Design as interface: As professionals see it

Design Management Journal, Winter 2002

DEVELOPMENT

We asked journal readers to share how they see design as interface. Their lessons come in the form of anecdotes from work, personal

journeys, research findings, statements of design philosophy, and a few words about the traditionally naive optimism of designers and their sense of the business world. We thank our contributors and hope this diverse set of viewpoints helps stimulate your own assessments of this important topic.

Mark Allen, Senior Manager, Andersen

Design can provide the kinetic spark that awakens and mobilizes a large organization. While we had possessed a robust intranet for years at my company, complete usage was our knowledge-sharing goal. To achieve greater participation and awareness, we designed a new manner of interacting with one another, through a competitive basketball game that could only be accessed via our intranet. Within four days, we generated more traffic than our external site had in a month! Thousands of new users found their way in. If business objectives can be aligned with human behavior and preference, your design interface will be successful.

Kenji Ekuan, Chairman, GK Design Group

Design was an interface of my cultural longing in the devastated environment after World War II.

I set the criteria of my design activities with three pillars as business, movement, and study, Business means actual design work, involving industrial clientele and, of course, money. Movement means the propagation of the social value of design through a variety of promotional activities. Study means studying, formulating, and deepening the meaning of design in society. My design work is an interpretation of my cultural perception through the function, beauty, and social and humane factors of the things I create. Therefore, design could be defined as contemporary culture functioning

as an interface of my business.

Roz Goldfarb, President, Roz Goldfarb Associates

As an observer and not a practicing designer, I think it's valuable to trace the trajectory of design as an analytical practice and to learn from it if we are to chart future applications. I believe the roots of new methods of problem-- solving for classically trained business executives can be found in systems design, its structure and methodology, as most obviously applied to corporate identity and such collateral applications as forms, charts, and graphs. Designers have a passion for order, and that passion extends to learning how to map human factors, user experience, psychology, and even anthropology, which are the essence of this sort of endeavor.

The designer requires particular skill in conceptualizing how complex material and information can be organized, as well as the ability to graphically present it in a clear, concise manner. As this process has become more sophisticated, it has developed a multidimensional structure. Firms specializing in corporate branding, information design, or Web design use similar means to develop architectures for multi-- faceted organizations or structures for information dissemination. It is the designer's ability to take complicated information and structure it into something that is strategic in its goals and that offers clarity to clients that has made the business world sit up and take notice of a newer model of thought. Systematic assessment and the use of logic as a conceptual process have long been hallmarks of many designers. The interface between business processes and the designer's analytical approach offers a path to plot models for organizational strategies, new business initiatives, analysis, and growth, moving the designer's role toward strategic planning.

The next important stage in this development will be interesting to watch. Professionals have been trying to define new business models; experiential design is one attempt. Designers working hand-in-hand with their business counterparts are offering new ways of approaching and viewing problems, and the resulting influx of creative procedures are enriching, as well as appreciated. In my opinion, the most important factor is that designers are no longer restricted to traditional media deliverables and can now use their analytical abilities to produce more than a design. Their role will be to help fashion the concepts and structures of new business and products. How wonderful!

Bill Capers, Branding Consultant, Red Brick Design

Design used for business solutions needs to be "good design" in the purest sense. The ingredients that make up good design are the element of surprise, clear business results through messages, and impact on the bottom line. Design should never have to "grow on you." It should make you say wow-now, that is different. a new process, a new form, revolutionary thinking, life-altering experiences that stimulate your senses. Design is all about getting into people's minds and leaving a lasting impression.

Clear examples of this kind of revolutionary design can be seen in all the design disciplines. In product design, there's the new Apple computer with its fresh colors and form. In business creativity and design, there's the invention of the cell phone and the ATM machine. For graphics, it's interactive computer screens that have revolutionized TV and power the Internet, not to mention the new ads aimed at the "Y generation" for businesses such as Gap Inc. and Abercrombie & Fitch.