Terry,
On Jun 1, 2012, at 9:44 PM, Terence Love wrote:
> When designing, I've a particular interest in ways of identifying best
> solutions and mainly use three design approaches:
In my design world, the emotional/aesthetic component is central so what you call #3/"messy-guessy" is more predominant. It's not that I don't have what you call #1/"competence" and #2/"solution space analysis" approaches. It's just that the choices that flow from them are almost always a big focus and they almost always land me in what you've labeled "messy-guessy."
> When I can't immediately identify the best design from competence and I need
> design solutions fast and they don't have to be the best, or I'm feeling
> short on energy or want to do something that's a bit more entertaining and
> feel good, I use the 'messy-guessy' associative methods including
> anthropomorphism.
From my perspective, "the best" -requires- being what might be dismissed as "a bit more entertaining" or the like. And I teach my students fairly formal methods of messy guessing--ways of finding themselves to a place that is a bit more entertaining/memorable/whatever.
I found myself smiling this morning when I realized that the whole superstition/anthropomorphism thing is like the whole superstition/[insert your religion here] thing. Most people will tell you "I'm not superstitious; I'm religious" or "I don't believe in superstitions; I'm [insert religious denomination here]." I found myself thinking "I don't know if I'd describe what I do as anthropomorphizing; I'm an animist."
I'm somewhat aware of how physicists explain things and tend to assume that much of it is "right" but I live in a Newtonian world where my 1960s high school physics view of the universe is sufficient. And the old and oh-so-naïve view of color as response to waves being absorbed or reflected is sufficient to affect my actions; quanta just don't affect my life in any large way. (Okay. I'll 'fess to that one. Pun intended.)
So when I say that I'm an animist, I'm not making a grand ontological claim about how knives or pictures or typefaces have "human" agency. Hell, I'm not even clear about how humans have human agency. But I do believe that when design -does- have to "be the best," your third choices is central. So next time you go with #1 and chose one of the five pulldown menus, drag the menu into #3 and ask it what color -it- wants to be. You may find that you're not just anthropomorphizing; you're animating.
Gunnar
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Gunnar Swanson
East Carolina University
graphic design program
http://www.ecu.edu/cs-cfac/soad/graphic/index.cfm
Gunnar Swanson Design Office
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Greenville NC 27858
USA
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