A couple-few careers ago I was an aircraft mechanic at Boeing, first in the mockup shop, then on the flight test modification crew. I installed, removed, tweaked, measured, and cussed at a lot of very early stage designs. Sometimes those designs came from engineers who "got it", like the two guys who designed the very complex over-wing emergency exit doors on the 757. I must have built three or four iterative miniature versions in the mockup shop with those guys looking over my shoulder and talking with me a couple times a shift until they were happy with the prototype. Years later this stands out in my mind as an example of a great prototyping collaboration.
And then there were prototype modules I needed to install, say beneath an airliner's cockpit in a very confined space, where it was plain that the design engineer had never before held a screwdriver and hadn't the faintest clue in the world how basic mechanical things worked. Same goes with webcraft and software. Maybe you don't need to be an expert Java developer or graphic designer or AJAX guru to design for various platforms, but it will sure become instantly apparent to the implementers whether you know squat about how things work (or not). Software prototyping is one way to bridge the gap between design and development skills. Even if you don't become a serious development threat, through hands-on craft work you gain a basic understanding of some of the concerns and mindset that developers and visual designers will apply to your wonderful wireframes and interaction designs. Your informed designs are more likely to be built as-designed rather than recrafted on the developer's forge or tossed as unbuildable (and take it from me this can sure puncture and deflate your poor old ego). Michael Micheletti On Nov 12, 2007 2:21 PM, Andrei Herasimchuk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > In fact, why would you ever trust an architect who has never picked > up a hammer and nail in his life before? I know I wouldn't. I want > the guy who built his own house. Or built something with his own two > hands. ________________________________________________________________ *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
