Skip to main content

Design Surrounds Us

Design surrounds us. But it is not always seen—instead, it is experienced. And that can be for better or for worse. Truthfully, we tend not to notice design (i.e., the immense intentionality behind everyday experiences) unless there is an overt design failure drawing our attention to the matter. In which case, of course, we suddenly all become engineers and architects full of constructive criticism.

Who the hell designed this? Purdue engineers would never—

I remember thinking that exact line, nearly two years ago as I was heading to the airport with a 25-pound suitcase in tow, across bridge after bridge in Venice, Italy. It wasn’t until I was approaching the airport, though, that I reconciled with a surprisingly modern bridge that elicited the worst frustration. Because that surprisingly modern bridge—let me tell you, it had no business being so poorly designed.

It was tiered with miniature, step-like fixtures every two-to-four feet on the ascent. So I simply couldn’t roll my suitcase, other tourists couldn’t roll theirs, and in having to try and stop at each step, haul it up to the next, and then roll onwards another two feet—it was an embarrassing traffic jam (and also an embarrassing display of upper-body strength).

Perhaps whoever designed it simply wanted to laugh at the tourists as they exited the city.

Because it certainly wasn’t because the designer sought genuine solutions for efficiency, traffic-flow, and accessibility for the masses while entering the airport. I have since learned that this interaction was the result of failed industrial design, the optimization of systems for mutual benefit.

One observation I’ve made, whether it be regarding a silly bridge or the latest iPhone updates, is that we have to reconcile our desire to push the envelope with our desire to maintain intuitive, familiar functioning. It was not until I began reading Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things that instances like this were put into perspective for me. 

The primary take away is that simplicity is key, right? But how can we apply that to a world that is always pushing forward? A world insistent on complicating itself for the sake of supposedly making our lives easier?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is Experience Architecture The Future of Professional Writing?

As a team of Professional Writing students, our mission is to discover how the Professional Writing major is evolving and share how and why experience architecture is making its way to the forefront of the field . It is our hope that readers of this blog — whether they might be current students, past students, prospective students, or professors — learn the ins-and-outs of the major and begin to see how the worlds of writing and design intertwine.  Professional Writing is currently a fairly popular major among universities, but one of the most interesting things about the field is that it’s always evolving. So what is the Professional Writing major anyway? When it comes to a major like this one, there isn’t a set plan of study among universities. In fact, the course requirements and the definition itself differ from school to school. Because of its natural diversity and constant evolution, Professional Writing doesn’t exactly have a clear future. If design and usability are becomin...
Post a Comment
Read more

Think “Experience Architecture”

At the beginning of this class, we were assigned readings and videos about airports in order to conceptualize the main theme of the course, experience architecture. Experience architecture is the design of spaces (architecture) for users (experience), such as an airport. In de Botton's work, "A Week at the Airport," de Botton addresses a doubt about experience architecture that sheds light on the scope in which the concept applies. "Standing before costly objects of technological beauty, we may be tempted to reject the possibility of awe, for fear that we could grow stupid through admiration...[and] yet to refuse to be awed at all might in the end be merely another kind of foolishness. In a world full of a chaos and irregularity, the terminal seemed a worthy and intriguing refuge of elegance and logic." (de Botton, 2009, p. 3-4). Simply put, experience architecture is design that is meant for the experience of the user. De Botton communicates this through an exp...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thanksgiving in the Midst of a Pandemic

This year was surely the most saddening Thanksgiving I've ever experienced. Don't get me wrong, I am so grateful for my family, friends, significant other, and most importantly our health. But this year's Thanksgiving dinner was incredibly depressing. A month before Thanksgiving, my mom decided that she would host this year at our house. This meant that my grandma, grandpa, aunt, uncle, cousin, great-aunt, and 2 second-cousins would come to our house for our annual dinner with my mom, my dad, and me. Everything changed suddenly when my grandfather, who has major health conditions, started feeling ill. Now, he generally feels ill all the time since he has problems with his heart and spends 100% of the year under a heated blanket. But he started to panic at the thought that it might be COVID. My mom consulted my dad and me to hear our thoughts on canceling Thanksgiving and insisting that everyone stay in their respective houses for the holiday. My dad stated that he was conce...
Post a Comment
Read more