United States ohne Design
I was just linked to an article entitled Made in USA by Paul Graham. I thought his name sounded rather familiar—and it should have—he wrote another essay called Taste for Makers which I really really liked. Both argue about the necessity of design and how the American take on “taste” affects how well-designed our products are in the end. They’re very good reads. It also turns out that he’s the author of the Lisp reference book I use. Crazy.
Here are some choice exerpts from Made in USA:
The trouble is, the very word “taste” sounds slightly ridiculous to American ears. It seems pretentious, or frivolous, or even effeminate. Blue staters think it’s “subjective,” and red staters think it’s for sissies. So anyone in America who really cares about design will be sailing upwind.
Make a good car? What’s “good?” It’s so subjective. If you want to know how to design a car, ask a focus group.
Instead of relying on their own internal design compass (like Henry Ford did), American car companies try to make what marketing people think consumers want. But it isn’t working. American cars continue to lose market share. And the reason is that the customer doesn’t want what he thinks he wants.
Since you may not have read all of that, let me repeat the important part to you:
And the reason is that the customer doesn’t want what he thinks he wants.
the reason is that the customer doesn’t want what he thinks he wants.
the customer doesn’t want what he thinks he wants.
That’s been my mantra, but it’s still very hard for people to understand. Good data is important, but so are good designers.
Yes, I totally agree with it. Just like when you are picking a watch or a gift — you probably had something you wanted in mind, but when window shopping for it, you will find something else that attracts you even more than what you wanted.
The problem they should realize is, they shouldn’t just “match customer demand”, rather, they should innovate and “create customer demand”.
Well, this is why we do things like ‘generative’ research, where we use various techniques to pull out what users really want. Check out some of SonicRim and Liz Sanders’ work with Velcro modeling and you’ll see what I mean. I think it is important to rely on the intuition of the designer for innovation and creativity, but it also has to be somewhat based on logical data.
In a larger sense, the issues raised by that article are things that I think about all the time. If we are always basing our design solutions on data gathered from contemporary users, where will the major innovative next steps come from? Where will that intuitive, illogical leap come from that makes a huge leap forward come from? We NEED those visionaries to come in and ignore the status quo sometimes. As Henry Ford once said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
Yep, exactly. Good data is important, but so are good designers. As I said. ;)
I’m familiar with some of the “modern” forms of research and how they attempt to innovate—but at the place I’m learning them they tend to emphasize the research to the exclusion of the designer and creativity. That’s just not right.