DesignAday

I Can Do That

Well, I’ve finally done it. I’ve been writing long enough that I’ve repeated myself, partially at least. After writing the following post, I had the funny feeling that I had written something similar before, which can be found here. This post is a different take on the subject, so I’ll let it stand.

There is a famous quote by the science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein:

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

I can do most of the things Heinlein lists. I’ve never butchered an animal, but I expect I could do well enough to survive if I had to. I had to look up the meaning of the word “conn,” and I’m not confident I could steer a ship of the line, but I have sailed a small boat. I wouldn’t trust myself to set a bone. I hope I don’t have the opportunity to die gallantly, but hope that I would if the opportunity arose.

I claim to be an Interaction Designer. That’s what my business card, email signature, and diploma all say. That’s the profession I’ve chosen as the means by which to earn my daily bread. Several years ago, my newly appointed supervisor, a software engineer, told me that my skills were very deep, but not very broad. I chuckled on the inside at that. He had no idea what I was capable of beyond interaction design. All he knew was that I couldn’t write code (beyond HTML).

Yes, I am an Interaction Designer, but I’m more than that. I’m a Graphic Designer with the skills and knowledge to lay out a gatefold brochure, a poster, or a book, and take it to press. I’m an illustrator, capable of working in oils, watercolors, pencils, charcoal, etc. I’m a photographer with experience shooting documentary style and in a studio. I am skilled at writing, have experience editing video, and have some experience with 3-D form-making. I have many other skills, such as public speaking, teaching, and working with others that benefit almost any job role.

I’m not claiming that I could make a living as a photographer or illustrator, but I do well enough that I don’t have to hire one when the need arises. My point is that I am well-rounded. Yes, I have specialized in Interaction Design, and I believe that we do need specialists. But being a specialist doesn’t preclude you from enhancing your abilities in complimentary areas. Stretch out—push yourself to learn more. You’ll find that you become more confident, more capable, and more valuable to those you work with. The next time the CEO says, “We need to…”, you can respond, “I can do that.”

Changing Hats

As I’ve become more proficient with CSS, and as CSS has become more capable, I have found myself contributing more and more of the final code. Behaviors that once required a developer to write JavaScript, I can now accomplish with dextrous application of styles. Lately, it is common for me to deliver all of the final HTML and CSS to the developer. I much prefer this, as I am able to attend to all of the little details that a developer would overlook. It’s much easier to put in the extra three pixels of padding on the right side of a div myself than to document it in a specification and check to make sure it’s correct several weeks later. The end result looks and behaves exactly as I’ve designed it, and the code is cleaner because I have a better understanding of CSS than the developers I work with.

So, I’ve been changing hats a lot. I try not to think about implementation while I’m sketching and working in Photoshop. I try not to let my knowledge of what is hard and what is easy influence my visual design. Then, when it comes time to build it, I take off my design hat and put on my coding hat. I think about keeping the HTML as clean as possible. I think about how to create my style sheets without repeating a lot of attributes. I think about how to limit the number of things that the developer will have to manipulate with JavaScript. Certainly, my goal is to faithfully reproduce my designs, but sometimes I find aspects of the visual design that just aren’t practical for HTML implementation, and I have to compromise.

Changing hats has given me a deeper appreciation for the issues that the developers deal with on a regular basis. At the same time, it has made me less sympathetic to anyone who complains that a design is too difficult to implement, and less likely to scale back my designs when I meet resistance. Having worn the other hat, I know better the difference between difficulty and laziness.

The Details Are Not the Details

The details are not the details.
They make the design.
Charles Eames

I was recently asked by a developer that doesn’t know me very well if I thought the little details were all that important. Eames’ quote literally exploded in my head.

The details are the distinguishing factors that make the iPhone something more than the knock-offs. The details are the decision points that lead you to choose an OXO Good Grips potato peeler over that other one. The details lead people to shop at Target rather than Walmart, to eat at Panera instead of Quizno’s, to pick out a pair of Nikes, order from Amazon, and play World of Warcraft.

But the details run deeper than just brand loyalty and rampant consumerism. The details can evoke emotion. They can turn an object into an heirloom, a service into a relationship, or an experience into a lifelong memory. The details are what make Disney World magical. They make a Pixar film ten times better than any other animated feature on the big screen. They make the Harry Potter novels just as riveting to my sixty-year-old mother as they are to a high school kid.

What I’m insinuating, is that the details are the embodiment of quality. The details make something special. If you aren’t thinking about the details, you aren’t designing.

A Reason for Everything

A good designer must have a reason for everything. Every detail is the result of a decision, made consciously or unconsciously. The designer should document decisions for any issues that were deliberated over or contested. He must also recognize the subconscious decisions and understand the reasoning behind them when asked to explain. If a client ever receives an unsatisfactory answer, such as “I don’t know,” or “I just thought it looked better,” they have carte blanche to overturn any decision the designer has made.

