After spending perhaps too much time debating the boundaries of interaction design on the IxDA list a couple days ago, I started wondering why I felt so inclined to contribute to the discussion. Is it true that it doesn’t matter how IxD practitioners perceive interaction design?
One comment from that discussion that I’ve been thinking about is “design is design” (Mark Schraad). I’m not sure I can explain what I think that means, but it makes me feel like I shouldn’t take design all that seriously. Which reminds me of Dick Buchanan’s closing keynote at Emergence, when he said something to the effect of “Design: Don’t get too pretentious. All we do is serve. We’re not that important.”
This is echoed to an extent in a recent interview with Brandon Schauer of Adaptive Path: Design Thinking left unchecked can just lead to failure, failure, failure.
I really worry about design thinking especially at diagnosing any sort of business problem…There’s a lot of play in the marketplace besides the relationship between a customer and the product or the interface that they are using, and design thinking typically doesn’t look at those other aspects of the world. —Brandon
I must confess that I have a difficult time splitting interaction design from design or design thinking. Perhaps because I’m immersed in design, I also sometimes tend to fall into thinking it is greater in importance than it really is. I’m not sure if it’s better to adopt a position that design is just design or to believe design is indeed a powerful force in the world.
Comments
4 responses to “Design Is Design”
Interesting discussion. Lately, I’ve been trying to figure that one out as well.
Thanks for the thoughts on our conversation.
It’s important to not take Brandon’s quote out of context…he’s also saying that critical thinking by itself is also a route to failure. Design thinking tag teamed with critical thinking is what will get the most mileage….
cheers,
Jess
I hope I didn’t take the quote out of context. But it’s true, I did focus only on the expressed danger of using a solely design thinking approach. Thanks for pointing out the other side of the equation.
The ideas that “design is just design” and that “design is a powerful force in the world” are not mutually exclusive.
But power is a dangerous thing and its worth asking why designers seem to want it so much.
Its also important to recognize the breadth and depth of contemporary design practice and discourse. This is often overlooked as we surround ourselves with the issues and discussions that are most immediate to us (whether in our work or our education), and we fail to see the broader trends in design. For example, this discussion on Design Observer has interesting implications:
http://www.designobserver.com/archives/027986.html#more
How does interaction design fit into that discourse and practice? And if it doesn’t, why not?