Irena Pereyra

Top Tips for Keeping Your Curtains, Draperies and other Textiles Nice & Clean

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 14 Mar 2016 08:47:00 +0000

Curtains, draperies, loose covers and sheers all serve the purpose of protecting your privacy, making your home more homely and comfortable, as well as for protection of the furniture. This makes them an essential part of your interior and home, so you need to take care of them and keep them clean and nice looking.

Here are some tips for cleaning these textile items and keeping them looking good:

First of all, keep in mind that some curtain materials and colours are more affected by the sunlight, so when you are choosing curtains for your home, be informed that the brighter the colours are, the likelier that they will fade quicker than light coloured curtains.

Before you proceed with the cleaning of your curtains, draperies and all sorts of textile covers at home, make sure that you are informed of the materials they are made of, and of any particular requirements and limitations, there may be for the cleaning process and cleaning solutions used.

Most curtains can be washed in a gentle cycle of a washing machine, but others require hand washing, so make sure you know what the washing requirements for your particular curtains are, before washing them in an inappropriate way and possibly ruining them.

For the loose covers and draperies which many households have covered and protecting the furniture, the cleaning process could be a little bit more complicated because they are heavier, bigger and thicker, and in many cases have a lining which is made from a different material. Be careful when planning on washing your loose covers because there are cases when either the drapery or its lining can shrink after washing, and then become unusable.

In order to avoid washing them too often make sure you provide regular cleaning and hoovering of the carpeting, floors and draperies, in order to remove as much dust and dirt as possible. Some gentle daily shaking of the drapes will also prevent the dirt for setting in deep in the fibres of the textile.

In order to prolong the life and maintain the good appearance of your loose covers and upholstery, in a case of an accidental spill, make sure you dab up and clean the spill as soon as possible in order to avoid permanent staining.

When it comes to the washing, make sure you check whether they are washable, and use cold water and a mild detergent, in order to reduce the risk of them shrinking, fading or becoming deformed.

If you want to ensure that your furniture loose covers, upholstery or other textiles in your home or office receive perfect cleaning without the risk of being ruined while at it, it is a good idea to hire professional cleaners, who will use the most appropriate techniques and solutions for your particular case.

Personally Impersonal

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 11:34:00 +0000

Just received a travel-update-email from a friend who's traveling through Asia. It was addressed to about 50+ people (with all the emails visible, which always annoys me) and told a 4 page travel account of his whereabouts. In the email was a link to his flickr account with all the pictures he had taken so far. I doubt that all the people addressed in his email would care about his travels, but it's just much easier to address these things to "all" rather than handpick the emails in your address book. I've been guilty of it myself.

We're getting personal spam from people we sometimes barely know, and the way I see it is, unless you are having an art-exhibit, concert, party, or you're looking for an apartment, nobody really cares. Besides what's next, the mass-wedding invite?

It got me thinking about why we're putting ourselves out there in cyberspace in the first place. This "Update of my Life Email" is definitely something of my generation and I've received a lot of these over the past couple of years. The funny thing is that with Facebook and blogs etc. we seem to be very open about our personal life. We don't seem to care who reads it and are in return also shamelessly reading about other people's lives. I read David Byrne's blog whenever he updates it, and in a weird voyeuristic way I know what he's been doing even though I never met him.

You would think that we have gotten a lot more "personal" or "connected" to other people in general through blogs, but I think this technology is making quite the opposite happen. A Dutch version of Facebook (Hyves.net) received very angry emails over the fact that from one day to the other, without warning, they made your visits to people's blogs visible to the writer of the blog. So apparently a sort of voyeurism is happening where we want to look, but don't want people to know we're looking. Quite strange (btw: I think this is really only applicable to personal blogs, not professional blogs).

A little while ago my father apparently read my "Retired 2.0" entry and was asking me about the vacation I mentioned. You would think that wouldn't surprise me, but it did. I was also a little embarrassed that my dad had to find out about this trip through reading this journal. Whatever happened to just picking up the phone? But then again, this way I could just write about it once, and not have to tell everyone individually. I don't use this journal for personal things, but all of a sudden it seemed like an easy thing to do. But where does it end?

