Ten minute presentation that attempts to distill a handful of IxD14 talks down into 30 second snippets then questions what it means when people say design is part art and part science. Special thanks to the legends: Bernard Lahousse, Christina Wodtke, Klaus Krippendorff, Stephanie Akkaoui Hughes, Giles Colborne, Dan Rosenberg, Irene Au, Peter Bil’ak, Antonio de Pasquale, Jason Mesut and Dave Malouf.
2. REPETITION OF TWO WORDS
The use of the words ART
and SCIENCE were prolific
at Interactions14, more so
than any other design
ART
&
!
SCIENCE
conference I’ve been to.
!
Sometimes they were used
independently of each
other, and sometimes they
were used together in an
attempt to indicate some
sort of balance.
!
Here are some examples…
3. BERNARD LAHOUSSE
FOOD = INTERACTION
Bernard spoke of the
science behind flavours, and
how different foods that
contain the same or similar
molecule, despite possibly
having very different
flavours, can be combined
and work well because of
their molecular similarities.
4. BERNARD LAHOUSSE
FOOD = INTERACTION
Eg: Almond, figs, pears,
cherries and chocolate all
have the benzaldehyde
molecule, making them go
well together.
5. BERNARD LAHOUSSE
FOOD = INTERACTION
He also spoke of the
psychology of taste, and
how our other senses
affect taste. Touching
something smooth and
fluffy can actually make
things taste sweeter.
Seafood tastes better near
the sea, where we can hear
the waves and smell the
sea breeze. Colours can
give us pre-determined
assumptions about what
flavours a food will have,
causing disturbance if they
don’t match.
!
Bernard also spoke about
the art of gastronomy, and
how the science helps
support that art.
PHOTO: @MJBROADBENT
6. KLAUS KRIPPENDORFF
L A N G U A G I N G R E A L I T Y, D I A L O G U E A N D I N T E R A C T I O N
Klaus gave us an insight
into the science of trying
to define and understand
language.
!
He said the importance of
language is the difference
between thinking and
acting.
!
Language itself is not the
outcome of thought, the
outcome is what comes
about after the language
occurs.
!
The responses to language
is what creates reality.
7. KLAUS KRIPPENDORFF
L A N G U A G I N G R E A L I T Y, D I A L O G U E A N D I N T E R A C T I O N
He was saying that we
need to methodologically
approach design, but we
cannot treat it as a natural
science discourse for
various reasons. Klaus
struggled to fit his talk into
40 minutes, I don’t know
why am I trying to fit it into
30 seconds!
PHOTO: IXDA
8. DAN ROSENBERG
THE DE-INTELLECTUALIZATION OF DESIGN
Dan Rosenberg
highlighted the fact that
there is a great deal of
“design” scientific
knowledge that is being
largely ignored by most
designers.
!
He argues that it’s not
consumer design versus
enterprise design, but
rather product design
versus solutions design,
where product design is
incremental and something
that can be released early
and iterated on versus…
9. DAN ROSENBERG
THE DE-INTELLECTUALIZATION OF DESIGN
…Solutions design
which is something that
could be dangerous or
life-threatening and really
needs to be designed
backwards from the
end goal.
!
He argues (contentiously)
that designers should be
much more educated and
even certified to practice
that type of design.
10. CHRISTINA WODTKE
T H E E X E C U T I O N E R ’ S TA L E
Christina introduced the
concept of OKRs, the
process of defining desired
Outcomes and measuring
Key Results.
!
Outcomes are qualitative
and the Key Results are
quantitative and must be
time-bound and
measurable.
11. CHRISTINA WODTKE
T H E E X E C U T I O N E R ’ S TA L E
Christina makes note of
the fact that setting up and
maintaining OKRs requires
a combination of art and
science to pull off well.
12. STEPHANIE AKKAOUI HUGHES
HUMAN INTERACTIONS: PHYSICAL AND VIRTUAL
Stephanie Akkaoui Hughes
spoke of how her
architecture firm fly in the
face of a traditional
architecture approach,
focusing on creating
spaces that foster
interactions instead of
trying to design the
interactions themselves.
