Design Delivers
One of my co-workers told me the other day that he started out with the typical engineering mindset that it was most important to build a thing right. As he has matured in his career and gained experience working with customers and users, he now believes that what matters most is that you build the right thing.
One of the coolest examples of good design shown at Interaction 08 was in David Armano’s deck, and is the work of Crispin Porter + Bogusky: the Domino’s Pizza site. You can build your own pizza, selecting from 19 toppings and specifying which half of the pizza you want them on. Then you can order it for delivery or pick-up at your local shop. Finally, you can track your pizza as it is prepared and shipped. This is a perfect marriage between a brick-and-mortar franchise and the internet. CP+B built the right thing.
Note: The current site isn’t quite as interesting as the original design, which you can see on CP+B’s site, but the functionality is the same.