I just discovered this talk on YouTube (shockingly, I did not get it from Twitter, or facebook, but actually found it on my own – while visiting a different thing that I got from twitter). It’s from a talk given by Bill Buxton, (pioneer in the human-computer interaction field) at Stanford University. In the beginning of the 1.5 hour talk, he says some things that I have said myself, almost verbatim. And sometimes, when you’re pounding your head against the wall, it’s nice to know that people who are smarter and more experienced than you are pounding on that same wall in similar rhythms.
Here’s a quote:
“There’s all these people talking; saying sort of this ‘everybody’s a Designer’ type of thing, and I’m saying ‘Well no, they’re not‘. My stance is that there is something called Design. It is a specialized profession; just as specialized and highly-trained as you might be if you have a PhD in Computer Science, or a Doctorate in Medicine, for that matter. There is something called Design. It is highly specialized and everybody is not one of them, any more than everyone, just because they do a little design or innovation, any more than you’re a Mathematician because you count change when you come out of the grocery store.
“But – the caveat is that Designers are the most inarticulate people in the world in terms of explaining what they do, and being able to say it in a way that distinguishes the distinct, and critical, and important, valuable skills that they bring to the table.
“And hence, as I experienced at my last company, the Head of HR, the Chief Financial Officer, the Chief Council of the company, had as much to say on my area of expertise as I did. – But to be real clear, I did not have an equal say about (their work).”
(and later)
“Anyone who thinks that what comes out of the box (the object) is what’s important… is already lost. What you sell is the experience that the object engenders.
“We are deluding ourselves if we think that the products that we design are the ‘things’ that we sell, rather than the individual, social and cultural experiences that they engender, and the value and impact that they have.”
(now in my words)
The object is the interface between user or audience and the designed experience.
An interesting talk, by an interesting person.
Bill Buxton, Sketching and Experience Design at Stanford University,
May 09, 2008
Thanks Bill,
Adam