13. STEPHANIE AKKAOUI HUGHES
HUMAN INTERACTIONS: PHYSICAL AND VIRTUAL
I love her analogy of space
being a living interface;
something you can evolve
after the space starts to be
used. To design this
context for interactions it
has to be…
INCOMPLETE
IMPERMANENT
IMPERFECT
14. GILES COLBORNE
THE LOST ART OF EFFICIENCY IN INTERACTION DESIGN
Giles Colborne gave us a
refresher on GOMs theory:
The scientific calculations
of the average time it takes
to complete individual
elements of a user
process flow.
15. GILES COLBORNE
THE LOST ART OF EFFICIENCY IN INTERACTION DESIGN
Lots of tiny improvements
in interaction time can
make an incredible
difference.
!
But sometimes it makes
sense to actually increase
the time if users expect it.
!
Eg: the Coinstar example
where people actually
trusted the machine more
when it appeared to take
longer to count the coins
because they thought it
was doing a more
thorough job.
16. IRENE AU
BODY LANGUAGES OF INTERACTION DESIGN
Irene Au highlighted the
art of mindfulness, and
how yoga and meditation
can help achieve it. A
major trait of great UX
designers is undoubtably
empathy. Mindfulness
increases one’s ability to
be empathic.
!
She said true empathy
goes beyond observation
and synthesisation.
17. IRENE AU
BODY LANGUAGES OF INTERACTION DESIGN
At one point she had the
whole room doing yoga.
!
She said other added
benefits of mindfulness
include the ability to be
focussed, playful and be
without fear when
expressing thoughts
and ideas.
PHOTO: IXDA
18. P E T E R B I L’ A K
TYPOGRAPHY AT THE INTERSECTION OF DESIGN, TECHNOLOGIES AND LANGUAGES
Peter Bil’ak talked about
the art and science of
typography.
!
Designing a great
typeface requires a
deep understanding of
language, technology
and design…
19. P E T E R B I L’ A K
TYPOGRAPHY AT THE INTERSECTION OF DESIGN, TECHNOLOGIES AND LANGUAGES
But he notes the process is
not complete until its been
used, adapted and
applied.
!
He created this cool app
History Remixer that
allows you to choose your
own weights, accents,
colours, etc, effectively
creating thousands of
possibilities.
!
I played with it for a couple
of minutes to do this.
typotheque.com/fonts/history/remixer
20. P E T E R B I L’ A K
TYPOGRAPHY AT THE INTERSECTION OF DESIGN, TECHNOLOGIES AND LANGUAGES
Here’s a great example of
typography on this poster
designed by Frank
Chimero.
21. A N T O N I O D E PA S Q U A L E
DESIGN IN MOTION: THE NEW FRONTIER OF INTERACTION
Antonio de Pasquale
revealed the science
behind Disney’s 12 rules of
animation.
22. A N T O N I O D E PA S Q U A L E
DESIGN IN MOTION: THE NEW FRONTIER OF INTERACTION
He has devised a new
motion taxonomy which
divide different categories
of UI transitions into 4
quadrants on 2 axis:
passive and active on one
scale and time and space
on the other.
PHOTO: IXDA
23. A N T O N I O D E PA S Q U A L E
DESIGN IN MOTION: THE NEW FRONTIER OF INTERACTION
He then gives us examples
of how you can map
signature interactions onto
this matrix and says we can
use it to help devise our
own signature interactions.
PHOTO: IXDA
24. JASON MESUT
B R I D G I N G T H E P H Y S I C A L - D I G I TA L D I V I D E
Some guy called Jason
Mesut spoke brilliantly
about the divide between
industrial and interaction
design.
!
It had a lot of venn
diagrams in it so I can only
conclude that it must have
been very scientific…
PHOTO: IXDA
26. I S D E S I G N M O R E O F A N A R T,
OR MORE OF A SCIENCE?
27. LET’S REFLECT ON HOW
W E O P E R AT E D AY T O D AY
• How much gut feel do we use?
• Is this based on experiences of successes and failures?
• How much do we rely on data and research
when making decisions?
• Do we really understand our users’ behaviour
or do we just think we do?
28. Maybe we look a bit
more towards SCIENCE to…
Maybe we look a bit
more towards ART for…
SCIENCE
ART
•
•
•
DEFINE
U N D E R S TA N D
GAIN INSIGHTS
?
