Hi Uday
You are making a good case when you write
On May 7, 2008, at 6:07 PM, Uday Gajendar wrote:
And more recently, Henry Petroski from Why There is No Perfect
Design (which is a great read, imho):
“Designing anything involves satisfying constraints, making
choices, containing costs, and accepting compromises.”
It's not about either "the user" or "the business"... the best
skilled designers figure how to *balance* competing concerns (with
the technology, human factors, etc.). Yeah It's difficult, but
that's the deal you signed up for as a designer. Sorry :-) (I go
more into this in my paper "Fog of Design" if anyone's interested,
about lessons learned on the complexity of practice)
I just want to add another perspective. Instead of seeing good design
as the "sweet spot" or the ideal compromise or a balancing act, we do
know that good designers are those who use creativity and innovative
thinking in a way that makes it possible for them to "transcend"
restrictions. Design becomes fairly boring if we see it as a matter
of compromise. It is more fun, and actually more true, to see it as a
matter of expanding what people see as the possible design space.
When a good designer creates designs that positively surprises
everybody involved, restrictions and limitations are not a hinder
anymore, they are enablers that push creative designs. But, this is
of course *really* difficult :-) but something to strive for....
Erik
-----------------------------
Erik Stolterman
Professor of Informatics
Director of Human Computer Interaction Design
School of Informatics
Indiana University
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
web: http://hcid.informatics.indiana.edu/eriksite/
blog: http://transground.blogspot.com/
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