MentalX

I was lucky enough to get to see Karim Rashid speak last weekend. I suppose if I were a few years younger I would have left feeling very inspired as Karim is very convincing when he pontificates about designers being a changing force in the world. I am so over inspiration at this point and am more interested in the juicy details. At any rate it was a good talk and certainly well received by the college students in attendance, and it got me thinking about a few things.

Branding.
There is no better example of somebody who has branded themselves better than Karim. I have long thought branding yourself (or your style) is an important part of starting a design business right from the get-go. Having said this, and having a firm understanding of the concept, I have never been able to pull it off myself. I have had two mildly successful design businesses (neither were so wildly successful that I wasn’t easily lured away) and have struggled with the concept. Why is this? Generally, I needed every client that I came in contact with and was willing to do just about anything to get them, and keep them onboard even if it meant sacrificing my style. It should be noted that while I’d sacrifice my style, I’d rarely if ever sacrifice my design ideals — appropriately sized logos, consistent fonts, and such. While it seems logical, it initially is a big risk to create things that fit squarely into your style, but don’t mesh with the clients goals. I’m sure it gets easier after you get a few works out there and start getting hired because the client likes and wants your style. Good examples of successfully branded designers/photographers are: electricheat.org, nopattern.com, Dan Winters, David LaChapelle.

Usability.
While Karim is a very visual person, it seems that most of his process starts from a place of usability. In other words, it seems that he often strives to make products more user friendly when designing. After looking at a great deal of his work, I’d have to say that he doesn’t always hit this mark but you can see many of the arguments behind his designs. This begs two questions in my mind:

1. How much of the user experience is strictly usability?

There are many elements to the user experience and usability is only a small part of that. O.K., maybe a little bigger than small, but it’s not the whole deal. As outlined by David Liddle, there are three phases in adopting a new technology: enthusiast, professional, and consumer. In this instance, I am only interested in the last, the consumer phase. In the consumer phase of adoption, usability becomes a smaller part of the equation than say the professional phase. Sure the object needs to function as advertised, but it plays a much larger role in the lives of a consumer. The product needs to be something that the consumer can identify with — it has to be part of their style. Sure it needs to work (at least as good as anything else of equal price), but it also has to be cool. In the past, I’d agree with Liddle when he says that a technology moves up the chain from enthusiast to professional to consumer, working out the kinks of usability in the process. However, I’d argue that in today’s world, services and products can start at the consumer level through the use of rapid prototyping. So, when designing one of these products or services, where does usability fit in the picture? Do you sacrifice usability to make something cooler, or more visually stimulating? Is it left up to the consumer to decide just how well they need something to work? These are some of the questions that the industry must answer as the demands of products and services as a whole increase and the time to market decreases.

2. How many risks does one take to change the way an object is used by the masses?

So, somebody asks to you to redesign their service-based web site. Where do you start? Do you simply do a redesign, collect your check and move on? I have always been, and always will be interested in making things work better. As Karim stated, we live in an interesting time, because the design of many things is stagnant and it is up to us as designers to get products and services out of their rut (totally putting words into his mouth, but that’s what I took from it). That being the case, are you willing to take the responsibility of changing the way something works? In short, you should … but you better be right, or close. The best example of this is the Apple iPod. It had all the same functions of any other mp3 player, but it completely changed the way we use the mp3 player. It required an investment from the end-user to learn a new way to do things. And, the end-user was willing to do this because it was just so damn cool. In generally big corporations are very nervous about making big changes to their product line or service. And when they do, the changes happen really slowly. This is all going to change over the next 10 years as start-ups (like Google) and giants (like Apple) become hugely successful by challenging how things work. With the quick rise and progression of technology I am expecting to see a lot more businesses take chances.

It is indeed an interesting time to be alive and thinking about the issues of design in the world. As technology changes, so too does everything else.