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Watching the videos from the IxDA Interaction 08 conference, one stand-out in the crowd is Bill Buxton’s keynote presentation on The Design Ecosystem. If you’re unaware, he’s Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research, he was the principal of Buxton Design in Toronto, and is an associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto.

In his 51 minute presentation the key take-aways for me, at least:

• The existence of the complexity barrier, or the threshold of frustration, above which any features in design do not exist in human terms.
• Interaction design typically occurs in the construction phase – it needs to be done in a preceding design phase (eg. architecture, film).
• We need to redesign the culture of our organisations so that design is appreciated, and talent is appreciated and fostered.
• You have to know what makes you distinct and be able to articulate it – this is your entire value proposition to the organisation.
• If you are distinct and unusual then articulate that difference and be visible – the pressure to assimilate has to be resisted.
• The last thing you want in an organisation is homogenous assimilation – merging into a single grey mindset is not good.
• All the talent at Apple responsible for the iMac and iPod existed in the organisation for the five years beforehand – unrealised.
• Design for scaling production and delivery into the product – don’t try to figure that out after the horse has bolted.
• The T shaped person is a strong specialised tool, has a strong stem of specialised skills and a broad literacy across other areas.
• What we design is not the thing in the box (the bike), we design the experience (the product) of riding down a mountain.
• You need to be fluent in drawing the experience and understanding the user’s perspective of how they use the product.
• Everybody is not a designer because it is a specialisation – stakeholders who are not designers should not dictate design.
• Design is not about invention, innovation or creativity – it incorporates those aspects but they are not design.
• Design is compromise – what is left out, the constraints – and design is about the choice between alternatives.
• The design process is about multiples and alternatives, it’s not about a single path.
• Professional designers sketch – not necessarily with paper and pencil – in the correct context of what is needed.
• High and low fidelity prototyping are incorrect terms – there are only right and wrong fidelity for the context at hand.
• You have to leave holes for the imagination to thrive, you need ideation – don’t overspecify early in the design phase.
• At the beginning of the process with nothing invested you need to be free, and become more rigorous as you have more invested.
• Understand the differences between sketches and prototypes – the movement from ideation to testing and usability.

Bill’s book titled Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design has made it onto my must read list.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 15th, 2008 at 11:18 am and is filed under business, design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.