book to lay down the rules. Refer back to the description.

I reckon it could be useful to look through references and pick out the aspects of each of them that give them the qualities they have - what makes it look expensive, what makes it look intelligent, what makes it look annoying, small, functional or practical, complex? 

Perhaps do sketches to begin to bring these into visual library if time allows - as per Matt Kohr's suggestion.

What if instead of trying to capture EVERYTHING in a single design, I play up and play down different aspects in each design?

What if I thought about what the core essence of the object is and worked with that? The core essence here is that it's a medieval/magic businessman-style organiser.