When evaluating one’s own work, a designer should continually ask herself why. Why did she use that color? Why did she place a particular element in that exact spot? Why is it that specific size? Perhaps these were intuitive decisions, but there was still a reason behind them. Understanding those reasons will make a designer more confident in communicating the solution to others, leading to more trust from clients and other collaborators.

There is a reason for everything. If you don’t have a reason, you haven’t given enough thought to your design.

U.S. National Design Policy Initiative

Back in November, a two-day National Design Policy Summit was held in Washington D.C. with participants from most of the major U.S. professional design organizations, design education accreditation organizations, and the Federal government. The results of the meeting have just been published as a policy brief, Redesigning America’s Future, which lays out ten policy proposals.

• Proposal 01  Formalize an American Design Council to partner with the U.S. Government.
• Proposal 02  Set guidelines for legibility, literacy, and accessibility for all government communications.
• Proposal 03  Target 2030 for carbon neutral buildings. 
• Proposal 04  Create an Assistant Secretary for Design and Innovation position within the Department of Commerce to promote design.
• Proposal 05  Expand national grants to support interdisciplinary community design assistance programs based on human-centered design principles. 
• Proposal 06  Commission a report to measure and document design’s contribution to the U.S. economy.
• Proposal 07  Revive the Presidential Design Awards to be held every year and use triple bottom-line criteria (economic, social, and environmental benefit) for evaluation. 
• Proposal 08  Establish national grants for basic design research.  
• Proposal 09  Modify the patent process to reflect the types of intellectual property created by designers.
• Proposal 10  Encourage direct government investment in design innovation. 

Dr. Elizabeth Tunstall, who organized the summit, has put out a call to action:

The Call to Action is for people to go to the U.S. National Design Policy Initiative website, http://www.designpolicy.org to leave comments about individual policy proposals or offer official endorsements of the Initiative and the ten design policy proposals. […] People have gone and downloaded the publication, but without leaving comments or endorsements. We need them in order to demonstrate to Congress and the incoming Obama Administration popular support for the Initiative and the policy proposals.

A number of other countries, including Japan, Korea, and the Netherlands, have instituted national design policies. I believe that a few of the proposals could have a significant positive impact on our country’s performance in the world market, as well as the experience of our citizens. I’m especially concerned with the current state of the patent laws, which one of the proposals begins to address.

I’m a firm believer in the power of design to affect positive change in our society. These policies will put our industry in a better position to do so.

Blog of the Week: Putting People First

If I were to pick a single source for news about usability, experience, service, sustainability, and innovation—in fact, most aspects of user-centered design—it would have to be Putting People First, a site maintained by Mark Vanderbeeken of Experientia. All it takes is a glance at the list of categories to know that their articles cover the design landscape in both breadth and depth: Audience, Business, Culture, Design, Locations, Media, Methods, Services, and Social Issues. Each of these categories is broken into up to seven subcategories. So, not only is it a great way to keep current on design-related happenings worldwide, it’s also a robust resource for research with archives stretching back to January, 2004. It’s one of my first stops when I’m looking for reading assignments for my students. From the “about” page:

This non-commercial experience design gateway is developed as a public service to all those interested in the broader field of experience design and user-centred design. All posts have in common that they reveal some insight on how to create products and services that are driven by an understanding of people.

Whether you are looking for design perspectives about marketing, mobility, conferences, ethnography, healthcare, emerging markets, or the elderly, you’ll find something relevant on Putting People First.

Blog of the Week: Adaptive Path

I typically attempt to bring something new to the blogosphere on DesignAday, rather than simply pointing out posts on other blogs. I am, however, often inspired by the blogs I read. Yesterday’s post was inspired by Adaptive Path, and that’s far from the first time.

I think there are two specific attributes that make Adaptive Path’s blog stand out from the crowd.

First, it’s the blog of one of the truly great design firms of our time. Not only does the firm do great work for it’s clients, it contributes to the design community through events and publications. This is a firm that doesn’t just practice design—they participate in defining our field. It is obvious that Adaptive Path employees are encouraged to present at conferences, publish, participate in the design community, and blog, which brings me to the second attribute.

There isn’t just one or two people at Adaptive Path charged with maintaining the blog. A large percentage of their employees post, from the presidents on down—certainly the majority of the creative staff. And seeing as how it’s such a prestigious firm, these are the cream of the crop. There is rarely a day without a new post, and it’s all quality content. Furthermore, with that many people posting, they cover a lot of ground. Just a glance at their list of categories reveals everything from the expected, like Experience Design and Interaction Design, to “Idealism, uncensored” and the Bathroom Blogfest. They even put up the occasional podcast.

Everybody in the industry should be subscribed to their RSS feed. No excuses.

Blog of the Week: Design View

As regular readers have likely noticed, I’ve begun featuring design-related blogs in my Friday posts. I’m taking a slightly different tack with this one.

