Ghost in the Pixel

Recently this past spring the Bay Area held the annual running of the “Escape from Alcatraz” Ironman Triathlon, which some good friends performed and successfully completed. It’s an incredible, arduous experience from the looks of it (and NO, I have zero intention of running it! :-)

But I couldn’t help notice the parallels between that intense competition and the multi-layered tasks of an interaction designer for digital products/services. While those triathletes had to master (and rigorously, strenuously train for weeks! whew) the serial sequence of swimming, bicycling, and then running…a successful software designer should ideally flex their muscles in information architecture (navigation/organization/data modeling), interaction design (behaviors, affordances, feedback loops, flow/states/errors, etc.) and visual design (expressive rendering of content/functionality with color/type/grids/graphics). And perhaps in the order as well. The IA provides the logical underpinnings, thus and is often the toughest to shape and command–stormy seas at work, with politics, functional silos, vague notions of user goals. (Real triathletes will see the parallel to the notorious “sand ladder”, as the brutal transition from abstract models to tough gritty UI issues). The interaction/flow fleshes out the product, which takes some pacing and timing as you struggle to climb up and around thorny sequence and behavior issues. Finally, in the final stretch is the visual style to round out the aesthetics, information display, and communication aspects.

And of course, all this maps to the rhetorical trinity of logos/pathos/ethos and other popular interpretations of designer triads of skills/focus. To perform well (and sustain a level of vigor, passion, drive) designers must constantly train and practice in those three core areas (in addition to business and technology and social/cultural areas–yet another triad of skills needed!)…Are designers really decathletes?? So many skills and knowledge bases needed! But let’s start with three.

What is innovation? Lots of things, of course. In one sense, an innovation is really the emergent perceived outcome as captured by three simple phrases your customer should be uttering after a positive encounter with your product/service/system:

1. “Wow”– The well-designed encounter is stimulating, exciting, dramatically new & different, engaging and compelling in some sensual, phenomenal way (visually, aurally, behaviorally, etc.)

2. “Thank You”– The product/service provided some convenience, removing some pain from prior encounters with clumsier solutions. There’s a heartfelt sense of gratitude. Thanks for being so easy, intuitive, meaningful to me and my life, helping me do what i want…instead of making me fight you and getting frustrated or angrily defeated in the process.

3. “Of course” — The innovation does something in a way that, when your customer thinks of it, really isn’t all that crazy or radical…in fact, it’s just common sense! It feels sensible, natural, and perfectly appropriate. Duh, of course the interaction should be like that. How simple, elegant and clever all at once. But it just fits.

If you can get your customer to say these three phrases (whether out-loud or implicitly to themselves) reflecting genuine emotional and thoughtful engagement, then it’s probably fair to say your innovation has hit the mark!

Preaching to the choir I know, but nice to see it stated…by the founding editor of LifeHacker ;-)

“That’s the thing about Apple marketing. They don’t talk about how many gigabytes of memory or how many CPU cycles or how many apps (much). They aim for your heart, and show you how technology can make your life better during its most important moments”

http://smarterware.org/6190/lessons-from-apple-on-advertising-and-aesthetics

All about emotion, vision, story and personal meaning…If we’re not inventing and persuading at that deeply humanistic level, you become a me-too commodity. Just be human. It’s really that simple! :-)