On Dec 20, 2007, at 11:24 AM, David Malouf wrote: > I love ya man, but this point I REALLY have to disagree with. My > experience > here at Motorola Enterprise Mobility is that innovation is best > done in > groups. The cathartic energy of a design studio environment breeds > innovation better than any other I have been in.
I agree to the extent the corporate culture allows for teams to do this. My experience has been that most corporate cultures are set up to create committee mentalities, which is where I base my opinion here. (And it *is* an opinion.) > I hate working alone. I loathe it. I'm in a position right now, > where I'm > the only IxD in my group and I'm suffering from it. (Wanna job, > email me ... > please be a "D"esigner ... no PhD's, reserachers, and usability > experts). I do as well. At least until I get into a disagreement with some business type or product manager type, at which point I wish I was only having to deal with my own internal arguements. 8^) > I also disagree with your contention that you can't have > specialization and > bring specialists together to create a better whole. I have done > great work > where I directed from the point of view of IxD working with a visual > designer or other form-making designer. I'm not sure I ever stated it that way. I'm just making the point that the more you know, *even* if on a particular project you are only needed to deliver one portion of the design, the stronger you (and the team) are. In this regard, a team of designers that can all do what some on this list define as interaction and visual design but who are only needed to work n specific portions for any particular project will be stronger than a team of of people who only know interaction and people who only know graphic design. > I think you are overstating your position a tad and not really > thinking > about the total eco-system for interaction design today and tomorrow. I don't think I am to be honest. I honest believe that if you had a two person team where *both* people are strong at both interaction and graphic design (and information as well), then that two person team is an order of magnitude stronger than a different two person team where one person only knows interaction and the other person only knows graphic design. I believe this by the way because it's how I organize my design teams these days. > I agree that "it isn't so hard" to learn basic type, layout and > color theory > (for example); couple that with shape, texture, sound, and spatial > theories > of ID (my IxD environment) it starts to become a lot, but not hard. > But even > you yourself said that what makes the designer special over the > usability > expert is that they've been doing this craft "year on year". It is > exactly > that point. Yes, I can "learn" theory, but to become practiced in > the crafts > associated with them ARE time consuming (not hard, but definitely time > consuming) Exactly right. But I want to make sure people don't make the time and experience part of the equation the reason to make claims that being an interaction+graphic+information is somehow either not possible or worse, somehow not the standard. The fact it takes time is fine. So those that are int he education system now will have an edge because we are setting the expectation that they *do need* to learn all this stuff, and because it takes time, they better get started. Becoming a good architect or even a good doctor takes time. I'm not sure why that should be a problem for us as well. > They also (and this is the kicker) require learning > interpretation skills. Knowing that 5px separation isn't enough > negative > space vs. 10px which is just right takes a lot of practice and > here's the > kicker ... waiting for it ... MENTORSHIP!!!!! Agreed. > I do think we need to have a broad swath of skills and form-making > skills > are REALLY important, but I do also believe that form-making in and of > itself is NOT the primary skill or theory we as interaction > designers need > to have. Given the interplay of how the actual form and graphic design significantly impacts interaction at all levels, I'm not sure I agree with you. -- Andrei Herasimchuk Principal, Involution Studios innovating the digital world e. [EMAIL PROTECTED] c. +1 408 306 6422 ________________________________________________________________ *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
