“We like to think of Method and Craft as the DVD extras of design: the stories behind the work, who made it, how they did it, and the techniques people have developed throughout their professional career.”

A good designer creates effective solutions to an established problem. A great designer phrases the problem in a way so it can be solved.

Ron Johnson – ronjohn.net

“It is noteworthy when the design of an experience is so compelling that you feel wonder and delight. When designed right it feels totally natural, some might even say it is truly “intuitive.” No training is needed, no set-up, no break in flow, the tool fits seamlessly, improving without disrupting your experience; it’s like a little bit of magic.”

From the conclusion:

More importantly, though, if we can also learn to see past the incompleteness of a design and rest confident in the fact that it will get better, then perhaps we can also circumvent the cycle—at least partially.

This type of creative thinking and innovation is really what motivates me to keep at it day after day.

See site www.synthview.com

Design is where science and art break even.
— Robin Mathew

I really enjoyed participating in this questionnaire as it gives me yet another outlet to share some of my experience and thoughts, this time focusing on developing a blog and the writing process. As I state several times throughout the brief questionnaire, that is really what it is all about for me.

I highly recommend checking out both Design Feaster and Design Feast as well. Some very insightful and enjoyable writing being done here, a wonderful and much needed resource for the design community.

A special thanks to Nate Burgos of Design Feast for allowing me to participate.

You can also follow Design Feast on Twitter

Inspired by a family member who, while discussing a project we will be working on together, pulled out the “artistic” card. I got to thinking, if don’t have my own family convinced that what I do is a bit more than adding embellishment or being artistic, then why should I expect my client (our clients) to understand it for more than that.

How can we go about explaining the basics of what we do using general ideas and concepts? How can we do this outside of the client/designer interaction?

The point would not be to teach a client how you might go about calculating line-height or what exact steps you might put into developing the check out process for a complex shopping cart system as you might attempt to do in educating other designers or developers. The point would be to illustrate that just as an electrician wires an extravegant home theater system or an engineer develops a complex road system, we as designers use much more than artistic ability to solve complex problems and develop best routes.

It takes time to learn principles and foundations. It takes careful study of what does and does not work, drawing on experience in the field. It involves continuing education in both what has already been discovered and the technologies being developed in the future.

More importantly it takes the application of the above to careful research and discovery of the problem at hand to develop the best solution.

It is not just a matter of having an eye for it or applying your artistic qualities to a solution, it is careful thought out calculation.

Anyhow my point was not to get into a long discussion about what design is and is not, rather to raise the question of how we might help others to gain a better understanding of the designers job or what it is that we do on a daily basis. In turn making out jobs and possibly our live a little easier, or at least more understood.

(I am just looking for general ideas here, examples would be great to if you happen to leave a comment.)

… design “isn’t about cosmetics, pixel-pushing, and button placement. It’s holistic and it’s everyone’s concern, not just the realm of ‘artistic’ types.”

— Peter Merholz, President of Adaptive Path
(qtd. “10 Most Common Misconceptions About User Experience Design” – Mashable.com)