Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Talking about design is like dancing about food

So I've been talking about design all day.

I came closer to enlightenment once again and realized:

Talking about design is absolutely and completely useless, unless you have a concrete design to talk about in the form of an interactive model, sketch, and iterate on that. And still then, language is very suboptimal as a design tool, euphemistically spoken. For words are a barrier in being a representation of what is being talked about, and not the thing itself. The problem with this world is that too much focus is put on language, not physical action. 
But in the latter is real meaning. I do not believe in top-down methodologies of design in which a design is a reflection of a formal list of requirements, elicited from various sources. This never results in a strong design but is always a compromise between different people's opinions (expressed in words). A design should evolve and from the start a prototype should be available, even it if be a shoebox or tennis ball.

Less talk and more creative and intuitive action would lead to much more interesting products!

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