Re: Book Review: Undesigning the Bath

--- In [email protected], Marc Rettig <mrettig@w...> wrote:

> I recently re-read "Undesigning the Bath," by Leonard Koren (http://www.amazon.com/
exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1880656248/), and would like to recommend it 
<snip>
> The reductive tendencies of industrial design: "designers... tend to reduce their output 
to simplistic, easy-to-grasp, iconographically impressive, mnemonically effective 
quantities."
 
This has tremendous resonance for me; I've been developing an experience design / 
research methodology that addresses some similar concerns.

The key word here is reductionist. Any kind of specialization brings with it a certain 
amount of reductionism; unconscious blinders and preconceived notions that anyone 
brings to the design process. It is perfectly natural.

It seems to me that more successful experience design projects (and design proejcts in 
general) try to balance the more reductionist and rationalistic methodologies with 
intuitive, interpretive approaches to understanding the people who will experience the 
design. 

This does not mean simply combining ethnographic research with quantitative studies 
(both of which can be extremely useful), but with a recognition that design is an 
intersubjective process; a series of conversations expressed in atoms and bits and 
emotions.

It also seems that books like this or the sentiments being expressed are often difficult to 
translate into actionable steps for a practitioner to follow. They are more akin to a reality 
check. 

Joel Grossman



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