ipads, decorators and designers.

DISCLAIMER: What I'm sharing is purely base on my own personal experience and my personal opinion about what design is all about, and how I work when it comes to designing. I have no formal training in design or art for that matter, nor have I done any design for money before. Thus, do not take my word as the gospel, but rather with a pinch of salt (unless you've reached your daily salt intake)

(DISCLAIMER: When I was in a very playful mode when I was updating this post, so don't take my sarcasm and bitchiness seriously. I'm just playing playful hor!)

judge a designer not by what (s)he put in,

but what (s)he took out.

That was where I left this blog post on 19 Feb 2010. Cedric left a very nice quote in the comments that goes along this line as well.

I didn't finish this post the last time, simply because I was (a) damn busy and (b) have yet to crystallise my thoughts then. It is not that I'm any less busy now, but I think it turns out to be a damn good thing to not finish this post until today.

Why's that so?

Interestingly, the useless tutor has been approached by a few groups and/or individuals this week. It's interesting not because they are approaching a useless tutor, but rather they have the same concern - how to communicate to a designer?

At first, I thought, wah designers so mystical meh? Macham designers need spirit mediums / tang kee / dong co / nat kadaw (as you can see, I do Southeast Asian studies...;P) to communicate to like that.

After a few meetings, I being to realise the pattern - the issue is not that people don't know "how" to communicate to designers. Rather, the problem is that people don't know "what" design is all about.

What design is all about......really

My friend once said "Designers only make things look nice". He claimed that for most product designs, the engineers work on their own, and the designers just make the product looks nice. I retorted to him, "No wonder there are so many sucky products out there that doesn't make sense".

Truth to be told, that's what people think design is all about - make things look nice. They couldn't be more wrong. Frankly, if you're looking for someone to make things look nice, look for a decorator, not a designer.

Designing is all about communicating. We don't communicate through words - we communicate through, well, design. We don't communicate to your conscious or your thought - we communicate to your sub-conscious and your emotions, your feelings - things that you can't really describe but feel it (it is also coined as "affect", but I don't want to use that term as it can be quite a cheem concept).

So how do we do it? We makes things clearer, we makes things simpler. We remove the complexities, increase emphasis for what is important, and reduce emphasis, or even take out what's not, such that the message is brought across clearly. We choose the right image, the right colours to bring across the message.

Of course the users wouldn't go "ahh! This thing is bigger, so it must be important!", or "Ahh! The colour scheme is green, so this company is about growth!". It is something they feel, they know, but not consciously. Sometimes, they can't describe the feeling, but they know the feeling. This is how we communicate the message.

When I talked to the groups and/or individuals, this thing keep coming up: the design doesn't feel right, how do we tell the designers what we want? I would usually asked back this question "Do you know what you want to say with your page?" This is when then they are lost for words, and I'll proceed to slap them across their faces, splashed ice water, place my arms on my hips and screeched "WhhHHHHAAAaaat?? If you have heard high pitch screeching noises in COM1, I may have been responsible for it.

But seriously, if you don't know what you want, how do you expect the designers to know how to design something that you'll want??" So yes, it's your FAULT. IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!!!!

Ok but before you go suicidal over guilt, here's something to make you feel better: You're not alone.

If I have learnt anything the hard way, here's the most important lesson I've learnt from the hard way school: Most clients don't freaking know what the hell they want. That is why I actually spent most of my time at the start talking to clients, trying to tease out and make them really sure about what they want to communicate.

The myth of giving creative control

I know it is tempting to tell the designer "I want a page that does this. Go design.". After all, creative people are stereotyped to want to have creative control right? I'm not saying that you shouldn't give creative control, or that it is anything wrong with being nice. Rather, such orders are anything but "nice", and is as good as not giving any control.

Let me explain.

I once had such a boss in NS. Everytime he asked me to help design something, I would ask him "what kind of feel do you want? What kind of impression do you want to communicate? " He would always tell me "Aiyah you decide lah. You're the designer". In the end, every design I submit, he'll go "but it doesn't feel right leh". I would have to revise it like 4-5 times until he's satisfied.

