On Sep 26, 2008, at 11:03 AM, adamya ashk wrote:
Imagine an architect is designing a house for you. The process of design will take place in her mind as she considers your requirements and the experiential flow of spaces desired. She can communicate her ideas in ways that will add sufficiently to your understanding of her design. All of these would be poor substitutes for being able to walk through the house. But because we are talking about physical space, we intuitively understand an architects sketches, plans, walkthroughs etc..
Architects and industrial designers have for decades now built scale models of their work. And at minimum they sketch and render many versions of the design in 3D perspective from various vantage points. These days, it's common practice at many firms to build 3D flythroughs of the design on the computer.
All of these approaches provide the means to make judgements about the design and get a feel for it.
So, in essence, my question is: What makes 'innovative' interaction schema so unique that we think we need actual prototypes?
I feel to this day people get concerned about being asked to learn something new with regard to their job. In this case, coding and scripting. I also think this is the incorrect way to approach the problem.
The question isn't whether a prototype is needed for product design. It clearly is, and all the evidence you need comes from every single other design profession in existence. Architects, industrial design, fashion design, graphic design, automobile design, the list goes on.
Once you accept that, then the question becomes: How do we make it happen?
At Involution, we have dedicated developers who are experts at front- end work. They also have major interest in the design and behavior of that front end. They help the designers build prototypes during the process, and in doing so, also help to teach the designers how to build it themselves. It's an on-going process, and one that is fraught with difficulty and will take a lot of time for those that haven't trained themselves in coding or scripting, including myself.
But I firmly believe you have to dive into it if you want to make progress in this regard. To do that, I think you have to embrace it, not question if it is even needed. If you are questioning it, then you are many steps removed from where you should be heading, imho.
I've experimented with many techniques in the past. Initially, I relied solely on code/prototype to design but felt a little hamstrung. As I grew more at home with the 'material' I learned better to communicate my ideas on paper, whiteboard and through conversation. I guess you could say I became a better 'visual communicator'. :-)
That's all good, and highly encouraged. You're getting the hand drawn sketching and rendering part that architects and industrial designers do as well. That sketching process does *NOT* replace a scale model nor a 3D flythrough. That's the key.
-- Andrei Herasimchuk Principal, Involution Studios innovating the digital world e. [EMAIL PROTECTED] c. +1 408 306 6422 ________________________________________________________________ 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
