Comments

Blog brevity?

Design with the user, please.

Posted by Patrick at December 4, 2008 3:56 AM

Great design should win through, but that isn't always the case. I see a lot of outdoor activity clothing and equipment over the course of a year, but there's only so many items that I fall for and say "I want one of those'.

I really got behind one innovative top a few years ago, but it died a death on the open market because there weren't that many retailers who bought them in and therefore not many people who actually bought the finished product. Certainly I've never seen one on the hill or whilst wandering around towns or villages after a day out. Yes, the design was almost from the bridge of the Enterprise, but given that another company (Rohan) had been similarly inventive when it started designing outdoor clothing, it wasn't that outlandish to look at.

As far as outdoor clothing goes, there's a lot of 'Me too' product about and there has been for the twenty odd years that I've been writing about such matters here in the UK. The brand to beat in terms of design, function and desireability over here is Arc'Teryx, because they keep coming up with innovative garments, rucksacks and (more recently) climbing harnesses.

Others have come up with one offs (TNF Triumph Smock for instance), but there's little around that stops me in my tracks (or produce the kind of reaction DJ John Peel used to term the "F@&% Me Factor' (as in "F@&% me! What's that?' when he heard a piece of music that grabbed his attention.

I appreciate good design, embrace it when I can afford to (this email is being put together on an iBook) and will praise it to high heaven when I see it, but there's too many occasions when I don't.

I've tried a few digital cameras out over the years, but only took the plunge when I found one that looked good, had all of the features in the right place and worked. At first it was a Pentax Optio digital compact and then it was a Sony Alpha SLR. Both work and both have the features I need and everything falls to hand where it should do, even the press maligned depth of field button on the Sony. It's there, it's accessible and it works - and you don't have to think about it.

Posted by Keith Rickaby at December 4, 2008 5:54 AM

Some good points there Keith...

Design means much more than just "items" for sale.

The processes, techniques, etc., designed/tweaked/modified/replaced that run your business, your staff, your "designers" and your sales people, etc. Those processes lend themselves to the design process. Many times, when I speak of design to people - the first thought is the "physical design" of a product.

What's important to "any" business is the overall design of how it breathes, works, carries out/implements it's strategy for success. Right down from the "how" the phone is answered to how that product is eventually delivered and followed up on.

IT ALL ADDS TO THE "BRAND" and "DESIGNING" in the processes along with the product or service is one of the major keys to success that I believe Tom has hammered out over the years.

We're always looking for ways to design - or re-design our systems - to get them to work better, faster, more efficiently. Just that one little area works well with our engineers. (Although, changes or re-design does "upset" our non-engineering - day-to-day staff in the short term--no-one seems to like "change" even though they say they do!)

Overall though, design has been for years, prominent in the way we do things and deliver things... I keep a journal - as Tom suggested - where you rate different designs of products (or processes/systems!) and evaluate them, good, bad or so-so.

Posted by Salvo at December 4, 2008 3:29 PM

"Design with the user, please."

Patrick: I agree--and disagree. The magic trick (and it is magic) is to design for the user and lead the user at the same time--think Apple, Sony in its glory years, Lee Iacocca years ago with the first minivan, even Nike with "cool" sports shoes, ESPN, The Weather Channel.

Posted by tom peters at December 4, 2008 3:50 PM

Imagine a world in which we were reluctant to dispose of and replace the things we bought. Imagine a world in which, when we bought things, we expressed ourselves in terms of our values instead of our wealth (or our ability to bargain hunt). Imagine a world in which we consumed for quality instead of quantity. It seems to me that a lot of our current problems might have been mitigated a bit in such a world. And design would have played a massive role.

Thanks for this. I teach designers, and employ a few. They, themselves, could stand to be reminded of how important their work is...

Posted by Bruce Philp at December 5, 2008 12:57 PM

Tom,

You always give good book recommendations. Please check out the book Dropping Almonds by Bach Anon. I'd like your thoughts on the book.

If you don't want to do that, check out his recent blog @ www.droppingalmonds.com. I think you'll get a kick out of the satire.

Posted by Scott at December 6, 2008 6:52 PM