So once, he gave me an assignment. I asked the same question, and he gave the same reply. Somehow, I was pissed and I told him "Sir, you have to tell me what you want now. If not, I have to waste time editing over and over again like before, which frustrates you and I. I would rather you be upfront with what you want to say, so that I can get it communicated from the start, and so that you don't have to think of nice things to say when it doesn't do what you want. You being nice now is not helping me, but hell for me."

He was a little shock when I said that, but that was the assignment with the least amount of editing done, with the least amount of frustration for both of us.

I know it is paradoxical: how is taking control giving creative control? If I were to use an analogy, what that person did is like asking me to destroy an object, without telling me what the object is or where it is, and is giving me "creative control" by asking me to decide. How is this control, when I have to take a stab at everything until I hit the object you want me to destroy?

By telling us what you want to communicate, you're telling us where the object is and what it is. That way, I can spend more time thinking how to destroy it as creatively as possible, rather than stabbing around in the dark.

Now this is what creative control is about - you don't decide how I do it, but you have to let me know where is it, so that I can spend more time and energy on thinking rather than searching.

So all in all, how to communicate to a designer?

Frankly, I think a good designer should be one who does this with you, but if your designer doesn't, here are a few things you should consider when you want to communicate with a designer.

1) Be clear about what you want to communicate

"Something nice" is not being clear. "Fresh design" or "damn pro design" is not clear either. Tell the designer how you want the users to feel specifically.

Bad Example: Feel good.

Good Example: Feel that the company is about stability, that the company is trustworthy, that the company is nurturing.

If you're not sure how to describe it, show the designer designs that communicates what you want. Remember: it is all about what you want to communicate.

2) Designers are not the fruit juice Auntie

This is the most common kind of client I've gotten:

All too often, clients want to cover all grounds - they want everything. As I've mentioned earlier, design is about communication. You have to choose what is most important to be communicated to the users. We are not the fruit juice Auntie, whom you can order half apple half orange hor. If you want the best of both worlds, all I can say is you'll have none. Sorry we don't create miracles to overcome this issue hor.

I'm not saying that a design cannot be fun yet professional, or professional but yet fun, or something along that line. But you have to know : one has to be more important than the other. One is the main dish, the other is the garnish. If you want both main dish in one dish, you get a mash.

Visualise this: Mickey mouse in tux. That's mostly fun, but a touch of professional feel, right? Now visualise Steve Jobs wearing mickey mouse ears. That's professional with a touch of fun, right?

Now visualise a monster that's half mickey mouse and half Steve Jobs. You get my drift about having neither here nor there.

Do note that not every contrasting things work when placed in a garnish-main dish context. So do listen to the designer when he tells you that decorating your ben and jerry's ice cream with pieces of tomato doesn't make your ice cream more appetising.

Bad example: refer to comic above

Good example: I want the customers to know immediately that our company is about games, specifically arcade games. I want them to feel a sense of fun, retro feeling from arcade games.......

3) Come up with a list of what's most important to the least important

Let's say you want a webpage - decide what is most important on that page to the least and discuss that with the designer. Ideally, a designer should discuss this with you from the start, but if he /she doesn't, you could always initiate it.

Bad Example: Everything is just as important

Good Example: The focus should be on the company contact information.

Good example 2: The focus should be on booking flights, less so on the history of the company.

Now I know it is tempting to say "everything is just as important". But like I said in the previous point, you either have more emphasis on A or more emphasis on B. Equal emphasis = no emphasis on either = mess = lack of clarity. You cannot have the best of both worlds. Emphasis works on contrast and difference. That's how the brain works.

That is why designers are piss when the clients indiscriminately asked for the logo to be bigger. It is not because they have to edit it, it is because the client wants emphasis on everything which leads to mess and lack of clarity.

So no aesthetics meh?

I'm not saying that designers don't consider aesthetics. Rather, they consider aesthetics WITH clarity and communication. Aesthetics are used to amplify the message they want to communicate, not overwhelm it.

That's what separate a designer from a decorator.

So what has this got to do with iPad?

Here's the question for you then: why did the designers of iPad not have so many things that could be added in? What's the focus and what are they trying to communicate then?