•
•
I N S P I R AT I O N
POSSIBILITIES OF
EXECUTION
LET’S ASK THESE SAME PEOPLE…
29. BERNARD LAHOUSSE
Like a painter if you know the chemistry and
physics of making colors and mixing, rules of
composition you have the potential of
becoming a better painter, but it doesn’t
mean that you will make the best art.
PHOTO SOURCE:
IXDA WEBSITE
30. DAN ROSENBERG
PHOTO SOURCE:
IXDA WEBSITE
There is no one size fits all… Both are
needed and the balance is often contextual
to the problem you are trying solve. I also
think there is a third dimension which is the
craft of UX execution.
31. STEPHANIE AKKAOUI HUGHES
PHOTO SOURCE:
IXDA WEBSITE
For me, Science and Art are equivalent
to Flow and Beauty. Flow and Function
are the ones driving the creative
process, but if the result is not beautiful,
then it is not functional either.
32. IRENE AU
PHOTO SOURCE:
IXDA WEBSITE
The question isn't “is design science or is it
art?” but “design is both a science AND an
art, so how can we all get better at
integrating the two?… how to get better at
integrating the analytical and creative minds
so that we switch between the two modes of
thinking more effectively in order to create
the best outcome.
33. CHRISTINA WODTKE
PHOTO SOURCE:
IXDA WEBSITE
When people say art and science they
usually mean it will take gut instinct and
personal experience as well as data,
research and logic. OKRs are powerful
because they speak to us as humans with
dreams as well as watching the bottom line.
34. GILES COLBORNE
PHOTO SOURCE:
IXDA WEBSITE
The common idea that science is not a
creative field is utter bollocks — thinking
entirely new thoughts is clearly a creative
activity. To be a rounded person, you should
never assume that it is “versus”. You should
always seek to be a complete human.
35. KLAUS KRIPPENDORFF
If art is painting, sculpture, and poetry, there is
hardly any overlap with science. The sciences
develop theories of the world, art expresses
the ideas and feelings of individual artists.
PHOTO SOURCE:
IXDA WEBSITE
Design is an undiscipline, one that should be
able to question anything and be allowed to try
everything.
— “Design Research, an Oxymoron?” (paper)
36. DAVE MALOUF
Design is both art and science and
that is what makes it great
T H E N A L I T T L E L AT E R S A I D …
PHOTO SOURCE:
PHOTO SOURCE:
I XA VA ’W E B S II T T E R A V ATA R
D D E S TW TE
– If art is like masterbation
– Then interaction design is like sex
– And service design is like prostitution
38. WELL WE WERE JUST A STONES-THROW FROM
AMSTERDAM’S RED LIGHT DISTRICT!
PHOTO: FLICKR.COM/WEESEN
39. I THINK IT’S LESS ABOUT THIS
ART
SCIENCE
AND WHERE YOU WANT TO BE,
O R T H I N K D E S I G N S H O U L D B E O N T H AT S C A L E
40. AND MORE ABOUT THIS
BETTER
GOOD
WEAK
INTUITION
SKILLS
THEORY
SKILLS
WHERE THEY ARE INDIVIDUAL SKILLS
AND THE SCALE IS PROFICIENCY
41. AND IT DOESN’T STOP THERE
WRITING
SKILLS
O B S E R VA T I O N
SKILLS
LISTENING
SKILLS
ETC
ETC
NEGOTIATION
SKILLS
ETC
RETENTION
SKILLS
42. W E A L L U S E A C O M B I N AT I O N O F
ALL OUR SKILLS WHEN MAKING
ANY DECISION.
!
THEY SHOULD ALL BE SHARPENED
HAND-IN-HAND TO MAKE US
M O R E A D E P T AT O U R C R A F T.
44. IXD14 LONDON REDUX
THANKS
Jake Causby
@jakecausby
SPECIAL THANKS TO
•
IRENE AU
BERNARD LAHOUSSE
CHRISTINA WODTKE
GILES COLBORNE
KLAUS KRIPPENDORFF
DANIEL ROSENBERG
P E T E R B I L’ A K
STEPHANIE AKKAOUI HUGHES
D AV E M A L O U F