Becoming a Graphic and Digital Designer

249 Section Four Chapter Fifteen Designing Apps For Mobile Devices For the time being anyway, they are their hyphenation, orphans, widows, and time spent on a device can be measured. own enclosed entity. Supporting a truly so on. The conversation we need to Though advertisers still evaluate convenient search function on mobile have now is about programming tools, magazines in terms of circulation, devices is still dicey. It is a conundrum so that we can demand better control they soon will wake up to the fact that the industry has yet to solve. of the quality of the texts and the that what counts is engagement. images. We must get back what we On smart phones, with headlines have lost in our eagerness to convert You are now Chief Digital Officer being more appealing than images, to the digital format. at Galvanized, a media firm that is the status of photographs and provides digital content and audience illustrations about to change? It’s interesting to see that Web engagement. What is your role there? A change is noticeable in the relation- designers are now embracing wide I am focusing on overall strategy. Only ship between text and images. Men’s screen and luscious layouts—some- 50 percent of major magazines have Health is a good example. The infor- times called “flat design”—with a digital editions. Among them, some mation-rich content, with description more thoughtful design approach. are just putting PDF versions of their of fitness routines, workout techniques, E-magazine designers should do pages on tablets! Needless to say, most and nutritional facts, lends itself to a the same. But how can we convince magazines are a long way from adapt- new sort of interaction. It can be very the powers that be—the people who ing their editorial content to iPhones. exciting, with frame-by-frame anima- decide what e-pub is—that quality is At long last, I am in a position to help tions in some instances. Imagery no important and that it’s not acceptable people launch digital magazines— longer merely illustrates text—its role to settle for less than perfect standards? something I love to do. And because I is to reinforce comprehension, enjoy- am still basically an art director, I can ment, design, brand, user experience, What sort of tools do you have to ask the question, “How would it look? and so on. measure the quality of the user How could you present your informa- experience? tion in the smartest possible way?” As With Vogue, it’s a little different I can get reports on who reads what, an advocate of e-publishing on mobile because fashion photographs are always when, and on what device—all that devices, I believe that it is possible to retouched, and it’s more complicated kind of stuff. That information is preserve what we love about magazines to retouch animations. What works easily accessible. But in the end, how in this new form. best are video interviews of fashion you interpret this data is a matter of designers. Readers can spend 10 minutes intuition. What is clear is that on the listening to celebrities talk about their iPhone, people don’t want to shop or personal views and philosophy. These watch videos or movies anymore— videos are not in-and-out, one-minute they want to read. So, how do we make clips, as is so often the case on the web, this reading experience really, really but leisurely conversations that can great? And how do we accomplish yield more information and insight this across devices? Today, there are than a printed interview ever could. no guidelines on what that experience should be or could be. How do you define excellence on the digital frontier? The problem is that before anyone To define excellence, the overall digital has time to figure out what works best experience would have to be reeval- on the iPhone 4, the iPhone 5 comes uated. We art directors in e-pub have out. There is a level of fatigue there. been too quick to accept less than One thing remains true: Readers will perfect design and typography: bad spend time with beautiful, well-re- searched, well-designed articles. And

250 Michel Chanaud Michel Chanaud is editor-in-chief of Etapes magazine, a French publication on graphic design and the visual Always Learning culture. He is also president of Pyramyd, a company that offers seminars and workshops for professionals in the Etapes Magazine Cover #218 publishing, advertising, graphic, and communication fields. Art Director: Michel Chanaud “We’ve managed to remain a relatively small structure,” 2014 he says. “At Etapes, on the 3rd floor, we are about 20 people altogether. On any given day, I might act as the publisher, the editor-in-chief, and the art director. We all do everything. We are practicing our profession as if it were a craft.” However, at Pyramyd, on the 4th floor, the 10 classrooms are abuzz with people eager to keep up with the latest multimedia tools, digital technologies, and software upgrades. Can you explain your role at An important piece of this puzzle is Pyramyd? “e:,” an application for the iPhone Twenty years ago, when I created and iPad, which you introduced Pyramyd, my ambition was to “form about four years ago. Weren’t you and inform” the design community in ahead of the curve? France. No one at the time knew what Technology is what drives my graphic design was, even though it passion. Even when computers were was ubiquitous. I wanted to make its big clunky machines, I thought of them presence known! as creative tools. In the 1980s, I was a designer, but I also imported hardware Today, my company does just that: and software—I was a Mac dealer of We “form and inform.” We offer work- sorts. Ever since, I have kept up with shops and seminars to “form” design- innovations. Early on, we developed ers and creative types—to help them an interactive website for Etapes. keep up with the latest trends and For a while, we published CD-ROMs software upgrades. We also “inform” featuring animations. Turning a blog them by publishing books on topics into an application was the next thing, that range from calligraphy to codes, but in 2010, when I launched e:, I had and from grids to graffiti. We publish a no idea whether I would be able to magazine, Etapes. It features the works make money with it. No one did. We of young designers and emerging tal- yet had to explore the concept of “free” ents. We print essays, interviews, and download and understand how it could critical pieces. Etapes is in France what be economically viable. Eye magazine is in England.

