Form, Function and Familiarity

The advocates of form and those of function have been playing tug-of-war with design for a long time. But now we designers are wisely moving in the direction not letting design limit itself to these two. I think the rise of experiential design is extremely crucial to the purpose of broadening horizons with respect to design.

I can give you the example of my mother. My brother and I are computer engineers. We have tried to convince her that however hard she tries, she cannot possibly make our personal computer irreparable. Yet, she’s afraid of using the computer, especially the internet. My grandmother boasts of using the typewriter. But definitely, she’ll have a hard time getting one-on-one with the PC. People say that the learning ability goes down with age. But my grandma got accustomed to the new LCD screen TV (and its remote control) on the very first day. Plus these are the same people who use the television for number of hours beyond imagination. Don’t they feel they might kill the TV pressing the remote control a million times a day? How long will the computer, the mobile, the mp3 player, the DVD player, and many other digital products take to establish the same comfort level as the TV?

Now, is there any way to get rid of the Guia del Usario? Can the user just look at the product and figure the function all by himself? The form certainly will play a major partnership with function here. Giving the user the sense of familiarity, when he uses the product for the first time. I certainly see a new breed of designers working in this domain and hence making the forever-developing technology accessible and available to more and more people.

Emotions and relationships play a very vital role, especially in the Indian subcontinent, as motivating factors to make the non-tech-savvy accept and apply technology. Senior citizens in India would not want to use the internet or chat, unless they know they can see their new-born grandson in Miami. Similarly, another motivating factor would be money.I would call my best friend staying away say once a week. But I’ll scrap him on orkut or chat with him on Yahoo!Messenger more frequently. For free.

I think as Designers for Digital Experience, we have a very wide scope for connecting with the user and creating something they’ll not only accept, but also love to use, love to experience. I sincerely feel, all the knowledge we’ve gained, ever since we were born plays a big part here. Just scratching our brains a bit and living our life again, in your mind, answers so many questions we face while designing anything. Here I’d like to congratulate my friend, Prabuddha Vyas, who did a wonderful assignment in Digital Design and Society-I.

Design and Sell

As designers, how do we tend to look at design? The connection between Design and Business was discussed about a great deal in the CII-NID Leadership through Design Summit 2007 in Bangalore. It was attended by big names in design and business from all over the world. It started with how design helps business and ended with how business helps design.

Some quotes I'd like to mention here, and I request some comments from designers who read the blog.
"Design is too important to be left to designers alone" --Jacob Matthew, Idiom.

"Presently, the situation in India is that of 10 designers graduating from a D-school, 6 want to save the planet, 3 get into academics, and 1 starts his own business. I want all the 10 of them to think about business" --Kishore Biyani, Future Group.

Is this statement not too business for design?

I thought I knew what design was until I attended the summit. I don't know whether to continue with my perception of what design is, or to listen to what the people at the summit have been asking me to believe. I have a serious problem when people associate design to business, because of one observation.


I have another doubt after attending the summit.

"As Designers, Do we Design and Sell or Just Use Design to Sell? Are Businessmen game or are they just Using 'Design'(the word) to Sell?"

What is design in my opinion? (As explained to a 12th Class Student)

So, you want to know what design is. Its actually up to you. I can tell you what design is....in my opinion. So basically, design can be perceived in different ways by different people. Hence, design is relative. If I explain this to you this way, which obviously sounds boring, you could call it my bad design. But.... don't do it, else I won't tell you what design is....yes, in my opinion of course.


Hmmm...I actually am very bad with abstract nouns. Hence, I can put forth my view better, using examples. Design is generally associated with fashion as we all know. Hence, it is more associated with the aesthetic part of an object. Here, I'd like to mention an example. You have a mobile keypad and a keyboard. Which of the two types faster? The keyboard, right? It's got keys of the perfect size and I don't have to press the same key 4 time to get a 'S'. But which one has more aesthetic value? You could argue, but I'd say the mobile keypad. The shiny surface, backlights, the numbers using the same buttons, then even alphabets of different languages in the same little area, yet it looks so beautiful, doesn't it?
So if you see form, the mobile keypad is very beautiful. But if you want the primary function of typing English sentences fast, the keyboard is much better. There has been this fight, I hear, between advocates of form and those of function; it goes back a loooong time. I'd like to stun you a bit, if I may. The mobile keypad and a keyboard example stays. Which of the two do you think, will be better for someone who's just started using one? Searching for a key on the keyboard is a hell more difficult than to search for one on a mobile keypad. Yeah, there are about 101 keys on a keyboard just about 15 on a mobile keypad. Hell, the mobile keypad is called mobile rightly, it is much more mobile than a keyboard. Try slipping a keyboard down your pocket. If you could do that, you surely need a new pair of pants/a new pocket for your shirt, or you desperately need to head to the gym. (In any case, if you really tried slipping a keyboard down your pocket, you need a psychiatrist).

When I was in school, and even your age, I always thought, design started during Renaissance or say, the Industrial Revolution. But it goes much before the sophisticated human. Stone-age man knew the use of fire. You might have learnt that in history, I presume. You might know they used fire, outside their cave, to guard themselves from wild animals. After some thinking, I have to agree, that is great design! Stone-age man knew fire is dangerous and destructive. So did the other animals. Forest fire is really not a thing of only the modern era. So you have fire outside your cave. Not an animal will come closer. Here I say have fire, not light fire, because you don't surely know, whether stone-age man made fire all the time. He could have brought a burning branch from the tree.

Coming back to recent times, design is associated with a product. A tap, its a nice design. Regulating the water flow, with the size of the faucet staying the same. Pretty neat, isn't it?
So you can talk about all products, they seem to be a simple thing to you. But they were a revolution when they were invented. The light bulb turned a Tommy into a Sir Thomas Alva Edison. On a more serious note, he was a great inventor. He tried a number of other ways to make a light bulb. He realised the need for a domestic light bulb. And that is the first step in designing. Realising the need. And devoting yourself to finding the answer.

It doesn't end there though(Design is surely not an easy job, but unarguably the most interesting one). You need to find a solution which takes ethics into consideration too.
It should not be polluting the environment...people should survive and live to use it, no? Believe me, the rich can buy most things. Make something even the common man can own and use. And try your best to make it sustainable...a temporary solution is more of a mirage than an oasis. As I mentioned, design is not easy. Nothing is. But nothing is as creative, as brain-scratching, as soothing. As satisfying. [period]