designing in the wild bill buxton microsoft research

Designing in the WildBill BuxtonMicrosoft Researchwww.billbuxton.com

Details from Taccola’s Notebook (from first half of C15)Several sketches of ships are shown exhibiting different types of protective shields, and one with a “grappler.” (Figure: From McGee, 2004; Detail of Munich, Bayerishe Staatsbibliothek. Codex Latinus Monacensis 197 Part 2, fol. 52’)

A Quintessential Activity of Design

We are deluding ourselves if we think that the products that we design are the "things" that we sell, rather than the individual, social and cultural experience that they engender, and the value and impact that they have.

From a Materialist to Experiential Perspective of Design

Picturing Time

Ron Bird

walk

run

walk

run

Safety First

A Back Touch Wrist Computer

Metal pin-tip drags magnetic cursor

Nima MotamediOntario College of Art & Design

Sketch-a-Move

Louise Klinker & Anab Jain, RCA

Case Study: Lance Armstrong’s Time Trials Bike

Michael SaganTrek Bicycles

The Anatomy of Sketching

• Quick/Timely

• Inexpensive / Disposable

• Plentiful

• Clear vocabulary. You know that it is a sketch (lines extend through endpoints, …)

• No higher resolution than required to communicate the intended purpose/concept

• Resolution of the rendering does not suggest a degree of refinement of the concept that exceeds its actual state

• Ambiguous

If you want to get the most out of a sketch, you need to leave big enough holes.

There has to be enough room for the imagination.

Sketching in Interaction Design

• Analogous to traditional sketching• Shares all of the same key attributes• More feel than look• Must accommodate time & dynamics• Phrasing

From Sketch to Prototype

In Cognition:Another take on ambiguity

Suwa and Tversky (2002) and Tversky (2002)

Tactics

Design as choice

Two openings for creativity:1. Palette of choices2. Heuristics used to choose

Elaboration Reduction

Laseau (1980)

Elaboration Reduction

Pugh (1990)

The Converging Path

Exploration of Alternatives

… a designer that pitched three ideas would probably be fired. I'd say 5 is an entry point for an early formal review (distilled from 100's). … if you are pushing one you will be found out, and also fired. … it is about open mindedness, humility, discovery, and learning. If you aren't authentically dedicated to that approach you are just doing it wrong!

Alistair HamiltonVP Design

Symbol Technologies

www.billbuxton.com

In Situated Practice: The Social Life of Sketches

A Changing Practice:Where is the UI?

Back to Sketching 101

Preserve the tradition of sketching the classics.

1927-29

Questions?

Tons of supplementary information at:

www.billbuxton.com