Did anyone else listen to the recent discussion/argument between Don Norman and Peter Merholz? http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/user-experience-week
I think Don and Peter were both right. Don seemed to be arguing from the customer client point of view. Meaning that using the word, "Investment" is not suitable when trying to persuade clients of the need for a better design process. Peter on the other hand seemed to be arguing for how it is plausible to use the term "ROI" when persuading management in-house to increase the design budget. An interesting take away for me was the sidebar discussion about designers also needing to understand the "management" language. This issue is often raised and seems to be at the forefront of many design discussions, that is, how to implement better design within your organization, or on another level, how to evangelize better design to clients and in-house management. In the discussion they talk about the need for designers to be managed (by MBA's in particular) in order for designers to be able to prosper and produce, which I fully agree with and I also agree that a certain level of "understanding the management language" is necessary for designers so they can grow and be better at their profession. But my take away from that part of their discussion is a question: Why doesn't there seem to be (at least to me) a greater focus on implementing the understanding of the design process and the great need for it into a Business Management curriculum? Why must we pressure the designers themselves to make management understand? Wouldn’t it be a better process if the designers only focused on creating products who’s ROI was self evident, and management had already been taught that better design would lead to greater ROI and that proving that to a client is their job? One of the programs I work on is a grass roots effort to produce more American born Naval, Ocean, and Marine Engineers. The program focuses on implementing curriculum at the K-12 level so that students will not only be exposed to the subject earlier, but that they will understand engineering processes much earlier and have that instilled in their thought process as they move forward in whatever career path they may choose. I’m not saying that we should implement design curriculum at the K-12 level, but my point is that like the program I work on, implementing a design curriculum at earlier stages and integrating it with broader subject matters instead of “grandfathering it in”, might be a design strategy that we could all benefit from in the future. -Jake ________________________________________________________________ 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
