[IxDA Discuss] "Design" in Interaction Design?

[Andrei Herasimchuk]

On Dec 19, 2007, at 12:39 PM, Robert Hoekman, Jr. wrote:

> Ditto. I've had plenty of practice, but I'll never be half as good  
> as a real
> visual designer.

I've long hated the term "visual designer." It's really nothing more  
than a cop out in this field and I hope people will start to drop it  
one of these years.

Practically speaking, anyone who designs interactive software or  
digital products needs to be good at the core basics of graphic  
design. No ands, ifs or buts about it. This is effectively type,  
color and layout. (Layout meaning general composition and the grid.)  
There are larger components of graphic design that one should try to  
become good at if possible, but are not necessarily required. These  
are basically illustration and photography. Illustration leads to  
icon design and other visual stylistic elements of a product.  
Photography should be pretty well understood. To master either  
illustration or photography can take many years if one doesn't have  
the raw talent. For those that don't have the raw talent, I can see  
where they might not feel comfortable, and thus might attribute  
"visual design" to cover all of graphic design instead of segmenting  
illustration and photography on their own. For the record, I'm not  
that good at illustration outside of my own personal sketching style.  
That doesn't mean I don't consider myself a pretty damn good graphic  
designer.

Becoming reasonably competent with type, color and layout is -- to be  
completely blunt -- quite easy. Mastering it to the likes of a Paul  
Rand might take more, but general competency doesn't take massive  
amounts of raw talent to achieve a core level of acceptable craft  
with these elements. It really only takes a desire to understand how  
those three design components work together and a lot of practice  
using good graphic design principals every day and with every thing  
you touch. This means every memo you write, every blog you design,  
every design deliverable you create... all of it should be places  
where you are practicing good graphic design to keep the design  
muscle in constant use.

In fact, type, color and layout are the easiest components and skills  
to master as a designer, especially given the technology that  
provides access to implement type, color and layout in the general  
work we do every single day.

If you look at my blog, http://www.designbyfire.com, you'll see that  
I did very little *except* focus on type, color and layout. While I  
like my personal brand, the logo is a small part of the overall  
design. The core is nothing more than focusing attention to the color  
choices, the type and how the layout works. The javascript fade is  
nothing more than an experiment, and one I need to revisit to fix URL  
resolution of my content.

But when you look at DxF, you have to notice every single little  
detail about these three things because one little change rips the  
entire effect apart. Where I use all caps, where I don't. What the  
leading value is of my body copy. Where I use color and and where I  
don't. What spacing I use before and after paragraphs. How many  
characters are used per line.  Even the little Bodoni ornaments I use  
to end articles or split the title from the date. (One is a rightside  
up, the other upside down, a nod to indicate start and end.)

Becoming good at type, color and layout is basically like learning  
the guitar or any musical instrument. You have to practice. Period.  
No matter what, you ave to practice, practice and practice some more  
until it becomes second nature. If you don't, you simply won't get  
good at it. Avoiding it, making claims that you are not a "visual  
designer" won't help. The good news is that there are tons and tons  
of resources available to get started with these three core graphic  
design principals.

The even better news is that practicing is easy since you have to  
create design deliverables in you every day line of work. There's  
really no excuse to avoid it imho.

-- 
Andrei Herasimchuk

Principal, Involution Studios
innovating the digital world

e. andrei at involutionstudios.com
c. +1 408 306 6422