Jory Cunningham over at Prototypr:

Design Technologists bring a constructive pessimism to the design process. Designers can often be overly optimistic, or golden-path oriented. Often times a show-stopping potential exception is not identified until it is being built in Engineering and the design must be sent back to the proverbial, and literal, drawing board. Design Technologists will make sure that exceptions and engineering impact will be considered throughout the design process and the resultant design will be all the better for it.

I understand the role, it’s handy to frame how user interface design process have evolve, but I hate the title.

I recently joined the newly formed but stellar team at Weekend, Inc in Jakarta, Indonesia as a UI/UX designer (or whatever the cool kids calls it nowadays). We are cooking up several secret projects and some not-so-secret projects and by the way, we are still hiring.

A courtly and stylish man of wit and charm, Mr. Pininfarina taught car body design at his alma mater for several years, and was often invited to speak to engineering and design groups in the United States. On one visit in 1981, an interlocutor asked, “What makes a good design?”

He replied with a long list of criteria, including “good harmony, classic style, proportion, grace — and honesty,” adding with a small smile, “Then, if you have good taste, the battle is won.”

Good taste, indeed. Also see his legacy in pictures.

Erika Hall:

Bottom line, get all your hopes, expectations, and assumptions sorted internally before approaching a designer, and then be prepared to have a straightforward conversation once you do.

It’s all common sense, yet pretty uncommon to actually have a client got it all sorted-out before started a project, of course this in the scope of my experience so far dealing with clients, which is only 4–5 years. There’s nothing like the perfect client but it’s part of our job as a designers to work together and solve their problems with smart – sometimes also stupid – solutions, in this business of client service.

Talking about clients make me remember this great quote from Mad Men, which by the way fast become my second “sum of all wisdom” type of thing, after The Godfather trilogy.

You know what my father used to say? “Being with a client is like being in a marriage. Sometimes you get into it for the wrong reasons, and eventually they hit you in the face.”

– Roger Sterling

Designers share wisdom with first-year students in poster series. I love all of them. Great idea, great execution, also a viable business too.

Unpacking the secrets of happiness and creativity one poster at a time.

There will of course always be some room for specialists, especially in large enterprises, so I’m certainly not predicting a desolate future for those whose skills are highly focused. Extremely talented people will always find a way forward, so long as they remain flexible. But it does seem evident to me that, more and more, if you call yourself a digital designer, it behooves you to be a visual designer as much as anything else.

Tom Darracott is an independent designer and art director. Magnificent body of work, here’s his portfolio.

The whole basis of the class I’ve taught at UVM for 21 years is … integrated product development, which means concurrently looking at all of these things: the aesthetics, the engineering, the marketing … which is what we were doing at Apple. Not necessarily purposefully, but everybody was just thrown together… I would walk through the software place and look around and see what people were doing … walk through the marketing area. I had my drawings all on the walls, so anybody could come up. There was a red pencil hanging there. I’d say, “If you see something you don’t like, or is a problem — I don’t care whether it’s a janitor or Steve — write the correction, circle it, put your phone there and I’ll call you and we’ll talk about it.”

Just now I can finally catching up reading The Great Discontent – it’s a collection of interviews with many great personalities of artists, designers, makers, and craftsmen. You should add them to your daily feeds – and reading Chris Glass’ interview, here’s a little gem of knowledge:

I dove into the design program at OSU, which at the time was a Bachelor of Science. Our professors explained why this denotation was unique: design was a science, a process that could be applied to anything. Essentially, you look at something, see what the problem is, craft solutions, test them, and launch. Then you do it all over again if you want to make it better. You can apply this to anything. I thought, I can do this, I dig this. It’s clinical.

I concur with his professors’ explanation of their denotation. It’s a science. I dig.

Traditionally, developers aren’t great designers, and vice versa. There are many exceptions (ahem), but generally the art of one group is a mystery to the other - yet we routinely have to collaborate on projects. As someone who has worked in both areas, I’ve put together a list of tips for designers, on how they can make life easier for the developers who have to bring those designs to life as apps and web sites.

Another stellar (back-to-back) post by Matt Gemmell. If you care to cultivate a more healthy collaboration with fellow designer/developer, then it’s a must read.