Design

The definition of “Design” in Oxford dictionary is as following:

“A plan or drawing produced to show the look and function or workings of building, garment, or other object before it is built or made.”

I can track back my first encounter with the idea of design to my artistic activities mostly painting and sculpturing. In that world having an eye for harmony, composition, balance, symmetry and visual skills were taught and practiced as fundamentals of Art. Later, however, I learnt much more about design during my MSc in Multimedia. I was impressed by the works of Edward Tufte in information design and Hans Rosling on data visualization.

I studied software interfaces, researched Human Computer Interaction (HCI), and learnt the criteria to evaluate the quality of their designs such as visibility, usability, consistency, recognition and accessibility.

This was a liberating process for me. I figured there is nothing that we interact with, experience in physical or intellectual world and perceive that has not been designed. The criteria to evaluate the quality of design in Art and technology or other fields sound different but actually share a great deal in foundation. Be it architecture, software interface, interior design, industrial design, traffic routes, product design from toys to home/kitchen appliances. Every object and system is designed by somebody and every designer has certain mindset that influences the design directly. What users (clients/customers) interact with and what defines the quality of that experience is indeed the design of the product first and for most.

From this perspective comes a sense of empowerment for users/consumers to have a voice and decide what suits their needs in anything rather than being oppressed by bad designs and designers.

Whenever I taught Multimedia, I made sure to specify one session to practice the evaluation criteria within various scenarios from website interfaces to airport navigation system to usability of ordinary objects such as chairs and kitchen utensils. It was so rewarding to watch my students shift from oppressed users to confident critics. Later in working with senior citizens who felt defeated by their digital devices, I used the same method. I made sure they understand how to navigate through their devices but be confident to know if they can’t do a simple task, it is the designers’ fault and not theirs. They always left the room feeling in charge and hopeful.

I am specifically excited about the technological developments on “Accessibility”. There has been such a valuable growth in this area. These technologies can be embedded in designs of all kind to provide a broader range of accessibility to different levels of handicaps and disabilities.