if the director thinked like a designer.....

(PS: Have finished up the ipad and designer post. This post kinda links on from that post)

same song, 2 different movies.

This song, "O Re Piya" was first used in the Hindi movie, "Aaja Nachle". It is later used by the late Yasmin Ahmad for a scene in her movie, "Talentime".

The same song is used in two different movies. Though the song is very much heartachingly beautiful, both films used it very differently to develop the story.

If you are to think like a designer, which way would you use it?

(A) As in Aaja Nachle

(b) As in Talentime (6:25 onwards)

(The last few seconds of the song extends to this clip)

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?

A Good Read on exporting images for Web

Me thinks it is a very well written article about choosing the right format for exporting images into, and the settings to use in Adobe suite.

Do read it!

http://sixrevisions.com/web_design/comprehensive-guide-saving-images-for-web/

musing about spiders and redsports

I thought this year's pitching session was a lot better.

The other time I attended a CS3216 pitching session, I was still a student in the course, trying to emerge from all the work. Facebook, on the other hand, was emerging in Singapore. Except for an exceptional few, most of the pitchers have no idea what "social networking" is. They exude the impression that they want to jump onto this platform simply because, well , it's supposedly new and hot. Sadly, it shows, among some of them, that they have no idea how it serves their company or organisations, and if it resonates with their mission and objectives or not.

So contrary to Prof Ben's (alias Boss / overlord/ sire / slave driver, depending on my mood) post, I thought this year's pitchers are a lot clearer about the ship and how they want to jump onto it.

But that's not the main reason why I'm writing this post. It is to address the following issue.

Judging from the discussions, some began to wonder why I spoke for Redsports. For the record, I'm not given any benefits hor. Neither do I know who is Leslie and Dawn, until Prof Ben mentioned them. To be frank, I didn't do it to contextualise it for the foreign students (as speculated here) But to understand why I wanted to put a human side to Leslie's figures, you've gotta understand the whole back story first (lor sor story alert!)

In AY07/08 Sem 1, I relief taught the whole semester in the day, and had lessons in NUS later in the day. During which, I have already been attached to this batch of sec 3s (whom I've affectionately referred to as "my kids"), as I taught them for a few months the year before.

Anyway, quite a few of them are sportsmen / sportswomen. Academically wise, they weren't very confident and weren't doing too well, but they had a lot of potential.

One thing that struck me during my term was how often, after a match, they would circulate redsports article about the match they've played. If they were shot in action (as in camera shot lah!), that picture would become their profile picture everywhere - MSN, Friendster (when it was still alive) etc. If their names appeared in some best player poll, they would spam it around, gathering support.

Being close to them, I naturally become a nexus of such things. Once I log onto MSN, I would receive messages like this: "Cher, see my profile pic. Nice or not?" "Cher, we won leh!" "Cher, support me on this poll leh." Usually, they don't talk much about their games, unless they are mentioned in school announcements. But with redsports, their pride multiplied, and so do their self-esteem.

Soon I begin tracing their matches on my own on redsports. It took my kids by surprise when I tell them "Eh not bad ah, I heard you scored X points in your match against ABC Secondary". It makes them feel good, that someone notices what they're good at. It makes them feel good that someone care. It makes them feel good that I see them not just as students in the classroom, but as a human. It helped to improve my relationship with my kids.

That was why when I took CS3216 when it was first offered in 2008, I couldn't contain my surprise to hear from the founder of Redsports pitching. When it was Q&A time, I did what I should do - I thanked Leslie in front of the class. I thanked Leslie for what he has done for my kids, for the pride he has given them, for the self-esteem he has helped built, for the confidence he has helped raised, while I almost choked in my own emotions.

I couldn't be more grateful.

===========================================

What Leslie presented might have been just numbers to you. "X number of people came to our site every day". "Y number of people were referred from Facebook". But what didn't show, was the power it has on our youths - many whose confidence, excitement in sports, and self-esteemed has been multiplied because of this site. That is the difference which is not recorded, which I thought everyone should know.

Which was why I shared what I shared yesterday. Not because I'm grateful to what Redsports has done, but the belief in the difference it made, and many more it could do with Facebook.

It seems like many in the class have been bowed over by Leslie's passion, judging from the different discussions that have since sprouted. Coincidentally, it aligns with what I wanted to say with the previous post about spiders.

Too many a times, we think making a difference is to change something - to change the world, to create something new, to break new grounds.

But a lot of times,difference is made with very small, unintentional actions as well. Many a times, it makes a difference, without you knowing or thinking it will.

