Comments on: Design & Business Crossroads http://www.creativeclass.com/creative_class/2008/11/20/design-business-crossroads/ The source on how we live, work and play Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:17:44 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: Michael Wells http://www.creativeclass.com/creative_class/2008/11/20/design-business-crossroads/comment-page-1/#comment-7821 Michael Wells Fri, 21 Nov 2008 18:39:16 +0000 http://www.creativeclass.com/creative_class/?p=5103#comment-7821 Design as an ongoing conversation is a key to management and business success. For example Apple from the beginning has had a customer focus, brought artists into the process, worked on not just what looks good but also is easiest and most functional for the user. Same for Google (maybe not the artists, but the user friendliness)where the minimalist home page with changing cartoons keeps things both simple and fresh. Design has to go beyond looks to function. This is where the US automakers missed the boat. Not just boring exteriors but bad ergonomics inside and old model technology thinking (Let's keep making them BIGGER, that's what they wanted in 1957!) Design as an ongoing conversation is a key to management and business success. For example Apple from the beginning has had a customer focus, brought artists into the process, worked on not just what looks good but also is easiest and most functional for the user. Same for Google (maybe not the artists, but the user friendliness)where the minimalist home page with changing cartoons keeps things both simple and fresh.

Design has to go beyond looks to function. This is where the US automakers missed the boat. Not just boring exteriors but bad ergonomics inside and old model technology thinking (Let’s keep making them BIGGER, that’s what they wanted in 1957!)

]]> By: Zoe B http://www.creativeclass.com/creative_class/2008/11/20/design-business-crossroads/comment-page-1/#comment-7806 Zoe B Fri, 21 Nov 2008 06:09:29 +0000 http://www.creativeclass.com/creative_class/?p=5103#comment-7806 Henry Petroski (Small Things Considered: Why There is No Perfect Design, 2003) argues that every human being is a designer. The act of choosing which clothes to wear, where to place a chair in a room, what groceries to buy this week.... all are design choices. I like this democratic attitude toward design. Some folks are design geniuses, but that doesn't mean that the rest of us should confer on them all the responsibility for improving the product. If we all are designers, we will begin to integrate design with management when we pay attention to ALL of the design decisions that we are making. One such design/management decision concerns how much attention or encouragement we give to the folks who fabricate the design. The people with their hands in the process or on the product have insights that others miss. Workplaces that encourage daily, informal interaction between management and workers can quickly act upon insights from the 'factory floor'. We tend to glorify exceptional design as the product of individual genius. But I think design is an ongoing conversation among everyone who has ideas for improving the product. Henry Petroski (Small Things Considered: Why There is No Perfect Design, 2003) argues that every human being is a designer. The act of choosing which clothes to wear, where to place a chair in a room, what groceries to buy this week…. all are design choices. I like this democratic attitude toward design. Some folks are design geniuses, but that doesn’t mean that the rest of us should confer on them all the responsibility for improving the product.

If we all are designers, we will begin to integrate design with management when we pay attention to ALL of the design decisions that we are making.

One such design/management decision concerns how much attention or encouragement we give to the folks who fabricate the design. The people with their hands in the process or on the product have insights that others miss. Workplaces that encourage daily, informal interaction between management and workers can quickly act upon insights from the ‘factory floor’.

We tend to glorify exceptional design as the product of individual genius. But I think design is an ongoing conversation among everyone who has ideas for improving the product.

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