My generation apparently has a desire to be "connected" without the actual personal approach that a connection would normally require. We prefer text-messages over phone-calls, emails over letters, all things that have made interaction more impersonal, but now more than ever we have the desire for everyone to know what we're doing, at all times, from the interesting to the mundane.
Do we care if people read our thoughts, blogs and journals? Why DO we do it anyway? I guess everybody has their own reasons. But thanks for reading this anyway...

American Apparel & Un-Branding

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 11:33:00 +0000

Paying a company to be their walking billboard seems so ridiculous and yet it's something we not only all do, but we actually seem happy to do it. It's even better than free advertising. It's paid advertising, and they're the ones who are getting paid. So how come companies like American Apparel and Muji are determined to not have a logo? Simple, rather than getting lost in the sea of logos, they realized that we are now in a time where to not have a logo is what makes you stand out, not the other way around.

There's a big group of unaccounted consumers who are sick of walking around as a corporate billboard, and are instead looking for the simplicity and anonymity of a logo free brand. That way people cannot automatically categorize you based on the brands you wear on your chest. It's minimalism in corporate identity.

The Japanese company Muji, which has reached a sort of cult status while remaining logo-less seems to think that the only "value" of a logo is to satisfy the customer's ego. Their zen-like mindset is more focused on the quality of the product than on a false ego confirmation.
So you mean they are not distracting the consumer with shiny promises and are actually talking about the product? Yes... And guess what, it's catching on!

Muji is short for "mujirushi ryohin", which translates roughly to "no label, quality goods," and its mission is to provide well-designed and useful products at affordable prices. There's a simple purity in Muji's offerings, which range from stationery and house-wares to toiletries. They're functional and so deliberately unfussy and anonymous that even though they're intended to go unnoticed, they end up drawing attention after all.

American Apparel has a similar philosophy. Their simplicity not only lies in the fact that they don't have a logo on their clothing, its colorful attire is also completely free of any imprints. Their simplicity is instantly recognizable, mainly because they don't follow seasonal trends, but also because their most popular t-shirt line hasn't changed design since the company's beginnings.
Though they are not in any way associated with Naomi Klein's "No Logo" movement (which in fact focuses more on the wrong doings of large corporations), they are in fact sweatshop free, and made in downtown Los Angeles.

So here are 2 companies that have tried to identify themselves outside of the shackles of corporate identity, and have in term, not only generated a positive response from the public, but also created an identity for themselves after all, that is based on the actual product, and not on some false ego affirming promise.

The Difference between Experience Design and Usability

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 11:32:00 +0000

Some people seem to get the terms "Usability" and "Experience Design" confused. I've worked in an environment where the usability for customers was good, but ultimately negated by a bad user experience. What do I mean by that? I'll sketch an example for how this company had good "Usability" but bad "Experience Design".
The company in question sold discounted merchandise on the Internet, and relied heavily on discounted wholesale stock, which was not always immediately available when the customer ordered it. The customer would however not know this until the item they ordered wouldn't arrive when they expected it to.

1st Touch-point - The company's website:
All transactions were done through their website, which was always a positive experience, since it was a well-designed, easy to understand, and quick process. The forms, shipping information, return information, and images of the products were clear. Checkout was quick and easy, and they immediately received an order confirmation number once the process was completed.
All went well until the customer realized 3 weeks later that the requested item still had not arrived. She had selected "UPS Ground", which in her mind meant that it would arrive at her house between 5-7 business days. At this point she gets frustrated and calls the company's customer service.

2nd Touch-point - The company's customer service:
Here an underpaid, often disinterested and overworked customer service representative with 4 other callers on hold has to explain to her that the item is currently out of stock, and he cannot give her an actual date for when the stock will get replenished. He can give her a list of items that are similar and are in stock but unless she is willing to commit to it right now he cannot guarantee her that it will be there tomorrow.
The customer hangs up the phone, left with a sense of frustration. She was going on vacation and needed the item for her trip. She now has 1 day to find the item in a store, so her transaction with this site was a complete waste of time.

Usability answers the question: "Can the user accomplish their goal?" In the case of the on-line shopper, from the site design point of view, she did accomplish her goal and was very satisfied with the result.

Experience Design answers the question: "Did the user have as good an experience as possible?" The customer service portion of the experience canceled out the on-line portion. A good experience is had when all the interactions with a company, all the touch-points are positive.
In the company's case, the usability of the site only involved the people responsible for the design of the site, but to create a total positive experience we now have to involve everyone in the company, including customer service. So Experience Design is more multi-disciplinary than Usability. Obviously Experience Design takes far more effort and resources to do well, but ultimately the results have a bigger impact.