Much like Kobayashi Issa cleaning house carefully. Much like the little actions of a principal who touched up the classrooms on her own, as if it is second nature, without asking anyone to do so. Much like many teachers I know, who made a difference not by setting out to make a difference, but made huge and deep impacts in the student with little everyday actions that they didn't think would matter to the students.

And of course, much like Leslie's desire to report about local sports news.

of cleaning houses and (kan cheong) spiders

“a broken web –

a refugee spider is still

looking for a home”

“don’t worry, spider

I keep house

casually”

- Kobayashi Issa

Seriously, I'm not a literature person nor a big fan of poems, much less haiku like this. Hello, just because I come from Arts, you stereotype me to be a super-chim airy-fairy person is it? *stares*

Jokes aside, I didn't put this up so that people have an excuse not to do spring cleaning at home. I encountered this pair of haikus quite a while back through the blog of my favourite film director, the late Yasmin Ahmad.

I thought that among all the "making a difference" call we've all been receiving and inspired by, it is good to be reminded about some things in life. And it is best said through this pair of haikus.

the day the useless tutor tries to seem useful (Part II) (with expansion set)

Date: 30 Jan 2010
Time: 1230pm, after lunch. Session was delayed due to poor time management for previous workshop (refer to previous post)
Mission: To blast the myths of a good presentation in a session that I've uncreatively called "Myths of a Good Presentation".

Backstory
Like I told those who attended the session, I wasn't arrowed to do this workshop because I'm some presentation guru. In fact, I'm sure those who attended it will agree that I have quite a bit of flaws as a presenter.

How was I arrowed this workshop then? I was placed at knife point by Prof Ben and forced to do it.

KIDDING.

Well back in December 2009, when we were planning the workshop schedule and stuff, there wasn't any design workshop intended then. Which means there isn't any workshops for me to conduct. I mean what's new right? I'm the USELESS tutor!

Then, Prof Ben suggested implementing the Pecha Kucha thingy for application seminar. Being the useless tutor, I wayanged and tried to smoke him, saying that the Pecha Kucha format can force the students to be more succinct and structure their presentation better, but it wouldn't guarantee good presentations. After all, the root of too many bad presentations is not too much content, but too much content from everywhere without a central message.

That was when an arrow was shot - I was to conduct a workshop on good presentations.

That was when I started crafting my message - what exactly do I want to share and how do I want to share it. There were so many things I wanted to say, but decided that it would be more impactful if I can blast the myths the class hold rather than the myths people hold in general. After all, this class is not your usual NUS class.

When I first looked through the responses of the survey, I was floored - in a good way. I took slide design out, as many do not hold common misconceptions of good slide design. Everyone knows how to give a good presentation! So what myths were there left to blast? Thankfully, the audience-centric thinking only exist in one or 2 responses. There is something for me to contribute to this class after all and appear a wee-bit useful.

So how was it?

What I think I did well
- MESA suggestion brought across very clearly and reinforced (read:NAG)

What I think I didn't do well
- Secondary school teacher tone! ARGHHHH.
- Discussion and "opinion poll" could be fleshed out more.
- Could have made the session more succinct.

Ultimately, what I shared during the session is only 40% of what I wanted to share. I wanted to show more of the TED talks, I wanted to end of with a coup-de-grace statement. But I'm glad I did what I preached - restrain. I'm glad that the MESA suggestion sticks, as seen from certain discussion.

What I suggested is not dogma. It's not principles, like some would say. As I have pointed out, it's simply SUGGESTIONS! So take it with a pinch of salt. Even if it resonates with you, do note that its relevance may not be the case all the way.

By far, Cedric has pointed out to me that it resonated a lot with him, cause he used the same framework in debate, but never thought that it could be framed in this way. Jon Lew has mentioned that he disagree (yes!), but it turns out it's some miscommunication (darn!) as I wasn't clear about certain things. For example, it is not that I don't think that presenter's skills is not important, but there is no need for me to cover that, since almost everyone in the class knows it. It's like teaching ABC to them, and it dilutes the impact of the main suggestions.

But that doesn't mean that a presenter without the full presenter's skills can't give a good presentation. That was why I thought the accent thing is a myth. No one is perfect. As the CS3216 overlord (Prof Ben lah!) says "Not everyone has Obama's eloquence". It is quite obvious that I have enunciation and tempo issues, right?

But everyone has to present. This is where S, and A comes in. If our personal "defects" prevents us from delivering the ME properly, we have to rely on the S and A to amplify the clarity of the ME, such that the "defects" wouldn't be a big issue.

