SIGGRAPH 1993: Designing Technologies

• Alyce Kaprow -
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The designing technology show is about the critical importance of designers in the process of creating products. It is about the intersection of design and technology, and about how collaboration and participatory development are a key to product excellence.

Designers define, articulate, synthesize, collaborate, create, implement, build consensus, organize, compromise, communicate, visualize and make something real by putting a “casing” around the “product.”

Steve Jobs once said he envisioned the computer as prolific as the toaster. Nicholas Negroponte predicted that there would be a digital clock in every appliance in the home and office. Both were right.

As the industries that produce computers and consumer electronics mature, and as their once- rarefied products become commodities, we face crossroads. No longer are the primary users of computers and electronics necessarily people with professional degrees in computer science and engineering; they are people using everyday tools for everyday tasks at home, in public arenas, and in business.

As products demand more and more from the users because they deliver more and more complicated functionality, the role of design increases in importance. As the functions of similar products mimic one another, the manner and ease in which they operate will define their excellence and distinguish them from their competition. Our products must meet the needs of a multi-cultural, multi-lingual, multi-skilled, and multi-goaled population. We cannot assume that the user will be fluent in computer-speak, patient with the inconveniences of version-one solutions, and delighted over each and every technical breakthrough. Some will be technophobic, some impatient, some physically challenged, some illiterate. Athletes, doctors, teachers, laborers, computer programmers, CEOs, and farmers all use a diversity of products. They are for all of us; and the coherence of their look and feel will make or break their success. All products were “designed,” though some not as well as others.

The underlying intent of the designing technology show is to demonstrate how designers play a critical role in product development, and in how a multi-disciplinary collaborative team better ensures product excellence. The message from those who understand the necessity of coherent and collaborative design, and the value of design-thinking is that designers not only improve the visual appearance, but bring a coherence and logic to the planning that is unique and extremely important.