From the company's point of view, their justification for having this process is that they are heavily discounted, and hopefully have enough in stock for the majority of the customers. They think that they can afford to loose a handful of customers to their competitors who can deliver on time.
They've probably never even considered designing the experience of their customers, not many companies have at this point. Therefore the edge is given to the companies that have. Trust and comfort are far more important traits than price-competition for a company to consider, and ultimately a more effective way to differentiate themselves from their competitors.

A happy and satisfied customer returns. A frustrated one most likely not.

Left-Brain vs. Right-Brain

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 11:20:00 +0000

When I was growing up in Amsterdam there was a very definite definition of who you were based on your thinking abilities. They would push you to study what they thought would suit you best. If you were a Beta person (Left-Brainer) you were supposed to enjoy math and science and become a doctor or engineer, and if you were an Alpha person (Right-Brainer), you were supposed to enjoy arts and literature and become an artist or linguist or something.
Then there was a third group, that sort of hung in between the Alpha and Beta people, (without a proper Greek letter) who went off to do MBA’s or studied accounting and economics.

Because I was able to draw (and just terrible at math) their advice to me was to just go into the arts. According to them there was no need for any type of Left-Brain thinking in arts...

Well, they were wrong.

Once I got into Design, I realized that I quite enjoyed some more Left-Brain thinking. I got interested in the literalness and precision of xhtml and css, and the logic of Information Architecture and Interaction Design, and I realized that the merger of all these skills are not at all impossible, and actually extremely useful if not necessary.

The most successful designers I know today are empathetic artists interested in beauty and form, as well as techno geeks on top of the latest gadgets and technology, who are obsessed with order and detail. So Left-Brain and Right-Brain are actually well connected in Design today.
Now that third left-over group, the group that went off to get their MBA's, are off on another planet. I don't know of any designer who's taken any business courses (some marketing doesn't count) and I don't know any business person who's interested in design. Doesn't mean they're not out there, I just don't know any.

If you believe Daniel Pink, Left-Brain attributes are losing their importance, and in today's "empathy-economy" Right-Brain attributes are needed more than ever. He says that now that India and China can do Left-Brain work cheaper, we have to do Right-Brain work better.
But why neglect one part of the brain? Isn't it best to train yourself to lean more towards the underdeveloped side of your brain? Aren't most people a mixture of both anyway? I know I resented being categorized.

It's time for a new term. No-brain? Middle-brain? Super-brain?

Why Experience Branding Matters

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 11:17:00 +0000

Experience is everything. From the way a company answers its phone, to its customer service, to the forms it makes you fill out, to they way it deals with problems, to the actual product or service, to trouble-shooting, to the way its store looks, to the way it smells, how its lit, to how you're being approached, to its advertising, to its website, its letters, special offers and promotions...

I could go on and on, but the point is, "experience" is every single touch-point in which the consumer interacts with a company. A company might give you a good experience in one touch-point, but unless all touch-points are aligned, the overall experience will not be remembered as positive.

I hate huge department stores. The music's often too loud, the lines for the waiting room are too long, the lines for the registers are too long, the lights give me a killer headache, and I get a sort of casino-vertigo feeling from not being able to see the exits. The maximum amount of time I can spend in those stores is maybe 25 minutes before I literally get physically ill and have to go outside. Not a very positive experience to say the least. So what happens? I avoid them like the plague.

Another example: Bank deposits. I get paid every 2 weeks, which means I have to "deal" with the bank's nonsense a little too often for my taste. The forms are completely illogical, and it makes you repeat the information three times, once on the actual form, then again on the envelope, and then again on the ATM screen. Most of the time the pens don't work, and I never know what date it is. Here the problem is that it's something I can't avoid, and it pisses me off that they make me go through the same nonsense over and over again when the process could so easily be steamlined.
Sometimes I feel like I am the only one getting annoyed, and I see people just "taking" it, though I am sure that if the experience improves, everyone will suddenly realize how horrible it was before.

