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Design Process
From taking an HCI course, reading articles, books, and SDK
documentation on user interface design, I see that `good' user
interface designs begin with research into users, their tasks, and the
features to be included in the software; they end with an attempt to
integrate scientifically-chosen user interface elements within an
artfully crafted, commercially appealing package. An artist creates
in the opposite direction--from the inside out. An artist creates a
work, based on something inside--an intuition, a feeling, belief,
purpose, an inside sense about the world around them. After the
artist has `finished' a work, viewers and critics will evaluate it.
Depending on the type of Art it is, it may or may not be revised and
improved. A motion picture crew can shoot a scene, view and evaluate
it, and redo the whole thing if needed. Other works of art can not be
repeated--as Joni Mitchell the folk singer tells members of her
audience who request she play certain songs: ``I wonder If anyone ever
asked Van Gogh--`Hey, paint Starry Night again, man!''' By
analyzing `successful' works of art, patterns or elements that predict
repeatable success can be derived and applied to future work, without
violating the artistic integrity of existing work.
The integration of software can not be achieved by committee, where
everyone has to put in their own addition... It must be
controlled by dictatorial artists with full say on the final
cut.[11]
The connection between the artist's inside-out design process and the
committee's outside-in process could be made by an individual
assigned the task of `aesthetic integration' for a project. It need
not be a `dictatorial artist,' but ideally a person who came up with
the original inspiration for the project or someone who shares
wholeheartedly in this motivation. Inside-out design may be used to
augment existing software design practices. Contests are great tools
to get artists working on something. Imagine the fun and ideas a
software design team could generate by sponsoring a design contest for
the visible elements of their interface.
Next: Healthy Competition
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sean dreilinger