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Some Thoughts on the Design Process

By on November 18, 2011 | Category: Article

In the last week or so, there has been a lot of talk in the tech industry about the upcoming theatrical release of a lost interview with Steve Jobs from 1996. The interview was part of a series by Robert X. Cringely, called “Triumph of the Nerds.” An excerpt of the interview has been circulating lately, including at Fortune. This particular excerpt includes some of Steve Jobs’ thoughts on the design process.

And the problem with that is that there’s just a tremendous amount of craftsmanship in between a great idea and a great product. And as you evolve that great idea, it changes and grows. It never comes out like it starts because you learn a lot more as you get into the subtleties of it. And you also find there are tremendous tradeoffs that you have to make. There are just certain things you can’t make electrons do. There are certain things you can’t make plastic do. Or glass do. Or factories do. Or robots do.

Designing a product is keeping five thousand things in your brain and fitting them all together in new and different ways to get what you want. And every day you discover something new that is a new problem or a new opportunity to fit these things together a little differently.

And it’s that process that is the magic.

Design is a challenging process for me. I don’t see myself as the world’s greatest designer. To me, good design is functional – in that the design of something is integral to the overall strategy of that thing. This to me, is a major factor in the design of a website, for example.

Well designed websites are highly functional. The design serves as a vehicle for delivering a message to the visitor/reader. The overall strategic goals for a website should thus inform the design – not the other way around.

Redesigning AECforensics.com

I have been publishing content to AECforensics.com for just about two years now. The site started as a reflection of my passion for pursuing quality in the built environment, following more than a decade of work as a construction consultant. I realized that there was a large void in our industry in terms of reliable news and content pertaining to the A/E/C (architecture, engineering and construction) forensics field.

From very early on, I had a vision of how the design of the site would play a part in the overall strategy. The problem is, I just haven’t been able to implement or execute that design intent. Until the other day…

The amazing designers at WooThemes recently released a new theme for WordPress that caught my eye. I could see the potential for how the building blocks of that design would serve to meet my goal. After a nearly sleepless night of modifying the code of the new theme (that’s where the “keeping five thousand things in your brain” comes in), I finally found what I had been looking for all along:

AECforensics.com Screen Shot

AECforensics.com Screen Shot

Above is a screenshot of the new design. One of the things I am most excited about is that this theme is based on the concept of responsive design. This is a fancy buzzword that folks are using these days to describe web design that dynamically adapts to whatever device the site is being displayed on. If you are using a computer screen to view the site, it looks similar to the screenshot. But if you adjust the size of your browser window to a narrow width, the layout of the site adapts to that smaller display size. The site also looks great on an iPad or other tablet device.

So there it is. I could have spent 100+ hours trying to develop a design from scratch. Instead, with the right starting point, I have been able to achieve the design intent that I have envisioned all along. Is it the world’s greatest website? No. But that isn’t what I’m going after. Is it the right design for communicating the information that I am trying to share with the A/E/C industry? Yes.

At least until I decide to shift strategies…


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Steve Jobs: Real Innovation Requires Working Backwards

By on October 13, 2011 | Category: Article

I truly believe that the best way to succeed in business is to deliver substantial value to your clients. Value, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. The service or product that you offer may be of significant value to you, but its true value (according to free market principles) is based on the buyer’s perception. So to deliver value, you have to get inside the client’s head.

Once you have an idea of how something you deliver will improve the outcome of your client, work backwards to determine how best to deliver that solution.

In the world of technology, when a product or service alters consumer’s expectations of what is possible, the buzz word you hear most often is disruptive. In other words, that technology disrupts the previously held views of what is possible, thus transforming the marketplace in a positive way.

Apple’s products have disrupted the consumer space many times. But, as many people know, there were times in Apple’s history where the company was not successful, and on the verge of failure. After being ousted, Steve Jobs returned to Apple years later to reclaim the helm. At that point, the company’s engineering teams seemed to be headed in numerous incongruent directions.

Below are two videos shared by Garr Reynolds, at Presentation Zen, in his post addressing Steve Jobs’ incredible focus (definitely worth the read). To set the stage, these videos come from the 1997 Apple Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC), as Steve fields questions from developers in the audience that are learning about changes within Apple that will impact their own products and services.



Too many people put the proverbial cart before the horse, putting forth technology for the sake of the technology. Technology is a set of tools. Knowing what tool to use for a given situation is the mark of a true master.


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He’s Gone…

By on October 5, 2011 | Category: Article

Going where the wind don’t blow so strange
Maybe on some high cold mountain range
Lost one round but the price wasn’t anything
Knife in a back and more of the same
Same old rat in a drain ditch
Out on a limb
You know better but I know him

Now he’s gone
Lord he’s gone
Like a steam locomotive
rolling down the track
He’s gone
He’s gone
and nothin’s gonna bring him back
He’s gone…

Words by Robert Hunter; music by Jerry Garcia

Many visionaries and great thinkers come and go.

Some individuals change culture.

Thomas Edison changed culture and delivered innovation.

Steve Jobs changed culture and delivered innovation in style.

So…

What’s Next?


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Gary Vaynerchuk and Steve Jobs: Work-Life Balance

By on August 25, 2011 | Category: Article

There are a lot of people that I have admired over the years and drew inspiration from. In no particular order, here are a few: my parents, Coltrane, Bird, Dizzie, Miles, Jerry Garcia, Dalí, Sartre, Nietzche, Lao Tzu, Hemingway, Tom Robbins, Fela and Femi Kuti, Tom Waits, etc.

Within a space of a couple days, two heroes of mine both announced that they were walking away from the very thing that most people identify them with. On Monday, Gary Vaynerchuk announced that he was “retiring” from regular online wine video production. Here is the final episode of The Daily Grape, which succeeded Wine Library TV:

Yesterday, as a significant portion of the world’s population knows, Steve Jobs announced that he was stepping down as CEO of Apple.

What’s The Point?

Every person is still just another person. Some people achieve fame and awareness among many. In the case of Gary Vaynerchuk, in addition to being involved in the strategic management of multiple companies, he also has a wife and young child. Speaking engagements, TV appearances, and “the hustle” have kept Gary away from his family many, many times. The wine show, also known as “The Thunder Show,” only added to the commitments that threaten the already precarious work-life balance that exists. In the case of Steve Jobs, the man has been fighting real serious health problems for years. While he has taken Apple to previously unimaginable success as the world’s biggest corporation (in terms of market capitalization), his family and health took a back seat.

I am actually quite happy that both of these heroes of mine are taking back some of their lives. Vaynerchuk has a lot of years of hustle left in him, and he isn’t really “going away.” Jobs, on the other hand, is nearing the end. Imagine how much worse the news would have been if the headline read, “Steve Jobs Drops Dead In A Conference Room At Apple Campus.”

Life is to be lived. Work is a necessary part of life, but there’s much more to life than working. What do you want your legacy to be?


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Quote From Steve Jobs at the iPad 2 Announcement

By on March 3, 2011 | Category: Article, Link

“This is worth repeating. It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology is not enough. It’s tech married with the liberal arts and the humanities. Nowhere is that more true than in the post-PC products. Our competitors are looking at this like it’s the next PC market. That is not the right approach to this. These are post-PC devices that need to be easier to use than a PC, more intuitive.”

As Robert Scoble noted via Twitter, “One other thing about Jobs. Every single sentence he says is tweetable/quotable. Every one. Communication clarity. Unmatched in industry.” Well-said, Robert. And I completely agree.

Link: Engadget


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