For a long time this blog has been about multi-touch & NUI design and development in general. It's a topic I'm still passionate about, but truth be told I'm focused almost exclusively now on the greatest multi-touch platform that has ever existed, the iPad. So, why not call a duck a duck. Welcome to The iPad Entrepreneur.
This first article on The iPad Entrepreneur is about one of the roles I feel that is very important to the success of any iPad venture, and that's the Diviner. I'm a Diviner and I can point to others who definitely fall into that category even if they would never use the term "Diviner" The first two people who come to mind are Ken Krutsch who is one of the best UX Designers I've met and a crack coder not to mention a great business strategist. Another is Josh Blake.
Diviner is a new term being used to describe User Experience Designers who can code and Coders who can design for the User Experience. The gap between UX Designers and Developers in terms of perspective and skills is significant. There is a real need for folks who understand both disciplines. No one is going to be great at both but some of us are pretty adept at one and very skilled in the other. I'm a developer by trade who has a keen sense of design. Here is a video interview with Microsoft's own Diviner, Shane Morris. He's a designer who can code and he provides the best explanation for Diviners that I've heard yet.
While I'm a developer by trade, talking about bits and bytes in a blog makes for pretty dull reading and writing, so this blog will mostly focus on design. However, I don't think any designer worth their salt can create good practical designs unless they understand the capabilities and limitations of the software and hardware platform to which they are designing. Show me a designer who doesn't understand the technical limitations of the target platform and I'll show you someone who is wasting your money.
That said, I can't stress enough how important design is to the success of a product. Not only does it have to look good, it has to feel good. That's really hard to do. A couple companies that have mastered this are Apple and Braun. Apple you already know about. Braun you should know about. What these companies have in common - besides the fact that they both manufacture incredible consumer products - is that they understand that the user experience is easily 50% of the solution. The other 50% is engineering. They both make awesome products that feel great and last forever. I have proof. My electric razor, which is a Braun, finally died last year. I've been using it since 1986. It's still beautiful - as electric razors go - and it worked great for 24 years. That's quality. And it has made me loyal to Braun.
So if you've been following this blog for its NUI coverage than you'll be happy to know that iPad is really the best NUI platform today. It's real. People use it. You'll have an audience for your NUI designs. If you've never heard of NUI but your interested in iPad and iPhone design, than this is a blog that will be worth bookmarking. I'm going to explore the many dimensions of the iOS in terms of design and what is possible given the capabilities and limitations of the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. Welcome to my blog. I am an iOS Diviner.
8 comments:
Hi Richard,
The iPhone stuff is great, but hopefully you don't stop publishing interesting NUI articles as well. You've been my sole source for this for a long time, now :-)
Although I prefer to work with Graphic Designers (or Interface Designers), often I just have to fake it:
http://theprogrammersparadox.blogspot.com/2009/03/faux-stylin.html
Does that make me a diviner too?
Paul.
I rather dislike the term (not the role) diviner, devigner, or other portmanteaus. I prefer the term integrator. The different words for the same role vary by culture or organization, I think.
Hi Paul,
Thanks for reading the blog! I will be talking more about NUI on my web site, but its not going to be the primary focus except where it crosses paths with the iOS which it turns out is pretty frequently.
Thanks,
Richard
Hi Josh,
You can call it whatever you like. To me its Diviner and to you its Integrator (which in my opinion is way overloaded). The point is that people like that exist and I'm one of them. I think you are too!
Richard
Hi Paul,
I just got done reading your post. I think its important to understand that UX designers and graphic artists, although sometimes the same person, are not the same skills. Some of the best UX designers I have met are horrible artists. A good example of this is Bill Buxton who has stated many times - and demonstrated with illustrations - that he cannot draw at all. Not even stick figures. Yet he is internationally recognized as one the most knowledge UX designers in the world.
I'm can do a little graphic design, but that's not my strength. I'm better at UX design but even there I pale in comparison to my friends, like Ken Krutsch and Stefanie Noe, who focus on that kind of work.
I appreciate and recognize good UX and graphic design and that's the part that's important to that hemisphere of my skill set. I know it when I see it and I know who can give it to me.
I'm also not the greatest software developer in the world. I have worked on some pretty complex problems including an EJB container system, but there are many folks who are much better at than I am and I hire them as needed. This gets into a whole different discussion about creating good teams - something I'm good at - but the point is you don't have to be great at either design or coding to be a great Diviner. You just have to be one of those rare people who understand both sides of the product coin.
Richard
Hi Richard,
I definitely agree, a graphic design is focused on how it looks, where a UX designer is focused on how it works. In the past, the graphic designers I've worked with have also had very definitive opinions about how the overall (main) functionality was structured, particularly as it related to their visual designs.
In one sense, I've always found that laying out the functionality in a big application is more a matter of really understanding how the users approach their work, and trying to optimize their interactions. It's both domain knowledge and the willingness to make subtle trade-offs, but it's very different from the type of vision that necessary to make an application look 'slick'.
Not being able to draw isn't a big minus for a graphic designer, since their concern is visual. Colors, layout, 'feel' are more important. My favorites have all had very well-defined personal styles.
Software, I think, is a lot like going to a restaurant and getting a good meal. The menu and ingredients are important, but so are the preparation and appearance. In restaurants they say that at least 50% of enjoyment is how it looks. If it looks marvelous, it will usually taste marvelous (even if it doesn't).
Paul.
With some exceptions, its been my experience that graphic designers are not good UX designers.
The way to approach an iPad project ( I should blog about this) is to start with the idea and the UX designer. The graphic artists first job is to create "comps" which allows us to see how the UX design would work in different visual styles.
Once the UX design is fairly well understood the UX Designer works closely with the graphic designer to being to build comps of all the screens.
This is the way I worked with a graphic designer on the large iPad project I'm just finishing up. While we designed I and others investigated the technical limitations can capabilities of the iPad according to the UX design. We discovered at times that some things were possible while other were technically too demanding given our budget and schedule.
Everyone worked closely together and the UX design, graphics and even the code was under constant revision to align these three disciplines in order to create the best product possible.
As the Diviner I was coordinating the whole thing and making sure that UX translated into graphics and that engineering could do what the UX and graphics designers had in mind. It was very exciting and fulfilling for everyone involved. The end result, which no doubt will be available in the not too distant future on the App Store, is simply amazing.
Great new direction (a smart one too) and like the new look as well.
Post a Comment