Hi Kshitiz,
 
Just a counter view. If a client needs a solution for a "business case" whom
will he turn to? Design consultant or a business/management consultant?
 
Next, will you pitch in to provide answers to his business needs like tripling
his profits in 2 years, or expanding his business 3 cities and countries using
any of the "design managment" tools you have learnt? Do you think they are
adequate and potent? What's missing if at all?
 
This is a question to all of us. The disciplines of Interaction design, user
centred design, human centred design, experience design, critical design etc and
many more new disciplines of design - are they able to answer the above
questions?
 
Where to do we stand? I current thought which goes on is that "design is for
effects".
 
Comments please!
 
Siddharth Dash
AEP PD 1992
Value D Consultancy
Mumbai

--- On Mon, 5/1/09, Kshitiz Anand <kshitiz_anand@...> wrote:

From: Kshitiz Anand <kshitiz_anand@...>
Subject: Re: **designindia** why is Christina so angry ?
To: designindia@...
Date: Monday, 5 January, 2009, 2:28 PM






Vinay,
Thats a really interesting post! You point out some important aspects of being
an Interaction Designer these days.

With the changing atmosphere in the field of design, I think that understanding
Business values is an extremely essential tool that the designer should posses.
In the program that I am a part of currently, there is a strong emphasis on the
"Strategies" part of any design. The teams that are made are done in a way to
have a person who has had some background / interest in the business aspects of
the design. Every project has to compulsorily have the Strategies laid out for
its promotion and its success. Some teams have often gone on to make Revenue
Generation Models etc.

As a result of this there have been numerous instances of different Design
school students, going on to win Business Case competitions which were primarily
organized for the Business school people, but made open to all later on. This
therefore showing that the acumen does exist, and perhaps this is a result of
the understanding of the user better with the focus on "User-Centered" Design
and "Humans" in Design and also having a say in the Business part.

More often than not, we have pressed for the introduction of some core business
courses in the program. This I think would only enhance the values possessed by
the designers. I value my design education as equivalent to an MBA, though I may
not be that good at number crunching. But having the training to build up a
proper rationale behind the success of the product in all ways, including the
business point of view is crucial.

So then one may ask whether its too much to ask for a designer to be a Jack of
all trades and be master at none. Well I do understand that the Masters in the
respective fields exists, but I value what one person said to me some time back
about designers. Designers are like bridges. They provide the firm base for the
connection between the different things.
Therefore its our imperative to understand the different things better. While I
do not promote that one needs to become an expert in MBA or business, but a
sincere effort from a designer's point of view of understanding the business (or
others) would only lead to a win win situation.

Regards,

Kshitiz Anand
BDes, IITG, 2005.
MS, Indiana, 2009.
User Experience Designer
http://www.kshitiza nand.com

____________ _________ _________ __
From: vinay mohanty <vinay_iitg2002@ yahoo.com>
To: designindia@ yahoogroups. co.in
Cc: hciidc@yahoogroups. com
Sent: Sunday, 4 January, 2009 1:56:57 PM
Subject: **designindia* * why is Christina so angry ?

I liked this post by Christina Wodtke.

http://www.wodtkeco nsulting. com/view/ why-am-i- so-angry

Now my Questions

Does this sound familiar? As a designer do you ever accept that you don't know
as much business and technology as you should. You don't have to code or be an
MBA but just as we expect product managers, developers to be design
sensitive... .are we as designers business and engg sensitive ?

Do you think there is thin line between visual, interaction,
research business, maths and everything has to gel together ? Do you get
uncomfortable being a interaction designer and secretly wish I was great at
typography
and graphics too ….or understood the big picture? Do you hate the silos we
have
created to manage design groups?

If yes please hit the reply button....if not this post is not for you.

Personally, from my limited experience, I think there is a ceiling a designer
hits.... the debates on whether to use a tab or a link no longer interest me.
What colour font typography etc. too
I mean yes they are very important but if your price or revenue model is bad
then design can't sell it too far .....design can only play cover up to a bad
pricing and badly engineered product. Don’t educate me on apple, ipod, google
clean box .... i know them..... and please don't tell me the design school
line....
' but would that mean you make technology lead design ' ? Well no.

But in a real world you make trade-offs and a designer has to make intelligent
tradeoffs and not what the engg. or product manager says ....
Before you hit the reply
button and make this a personal war, please understand I am not against
designers or 'innovation' or 'creativity' .
I just want to share views and learn on how does someone move from UI product
design to more strategic design and talk abt business model design....

regards
unsettling
the status-quo !
Vinay Mohanty

regards

unsettling the status-quo !
Vinay Mohanty

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