Design Loves Small Business

Just came across a great quote in Alan Cooper’s book About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design. The quote perfectly sums up why programmers cannot do design when they are programming:

[...]building an animated status display into the face of a program might require a thousand or more lines of code. Programmers cannot be expected to make the right choice in this situation. They have a conflict of interest, so designers must be sure to specify precisely where information is reported on the surface of an application. The designers must then follow up to be sure that the design wasn’t compromised for the sake of rapid coding. Imagine if the contractor on a building site decided unilaterally not to add a bathroom because it was just too much trouble to deal with the plumbing. There would be consequences.

One thing I’ve learned in my years designing is how to tell when your design is getting good and near completion. Basically the way you can tell is when the people you show the design to start nitpicking about the little details. Typically when someone reaches this point it is because they are comfortable enough with the big stuff that they really aren’t noticing it anymore. I’ve learned that people notice pain more than the absence of pain. If some element of the design is not causing them some kind of pain, whether it be sensory overload or clashes with the other design elements, then it goes unnoticed. People won’t tell you what is good in your design, even though you wish they would, typically only other designers will tell you what is good. But you can tell when a normal person thinks a design is good by the fact that they don’t say anything about it, because they don’t notice it. Some of my most fulfilling moments have been when I walk into a final design review and no one has anything to say. They start talking about the weather or some other project. That’s when I know the design is done, when they aren’t complaining anymore.

Our VP of marketing likes to quote the movie Amadeus when there is too much going on in a design.  In the movie, Mozart has just finished the first performance of his new play for the Excellency of Vienna.  His majesty comes up afterwards and compliments Mozart.  Then this exchange happens…

So then, you liked it?
You really liked it, sire?

Well, of course I did ! It’s very good !

Of course, now and then,
just now and then. . .

. . .it seemed a touch. . . .

What do you mean, sire?

Well, I mean, occasionally,
it seems to have. . . .

How shall one say. . . ?

How shall one say, direktor?

-Too many notes, Majesty?
-Exactly. Very well put.

-Too many notes.
-l don’t understand .

There are just as many notes
as I required, neither more nor less.

My dear fellow, there are in fact. . .

. . .only so many notes
the ear can hear in an evening .

Great art comes from knowing what is really unnecessary and having the guts to take it out, because even though I may love it, there are only so many notes one can hear in an evening.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IG3rgIaXdpk&feature=related

As I am working on a windows app UI, rather then a typical web UI, it is becoming very apparent to me the need for a front-end developer.  A front-end developer is the guy who programs the UI elements and interactions.  In the web that’s the html/css guru.  But in the windows world there’s not really a common equivalent.  So what ends up happening is you get stuck with the canned controls that come with visual studio.  The canned controls are great and based on universal needs, but in web UI you get used to the flexibility of designing a UI to an exact interaction situation.  Canned controls don’t let you do that, I find them too limiting.  Especially because I know there is not a front-end guy who will correctly interpret what I design into a finished UI.

Watching Jonathan Arnowitz’s Interaction 08 presentation today.  His topic was on effective prototyping methods.  He said something interesting about who’s job it is to come up with ideas.  Basically he said, and I agree, that the designer’s job isn’t to come up with ideas, it’s our job to facilitate the ideas of everyone involved and then assimilate them into a final design.  Or as he puts it, you have to make sure there is a designer is in the driver’s seat, but the ideas should come from everyone.

http://interaction08.ixda.org/Jonathan_Arnowitz.php

Our VP of marketing, and a good friend of mine, often refers to design and UI work as nothing more then arranging the deck chairs.  By this he means it does nothing to increase the revenue of the company.  Obviously his focus is on revenue.  But I am undecided if he is right in all cases.  I don’t have an easy answer back.  I do believe he is right to some degree.  Many times I will see that a website got a redesign and I’ll know that in the end it was a complete waste of time except to satisfy someone’s desire for different aesthetics.