Title: Superheroes & Villains in Design
Context: The two words most detrimental to great design are “Yes, but…”
Synopsis: I’m not really sure why but some of mankind’s greatest triumphs and most tragic failures seem to happen in the design of mass transit ticketing machines. Well, when you think about it, the reason just might be that the folks designing the mass transit ticketing machines are trying to solve the wrong problem. The problem the ticketing machine designers are erroneously trying to solve is “how do we sell mass transit tickets?” No, no, no. That’s the mass transit organization’s problem. Only a design villain would try to solve the vendor’s problem at the expense of the customer’s – or user’s – problem. The problem that a design superhero tries to solve is the customer’s problem of wanting to get somewhere, as quickly and efficiently as possible. These are much different problems. The villainous designer is driven by greed and mediocrity while the super-heroic designer lives by a code of empathy and passion. It is up to you to decide which side of the design law you choose to operate on. Up, up, and away.
Best Bit: “Great design is a symptom of a design-led organizational structure and development process.”
via vimeo.com
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