Great sub-threads, both. This refers actually to both the Air as well as the What is UCD subthreads. There is a danger of creeping hubris when IxDers begin to believe that they are Knights in Shining Armor/Saviors of the Oppressed User who've come to deliver the hapless users from their anguish and subjugation. Wasn't that what the Mac's 1984 Super Bowl ad was about? [Loved the commercial, btw.] It never hurts to constantly remind oneself that human beings are Highly Adaptable and don't necessarily require the Greatest Designs in the World to go about their work effectively. Just a brief tour of museums and ancient ruins will remind us that some of the greatest and timeless works of art and engineering were brought to being with the crudest and most primitive of tools. And the continued dominance of the QWERTY keyboard reminds us that the average user is less excited by Well Thought Out Design than the average IxDer.
This is not a plea to abandon the pursuit of good design, but for some modesty and humility in the way we go about our work. While we can scream ourselves hoarse about what our field really is about, the User doesn't care a damn. This field/profession -- unlike medicine, accountancy and law -- is a moving target. The moment you set down a definition, the ground shifts beneath your feet and you're back to square one. I've seen this happen with the field of Information Systems over a three decade period. They're still out there, squabbling among themselves like a pack of hungry crows, while the world moves on. Someone rightly brought up Industrial Design as a predecessor to IxD. In another decade or two, something else might spin out of IxD, and they'll repeat this process once again. About interfaces, I read a whole bunch of very persuasive articles a year ago on why the iPhone/iPodTouch interface is bad -- all before zillions of pieces were lapped up by the market. The usual response of designers to this sort of behavior is: The User is An Idiot Who Doesn't Know What is Good For Her. Viewed from that perspective, the world seems to be populated mainly by idiots. On Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:47:28, Charlie Kreitzberg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > It seems that there are actually two conversations going on here: one > about the Macbook Air and one about the frustration of going around > in circles as we discuss the definitions of UCD. This comment is > about the latter. ________________________________________________________________ *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
