PROJECTS AND CLIENTS | PHILOSOPHY
When you approach a door handle, know one has to tell you what to do. You automatically reach out your hand and expect it to affect the feedback of an open door. Even children understand this and you may even see animals attempt at it. There may be a certain level of observation and repeat experience that facilitates the behavior. But most importantly, an instruction manual is not needed.
Good design doesn’t need an instruction manual
Good design is design that does not need an instruction manual. It is the result of successful feedback from the user’s environment whether it be on the screen, in the workplace, planning cities or building a house. It should be based on the user’s ability to observe and experience. That is why I prefer the term Experience Design. Because in many situations the user does not need to interact at the level that interaction design presumes and most times the user experiences a lot more than what interaction presumes. Since all experiences must have someone who experiences, the user in User-Design is redundant. The irony is, is that you may need an instruction manual in hiring an Experience Designer, and so you have this manifesto.
Naivety and experience
When approaching a design it is always important to keep a certain naivety. Experience in building sites and using applications can also be a barrier to seeing an interface from the fresh point of view of a first time user. That is why an experience designer must simultaneously forget what they know and use what they know and have that mental flexibility to move between these states. This not only becomes a skill that one develops but eventually an art form in mental agility. My experience as an installation artist probably helps in my naivety. I am not afraid to ask stupid questions.
Think visual
My art background makes me appreciate the points of view that can be had from visual designers. As many of them are in the practice of seeing spatially, you can get a bigger picture in designing the experiences from them. At times the visual design comes first, but from my understanding of the sitemap of the overall structure and the backend as well as the users point of view, I am able to help the designer reign it into context. The designers may come up with interaction ideas themselves or even make suggestions to improve the interactions based on a design idea. At one time a client wanted both a clean design and a link to both their online shops and to ‘find a store near you’ link. The designers showed me a beautiful clean page that would have been cluttered with the extra link. My solution was to just put a ‘buy product’ link and by clicking it you would get a drop down to the two links. Usually smart bucketing should be sold at the wireframe stage but occasionally you need a visual designers perspective to make it clear.
User-friendly documentation
I believe that documentation should be as user-friendly as the site design. Anyone should be able to look back at the documentation and understand how the interactions work and how to build the site. It is important to understand how to communicate clearly to developers. Having learned basic programming in Actionscript and Javascript and using envisioning tools such as Flash and Macromedia’s Director, I have an interest and try to understand the concepts of high end development. Developers build sites based on components and modules and you can communicate where to leave ‘hooks’ for future expansion. I like talking with developers to make sure that the documentation gives them what they need to build the site and if they have any suggestions to make it better for them. Also, many interaction ideas can come from the growing capabilities of technology and innovation.
The evolving user
It is very important to keep abreast with the latest capabilities and innovations. Working as a Solutions Architect allowed me to do research and provide solutions. I was able to recommend the ubiquity of the Flash video player to many major networks such as NBC, ABC and MTV. It also allowed for interaction capabilities and and interface possibilities that could be customized to the network’s needs. Understanding Endeca allowed for me to design search solutions for companies such as J.Crew and Scholastic that met the specific needs of their users and marketing strategies. At J.Crew an innovative Search as Browse solution was designed that is now being used by Couch and Madewell. Being one of the first to sign up for Mashable allowed me to try out many different Social Networking beta and alpha sites that inspired me to think up and resolve many issues in designing the niche social platform for Scholastic teachers. User’s evolve and this should be taken into consideration in designing experiences.
Mentoring and managing
One thing I enjoy the most is mentoring up and coming Experience Designers. This has been both as a professor at Parsons School of Design and as a Director and Manager at many different agencies. An Experience Designer straight out of school can provide a fresh approach to ideas and are great in asking both the right and wrong questions. The ones that make you look at things from that naive perspective we must all attain to in this field. It excites me to see them turn into seasoned professionals and exercising their problem solving skills to new heights.
Listening and observing
I think the most important skill is to listen and observe. Basically there are good points of view coming from many different directions, and a big part of this process is to make it clear and workable. Looking from a higher perspective you can find the best solution for the situation utilizing the best from a combination of brain cells committed to create the best products and services. The best actions come from observing things around you as objectively as possible and understanding the subjectivity of design. There are times when you need to bring the focus back into what is needed to be solved and to solve it with the greatest efficiency and elegance possible.