On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 5:57 AM, Ken Friedman <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> The “observe-make-test” schema seems good to me. But I’d suggest calling
> it OMT (pronounced “oh-em-tee”) rather than TOM. OMT is easy to pronounce,
> and it keeps the steps in the order.
>
Thank you Ken.
As an irrelevant aside: The main organization that does Human Computer
Interaction, HCI, is called CHI, not because they think computers come
before humans, but because it can be pronounced. (I was a part of that
early discussion.) But then again, it is a part of ACM, the Association for
Computing Machinery, which is a weird title -- the only scientific
organization I know of that is for machines instead of for people.
Not clear why OMT is superior to TOM. Make before thinking? That's as bad
as Thinking before Observing. Isn't the preferred ordering OTMR (The R is
for Repeat)? Actually, there is no strict ordering. All three activities
should take place simultaneously, and repeatedly.
Thanks for the historical references. I think the iterative
experimentation of observations, sketching building, thinking, (ideation),
reflection, refinement, etc., is common to many fields and has most likely
been practised by designers even before there was a profession called
design. You could argue it is what folk designers or craftspeople have
always done: observe their own needs, make a tool to satisfy their need,
refine it continuously over successive generations -- generations of both
the tools and people. That is why many of the best designs derive from
these folk craftspeople, whether it is tools for gardening, woodworking, or
today, the tools of skilled athletics, hiking, camping, and climbing, etc.:
tools designed for and used by the same people who design them.
The only thing new is a profession that designs for others. In the earlier
days of design, many designers observed and designed. period. Minimal
testing. Many still follow those dictates.
Anyway, thank you.
Don.
Director, Design at UC San Diego: Think Observe Make, but not in that order.
[log in to unmask] www.jnd.org <http://www.jnd.org>
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