At 10:03 AM -0800 12/20/07, Andrei Herasimchuk wrote: >On Dec 20, 2007, at 6:02 AM, Nick Iozzo wrote: > >> Andrei, you did not respond to the one of the key points I was >> making in the original post. That the innovation comes from the >> interplay of form and function, that interplay plays out best if >> you have strong designers representing each perspective. One for >> function one for form. > >That interplay and innovation comes out best when one person is able >to work through it all. Not a team. Teams are needed due to project >deadlines, scope, etc. Teams are the norm, true, but the ideal is >still one person. I very rarely see teams innovate. I often see >single designers innovate.
In my experience, I have found the reverse to be true. When intelligent people with complementary but different skills, knowledge and expertise, butt up against each other with a common end goal...it often sparks innovation. > > No reasonable sized project has just one person on it doing all of >> the design and coding. You will have a team. With that the case, >> then you appear to be arguing for the Visionary Designer role. The >> single person who defines the entire design and then has folks do >> the details. > >You can see my talk I posted earlier in a different thread for the >answer to that question. > > >> What I am advocating is the team approach. One person is >> responsible for the functional design another is responsible for >> the form design. You dived this responsibility to create a creative >> tension. You set it up so these two sides have a tug of war with >> each other. If they have worked together a long time, then they >> will know how to push each other to be better. > >This is a mistake, imho. I don't operate like that, and my design >teams don't operate like that. The division of skills I use is where >the designer has to code/build the prototype. So, you don't actually have a division of skills >Outside of that, >designers who work with me are expected to be interaction/graphic/ >information hybrids. I myself am that as well and have been since I >started doing this work. I have known many many people who are actual polymaths...and yet still most of them prefer to work on X, Y or Z aspects of their respective fields. I have known many more people who consider themselves to be polymaths -- for a variety of reasons, I don't work with them. > > To be a good interaction designer, you need to gain the empathy of >> your users. You do this by doing actual research not by reading >> what someone else has done. You need to be able to communicate >> visually. You need to be able to validate your designs. A good >> designer for the form of the application needs all of these as well! > >You need empathy, but more importantly, you need data and skills and >the ability to make the right decisions. I know lots of people who >empathize with their users who still make pretty bad products. > >> So the difference is not in the skills it is in the roles they play >> to get the job done. The functional designer may never select final >> typography, but they better be able to call the form designer on >> bad selections. The form designer may never write detailed >> interaction specifications, but they better be able to point out a >> better way to do something if one exists. > >Again, this is mistake. > >Why is this the case by the way? Because learning the basic of good >graphic design is not rocket science. It's quite straight forward. >Once technology flattens some more, once the school systems start >doing better blends of ID, IxDA and Art and Design, then the younger >talent will provide both and more. Again, I've seen a lot of the allegedly fearsome alleged polymaths you predict, and I've found that most of them -- a few years out of school -- are not as talented at everything as they think they are, but boy do they have control problems. I avoid hiring them when I can and falling that I avoid putting them on teams like the plague. >Further, the basics of good >interaction design are also not rocket science. They are also quite >straight forward. Once you have the basics down, the rest is desire, >passion, drive and good old experience over time from practice, >practice and more practice. If you talk to most rocket scientists, rocket science isn't rocket science. It's easy. It's what their brains do. It's what they've trained in. It's what they know about. But almost none of them would claim to be a naval architect, despite the fact that -- once you substitute liquid for gas -- they are substantially similar fields. I do not understand the apparent attraction of "everyone can do everything and is trained in everything" beyond a desire to do it all yourself. And even in a case where everyone does have the same training and fundamental ability there will be individuals with different strengths and patterns of thought -- and thank god for it. Taken to its logical extreme you have everyone equally skilled in everything -- because if an IxD doesn't understand the ins and outs of business in general and business X in particular, how will they understand and fulfill the goals? and if they can't develop the marketing program, then how will they know how to design the interactions and if they couldn't design the building the business is housed in then how will they understand how those physical surroundings work together to affect the form of the business which in turn influences the concept of the business and so forth. Yeah, I know -- ridiculous. But basically, this appears to be a very personal argument for you -- and there's no way to argue against someone's definition of what makes them a successful human being, so, at this point I'm bowing out of the discussion. Katie -- ------------------ Katie Albers User Experience Consulting & Project Management [EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
