41 Gave up on design

To be honest I gave up on the looks and just focused on the search engine optimization part of web design because that is all anyone ever talks about when asking me to create websites for them now adays.

posted at 10:45 am on March 22, 2008 by Leon Gaudi

42 The Seven Facets of Design

Design is not a single phase as many might think if they look at traditional System Development Life Cycles (SDLC). Design actually has seven phases:

1. REVISE – Concept Design
2. RELATE – Context Design
3. REPORT – Logic Design
4. RECORD – Physics Design
5. READY – Definition Design
6. RENDER – Manipulation Design
7. RESORT – Media Design

Each step adds additional constraints to the design process.

As well a system does not involve the design of a single facet but six:

1. CAUSE – Why – goals and rules of the system
2. OBSERVER – Who – people and roles of the system
3. ENERGY – How – software and functions of the system
4. MASS – What – inventory and data of the system
5. SPACE – Where – hardware and locations of the system
6. TIME – When – events and sequences of the system

Each of the facets (columns) are designed according to each phase (row). Benefits are calculated down the columns and costs are calculated across the rows. This allows a cost benefit estimate and actual to be determined phase by phase.

This methodology to be effective should be computer assisted from start to finish. This has not been realized. No language exists where seamless integration of all the phases and facets is achieved, modeling or otherwise.

However, the room for creativity is enormous. Suddenly, all the participants regarded as designers have incentive to innovate and invent. Innovation being the storm of ideas and invention being the chosen idea for each facet of the phase.

Yes, it is structured. Basically it is a periodic table of your system where you discover each element. However, considering the way we think and act non-linearly and organically we can cascade through this methodology both across the rows and down the columns many times, refining each time. The concept, context, logic, physics, definition, manipulation and media becoming clearer and sharper with each iteration.

Every person is a designer. Its just a designer in what phase and what facet.

posted at 10:27 pm on March 22, 2008 by Grant Czerepak

43 Great

Creativity is a fact of life. If you are creative you are noticed in a good way. You need to be creative in order to distinguish yourself from the others.

posted at 10:52 pm on March 31, 2008 by Sean Goff

44 love, LOVE, this article

Back in the early 90s, when I was teaching video production classes at the Art Institute of Ft. Lauderdale, one of my greatest challenges was convincing students of the value of using tripods for their cameras and 3-point lighting. This was the time when Steven Bochco’s “NYPD Blue” was bursting on the scene—the no-tripod, no stabilizer camerawork shot under natural lighting was the first primetime TV show to invoke anxiety for 60-full minutes. This was also the time that AT&T’s TV spots featured frenetically shot black-and-white footage of customers talking about their long-distance carrier experiences.

Despite my efforts to convince students of the values of learning the rules of good video production, and then breaking those rules for maximum effect, they persisted in emulating their MTV influences. I tried, in vain, to help them understand that the real masters of art and creativity embrace the rules before rejecting them.

The masters of the Impressionist Movement were masters because they studied the ‘rules’ of art for years before turning the art world on its head. The same is said for the French New Wave film movement of the 20th century.

Rutledge’s article is a great reminder for all who claim to be creative designers—careful to not be an oxymoron.

posted at 05:28 am on April 1, 2008 by Robert Leavitt

45 Untitled

Creativity is in deed very important if you want to deliver good work to your customer. But it is only one piece in the whole puzzle. Laborious tasks are neccessary as well. And if you forget to do these things all your superb creative work won’t get the credit it deserves.

posted at 10:13 pm on April 7, 2008 by Peter Schmidt

46 I See Where You're Going, But...

I think quite a lot of the time complaint about the client is legitimate. If we all operated within the client’s expectations and left our self-expression and desire to experiment at the door every site on the web would have the same semi-gloss colorful bubbles, drop shadows, gradients and reflections most uncreative clients are absolutely convinced they have to have.

I’m dealing with a client like that right now, who wants something simple, classy and elegant that will appeal to her high-class customers, but thinks that equates to shiny shiny shiny with an extra helping of kitsch .

Constraints on creativity are great, when they are in context of the needs of the customer, or a corporate identity. When they get in the way of delivering what the client wants because they’re focused on what he expects, they are a nightmare. That’s what I personally think designers complain about the most.

posted at 06:48 pm on April 29, 2008 by Justen Robertson

47 Melding is everything?

I agree that what is being called “creativity” can zoom right into an “it must be different” without consideration of the medium, standards or, unfortunately, the client’s industry and needs. There’s a world of difference between designing a professional website for a client and something you might do for yourself. I think we owe it to clients to ensure that what we do for them is aimed squarely at achieving their goals.

If you have to stop to explain issues to them, and you probably will because they’re not web designers, then so be it.

Your own stuff? Geez, that can go fast and brilliant according to your own needs. :)

posted at 11:36 am on May 17, 2008 by Diane Vigil

48 A common problem...

In music and art as well as web design, I see too often that people who claim to be creative are avoiding being competent. I host an open mic and it is impossible to talk to many of the singer/songwriters about music because they don’t know enough about their craft to hold a discussion. They seem to feel if they are ‘creative’, that magic will happen and they will be appreciated. The ‘Creative’ word also too often means ‘look at me’ rather than at the good work they’ve done.

posted at 08:21 am on June 1, 2008 by Dave Baldwin

49 It's all semantics anyway...

I think the very best thing that’s ever happened for my “creativity” is working within the constraints of strict XHTML.

I disagree with a lot of this article but a solid framework is essential to almost any work of art. I mean unless you’re intentionally making an artistic statement about chaos and entropy, or the transitory nature of things in general.

There’s something aesthetically pleasing about a semantically sensible framework in and of itself, even if few will ever see it.

Then the real magic happens when you take a client’s existing media and paint it on that framework, creating something new and different without actually creating anything new and different.

Say, wouldn’t it be cool if you could make a screen reader “sing” a stylesheet?

posted at 11:02 pm on July 24, 2008 by JB Smith

50 commitment to the problem, and imagination-flexibi

I once participated in a workshop led by Roger de Bruyn. He presented a model in which creativity is the coming together of craftsmanship, commitment to (solving) the problem, and imagination-flexibility¹; as opposed to the more general use of the word creativity that focuses on only one of the three, imagination-flexibility. If you follow these lines, it is clear where most of the constraints originate: in the problem that you [i]want[/i] to solve. And for the rest it depends on how good you really are: your own craftsmanship may be a serious constraint too. As De Bruijn says as a subtitle to “The proof of the pudding …â€?: you always end up with design; and on creativity itself: “Be sparing with creativity, work on improving quality.â€? When listening to De Bruijn and reading his texts, he confirms Ruthledge where it comes to creativity and constraints. Maybe it’s more appropriate to say that both agree with Goethe’s “In der beschränking zeigt sich erst der Meister,â€? which can be given two distinct but connected meanings, one that being able to excel in spite of constraints, the other, off course, that less is more.

¹ I guess there is a better translation of “vakmanschap, probleembetrokkenheid en verbeeldingsflexibiliteit,â€? but my knowledge of English is insufficient to come up with that.

posted at 05:14 pm on July 25, 2008 by Wil Leeuwis