Dear Dave, I don't agree that making design decisions BASED on the INTENDED purpose of a product is a limitation. The INTENDED purpose is just the starting or reference point. Isn't that the core of User Focused Design?
That the ego of the designer is the differentiator of design is true for Designers (capital D) like Starck. I don't believe in the connectedness between the consumer and the designer, and therefore find the ego of the designer an unreliable factor. I'm not a Designer, and yet dare to say that I make a difference as designer (lowercase d). In a holistic view of the design process there's an analysis phase and a synthesis phase. In theory every designer practicing UCD should come to the same conclusions after the analysis. In the transition from analysis to synthesis something magical seems to happen. It's the same magic that bridges the gap in Jesse James Garrett's model between the strategy and scope plane on one side and the structure, skeleton and surface plane on the other side. As designer I can't rely on magic. And I don't need to. Based on the design opportunities and threats uncovered in the analysis phase my team and I use storytelling or other creativity techniques to formulate a design philosophy for the product. At interaction09 Luke Wroblewski introduced the term 'parti' to address what I call the product's design philosophy (http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?838). Being able to formulate the parti is my added value as designer. This doesn't require ego, just a bit of inspiration and a lot of hard work. I believe that both great design and great art require amazing craft. I.m.o. That's the only connection between design and art. For me, the phrase 'soul of design' sounds too much as magic. - Yohan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=45853 ________________________________________________________________ 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
