David,
Yep, we’re all Irish fools starting from the wrong point, asking the wrong questions.
I gave a ‘faculty-lunch lecture’ yesterday in Basel at the School of Design. Very enjoyable.
I showed a few medicine boxes and explained where the writing-designing-testing works, and where it is less effective. One of the reactions afterwards questioned the value of testing, by stating: “A good designer would have predicted most of those test results beforehand. Those results are not very surprising.” My answer was of course fairly standard: ’They probably are not surprising, but they provide quantifiable results about some of the tasks. Those responses are vital to check if you make any progress. And they confirm that the assumptions are correct.’
Looking at some of my recent testing, it seems that ‘getting in direct contact with the people who are obliged to use my designs’ is probably just as important as the test results. It might be just an ‘aversion’ against the word ’testing’. If I had introduced it as “Designers need to meet the people they design for”, in stead of “Testing is essential to find out if something works”, the reactions might have been different?
I’ve got to be a bit more careful when I introduce testing to make sure that it is not seen as a replacement of good design, but as an essential support to confirm and question assumptions.
[For this talk, I had scanned about 100 books on typography, and about 100 on ‘visual communication’. Most of these books don’t mention ‘readers’ at all. If they do, it is in very vague terms, and very very few suggest that it is actually possible to meet ‘those people who are obliged to interpret designs’.]
Kind regards,
Karel.
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>>>
> On 4 Dec 2014, at 00:10, David Sless <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Well Terry, I suppose that is that! It’s been an interesting thread. I have particularly enjoyed Karel’s, Ken’s and Gunnar’s contributions. They reminded me of an old Irish joke which contains one of the most profound punch lines masquerading as foolishness.
>
>> A tourist visiting Ireland stops a local old man and asks him:
>> “Could you tell me how to get from here to Cork”?
>> The old man thought about it for a moment and then said:
>> “Well. if I were you, I wouldn’t start from here”
>
> It seems to me that we are all wise old Irish fools.
>
> David
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