Apr 2, 2020
During the COVID19 crisis, digital networks have played a critical part in keep humanity connected and informed. The adoption of networked experiences has scaled exponentially, seemingly overnight. In most cases, these designed experiences were crafted for very different contexts than what they are being used for. In our new, digitally connected yet physically isolated future, we will need new design mindsets and methods to account for hyper-connectivity, data-enriched experiences, and participation by non-human actors in the network.
Patrick
Newbery joins me on this episode of the Cohere podcast to
discuss the history of experience design, the opportunities for a
more holistic method of design, and what the near-term future of
our designed world might look like. Patrick is an expert on design
methodologies and implementation, the Co-Founder of Method, and the
author of the book "Experience Design: A Framework for
Integrating Brand, Experience, and Value".
Key quotes from the episode:
"I think in design, a lot of times the education focuses more on
what I call kind of the formal aspects of design. So it is more of
the components and the aesthetics and the way in which design can
communicate and evoke a kind of emotion and response. One of
the things that I read early on in my research into what design was
about was the history of the Bauhaus. (I) was really struck by two
things: number one, the general sense of removing the
artifice and the subjectivity of design as a goal of the
movement; the other was thinking about people like Jan
Tschichold and the approach to book design which was really
predicated on both economic efficiency as well as aesthetic
value."
"As I practice today, I look at design from three different
different perspectives:
1. Pragmatic Design: What are the requirements of kind of the
product or the service definition? What are the, what are the goals
that the designer is being asked to solve for? What are the kinds
of formal aspects of design that you play with? What is the
strategy around how to do this efficiently?
2. System / Reference Design: Design for the business has to
address a lot of things that may not be product or services. Any
single product or service is probably part of an overall ecosystem
of value that is being delivered to the customer. So you take a
different view on the stages of relationships, the touchpoints that
are used, how they cohere together, where those flexibility needed
in thinking about how you're really trying to help design.
3. Strategic Design: Which is really looking at what is changing
for a business. Why will tomorrow be different? How do, trends in
emerging technology and trends in economics or social-cultural
context.
Change the kinds of products and services or even business models
that the business will need to have in the future."
"I think we should realize that everything that we're doing right
now and everything that we're thinking about right now is really
very early-stage and naive in terms of thinking about what is
possible with designing technology. There's been so much change in
the past two decades that it's really difficult to kind of keep in
mind that there's not enough history yet for us to understand what
really are best practices and what makes the most sense in terms of
design in business, and that as we look at the arc of technology
things are going to continue to change and whatever we think now
next decade, we're going to look back and say, "Oh, that was a
little naive. We didn't anticipate this coming." What excites me
about things in general though is I think the ability for us to
actually begin to think more in terms of data and information,
because I think data and information are key to the design process.
If we begin to think "where can we create value or, better
resiliency, better ability to have things be regenerative in terms
of value creation, specifically around things like climate change
or, or health care?" To date, we've largely looked at a lot of
these solutions or approach these problems from an economic
perspective as opposed to a systems perspective."
Resources:
Patrick's
LinkedIn Profile
Graphical Thinking Tools: Time for Design
Graphical Thinking Tools: Boxing Day
Graphical Thinking Tools: You're Out of Line!
Graphical Thinking Tools: A Path is not a Map is not the
Territory
Experience Design: A Framework for
Integrating Brand, Experience, and Value