Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 10
What We've Learned
The field of digital design is rife with paradox:
User experience is a brand new innovation that will revolutionize the way we see design.
AND
User experience is as old as the first design.
Designing with the user in mind defeats the inner artist in every designer.
AND
Any designer can bring out the best in his or her artistic vision by keeping users' needs
and interests in mind when creating new products.
If the products we design perform valuable functions, consumers will learn to use them
no matter how steep the learning curve.
AND
If a product with a valuable function proves too difficult to use, consumers will find an-
other way, or even do without.
Digital designers live with these paradoxes. As a profession, we'll do even better if we
learn to embrace them.
F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote: “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold
two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function." That's a
good principle to recall when thinking of UX.
The ideas behind UX are as old as human invention. When the first cave woman fash-
ioned the implements to roast up a haunch of wooly mammoth, she noticed that her two-
prong hickory branch worked better than that sharp stick she'd been using. As she used a
sharp-edged stone to whittle the prongs to sharp points, she was inventing the precursor to
the fork. When her makeshift spit wouldn't rotate easily, she honed down the ends, and then