I wanted to end the session with this initially, but I decided that I shouldn't as the impact would be diluted. So here's the director's cut:

All in all, presentations are just another form of communicate. When we communicate a joke to our friend, or when we communicate an idea to a closed one, who needs slides to deliver that message and emotional connection?

I'm not saying that we don't need to put in effort do to up our presentation aids. I'm famous among my students to spend 6-8 hours preparing the slides of one 1 hour lesson. But my point is, we should do that only after we have spent the effort to craft a good Message and Experience (ME), and do our aids around it to amplify the ME. If not, people will only remember the frills, but not what you were trying to communicate.


EXPANSION SET (04 Feb):
I think there were some confusion that the suggestion I made is advocating for a particular style of presentation. It's not. If you haven't realised, I've shown presentations from people with very different presentation styles. I've even showed how the same presenter can have different styles in different context, but delivering the same ME. (especially from the links I've posted on IVLE).

I've suggested that SA be used to amplify your ME. How do you want to go about it, it depends on you . I did mention this in the workshop - I did not say that presentations cannot use skits (aids) to be good - but rather, there must be restrain to use it only when it helps to amplify your ME. I myself have advocated for using a skit for a presentation, as the interaction between the characters metaphorises our argument and helps to bring across the abstract M we have.

What I've suggested is not a presentation style, nor a principle, but a suggestion on how one should approach his or her presentation when preparing for it.

There are indeed different ways to measure the success of a presentation, just like there are different ways to measure the success of a design. But like a good design, a good presentations do not just deal with conscious measurements. You deal with the sub-conscious that cannot be explained, that cannot be expressed, but has the ability to move you (which some geographers are calling it as "affect"). That is why some famous designers once mentioned, that it is not just what a designer put in that matter, but what they take out. Things like white-space, breathability etc. - it affects the aesthetics and effectiveness of a design cause it affects people unconsciously.

For presentation, when it comes to the sub-conscious, I think there is very limited ways to "affect" other people - to give them a message and experience. Adhiraj's show-and-tell and Benjamin Zander's talk - I'm sure that's the two presentations that has the highest recall rate among those who attended the session as to what was said and how they felt (Experience), which is not necessarily describable. Thus my question during the session "how many of you remember how you felt when you saw it" rather than "how many of you can describe how you felt".

And they had very very different presentation styles. 2 of the best presenters to me, who are still alive, Steve Jobs and Obama, have very very different presentation styles. But the only commonality I can find between them is how they have a strong ME that move people at the unconscious level.

True, different people have different ideas of what is a good presentation, but ultimately, what makes you say that it is GREAT? So far, I think, it boils down only to the quality of the Message and Experience.

So hope that addresses any misunderstanding that I'm advocating for a certain presentation style. :P

the day the useless tutor tries to seem useful (Part I)

Date: 30 Jan 2010
Time: 9.30 am
Mission: To conduct a small part and a larger part of the Photoshop / Adobe Illustrator (PSAI) workshop

Well, I am the useless tutor among all the CS3216 tutors after all. So when it is time to show that I'm remotely useful, why not jump on it right?

Truth to be told, I've never conducted a workshop on design or the 2 PSAI software. And yet I am suppose to show that I know something, or can conduct the workshop well to prove that I have some use!

But here's my reflection:
Fundamentals Component
What I think I did well
- materials is sufficiently simplified (I think)
- slides is ok-lah-quite-clear quality (I think)

What I think I could improve upon
- Delivery. Stop talking like a secondary school teacher!
- Vector and Raster. Somehow felt that I didn't explain well enough.

Photoshop Component
What I think I did well
- none

What I think I should have anticipated
- 800 x 600 projector resolution
Really screws up how I conduct classes, as I can't show what is likely to be on their screen due to the reduced screen resolution

What I think I should have done better
- Time management
Severely underestimated the time required.
- Photo-editing
should have put more priority on web stuff, then photo-editing.
- Delivery
have to kick that secondary school teacher tone.

What I wanted to do also, but didn't do due to poor time management (in order of priority)
- more on marquee selection tool
- more on magic wand
- more on brushes and stamp tool
- more on lasso selection
- more on layers and folders manipulation
- more on masking and non-destructive editing
- more on splicing
- Vector polishing, how to make your vector graphics from AI more boomsz on PS


As Prof Ben always say, teaching have to always keep improving one. But I think I seriously short-changed the people who attended the PS component with my poor time management, especially when there are so many programmers who are keen to learn a bit of photoshop to help their designers. Thinking of ways to not waste this desire.