The Prepared Mind Discussion about designing human interaction.

Hello all! I’m sorry it’s taken me so long for me to update content on this blog as well as add new podcasts. I plan to add a new podcast in the next couple of days. However, the time away did give me a lot of things to think about and to observe.

Not having to prepare for, record and edit my own podcasts, I amused myself in listening to other podcasts while I was vacationing in Germany the past 2 weeks. One of those podcasts was one in a series of podcasts recorded at the AIGA Design Conference 2005 featuring Milton Glaser and Nicholas Negroponte.

While as one would imagine, both men gave very compelling and thought-provoking speeches, it was something that Nicholas Negroponte said that stuck with me. He opined about the experience of using his laptop computer, remarking that despite having the fastest laptop on the market, it still takes quite a long time for his laptop to start-up — even from standby — and that there is something wrong with this. He then stated that part of the problem is that programmers are paid to add more code to each software release, not take code away from subsequent releases. He felt that if programmers were paid based on how many lines of code they took out, we would end up with better software.

What a concept!
At it’s essence, we’re talking about simplicity and efficiency. Imagine if we designers adopted a modified version of that philosophy? As owner of an interaction design firm, I can appreciate the concept of keeping applications simple and taking away code. But why limit it to the coding side? Simplicity and efficiency apply in design as well. Can we designers communicate the same ideas with fewer words and visual clutter? In design school, my Swiss-style influenced instructors were always pushing us to take more away in our designs and try to get down to the least amount of information needed to communicate a mark or symbol.

The Trey factor
KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid. Most would argue that this is common sense but it’s alarming how often we go away from this and over complicate relatively simple matters. A great example of this is an anecdote shared with me by my friend Diane while I was vacationing in Germany.

My friends Ed and Diane have a fantastic 4 year-old dynamo of a son nicknamed Trey (Edward the third). As Trey begins to enjoy limited doses of his first experiences with independence, he’s finding out first hand how we adults complicate simple matters. Recently, Diane was with Trey in a restaurant and Trey needed to use the bathroom. In the past, an adult would escort Trey to the correct bathroom door but lately Diane has decided that Trey can go by himself.

Trey enthusiastically bound from the table and ran up to the two bathroom doors, which were right next to each other. Diane noticed that Trey hovered for a few moments and did not instantly enter the men’s room. “How do you know which one is for boys and which one is for girls?” Trey yelled! LOL!

Now, I know Trey and he’s a very bright kid. Like most kids, he can draw a very simplistic stick figure that represents a man or a woman. That the designers who designed the signage on these doors SO complicated a relatively simple assignment that it wasn’t instantly obvious which symbol represented a man and which represented a woman is indicative of the fact that too often we find it easier to make things complex rather than simple.

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