Comments on: Design conversations, not products

These seem to be apocalyptic times for designers. If you happen to be a member of this threatened species, you better look for another calling.

[benarent]

Hi Tim,

Thanks for an interesting post, I have just discovered your blog via Core77. You bring up interesting issues in regards to the design of consumer products. I think that Jared Spool at the 2008 summit summed it up really nicely with the story of 'stone soup', he describes how IA, interaction designers, and product designers bring their tools to table, to initiate a conversation. A good current example is working with non-design teams and using some of the IDEO methods, (Method Cards). This is good to get everyone?s voice heard, and to create a better solution, as the designer can then use this conversation to influence the interaction from both a technical, and then review this with the users.

Indeed this is an interesting time... Keep on posting. I look forward to reading more.

Ben Arent
http://www.benarent.co.uk

[csven]

Unfortunate to now have the conversation split in three: this echo, the original (http://iplot.typepad.com/iplot/2008/05/stop-designing.html), and frogdesign's blog (http://www.frogdesign.com/frogblog/stop-designing-products.html). Meanwhile, there's discussion of this on Twitter. Where next?

Perhaps this fractured conversation - which could so easily be controlled - is indicative of the potential issues facing the uncontrollable ways in which consumers inevitably interact with products. I can't help but chuckle at how the misspelling of Philippe Starck's name ("Pillippe") is now propagating; can't help but think there are analogies to the inevitable bugs/flaws/trade-offs in the things we produce.

[jaybee002]

yep that Phillip Starck rant was very interesting, spawned by one of the industries star designers, but interesting it's focus was on his own design process, Starck approaches design almost in a selfish manner, he design's products for his own amusement, in that speech what you find is a man who has resigned himself to thinking that his designs are irrelevant in todays world. The design process has shifted, the new wave of design to him, appears to be created by your personal trainer and other individuals in your community. USD is what Starck seems to be discussing in his own odd manner, what's the point of being a designer if your users can do it for you? His speech is more about grappling between old and new, old ideas, old process, old methodologies, old technologies. The designers role as you have said has shifted "the task at hand is to listen to all these crossover conversations and design the conditions for them to take place in hybrid forms and formats, enabling, facilitating, and curating them without creating them." we are no longer the creators to an end but the creators of a beginning.