A very welcome change and positive experience, is what a lot of airlines have done recently. You can now print out your boarding pass from home, or for international flights you can scan your information into a kiosk on the terminal. I don't know if you've noticed lately, but the lines have gotten exponentially smaller. They realized what the problem was and pro-actively tried to find a solution for it. They weren't forced to make these changes, but they actually researched what the experience of going to an airport really is. They made the changes from the bottom up -from the customer's viewpoint-rather than from the top down, the corporate viewpoint.

Whoever initiated it, thanks! I was annoyed, and I did notice the improvement.

Myopic Design Views

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 11:16:00 +0000

A lot of people think "Design" means a company's logo, packaging, corporate identity, and advertising. While that is true, Design also means how you interact with the company's message and information, especially in the interactive realm.
I recently dealt with a small start-up communications firm who had a very limited budget for design. Clear decisions had to be made as to what would be the most important visual representation for their company.
They of course wanted a logo, and sleek looking business cards. I however had to convince them that since they did not have a store-front, what they really needed was a well designed, well functioning website, with very easy and clear usability.
I told them that having a logo really doesn't matter at this stage, since with the millions of logos out there no one is going to notice it anyways, unless you spend lots and lots of money on advertising - which of course they couldn't. Business cards you can make on Microsoft Word and print out at Kinko's, even though unless you're a lawyer or agent or Chinese take-out place or something you really don't need one either.
They agreed and we settled on focusing on the design of the website. They were going to spend a lot of time thinking about what they wanted to say, and I was going to puzzle their information together in a logical manner and focus on the overall design experience.
The reason the usability has to be perfect is because consumers now get angry when the interaction of a product, service or website is substandard. People used to think it was they who were stupid, but after having dealt with so many websites, they expect a certain level of usability and now think your company is what's stupid and not them.
I'm definitely not a copywriter, but I do know that clear and concise language definitely helps. If you are selling printing services to graphic designers you can assume they know a certain jargon. But if you are selling printing services for Kinko's customers, you might have to use a more rudimentary language.

Start with the basics. Understand what it is people are looking for. Use clear language. Have well-organized information. Make things as easy to use as possible. These are all things to design, before you even start thinking about a logo or business card.

Design Thinking for Designers

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 10:02:00 +0000

Oh, "Design Thinking" ... The new hot term in business. I am still not convinced that "Design Thinking" isn't just a new term for "innovation". I am really not a fan of these coined account-guy terms, and the fact that it has the word design in it seems a little bizarre. An actual designer would never come up with something like this.
Let's step back for a second, get away from the "Design Thinking" term, and think about what innovation really is. Innovation is basic problem solving.
When working within a team, in the initial brainstorming phase, most companies or schools will encourage you to go as crazy as possible and think outside of the box. In reality this is a very undisciplined way of going about it. Brainstorming depends on the dynamics of certain personalities within the team, interest in the topic, hierarchy (the longer you've been there, the more your voice will count), the gift of gab, and pure luck. It's really a great place for "geniuses" and "gurus" to shine. It's perceived as a magical process, and impossible to recreate in a methodological manner.
If however, you think of innovation as a science, the first thing that would need to happen is to create an environment, or methodology, where the experience can be recreated. Starting off more focused with things like diagnostics, collection of data, customer needs, the competitors patterns, the company's abilities and ethnography is a more balanced and objective way to deal with the initial start phase of a project.
If you turn brainstorming (or innovation) into a discipline, it can not only be taught and repeated, but also done by anyone rather than only by "geniuses" and "gurus". It's a way to explain the creative process and demystifying it rather than looking at it as a magical freak occurrence.

