Archive for February, 2010

we want… information

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

I put up a shed last weekend (yes, the designer lifestyle is that glamorous):  two days of stressful toil lengthened in no small part by the appalling quality of the ‘instructions’ provided: 14 pages of verbal and visual redundancy, irrelevance and confusion.  Well what did I expect for £99?

Most products arrive with scant, inaccurate or misleading information for assembly and use.  Many well-designed consumer products neglect information as part of the product experience, leading to returns, safety issues, customer dissatisfaction and erosion of brand loyalty.   This seems overwhelmingly the norm and we are accustomed to sucking up all the wasted time, the frustration and stress, and moving on with our lives.  Why are ‘instructions’ such a design-free zone? (more…)

simple

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

apple

An explosion of communication and choice in recent decades has created the global climate of information overload that we are only now beginning to find ways to properly navigate.  The rise of the iPhone app and the price comparison website shows the information economy at work and there is growing recognition of the value of designing access to information.  But what took us so long?

In our personal areas of interest choice can seem miraculous: I can get my favourite version of my favourite song in less than 60 seconds; we can have customised trainers designed in-store; you can get your flat white-half-caff-soy-frappe-latte-cino just the way you like it in a coffee shop anywhere in the world (a distant time it was when coffee was purchased in only one of two states: black or white).  But in general, relentless second-by-second decision-making is required to navigate a deep sea of visual noise. Negotiating our choices can lead to unprecedented fatigue, confusion, stress – and disinterest.  As expectations rise, consumers are increasingly losing their patience. How do we solve this problem?

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Comic Sans apocalypse

Monday, February 15th, 2010

Well that’s it then. The End of Days. Armageddon. Civilization? all over. I have seen a sign: Someone with sufficient cash for a brand new Bentley has seen fit to customize it not only with a personalised license plate (tacky, but unsurprising) – but one set in design’s least favourite typeface: Comic Sans.

Momentarily traumatised whilst driving I failed to whip out the phone camera to record this portent of doom or to note particulars for the design police, but trust me – its out there somewhere… (more…)

brief encounter

Friday, February 12th, 2010

The brief is the key to a good design outcome. Einstein said if he had an hour to solve a problem he would use the first 55 minutes to formulate the right question and the last five to solve the problem. A good design brief is the definition of that right question. In design practice a good brief is extremely rare (I recall only one genuinely complete brief – thank you Nancy Bobrowitz/Reuters!) and its importance is easily overlooked in the rush to results.

Most design briefs are only a production specification, possibly including some vague musings on the brand, but with short-term specifics favoured over direction. The missing element is usually strategy – giving direction, focus and clarity of intent to what is otherwise just a shopping list.  A common reluctance to examine fundamentals makes clarifying design strategy about as easy as nailing jelly to a wall…

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