Austin Center for Design - Latest Comments

Re: Scheduling & Harmony

Jenifer Jeny — Sat, 18 May 2013 07:22:02 -0000

That's a great post and creative idea, but how your student maintain this. How they post this. Did you give them authentication?

Re: Is the Design Movement Commoditizing Engineers?

18yeardesigner — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 22:48:48 -0000

This really misses the boat. This is sad; it encompasses many of the stigmas we designers deal with on a daily basis. Design and engineering are the same, the sooner you figure that out, the faster you will become a superior designer.

Re: Code is material: why designers must learn to code

Nathanael Boehm — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 08:12:17 -0000

I started as a web application developer 14 years ago before going through a number of specialisations in front-end development and finally decided to put code down and focus 100% on design.

So while I don't code I have a background in coding and have a working understanding of web technologies, though one that admittedly is becoming outdated because I don't have the time nor inclination to bridge both design and technology (though I'm loath to uphold that dichotomy).

In response to your article: I disagree with the ceaseless calls for designers to learn to code. Yes it's nice when developers learn a bit about design and designers a bit about technology, but only insofar as it helps both better communicate effectively and constructively … just as it helps when government has some empathy for business and business tries to understand the motivations and constraints of government, but no one expects government to go into business or business to start governing. They are distinct entities.

(I hope that's a useful analogy, though I believe it's at least better than your one of ceramics and glazes!)

Design and it's various specialist fields is comparable to learning programming (generally and specific languages and frameworks) in complexity and depth. I feel that whenever I see arguments like yours Jon (and it may be apparent from my response so far that such arguments have started to really grate with me) that design is treated like some light and fluffy arty thing that isn't really a job or a profession and that only developers do actual work, only developers have real skills, and you know what? Developers could just easily pick up design and put all us designers out of business.

I know that's not your position Jon, but I think we really need to reframe this whole designers vs developers, design vs coding issue.

Perhaps sometime in the future designers and/or developers will be out of a job due to technological or educational progress or we'll morph into new, deeper specialisations from a social sciences, psychological or a technological perspective as we have seen over the last decade or two … but here today we have developers and we have designers, and we need to figure out how the two of us can get along.

Yes, it really peeves me sometimes that I've de-skilled in coding, especially when getting involved in open-source projects but that's a choice I made and I'm happy with it. I'd rather be good at one thing rather than try and be expert in several fields and fail. Sure there are some really awesome talented people out there who are really good developers and really good designers that have managed to keep their knowledge up to date. But I don't run into these people often, so let's not try to encourage everyone to jump at being a jack-of-all-trades.

Re: How To Start A School In 10 “Easy” Steps

Nichole Perez — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 18:04:41 -0000

Thank you so much for your insights, this was very helpful. I would truly love to pic your brain a tiny bit more, I think I may be having a similar epiphany and would love to have it be as successful as you have been with the whole process. if you could reach out to me when you are available, my personal email would be best, nichole.per@gmail.com. Thanks again!

Re: How To Start A School In 10 “Easy” Steps

HP — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 12:58:43 -0000

The biggest threshold is well articulated in this article- "these questions can also be poisonous, because they can balloon into a never-ending spiral of self-doubt, which can be crippling for forward momentum." One has to draw a line between being real and optimism.
If you can sell your business plan to your family, most of the ground work is complete.

Re: Creativity, Strategy, Knowledge | Austin Center for Design

dave — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 12:27:49 -0000

Nice diagram Chuck!

Re: Designer as Product Owner

Scott Himmer — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 23:05:58 -0000

This is all too true in my environment as well. I unfortunately get the addition of a product owner who represents the product manager in dev sprints. This person is even further bent towards mechanical solutions and meeting deadlines than creating the right thing for users.

Re: One and Done | Austin Center for Design

Melissa Chapman — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 16:56:09 -0000

that video really drives it home. ouch.

Re: One and Done | Austin Center for Design

jkolko — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 09:43:16 -0000

Also: http://boingboing.net/2013/02/...

Re: Lipstick on a Pig

Mickey McManus — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 10:49:49 -0000

I love this sentiment! Though to be fair the tool selected was lipstick so picking on the poor tube of wax and food coloring OR the make up artist who bought the lipstick since they were only responsible for makeup seems mean. Design can do amazing thinks if introduced and used at the right level in an org by people who have leverage to make something happen. A graphic designer asked by a marketer to do a logo may not be in the right position to convince UPS to change their truck routes or asset tracking software or warehouse locations. Maybe that's the next article? How to use a lever to move the world... It involves getting design to play at the grownup table.

