I concur wholeheartedly with many of your observations here, Robert. That's why I most offten use the words "philosophy" and "approach" much more than "method" (which implies a particular methodology).
I also agree that many designers that work in this manner, and successfully take on projects and challenges that require a great deal of experience, judgement, and complex interrelated decision-making (often across a wide range of products, systems, and services) have indeed internalized much of their skills over time. And that's why I suggested in my initial post that this approach to design is crucially dependent upon apprenticeship and junior teammember type working relationships. It's through these type of side-by-side design-in-real-situations that these complex and dynamic skillsets and judgement abilities are demonstrated, practiced, discussed, iterated, and honed over time. This is how most "expertise" in many fields is gained. A good starting foundation is, of course, incredibly valuable. And any and all means of obtaining insights, information, and knowledge about all the stakeholding aspects of any project are always helpful. However, there are also many patterns and known solution fields from which new solutions to complex problems can be drawn and applied, and this is where RED delivers success. I should also underscore that while "expert" can refer to expertise in particular domains (say for example 'mobile phone operating system experience frameworks' or 'handheld medical equipment' or 'web-based commerce transaction systems', etc.), RED is first and foremost about expertise in rapidly designing successful solutions to a range of projects, problems, and challenges. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=37626 ________________________________________________________________ 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
