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A Call to All UI Designers: Do Not Play Skype’s Game

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Re: A Call to All UI Designers: Do Not Play Skype’s Game

#21

Post by tzs »

larrik wrote: post #5

Am I the only one who thinks there's way too much similarity between the the RIAA's "Save the artists" screeching, and the "design industry's" "Save the artists" screeching? Your existing business model is disappearing, and your cartel isn't going to stop it. Sucks for you. (BTW, my wife is a graphic designer, so make of that what you will)

First they came for the musician's business model, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a musician.

Then they came for the designer's business model, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a designer.

...

Re: A Call to All UI Designers: Do Not Play Skype’s Game

#22

Post by roc »

larrik wrote: post #5

Am I the only one who thinks there's way too much similarity between the the RIAA's "Save the artists" screeching, and the "design industry's" "Save the artists" screeching? Your existing business model is disappearing, and your cartel isn't going to stop it. Sucks for you. (BTW, my wife is a graphic designer, so make of that what you will)

Hopefully. Because at any level of abstraction below 'high orbit', the comparison completely fails.

The most important and glaring difference that your abstraction completely ignores, is that the RIAA's audience is governments and their goal is to see laws enacted that will have wide ranging impact on music and computing.

Designers' audience is would-be customers and other designers. Their goal is educating customers on the difference between a $100 logo and an identity package that costs orders of magnitude more, and educating other designers on the impact of trying to compete with the $100 logo on price.

Designers have no cartel. They have no legal/lobbying arm. They've never controlled distribution or access. They've never been multiply convicted of illegal vertical integration and horizontal collusion. They aren't trying to see your rights legislated away to protect the comfortable industry monopoly they have never had.

Re: A Call to All UI Designers: Do Not Play Skype’s Game

#25

Post by radley »

benologist wrote: post #10

A Call to All UI Designers: You're being disrupted. There's millions of amateurs and pros moonlighting for extra cash all over the world, and they're all hungrier, cheaper, and want to work whether it's for fun or for money. For every established designer who sneers at Skype's competition there'll be 1000 who submit and cross their fingers hoping a) their work reaches 10s of millions of people and b) Skype or others…

Yeah, we're not (being disrupted).

The difference between doing a Skype redesign for a contest and doing it in a classroom or for a client is the experience. In the latter, you get constructive feedback - which you build upon over the years and directly makes you a professional.

A contest doesn't teach a designer anything and provides the wrong kind of feedback: reinforcing wishfulness over strategy, accuracy, and insight.

New designers have wishfulness in spades but lack the knowledge of how to turn it into a career. Experienced designers have learned the hard way that contests seem like a good idea but they're a terrible waste of time and emotion.

Re: A Call to All UI Designers: Do Not Play Skype’s Game

#26

Post by webwright »

larrik wrote: post #5

Am I the only one who thinks there's way too much similarity between the the RIAA's "Save the artists" screeching, and the "design industry's" "Save the artists" screeching? Your existing business model is disappearing, and your cartel isn't going to stop it. Sucks for you. (BTW, my wife is a graphic designer, so make of that what you will)

"Your existing business model is disappearing".

No, it's not. It's changing-- just like programming.

Non-consultative design is eminently outsource-able. Many many businesses can thrive with a "good enough" logo or site theme from 99Designs or PageForest... Just like most businesses can thrive with Drupal or WordPress for most of their needs (supported by a $15/hr offshore developer) instead of hiring a programmer.

If you're a designer or a developer, your best protection is being good at solving Hard Problems(tm) that are Core to the Business.

A Bed and Breakfast will never hire an expensive resource for their logo or contact form. But they WILL buy nice mattresses and sheets.

A startup will go to great lengths to buy a crappy used desk on Craigslist for pennies, but will generally NOT skimp on developers or product design if they can help it.

The days of getting paid $95/hr for making something pretty or simple form/database work are coming to an end. But the opportunity for designer/developers who can demonstrably help sales/revenue are EXPLODING.

Re: A Call to All UI Designers: Do Not Play Skype’s Game

#27

Post by hernan7 »

joblessjunkie wrote: post #4

You are trapped in the same Hell as other creative types, such as musicians: there are countless young aspirants who are willing to do this work for free just for a shot at "making it", but precious few people who sign checks who are able to discriminate the quality of the work. Engineering and accounting, your two comparison fields, don't suffer this problem.

What it feels like being disrupted, when you are a musician:

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/showthread.php?2664517-W...

This is the tale of an ex-pro cover band player finding himself out of work, and coming to grips with the realization that the amateurs are not to blame, after all.

Re: A Call to All UI Designers: Do Not Play Skype’s Game

#28

Post by mcritz »

raganwald wrote: post #9

The question of free or cheap is important, but not why I would not submit a design to a competition like this. (I'm not a "designer," so what follows are simply general remarks about my personal experience with things like this.) Software design of all types, including UX, is an attempt to solve a problem given a set of constraints. There are thus three things involved: 1) solving, 2) the problem, and 3) the constra…

The assumption that too many people are making is that design is just that last thing to be welded on in the assembly line. Design isn’t just a product, it’s also a process.

Re: A Call to All UI Designers: Do Not Play Skype’s Game

#29

Post by bonch »

"Such Design competitions are a disguised form of crowdsourcing, and are extremely insulting to the design profession."

Oh, come off it. Too many designers become smug asses with an unwarranted sense of importance. Competitions like this are opportunities for those just starting to get their name out in the world. You're not going to be put out on the street because Skype held a public UI contest rather than hiring your firm.

Re: A Call to All UI Designers: Do Not Play Skype’s Game

#30

Post by raganwald »

mcritz wrote: post #28
raganwald wrote: post #9

The question of free or cheap is important, but not why I would not submit a design to a competition like this. (I'm not a "designer," so what follows are simply general remarks about my personal experience with things like this.) Software design of all types, including UX, is an attempt to solve a problem given a set of constraints. There are thus three things involved: 1) solving, 2) the problem, and 3) the constra…

The assumption that too many people are making is that design is just that last thing to be welded on in the assembly line. Design isn’t just a product, it’s also a process.

It does not surprise me in the least that the people who produced the Skype 5 "design" also treat design as something to be welded on at the end of the assembly line.

Design isn’t just a product, it’s also a process.

Thank you for articulating in nine words what took me eight paragraphs to fumble around.

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