[IxDA Discuss] The American People / Politicians = The Users / Developers (?)

[Gavin Burke]

Hi Peyush,

It may be a stretched analogy, but the point I was trying to make as  
David Malouf states is that the architect/interaction designer is  
empowered by having in-depth technical knowledge of his/her domain.
Take the famous spanish architect Calatrava, he was trained as a  
structural engineer and because of this he could do things that other  
architects could not.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/The_Turning_Torso% 
2C_Malmo.JPG

Moving back to interaction design, a practical scenario of where in  
depth technical knowledge would be of benefit is say an interaction  
designer has an idea for a new interface component using the in house  
graphics framework. He goes to the developer responsible with the  
request, the developer takes a look and gives a flat no. The  
developer knows the component maybe possible, but maybe is a word  
that they don't like. If the interaction designer through their  
knowledge of programming and the framework knows thats its a maybe  
and not the flat no they have received, he/she can make a decision on  
whether or not to go forward with the component and also share in the  
responsibility of it working. Getting back to the architecture  
analogy, in Spain the architect is legally responsible for the  
building staying up where as this responsibility lies with the  
structural engineer in other countries. By the interaction designer  
also being responsible and having the power to go with a component I  
think that like Calatrava, new and better interfaces can be designed.  
Suppose what I am trying to say is that the hard/soft  developer/ 
designer gap that is mentioned in the manifesto that IXDA.org was  
born out of can be bridged by interaction designer also having  
technical training and being involved and responsible for their  
designs working both at a user level and a technical development level.



On 14 Apr 2008, at 16:23, Peyush Agarwal wrote:

> Hello Gavin,
> With due respect, your description of the relationship of  
> architects and structural engineers is so far off, I almost don't  
> know where to begin! You are trying to explain a computing design  
> phenomenon with an example that simply doesn't hold water.