Re: Thoughts on Design Portfolios

Naman Kumar — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 02:28:23 -0000

I've been trying to strip down the content of my portfolio without taking away the essentials. This post helps get me one step closer by quantifying the important aspects. This is great, thank you!

Re: Austin Center for Design has a new home!

Naomi Greenwood — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 16:12:48 -0000

This looks great! Congrats on your new design home!!!
Naomi & Tom

Re: Engagement

marciodupont — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 13:28:04 -0000

Hi Guys

Visit my design portal about sustainable - social design. There is a lot of material.

Go to http://marciodupont.blogspot.c...

Re: Engagement

marciodupont — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 13:26:57 -0000

Hi Guys

Visit my design portal about sustainable - social design. There is a lot of material.

Visit http://marciodupont.blogspot.c... Thanks!

Re: Designer as Product Owner

Ross Belmont — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 09:43:20 -0000

I agree with what you've said, and I would also strongly encourage designers-turned-PMs to build bridges into the engineering team. PMs who used to code will naturally have that perspective in mind, but that may be tougher for a designer. Moreover, their lack of under-the-hood knowledge can be seen as a weakness within the organization.

I bring this up because many product companies are still culturally bent towards engineering, and designers looking to make an impact will need to have a strategy to approach that "bias." On the flip side, an engineer that wants to ship something really great for the users can be a designer's most powerful ally.

Re: Designer as Product Owner

Mike Caskey — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 01:23:34 -0000

Thanks Jon. This is relevant, timely, and thoughtful. I know a few UX designers who are mulling over the idea of shifting to full time 'product' roles. On a separate note, my own reflection would add that yes, strategic design should focus on usability... and beauty. Beauty can contribute to higher usability. Like UX Designers and Product Owners, usability and beauty aren't on completely unrelated scales.

Re: Welcome New Professor Chris Risdon!

Kathleen Watson — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 11:38:18 -0000

Congratulations Chris! Good luck as professor working with Jon. You've landed in a place that will do good in the world.

Re: Wireframes 6.0

thomas — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 04:36:39 -0000

ok
fine….

Re: To Pursue Accreditation? An Overview of Oversight

Tyler Langan — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 00:42:03 -0000

You talk a great game in your books and interviews. Social entrepeneurship sounds more in line with my values than the beaten path. I've already read about 60 books on this stuff, but I've never had a mentor or peer to solidify my knowledge. I'm willing to acknowledge that I can't do this all on my own and ask for help. I'd like to enroll in the ac4d. How can I afford it without financial aid? I don't qualify for a private loan. Thanks for your suggestions.

Re: Code is material: why designers must learn to code

Silviana Cosma — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 03:24:50 -0000

I understand coding. I know about its limitations and complexity, its beauty but also its rough-parts. I know how to design so I don't give the developer a headache and I listen to his requests. But don't make me write it. I also have to understand my clients business and think accordingly to its target (so we have to know a bit of Marketing). Also, most of the time, we run our own business (so here comes Management). Finding and maintaining a good relationship with clients - we add in a bit of PR. And so on and so forth. Where exactly should we fit in coding?

Re: How To Start A School In 10 “Easy” Steps

JDot — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 00:35:49 -0000

Thank you for sharing your experience!

Re: The internet is more than a series of tubes

Rebecca Faubion — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 23:40:19 -0000

This is a fascinating post...thanks for sharing your thoughts. I particukarly like the connection you make between digital book selling, the trend toward "organic" systems and design solutions and education.

Re: Working Towards a ‘Transparent-Box’ of Aging

metropochris — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 13:38:48 -0000

Very interesting. This is the first time I've heard of such concepts as mental models and black box aging. But as you explained these things I did recognize them as the way our society and in particular the relationships with my own parents is framed. Excited to see what services/systems you aim to develop to address this.

Re: Robots Ate My Luddite Lunch.

Christina Tran — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 17:16:25 -0000

I was and still am the Luddite in my class, so this post made me smile. I still think about the line between digital and analog solutions constantly. Or rather, the integration of both digital and analog in ways that makes sense for the context of the people using what we build. Keep on trucking!

Re: Wicked Systems

Andy Hegedus - Demosophia.com — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 17:31:32 -0000

Congrats on the interesting post. I'm glad to learn about your organization and know that more people are out there concerned about the Wicked Problems of our world and taking a systems approach to making progress toward their resolution (since, by definition, they can't be solved). The more perspectives that can be brought to the party the better.