On Sep 25, 2008, at 12:33 PM, Kurt Krumme wrote:
Andrei, I apologize if I misunderstand you, and please correct me if
I do, but I get the feeling that you're advocating an understanding
of design fundamentals to anyone seeking to do design work of any
kind. This is something I agree with heartily.
Yes, this is the general point.
I don't think that design fundamentals necessarily equal graphic
design. They're more about what a designer is supposed to do (solve
problems) and how they approach that duty. To solve design problems,
a designer needs to understand the medium they're working in. The
web isn't paper, but it shares a lot of conventions with print
design, and many principles of typography, layout and colour theory
still apply. To that end, I think these disciplines are absolutely
required for someone to practice IxD effectively.
Precisely.
When an interaction designer sits down and asks the visual designer to
"make the type bigger," without understanding what that actually means
across the board for the total design solution (how it affects line
length, rivers, pixel density and typographic color, the base grid
setup etc.), they are fundamentally crippled in their ability to
design the correct solution.
Same goes for a visual designer who thinks that if they change one
button on one screen only to look different than all the other buttons
without considering workflow consistency that it is somehow ok to do
that. That visual designer is crippled in their ability to design the
correct solution.
I don't code. I'm terrible at writing algorithms, or coming up with
JavaScript functions on my own. But if you sat me down with an
engineer who as speaking in terms of code, or showed me an existing
JavaScript function that did some behavior on the front end, I'd
understand easily what is going on with that engineer or I'd be able
to adjust the function for whatever new behavior I needed in a
prototype. That makes me a stronger designer. The ability to
understand the fundamentals of coding and software is what's key in
that example.
Understanding the fundamentals of graphic design makes people who want
to design interfaces of digital products stronger as well, regardless
if they are asked to perform that function on any particular project.
--
Andrei Herasimchuk
Principal, Involution Studios
innovating the digital world
e. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
c. +1 408 306 6422
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