Was there a convention twenty plus years ago in which they decided hyperlink blue had to match infomercial background blue and both had to be horribly disturbing to the eyes and distracting from whatever the actual product is? Although in the case of infomercials, there generally is never any actual product anyways.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
Criticism and non Designers
"When we are having a critique, we are not discussing you as a person, we are discussing your work."
This is the tagline of any critique during my four years of design at Carnegie Mellon. Classmates and professors are not criticizing you as a person, they are not criticizing your beliefs or your personality, they are not discussing your ability as a designer, not in that conversation at least. They are discussing the design currently on the wall. After four years of this as well as the years of art education before university, I have grown fond of the critique environment where nothing is out of line and all comments are directed towards the work, not myself.
Now in the real world, and the corporate world at that, I need to relearn this method. Over the last week, I rendered a variety of sketches for a range of projects I am involved with. Sharing my sketches I was asked more than once if the critisicm is too harsh, or if I am OK with the judgement being passed. To me, the judgement being passed and the criticism offered was minimal and lighthearted to say the least. There was good criticism and bad but I saw it as constructive criticism about the work, not about myself. I thrive on it to make the work better. Otherwise, my personal standards would drop and my quality of work would decrease.
Then I received renderings from other individuals in the organization who lack a design background. Reading their comments and reviewing their renderings, I understood their motivations for various elements within the interface but knew the overall layout did not work and the system as a whole was flawed. I know though that bedside manner is a weak spot of mine. And I know that many people take criticism of their work as a personal attack. So it was carefully that I had to redraft my comments to show how all of the concerns they listed, and more importantly the ones they did not list are addressed in the current design.
It is an interesting balance between the design world and the rest of the business community. We thrive off of criticism to push us further and create better products. The majority of people feel attacked in the same setting. I know this is one thing I will just have to get used to, but it is interesting how it has affected my work and I look forward to seeing how my work model will change as I have to teach people it is OK to tear my work down... as long as it is my work and not me... and as long as it is constructive and not spiteful. Thin lines that take a very careful skillset not to cross.
This is the tagline of any critique during my four years of design at Carnegie Mellon. Classmates and professors are not criticizing you as a person, they are not criticizing your beliefs or your personality, they are not discussing your ability as a designer, not in that conversation at least. They are discussing the design currently on the wall. After four years of this as well as the years of art education before university, I have grown fond of the critique environment where nothing is out of line and all comments are directed towards the work, not myself.
Now in the real world, and the corporate world at that, I need to relearn this method. Over the last week, I rendered a variety of sketches for a range of projects I am involved with. Sharing my sketches I was asked more than once if the critisicm is too harsh, or if I am OK with the judgement being passed. To me, the judgement being passed and the criticism offered was minimal and lighthearted to say the least. There was good criticism and bad but I saw it as constructive criticism about the work, not about myself. I thrive on it to make the work better. Otherwise, my personal standards would drop and my quality of work would decrease.
Then I received renderings from other individuals in the organization who lack a design background. Reading their comments and reviewing their renderings, I understood their motivations for various elements within the interface but knew the overall layout did not work and the system as a whole was flawed. I know though that bedside manner is a weak spot of mine. And I know that many people take criticism of their work as a personal attack. So it was carefully that I had to redraft my comments to show how all of the concerns they listed, and more importantly the ones they did not list are addressed in the current design.
It is an interesting balance between the design world and the rest of the business community. We thrive off of criticism to push us further and create better products. The majority of people feel attacked in the same setting. I know this is one thing I will just have to get used to, but it is interesting how it has affected my work and I look forward to seeing how my work model will change as I have to teach people it is OK to tear my work down... as long as it is my work and not me... and as long as it is constructive and not spiteful. Thin lines that take a very careful skillset not to cross.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
The Desktop metaphor... dead
This is not a compeltely original thought. I wish I could find the literature that initially put it into my head, but alas, i cannot. Still, i will rigth here to describe a simple thought:
the concept of the desktop in relation to a computer is out of date.
When computers were first developed for consumer use, they sat on desks. The interface, once we got past the single line input, received a metaphor of a desktop equating the computer screen to the desk it sat on. This worked quite well considering files were primarily text based, kept in folders, and this matched the physical world quite well.
In present day though, this does not compute so to say. With laptops the ever popular computer, mobile devices gaining an ever increasing market share and ubi-com becoming less and less a thing of science fiction, we need to step away from the desktop metaphor. People no longer sit at their desks and check email, write in blogs, and perform day to day business and personal functions. That being said, the desktop metaphor does not apply.
Apple tries to address this in their iPhone, by calling the screen with the application icons the home screen. This too though, is inaccurate. Home screens refer to the page within a web browser upon opening the application. I do not feel it can apply to the departure screen of a computing device though.
I do not have the solution to this dilemma of language. I simply propose that designers and developers needs to look at the language of the products we use and design and realize that much of the hurdles we must overcome are based on innapropriate titling of items commonly used.
the concept of the desktop in relation to a computer is out of date.
When computers were first developed for consumer use, they sat on desks. The interface, once we got past the single line input, received a metaphor of a desktop equating the computer screen to the desk it sat on. This worked quite well considering files were primarily text based, kept in folders, and this matched the physical world quite well.
In present day though, this does not compute so to say. With laptops the ever popular computer, mobile devices gaining an ever increasing market share and ubi-com becoming less and less a thing of science fiction, we need to step away from the desktop metaphor. People no longer sit at their desks and check email, write in blogs, and perform day to day business and personal functions. That being said, the desktop metaphor does not apply.
Apple tries to address this in their iPhone, by calling the screen with the application icons the home screen. This too though, is inaccurate. Home screens refer to the page within a web browser upon opening the application. I do not feel it can apply to the departure screen of a computing device though.
I do not have the solution to this dilemma of language. I simply propose that designers and developers needs to look at the language of the products we use and design and realize that much of the hurdles we must overcome are based on innapropriate titling of items commonly used.
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