Logo-Mania

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 09:58:00 +0000

I recently read a very interesting book called "No Logo". Though the book focuses more on the anti-globalization movement and the misdeeds of big corporations such as Nike, the Gap, McDonalds and Shell, than it does on actually getting rid of logo's (which the title of the book might imply) there were some valid points made about corporate responsibility. The logo is the outward symbolization of a company. It's the identifier, the face, the promise, therefore you can't have one thing without the other. Or can you?
So can we talk about an anti-logo movement without talking about capitalism? I think we can. If we try to not think about corporations per sé but think more about what the logo promises, or even what a logo means, we might be able to untangle some of the webs corporations have created with their corporate identities.
We are now in an age that I like to call "Logo-Mania". Every company, no matter how small or big seems to think they can only exist if they have a visual representation of their company. As if having a logo is the only way to legitimize a company. Somehow, without the logo, they feel incomplete. Everyone has a logo! We need one too!
Companies are willing to pay people like me a lot of money to create for them a brand, an identity, a promise of a lifestyle, a way for people to glance through a magazine, see their logo and say, I want that! But is that really what they're getting?
Sure there are a lot of companies we can't even imagine without the logo. Coca-Cola (which in fact is not really a logo as it is a logotype), Playboy, Ralph Lauren's Polo, Nike, Apple. But what about up and coming companies? Did they miss the boat already? How many logos can we have in our heads? 500? 1000? 100.000?
It used to be that a logo meant that you could identify yourself in a way that was different from the competition, and easy to remember, or at least easier to remember. If everyone has a logo doesn't it cease to be different?
Sometimes I walk passed cars and I try to remember which logo belongs to what company and I get confused. It's all so shiny and nifty, but if I can't even remember the name of your company because you have replaced that with a cool looking logo how am I supposed to know what the name of your company is? In the future, when walking into car dealerships do we have to now illustrate the logo of the company we are looking for? Please give me a pen and paper, this is the car I want!
Has our society turned into real life Pictionary?
In this time of logo-mania we are almost forced back to the time of hieroglyphics, remembering symbols rather than names and words. And here I thought we had evolved from that already. There were, however only a hand-full of hieroglyphics needed together to form an idea.

If everyone and their grandmother decides to have a logo, well, there's just not enough space for that in our heads. Or at least not in my head.

Hello Business, Meet Design!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 09:57:00 +0000

I've been noticing an interesting trend in the past couple of years, business people talking about the importance of design. Just pick up BusinessWeek, or the Economist, and it's all about how we should "design" experiences, apply "visual" strategies and so on.
It's trendy right now for businesses to be on the frontier of design, and business people think they aren't just understanding designers better -they think they are actually becoming designers. While old school graphic designers are slaving away with Flash and Photoshop, trying to compete with cheaper and more recent graduates from design schools in China and India, businesses are hiring MBA graduates to "design". Not design in the traditional design school sort of way, but design in the larger sense, designing experiences.
As long as I have worked in the creative field, I have known that you typically have 2 types of designers, the types who like to do, and the types who like to think. It seems that the business/management people are taking cues from the types who like to think.
Roger Martin, dean of the University of Toronto's Rotman Schools of Management, said that real value creation now comes from the designer's most competitive weapon, his imagination, to peer into a mystery -a problem we recognize but don't understand-and device a rough solution that explains it. "For any company that chooses to innovate, the foremost challenge is this". "Are you willing to step back and ask 'What is the problem we're trying to solve?' Well, that's what designers do: They take on a mystery, some abstract challenge, and they try to create a solution."
According to Martin, most linear business people don't think like designers -and so they are ill-prepared for an economy where the winners are determined by design. Conventional companies won't bring a product to market until it's "just right", where designers aren't afraid to move forward when it's unfinished but "good enough". Designers learn by doing: They identify weaknesses and make mid-flight corrections along the way.
Martin asserts that traditional companies reward two types of logic: inductive (proving that something actually operates) and deductive (proving that something must be). Designers combine inductive and deductive reasoning to create a fresh approach-abductive thinking, which Martin defines as "suggesting that something may be and reaching out to explore it." Instead of acting on what's certain, designers bet on what's probable. Companies like Apple say, "If everything must be proven, we would never have made the iPod".
It's an interesting development, and it's great that MBA-ers are now learning to take cues from a designer's perspective to solving a problem. But is it working the other way around? Are designers benefiting from this sudden interest in design, or are designers in danger of having their unique problem solving skills dissected and taken away from them just as their manual and computer design skills have?
If designers decide to embrace this sudden interest in their skills, and some of this new thinking makes its way into design schools, it could create a mutual co-operation and appreciation for some unlikely bedfellows.
Or as IDEO's David Kelly says: "We need to produce T-Shaped thinkers. That means combining analytical thinking -the vertical leg of the T-with horizontal thinking: intuitive, experimental and empathetic."

