i have an Ideo...

you may have noticed that part of my bio states: 

i like a lot of [various] things things and i used to think that was a problem. 

      i may have a future in logistics, in solving the needs you have. 

 

the video we watched this past week covered Ideo--a design company which employs a creative team of people in their design process.  they tackle projects in what they call a “Deep Dive”: an exploration of the task at hand from many different angles.  in designing a model for a new shopping cart, the team analyzed psychological, social/anthropological, economic, and of course design viewpoints in drafting designs and brainstorming through to the final product.  a phrase emerged in their explanation of how they operate; that, they are “not experts at any given area, but experts at the process.” that idea resonates with the snippet from my blog and how i feel about my education and life experience. 

 

 

“Enlightened trial and error succeeds over the planning of the lone genius.”

 

 

that concept is fundamental to Ideo’s approach strategy.  by empowering each member with the freedom to create, even create poorly, they open more possibilities for success.  one bad idea might be a stepping stone to many others.  

 

overall, the process reminds me of free association in the beginning of a writing process.  by “brain dumping” loads of ideas onto paper, the probability that a good idea will emerge is increased greatly.  on the surface it doesn’t seem that failing with many products seems like a good use of time, but in the case of Ideo their success precedes them.  i don’t enjoy the journey of things overall, but rather the results.  i want to get it right the first time, but as we covered in the design process, it seems most designers are not banking on that.

 

i find that ruminating over a topic produces good results in most cases.  it is true that time equals money, but also true that haste yields waste.  in the endeavor to create appealing products/spaces/communications, there is measurable wisdom in refining one’s craft to a point far beyond “satisfactory.”  i suspect that merely satisfactory designs don’t yield the type of returning, customer-begetting customers that truly successful designers enjoy.