Hi Donna & William, "analytical & empirical" are not bad so long as they are only a part of a greater whole. If you loose the abduction process (using the term "artistic" is a way to be pejorative in Cooper's piece which I also find quite insulting) that is at the core of design process and only concentrate on the linear deduction process that he is describing, you basically loose the soul of design's power.
I often here (and now I'm responding to William) the phrase, we need to speak their language, or in terms they understand. But I only hear this phrase when considering how designers should speak to developers. I NEVER hear anyone tell developers that they should change their language, process, or methods to meet the designer's understanding. This is the equivalent of developer/designer sexism. What I mean is that rhetorically there is the same power arrangement and assumption that one's way needs to be followed in order to have authenticity. An interesting term that Cooper invokes again as a device to be dismissive of designers who do not follow his total path of interaction design, as if it is the path. William, While there are many forms of agile, they are grouped together due to affinities. I can be an atheist (anti-religion) in my relationship to all religions and it is understood that I do not believe in a higher-power. This is my feeling about Agile development methods. They agree in some core things w/o which they are no longer Agile. These are the things that I have been at odds with. Unlike Cooper though, I have not been challenged to find a peaceful place within Agile. Finding these lines of similarities assumes that this is a war actually worth finding peace with, or more importantly worth fighting. This notion of designer as craftsperson that Alan uses is at the same time language I would use (design/craft) but twisted it into something I find quite atrocious. By limiting the purview of designer to craft alone "analytical & empirical" he has amputated the highest value that design can offer any solution: humanity and humility. All for the sake of making "developers feel comfortable" or so "[they] can understand". Now to the "core of interaction design" piece William talks about. Yes, in much of practice we have limited ourselves to discovering fit and validating design. But for many of us, this is not interaction design, but interaction engineering. The design is in both the emotional and in the ways we create new behaviors (not just fit existing ones). This requires a temperament of strategy built on understanding "why" as much as how and what. Cooper did allow for the role of IxD as strategy builder/owner which is great, but he isn't building that strategy on a design for impacting human beings, but rather for fitting. I do appreciate his push to developers. That they understand the importance of vision creation. THAT was the one spot where I felt hope amidst the trepidation in his piece. I do think though his vision of IxD is one emblematic of Silicon Valley and is in some ways in discord to that of more European traditions of IxD. There is nothing wrong with wanting to have quality engineering done efficiently with the goal of the customer in mind (BTW do we design for "customers" or "humans" or "humanity"?) but the developer at his soul is a carpenter there to take the order of the architect, contractor and building mogul. The designer is the architect who works under commission and appreciated on his past value which appreciates over time. The developer is appreciated for quality & speed which is a commodity. (oh! that's going to hurt in the morning!) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=48622 ________________________________________________________________ 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
