design abilities

In 1990, Nigel Cross wrote an article called “The nature and nurture of the design ability,” Design Studies, Vol 11, No. 3. He described eight core design abilities of professional designers:

1. to produce novel, unexpected solutions by
2. applying imagination and constructive forethought to practical problems;
3. to use drawings and other modeling media as a means of problem solving. In doing this they need to be able
4. to deal with uncertainty and decision making on the basis of limited information,
5. resolving ill-defined, “wicked” problems by
6. adopting solution-focusing strategies,
7. employing productive / creative thinking and
8. using graphic or spatial modeling media.

Do you see yourself developing along these dimensions? If you rated yourself on a 10 point scale from 1 being total lack of skill to 10 being total and complete proficiency, where would you rate yourself today? How do you plan to get better?

Design is very hard work, and great design is even harder. A design team must embrace the uncertainty of the process. For those teams who are insecure, they have a tendency to go with their first design, and improve on it. But experienced design teams live with the uncertainty of not selecting a design too fast. Don’t be afraid to keep exploring: write more predispositions, continue with your research, draw your insights, and develop many more concepts. Eventually themes and patterns will reveal themselves to you.

Great designs come from many iterations, including sometimes discarding what seemed like a good idea at first. When the design argument is tight, when few holes can be poked into it, then you know you’re onto something.

design courage

I recently read the book, Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance, by Atul Gawande. From the book jacket: “The struggle to perform well is universal: each of us faces fatigue, limited resources, and imperfect abilities in whatever we do. But nowhere is this drive to do better more important than in medicine, where lives may be on the line with any decision.” Gawande describes three core requirements for success in medicine:

1. Diligence – attention to detail.
2. To do right — despite moral obstacles.
3. Ingenuity – arising “from deliberate, even obsessive, reflection on failure and a constant searching for new solutions.”

Medicine is a profession that involves risk and responsibility; and so does human-computer interaction design. As we consider Gawande’s core requirements for medicine, what are the parallels in hci/d?

We are half way through the semester; we are at an important turning point as we engage with the problem of homelessness: will we dig deep within ourselves to find our excellence, or will we simply do what’s necessary to complete the task?

Maya Lin is a design hero. At the age of 21, while still an undergraduate at Yale she submitted her design to a competition: the 1982 Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. And, of course, we all know that she was the winner. What is less known is the political battle she endured, often ugly and filled with racist innuendos. Lin understood that to do right (in Gawande’s terms) meant to defend her vision of personal and national loss. Her design allowed the memorial visitor to enter a “pain of loss,” not to purge it but to contemplate it.

Get inspired. Listen to Atul Gawande as he speaks to the Commonwealth Club of California.