When design conflicts with business

For a change I’ll talk about my Architecture days (good old days). When you pass out as an architect you have some much enthusiasm about what you can do. You dream about changing lives of people through designs and all sorts of things.

But when you step out from the academic life to professional one; thing change drastically. The ‘value’ system begins to shake – the real life is not driven by the same value system of providing better life to people; but money.

This conflict and transition is difficult to come terms with. And to be frank I could not adjust to it; and I left architecture. Yes! I agree that you can become a hero and fight with the system. But unfortunately I wasn’t one.

I saw this video on TED and it reminded me of my days when I had similar dreams. Change this world; design organic and all that. Though during those days there wasn’t much awareness about the Global Warming and Environment issues. Its not there even today I presume.



In architecture, design directly conflict with the business. Most people are more focused towards short term goal to earning money. "Too much design is costly, who will pay for it?". At the end of the day the design has to deliver money. Who cares about the environment? Architecture in India at least is devoid of design – design as this talk highlights it. It purely driven by business- it’s not driven by user or environment. The biggest handicap for an architect is – it needs a ‘client’.

I sincerely wish I could positively contribute to the urban landscape around me (in Bangalore); where the tiniest open space is now being covered by tall housing or commercial complexes. I some times feel – what a wasteful life I have.

Paradox of choice

This is very nice and interesting video. A different perspective in looking at things around us.

Paradox of choice? Ask a designer. Its part of his every day work.
Design is about choosing the right decision. Every step in design is filled with options. And to add to complexity AJAX has adding many more choices to decide (more degree of freedom) from for designing UIs. I have seen a lot of designers getting stuck at points just because they fear of taking decisions.

The biggest thing is "Responsibility"; if you are responsible for a design you have to make it work. And for that you have to make the correct choices all along the way. More choices you have more chances are there to get it wrong. We have to learn to live with choices and become smarter in decisions. I guess this can only come when you know your job well. Same as if I know and I'm confident I'm buying the right stuff; my chances to taking the right decision are more (and be satisfied with it). What I need is, to be clear about those parameters that are crucial for me. And remember humans have a low short term memory; its difficult to compare more than 4 parameters at a time. See this is convergence - cognitive science with psychology :)

Thus i guess; 'more clarity' lead to 'better decisions'. Be clear on your 'decision making parameters'.

Accidental Designs (Serendipity)

Accidental Designs? Well I didn’t know what else to call them. I recently attended a conference USID 07 in Hyderabad. There was a talk by Google. And the same old story – Google’s Homepage. Yes; I know, recognize and appreciate their Home page.

But!! Was it designed? Not exactly. It’s an “Accidental Design”. Just because Larry Page didn’t know HTML he created this Page and it worked. I’m not sure he knew what users wanted when he launched. Its not a thoughtful design - it was not intended.

Getting the design to ‘work’
This is the most critical aspect in design. Getting the designs to work perfectly; which is the most challenging part and is a “Black Box”. While designing you never know what will work. So if you know what is working its more than half of the work (decision making & getting the parameters) done. I feel its easier to know what doesn’t work; while it’s a challenge to know what actually works. If Google Home page had been a failure they wouldn’t have known how to “redesign” it (they would have known some problems; but what’s the real problem to solve?). They were lucky to get their page to work and thus may have discovered why it’s actually working. And now they seems to have built a whole philosophy of UI design built on this - which I guess works.

Coming back to some earlier thoughts (in earlier post) some best designs like Periodic Tables or "The 1854 London Cholera Epidemic map" can also be debated if they are accidental designs. One thing to know in design is – will it work? And because of the subjectivity of design, that question is the hardest to figure out. Even with best of processes and analysis you are not sure if it will work till you see users using it. The only way to know it is to put it in front of users – let them play & they will teach you. I’m trying to imagine how would the Google Homepage would look like if Larry Page has asked a designer to design it? I’m sure it wouldn’t have been so different from the other competitors that time.

What to do
In the huge pile of failed designs these Accidental Designs come shining through. The trick seems to be experimentation and a bit of luck. Also getting them right at the fundamental level is critical because it defines how far the designs can go. If it works, you know how to go ahead; if it fails – God bless you – it’s a rough road ahead.

Some get it right
I also feel there it’s a talent - some designers have a knack of getting their design to work. And some even though they work hard never get it right. It could be intuitive and depended on the value systems & design decision parameters.

G! Maps…Street View…rocks!!!

Google launches ‘Street View’ for their maps. It’s a really WOW – it surprised me with what it can do and with the quality. Very neatly done – full points to them. I have a very healthy respect for Google designers.

I can understand the feeling of ‘satisfaction’ and the feeling of ‘achievement’ maps team would be feeling. Or may e they have got used to it :)

The one thing I don’t like about Google is their disrespect to visual design. They don’t use it properly. I think a bit of color can significantly increase their page layouts and make the information segregation better. Too much white space is good; but not so much. If I were to do their page I would have done this way.

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