On Sun, Apr 13, 2008 at 10:49 AM, Gavin Burke < [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Getting back to the developer/IX designer relationship, I feel a lot > of the problems can be solved by the IX designer getting training in > software development and learning the ins and outs of the interface > framework, be that QT or what ever. > > Hi Gavin, and welcome! Many on this list agree that having technical capabilities can only help you as a designer. I've done so much development in so many languages and environments over the years that I get to gripe a bit about developers now :-) The big gap that I see is between "Developer Brain" and "Designer Brain". They work different, even if they're in the same person's head, and it's tough to quickly task-switch between them. If I've got my Developer Brain engaged, I'm thinking of technical solutions, edge cases, alternative technologies, licensing issues with third-party code libraries, CSS inheritance, and a thousand other geeky details. My Developer Brain is so full of this stuff that what "The Users" want may get pushed down in priority somewhat, and I only see them out of the corner of my eye. Now if my Designer Brain is engaged, I'm thinking about... all this stuff we talk about on this list. "The Users" doesn't begin to represent what my Designer Brain is thinking about the intended users of our design products, so we grapple with Personas etc. These personas help Developer Brain people (who might actually be us later in the afternoon) keep the intended product users in their peripheral vision when making independent decisions. We won't even go into "Artist Brain" here, which you need to put on when doing production graphics or finished layouts. Some other hats (brains) design people put on might include Researcher, Presenter, Usability Tester, Account Representative, Salesperson, Pundit. It is good to walk in the other guys' shoes every sometimes, if only to gain their perspective and communicate better. No way I'll ever have a production-quality Salesperson Brain, but I can take in a sales call every so often and grok what's going on more or less. A pretty good way to test the usefulness of your design artifacts is to develop the actual product from them. Plus, when I do that, I get to gripe about designers :-) Thanks, Michael ________________________________________________________________ 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
