Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/09/21
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]B. D. Colen jotted down the following: > The stupidity Martin correctly points out is a prime example of a designer - > be he or she an industrial or a graphic designer - controlling a creative > process. Sure, the end result may look keen, but does it work optimally? I would actually disagree. A good designer has his/her target audience foremost in mind, be they purchasers and users of a product, or viewers of content. My initial message was to point out the contradiction between Guigiaro's rather inflated statement about design and his own shortcoming in something so obviously flawed as the placement of the hotshoe on the F3 (the project in which he was involved). If experience wasn't enough, the final proof of the failure of this 'feature' is the fact that Nikon later changed it's placement on the F3P and on subsequent models. In my opinion, if we had good designers controlling product development processes more often, we'd have much better artifacts. This is especially true of software and computerized equipment. Too often, people without any understanding of, empathy with, or consideration for those who have to use the products are in charge of the development process. I hesitate to lump all these people together under heading, but 'engineers' will suffice as an arbitrary generalization for now. Interestingly, there are as many misconceptions among the general public about what a 'designer' is and how they work, as there are in the (predominantly software) engineering community about what 'users' are and how they work. M. - -- Martin Howard | Visiting Scholar, CSEL, OSU | What boots up must come down. email: howard.390@osu.edu | www: http://mvhoward.i.am/ +---------------------------------------