Does Identity Change?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 09:52:00 +0000

What is it that makes you identify with something? You identify with what you know, with who you think you are, or who you think you'd like to be, or who you think you should be. Taught behavior, society's pressures, family, culture and so on.
If you look at someone's life, is that person the same throughout their whole lives or does the change of personality/character change someone's identity? Who we are as teenagers differs greatly from who we are as adults, but we still say "That is the same person". If that is true, then at what point can you say "I have changed", or "I am a different person now"?
When I was 16, I identified myself as someone who is against any kind of authority, as a high-school student who sucks at math, as a semi-decent snowboarder who wishes to live closer to the mountains, as a lover of foreign films, and a fan of unusual music which would never be played on the radio.
Today most of the criteria that made me identify myself at that time, have changed. It's normal, you experience new things, mature, mellow-out, find new obsessions, move in different social circles, get different habits. I am sure, that the things I identify myself with today, will be different 10 years from now as well. Identity is really an ever-changing state of being, almost like an organism of sorts.
In the 1980's Audi was in the same "league" as say Volkswagen, and was definitely not perceived as a luxury car. Audi, which was not happy with their place in the market, went through an intense re-branding campaign and by the use of great marketing managed to elevate themselves to the same level as Mercedez and BMW. Years have passed and now when we see Audi, we definitely don't think of it as "economy-class" but rather as "high-class". So can we really speak of Audi having the same "identity"? I don't think so.
There is an inherent fear in the corporate world that once they have made a "face" for themselves (primarily by the use of a logo), they are now "jailed" to keep that face for ever and ever. People trying to innovate in a working model are seen as heretics. Don't rock the boat type of thing. I wonder why so many companies are adverse to change. Isn't change human? Of course there are countless tales of re-branding failures, Coke comes to mind, but for every Coca-Cola story, there's an Audi story. Besides, isn't it kind of creepy, to always remain the same, and never change?

If a company would be a person, they would be Emmanuel Lewis, doomed to always look the same, and never being allowed to mature.

A Multi-Sensory Experience

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 09:51:00 +0000

Interaction Design used to only account for having the user interact with a site or interface in a linear way. Start at point A, end at point B sort of thing.

Now we engage users in a much more non-linear way. Previously static stories (news articles etc.) are being offered in a multitude of ways, through streaming videos, real-time feedback, comments, sound, etc.

You prefer reading your information? This is possible. Are you more of a visual thinker? Check out the video. Care to listen to the content while working? Stream the audio. Wonder what other people are thinking? Read the comments.

Let's take it a step further...

Hello user! Here's all the information we offer, we'll guess what you're interested in based on your browsing behavior. We'll bubble-up things that you'll find interesting, and we'll allow you to customize our content to fit your needs. Hell, we'll even allow you to not see some of the content you're not interested in. Whatever you want.

Interaction Design is moving into a realm where we have to think of all the possible senses, all the possible preferences, all the differences of all the different users, and it’s slowly becoming the most tailor-made experience you can have with a product, brand or service.

With the broad acceptance of blogs as a legitimate source for information, Web 2.0 tools, social network sites, and the prevalence of broadband, “interaction design” is changing. Everything we do now focuses on designing highly personalized or customized experiences.

It's truly interaction design's time to shine. Today’s interaction designers are looking at the whole thing more holistically. The whole focus has become much more user-centered.

When you enable your users to choose their own path through your content, and allow them to have a highly customized and personalized experience you can make them feel less like a faceless user and more like a human being, which sometimes we forget that the users accessing our sites, are well… euhm, actual people.

