An mp3 player can look like anything alt all: it can ben a square white box with radiused corners and a round click wheel in the middle, or it can be shaped like a carrot. The importance of persuasion—of convincing an audience that the mp3 player is "correctly designed"—increases dramatically when the functionality is nearly invisible.
ritz replies...
Things feel "right" when you get the results you want without noticing you're doing anything. When you hold, push, slide, switch, or click something and get what you expected you feel as if it's right. The second you have to stop and think about what you're doing and if you'll get the desired results, you stop feeling like it's "right."
There is a reason why computer scientists, doctors, architects, and lawyers are wealthy: they use their brains as their bartering tools. They are knowledge workers and strategists, and while they all "create", they are not only implementers. Daily, we sell ourselves short by allowing ourselves to be described as "makers." An architect certainly does not describe himself as a draftsperson; we must lead with our minds—not with our pencils.
ritz replies...
The difference between implementing and creating may seem trivial, but there's an important distinction. Implementing implies someone else is deciding what to do and the implementor is following orders. A creator is making stuff, but they are also the person leading the way. I don't want to imply ignoring clients since they are, by far, the most important people to involve in the design process. But letting someone call the shots without guidance and a full awareness of the situation can be extremely destructive to the project and ultimately the relationship.
Professionals spend the majority of their time competing on the level of "cool" instead of the level of "thought." This battle to create the most "bling" is detrimental to designers, to design, and to our clients. Our inability to articulate the importance of process means our clients focus on "money shot" renderings while they overlook the basic testaments of user centric design; moreover, as project managers equate design to "pretty things", they gloss over the true usefulness of the discipline: innovation and differentiation.
ritz replies...
Yep.
If information is meaningful data, knowledge, then, is a result of the combination of elements of information in order to arrive at a principle, a theory, or a story. While information may be sensory, knowledge seems to be more complicated, and perhaps more experience-driven.
ritz replies...
Wow. Giving people information doesn't necessarily give them anything useful. They need to be able to put that information into something that gives them value. Knowing requires doing. So a good design helps someone do, and know, something.
A design solution is judged based on the relevance to the individual who ultimately must use the creation... When embraced by designers, this core philosophy implies that consumers are unique, and that all members of the product development team hold a bias in the form of an expert blindspot. The more one knows about a topic, the more one forgets what it is like not to know. Expertise makes it nearly impossible to remember what it is like to be a novice.
ritz replies...
That's why user-testing, analytics, heatmaps, and other similar tools are so important. You get a glimpse at what real people in real life are doing. I'm always surprised at how illogical and irrational it sometimes seems. But just because something is rational and logical to me doesn't mean it's the best solution.
The persona begins to become an active member of the design team, and questions can be answered not by asking "what would the user want" or what does marketing require", but instead, "what does Jill (our persona) truly need?" If an engineer begins to ask these questions, he has, essentially, embraced the notion of designing for humanity rather than for technology.
ritz replies...
I've never been a huge fan of personas, but I do think it's incredibly important to realize you're not designing or building something for a "market" or for a "niche", but for me or Jill in accounting or Steve the mailman. It gets hugely different results. Maybe most projects are worth a persona or two. Putting them in a visible place as a reminder could keep things more focused and on track. Time to experiment.
Usable implies a strong and close connection between the functionality of a product and the abilities of the end user...
Useful generally refers to the match between a system's functionality and the goals the user has in mind...
Desirability is the fleeting idea associated with emotions—that a product may successfully fill an emotional, or subjective (and often superficial) niche within an audience...
ritz replies...
If these are the three main goals of a design, you're on the right track. If you can follow through on all of these you're probably a rock-star. It doesn't always have to be complicated... Maybe it's as simple as that.
Another approach designers can adopt is supporting design decisions, where possible, with data. It is important that design decisions be set in an empirical context rather than at the "whim of the designer person."
ritz replies...
Making things look attractive, stir emotion, and function properly are the minimum requirements to be a designer. From there the difference between an amateur and a professional is to be able to explain, in plain english with proof, why one choice is better than another. That "in plain english with proof" part is really hard. Hopefully I'll be a professional someday.
Additional information
- Pages: 168
- ISBN: 012378624X
- Dewey: 004
- Binding: Paperback
- Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann
Interaction Designers are in the business of understanding people in order to act as their advocate. Yet curricula in business administration or economic theory generally do not focus on the individual: emphasis placed on humanity usually highlights the group (market behavior, demographics, etc) instead. Few marketers or executives have been formally trained in issues of design or psychology, much less anthropology or sociology.
ritz replies...
I think this is why so many websites and marketing efforts always seem so lifeless and institutionalized. That's because they aren't talking to me. They're talking to a demographic.