From the article:
> There is no way in hell any company would launch an engineering or accounting competition.
A Call to All UI Designers: Do Not Play Skype’s Game
31–40 of 87 posts
Re: A Call to All UI Designers: Do Not Play Skype’s Game
#32This post is nothing more than propaganda to protect established designers from competition (those who are starting out or are just not very good at marketing their skills). Perhaps this was not the author's intention but it is the consequence of his reasoning. I don't think many designer want their profession to be protected by a trade union and this kind of mentality is what leads to it. I say, if you are not an es…
I'm a very experienced designer. This has nothing to do with competition (seriously, if a contest can unravel me then I'm not really a professional).
The rejection of contests has to do with wasting time on wishful thinking without even the minimum form of reward: constructive feedback.
Our advice is based on actual experience. What's yours?
Re: A Call to All UI Designers: Do Not Play Skype’s Game
#33You 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.
Engineering, accounting, and other +regulated+ fields use social engineering to solve the problem of how to be paid handsomely. What they have done is convince society that there should only be a limited number of engineers and accountants, those that are highly trained and have passed rigorous examinations. The imbalance of supply and demand takes care of the rest. In those two fields, you can see that when supply i…
Engineering, accounting, and other +regulated+ fields use social engineering to solve the problem of how to be paid handsomely. What they have done is convince society that there should only be a limited number of engineers and accountants, those that are highly trained and have passed rigorous examinations.
Yes, they've made an argument to society. And that argument is not entirely empty or "social engineering". With engineers, the argument is that the cost of, say, a bridge failure, is borne by not just the bridge builders but the people who might be driving on the bridge at the time of failure.
Thus society, and not just the individual paying for the work, has an interest in requiring that certain work is done competently.
It seems like a reasonable - it may be applied wrong -headedly or corruptly in places but for limited areas it seems entirely reasonable.
You could answer that argument but when you just label the argument "social engineer" it more like your engaging in this yourself by dismissing the argument without engaging it.
Re: A Call to All UI Designers: Do Not Play Skype’s Game
#34Why does nobody mention that this competition is for "chat styles"? That the content of the chat window is the only part of the new oh-so-awful Skype 5 for Mac that you can change with custom "styles", and that no matter how good the UI/UX designer, they can not fix any of the perceived problems with the Skype 5 UI by creating a "chat style"?
Re: A Call to All UI Designers: Do Not Play Skype’s Game
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Engineering, accounting, and other +regulated+ fields use social engineering to solve the problem of how to be paid handsomely. What they have done is convince society that there should only be a limited number of engineers and accountants, those that are highly trained and have passed rigorous examinations. The imbalance of supply and demand takes care of the rest. In those two fields, you can see that when supply i…
Engineering, accounting, and other +regulated+ fields use social engineering to solve the problem of how to be paid handsomely. What they have done is convince society that there should only be a limited number of engineers and accountants, those that are highly trained and have passed rigorous examinations. Yes, they've made an argument to society. And that argument is not entirely empty or "social engineering". Wit…
Politicians manipulate people's behaviour by appealing to their perceived best interest. So do companies marketing products. So do the Society of Engineers and the College of Physicians. Come to think of it, so do unions.
Is there any "reasonableness" to their position? You can decide for yourself. If you don't like the expression "social engineering," I'm perfectly happy with "Engineers manipulate public behaviour to solve the problem of how to be paid handsomely."
Whether that manipulation is in society's best interests is another argument, and yes I am avoiding it.*
* "Avoiding it" does not mean that I disagree with your point.
Re: A Call to All UI Designers: Do Not Play Skype’s Game
#36The 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.
But "not a product, also a process" is also a tactic used by some designers to justify rustproofing, like long up-front wireframing sessions or market studies. It's the customer's decision how much process they want, not the designer's.
I think probably every professional service field has this problem; there's a core transactional gig that most clients want and there's a series of services that consultants want to upsell alongside that gig. We have it in security, I know it exists in legal, it probably exists in accounting, too.
Re: A Call to All UI Designers: Do Not Play Skype’s Game
#37This post is nothing more than propaganda to protect established designers from competition (those who are starting out or are just not very good at marketing their skills). Perhaps this was not the author's intention but it is the consequence of his reasoning. I don't think many designer want their profession to be protected by a trade union and this kind of mentality is what leads to it. I say, if you are not an es…
I'm a very experienced designer. This has nothing to do with competition (seriously, if a contest can unravel me then I'm not really a professional). The rejection of contests has to do with wasting time on wishful thinking without even the minimum form of reward: constructive feedback. Our advice is based on actual experience. What's yours?
This has nothing to do with competition? That's not what I get from this sentence:
keep in mind that you are *betraying the design community*,
and that *might harm you as designer* in the long run.
Re: A Call to All UI Designers: Do Not Play Skype’s Game
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I happen to know the guys who designed Skype for Mac.
And by no metrics did they simply weld it on at the end.
There are many many many factors involved in why Skype looks like it do and works like it does, but treating the design as something to be welded on at the end ain't one of them nor is not having a process.
Re: A Call to All UI Designers: Do Not Play Skype’s Game
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I happen to know the guys who designed Skype for Mac. And by no metrics did they simply weld it on at the end. There are many many many factors involved in why Skype looks like it do and works like it does, but treating the design as something to be welded on at the end ain't one of them nor is not having a process.
I'm delighted to hear that. It is restores my faith in our profession to know that there is a process in place and that the final result reflects the forces and contraints in place.
+1!
Re: A Call to All UI Designers: Do Not Play Skype’s Game
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
But "not a product, also a process" is also a tactic used by some designers to justify rustproofing, like long up-front wireframing sessions or market studies. It's the customer's decision how much process they want, not the designer's. I think probably every professional service field has this problem; there's a core transactional gig that most clients want and there's a series of services that consultants want to u…
Design is a process. It is not the customer's decision how much process they want, rather it is the customer's decision how much process they want to do themselves and how much they want to do in conjunction with a designer.
Likewise the designer gets to choose how much of the process they wish to be involved in. If the customer wants to do almost all of the work and simply bring in a designer to apply chrome, some designers do that, others demur and spend their time with customers who wish to collaborate on the full design life cycle.
It's a wonderful world full of choices to be made. So yes, we agree that it's ok for some customers not to employ designers to consult with them, and I hope we agree it's ok for some designers to pass on said customers.