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Outgrowing Howard Roark

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 09:50:00 +0000

Spent the last month re-reading Ayn Rand's "the Fountainhead" anywhere I could. In the park, on the train, in bed, in the hammock on my deck, I just couldn't put it down. And this is a book I had already read before. My fascination with the book this time around wasn't so much with the actual story, but more with my own changed perception of it. It's the type of book that you can read when you are a teenager and get completely captivated by. But when you read it again as an adult, you realize how naive your view of the world was at the time.
The book is centered around the architect Howard Roark, who sees modernism (his view) as superior to old traditions enforced by other architects (their view). Rather than lose his integrity and artistic vision by conforming to what everyone else is doing, or by doing what clients demand of him, he spends a lifetime struggling in obscurity against old ideas and traditionalists.
While I was reading the book for the second time, it dawned on me. I realized why it captivated me again. It captivated me again, because my opinion on Howard Roark had completely changed from the first time I read it. Re-reading the book made me see the contrast between how I used to view the role of a designer, to how I view it now. Like night and day. I realized I had outgrown Howard Roark.
The first time I read The Fountainhead, was the month before I entered college. I wasn't yet a designer. I was on the cusp. I had just bought my first portfolio bag with art supplies and was looking forward to life-drawing classes, sculpture classes, critical thinking classes... I really believed that you could fight anyone who crosses your path as long as you create what feels right to you. Your opinion, is the only opinion that matters. I thought everything in life was that black and white. Right or wrong. Simple. Just like it is in the Fountainhead.
Design school was a bit like being on another planet where everybody thinks the same, everybody dresses the same, everybody listens to the same music, and everybody aspires to be in Print Magazine. Non-designers from other planets were met with suspicion and general hostility. We were convinced we would change the world. None of us would ever end up working in an office, and none of us would ever work for a big corporation. We weren't interested in making money, or doing what someone told us to do. We created for the sake of creating.
My first step out of that bubble was like taking a cold shower in the middle of winter. All of a sudden I had to deal with tie-wearing non-designers, constantly. The enemy! I felt personally attacked and offended when any of them criticized some of my work or asked for changes I thought were unnecessary. "Who are they to have an opinion!" I thought often. I was behaving like Howard Roark.
After a couple of years outside of the homogeneous cult-like world of design school, my mentality completely changed, and I fortunately outgrew all this adolescent behavior. I had some amazing results collaborating with people who wore ties, and began to understand the importance of a multi-disciplinary approach to projects. As a designer you can get so wrapped up in your own work, you can lose yourself in all the details which makes you lose sight of the bigger picture, the actual project. Design is only one part of it. Sharing the project with people who have different strengths and disciplines, allows you to regain your objectivity.
After I finished reading the book, and put it down, I realized how happy I was that the Fountainhead's shining hero; Howard Roark, wasn't on my project.

The Process of Interaction Design

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 09:48:00 +0000

“What is it that you do?” A question asked commonly at parties, and usually really just meant as a polite conversation starter. Most jobs have an easy answer, immediately recognizable by the person asking. “I'm a lawyer”. “I'm a doctor”. “I'm a photographer”. “I'm a painter”. “I'm a teacher”. “I'm a gardener”. “I'm an interaction designer”.
“Huh?”
“Euhm... it's also called information architect by some.”
“An architect? So you design buildings?”
“Well… No actually. I don't design buildings, I design websites. An interaction designer pretty much goes through the same process designing a website or application, as an architect does designing a house.”
At this point the person asking usually frowns and arches their eyebrows.
"... Before a house gets build, an architect goes in and assesses the space the house is going to be built on, right? They take a look at what neighborhood the new house is going to be in, and what some of the other houses on the block look like. This will give them a sense of what kind of house will be expected. Then the architect tries to figure out how they can improve on the current model by learning from houses that are in completely different neighborhoods and in completely different climates. Maybe they won’t even look at houses, but at tents, or igloos, or bicycles. Whatever will help gain new insights.
... After the space and environment of the house has been assessed, the architect starts to think about who will actually be living in the house. What are some of the other types of houses the future occupants have lived in? What are they expecting? Do they get up early in the morning? Do they prefer taking baths or showers? If they prefer taking baths, the architect makes sure there is a tub in the bathroom. If the new occupants only ever take showers, he makes sure there is an easy to clean walk-in shower so the future inhabitants wont have to step into the bathtub every morning.
Designing the house around the person who will be occupying it allows the architect to determine exactly what’s needed. How many floors, doors, walls, windows, bathrooms, staircases, and so on and so forth. It allows the architect to predict how the house's inhabitant will walk through the house, which enables the architect to make the experience as comfortable as possible.
Once the space and environment of the house has been determined, and the habits and needs of the future occupant have been addressed, the architect starts to think about what kinds of materials would make sense. What’s right for this climate? What types of materials are usually used for these types of houses?
Then finally, when the architect is done with a project, he delivers the blueprint of the house to the interior designer and the contractor, who are then in charge of decoration and building."
"Hmm... interesting. So you are delivering blue-prints for a euhm-ah, website then?"
"Well yes... When I’m done with a project, I deliver the blueprint for the website or application to the visual designer and the programmer, who are then in charge of visualization and implementation."
"I see."
"... So even though the tools, projects, materials and results are different, the process is almost identical, hence the word "architect" in information architect."
"That makes sense."
Then at this point it's usually time for another beer and I go into the kitchen, and a person I've never met smiles and asks "How are you? What is it that you do?"