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April 11, 2007
Why designs fail
The design critic at the International Herald Tribune reminds us that not all innovation is a good idea: Why the overwhelming numbers of design flops? - International Herald Tribune:
Sometimes I wonder whether I owe our readers an apology. Like most design critics, I tend to write about what happens when design projects work, when intelligent designers try to make our lives a little better - and succeed.
Luckily, those successes happen from time to time, but not nearly as often as new designs flop. The inspiring innovations are exceptions. All you've got to do, if you can bear it, is glance at the contents of a shopping mall, an e-commerce Web site or a trade fair to realize that most of the new designs flooding onto the market are failures.
Of her 8 reasons why designs fail, 5 of the points had to do with one simple obsession: we want something new. Not that we need something better, or that the current design doesn't work; we just need something new.
Her number one reason is still my favorite, however: designing for other designers. Trying to show how clever you are -- or if you are a geek, how many neat features you can pile on -- seems to me to be the biggest reason why designs fail. By that I mean simply don't work for the average user (see earlier posting).
On the other hand, failure is good because it drives better innovation.
So, all you designers out there -- just keep failing. But remember to learn from your failures so you can finally come up with something I might both like and be able to use.
Posted by Ken Jarboe at April 11, 2007 9:47 AM
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