While I have a lot of respect for Andy Rutledge and read his blog, Design View, on a regular basis, I find that I often disagree with his viewpoint. So today, while recommending his blog, I’m also refuting his most recent post, titled “A Sense of Non-commitment”. Andy argues the case that it is unprofessional to work for a company while at the same time running your own design firm on the side. In Andy’s own words:

“I’m talking specifically about actively displaying clearly conflicting loyalties in our professional practice; e.g.: being employed by XYZ Corp. as a Web designer and operating and promoting one’s own Acme Designz on the side. This practice smacks of irresponsibility and non-commitment. It reflects poorly on both the individual and the agency that employs him. Yet this is not an uncommon practice, even among otherwise respected and highly visible designers. Why?”

As an example, he cites Luke Wroblewski, currently Senior Director of Product Ideation & Design at Yahoo!. Luke makes no secret of his own firm, LukeW Interface Designs. Additionally, Luke is the author of Site-Seeing: A Visual Approach to Web Usability and the soon to be published Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks, publisher of the blog Functioning Form, former Lead User Interface Designer at eBay, and a popular speaker at any number of conferences.

Andy claims not to want to “throw Luke under the bus”, but claims that “the fact that he operates his own design business on the side (complete with the royal “we”) just makes both his consultancy and Yahoo!’s design practice look a bit dodgy. Most of all, it makes him look flighty and unprofessional.”

I disagree. Allow me to refute Andy’s reasoning. As Andy used Luke as an example, I will do likewise (with apologies to Luke if the further scrutiny of his career is undesired).

“Launching a full-fledged design consultancy on-the-side/outside of one’s employment might do wonders to build or extend one’s reputation as a designer, but it soils one’s reputation as a professional. It speaks to characteristics that are contradictory to professionalism.”

Luke founded his firm in January of 1996. He didn’t begin working for Yahoo! until October of 2005. He started at eBay in 2004. He worked for the NCSA starting in January of 1997. His firm predates his entire professional career. I wouldn’t expect anyone to give up something that they have such an investment in. His employers were undoubtedly aware of this fact when he was hired. Designer’s should be concerned about their reputations both within and outside of their current place of employment. I would venture to guess that Luke’s reputation outside of Yahoo! brings value to the company. 

“From the side-job studio perspective for instance, this practice clearly communicates the idea that if I contract you to do some design work for me, you may become distracted by some other appealing opportunity and leave my project for greener pastures. Or perhaps things at your real job might get so backed up that you have to leave my project languishing while you take care of your real work.”

Again, Luke started at Yahoo! in 2005. I didn’t see any projects in the portfolio on his site that were dated later than 2004. I can’t say what his external work load is, but it’s obvious he has cut back since starting with eBay. If a designer is going to do work on the side, it is his responsibility to manage his time. Any company that hires a design firm or freelancer knows that they are not their only client. They decide (based on many reasons that I won’t go into here) to trust that the firm will do the work that they are signing up to do. If a designer can’t meet her obligations, she won’t retain clients. However, retaining multiple clients, be they an employer or third party, does not insinuate the poor professionalism that Andy claims. 

“By the same token, think about what sort of impression this behavior leaves on the agency that employs these sorts of individuals. For instance, imagine that you need some repair work done on your car. You find a mechanic shop, but learn that most of the mechanics on staff run their own personal mechanics shops on the side, too. Does this make the shop seem more professional? No, it makes the shop seem fly-by-night; like it might fold any day when the staff members decide to bail in favor of their “real” interest.”

This is another poor example. Every software firm has employees sign a non-compete agreement. I’m betting Luke wouldn’t legally be able to, say, do some consulting for Google or Microsoft’s search teams. Even looking at the projects in his portfolio that were done prior to his employment at Yahoo!, it’s obvious that none of them are competitors. As long as a designer is scrupulous about his choice of clients, there will be no conflict of interest. If there is any question, he should get approval from his employer.

Nor is this a situation unique to design. Software developers, professional musicians, teachers, nurses—there are many professions in which it is common practice to do work on the side. I am adjunct faculty at a university. Every Wednesday, I leave my office early so that I can teach a class. I am responsible enough to make up the time that I miss, and more importantly, get my work done. In April, I’ll be missing two weeks of class due to a business trip. In either case, my activities and responsibilities are known and accepted by my employers. My company takes pride in the fact that I am experienced enough to teach a masters class in my profession. The school at which I teach appreciates the experience I bring to the classroom. Everybody benefits, and my professionalism all around keeps everyone satisfied.

Look at the phenomenon that is LinkedIn. Everyone acknowledges the fact that the purpose of maintaining a profile there is for professional networking. Thousands of employed people have what amounts to a resume posted for public view at all times. There is one degree of separation between me and the CEO of my company, that being another current employee.

So, if there really is a problem of professionalism, it is much broader than the net Andy is casting—broad enough that the definition of professionalism that Andy espouses may no longer be accurate.

That said, be sure to check out Design View. While we don’t always agree, Andy always delivers good food for thought.