251 Section Four Chapter Fifteen Designing Apps For Mobile Devices Screen Capture of e: Application for iPhones and iPads Art Director: Michel Chanaud And today? Would you agree that the technology In the app, we have streamlined text Today, I still do not have a viable defines the form and content of a to a minimum to deliver visuals in a economic model for it! I am still in message? more intuitive fashion so that you can the red—even though more than You bet. New products and techno- navigate up and down and sideways 50,000 people have downloaded logical breakthroughs will create new with one thumb instead of two. We the app. These people are not Etapes forms. One example: the Push Pin have learned that people seldom use subscribers; they do not buy our style. It would never have existed links on an app. If they want to explore a books or attend our workshops or without the new adhesive-colored topic in depth, they’ll go to their tablet seminars. They are a breed apart. It’s films developed by 3M that allowed or laptop. not surprising. Readers in general illustrators to obtain brilliant, flat, expect different information from color surfaces. Are you exploring different economic different devices. You don’t want to models for your app? find the same stuff on your tablet, Technology influences the form but Yes, of course. We eliminated the idea your phone, your laptop, [and] your also the content. The sort of informa- of using it to create a social network computer screen. tion you’ll find in our app is unlike and capitalize on our membership. We what you’ll find in your magazine: We simply don’t have the manpower or the Did you know that 50 percent of seldom feature the same designers financial resources for this strategy. people access the Internet from a in both media, and when we do, our Meanwhile, there is a new generation mobile application? It’s a little bit approach is totally different. On the of Web surfers out there who are will- like getting your news from the app, we offer a service: easy access to ing to pay to get better apps, without radio. It all adds up—without the news. In the magazine, we propose advertising. We could simply sell our source of the information being a mixture of eye candies and food app to them. Quite a few people in the identifiable as such. for thought.

252 Screen Captures of e: Application for iPhones and iPads Art Director: Michel Chanaud creative field might be willing to pay requires its own specific form of zine into an actual space. It would be a to get it. communication because of its specific cross between a gallery, a pop-up store, technology, but also because of the a gift shop, an artist’s studio, and a per- There is also another option, called synergy between all of them. However, formance space. Such a project would “Freemium,” a contraction of “free” it’s never what you expected. Take the make perfect sense. The only problem and “premium.” More and more online magazine, for instance: Sure, we want is that it would require we learn yet newspapers have adopted this formula. to make it “interactive.” We try. But is it another profession! It consists of giving free access to basic really what it’s all about? A magazine is information, but then requiring read- precious because it fixes your memory ers to become paying subscribers to in one place. Truth be told, you don’t get the full story. want a magazine or a book to be inter- active; quite the contrary. You want it Has Etapes, the magazine, evolved to be a thing on a shelf. as the result of the application? Yes. One of the challenges has been So you think that there is defini- to make the magazine more like the tively a place for print in our digital application: Make it part of the digital culture? information stream. We are experi- Yes. More and more, printed matter menting all the time. Recently, we have is looked upon as a physical object. printed at the bottom of some pages Designing a magazine is not unlike a visual code in the form of a button designing a table, a chair, or a lamp. that can be scanned by an iPhone or a Creating a book is not very different laptop to open up links to Web pages. from designing an exhibition or a gallery show. That’s why we are toying What is fascinating for me is to try with the idea of expanding the maga- to understand how each device—a tablet, a phone, a magazine, a book—

253 Section Four Chapter Fifteen Designing Apps For Mobile Devices John Kilpatrick Designer as Accelerator John Kilpatrick has spent his career building new digital products and teams for both start-ups and large media organizations. He is CEO of an online app called Cabin, a Samsung Accelerator Company. Prior to that he was senior vice president and executive creative director for News Corp’s iPad app, The Daily, for which he helped launch the company and ran the creative team. He was also vice president and group creative director for AOL Media, where he led the interactive design team, develop- ing new digital media products and content for more than 80 websites. In his current position, he oversees many quick-hit prototypes. “We build, refine, test,” he says. “After we land on a solid MVP candidate, we then shift to building a product that we can go to market with.” The process continues with a framework that we could go live with, leveraging a mix of both open-source tech and custom-built capabilities.” Cabin App How did you develop Cabin, a Like any good designer, I’m very Executive Director: John Kilpatrick remarkable app that allows members influenced by my environment. And in Creative Director: Ramon Espinosa of a family to stay in touch with each this case, my environment was my wife Art Director: Dami You other all day long, seamlessly, simply, and two kids. They all had a huge hand and comfortably? in shaping the final product and helped From the very beginning, we were a us create a tool for the most important company founded by three designers— network in our lives: family. myself, Frank Campanella, and Ramon Espinosa. We worked together to Your background is in graphic develop the initial design and created design. What makes your start-ups the initial concept. different from those that do not have designers as founders? In the beginning, we designed and There’s such an eclectic mix of start-ups rapidly prototyped several concepts, these days, solving a wildly diverse and we used our personal experiences range of problems. So I don’t think it’s of interacting with our own families necessarily mandatory for start-ups to to shape the idea. We continued to have a designer as a founder. However, work and refine the product. But, most it does offer some definite benefits. importantly, we listened and watched As designers, our brains are just others use Cabin.

254 Cabin App trained to approach problems in Design is important to you. But Executive Director: John Kilpatrick a really unique way. We can’t help why is it important for the start-ups Creative Director: Ramon Espinosa ourselves but to dig for the simplest, you are working on? Art Director: Dami You easiest, most frictionless route to a New technology is getting easier and solution. And with today’s consumer easier to create. With today’s user- tech start-ups playing in such a visual friendly publishing tools and robust space, that kind of eye can be very, open APIs, and so on. it’s easier than very useful. ever to make your own application or Web product. And with all this added When you’re dealing with the competition, it becomes that much precious real estate of a phone screen, more important to design a user expe- every pixel has to count. It forces rience that stands out in this crowded hard decisions to be made. And landscape. those decisions are hugely important to the way consumers interact with the product.

255 Section Four Chapter Fifteen Designing Apps For Mobile Devices Also, what is the role of the designer Do the designers take part as workers company is changing as well. (or, in some cases, designers) in your or founders? Ten years ago you’d be hard pressed accelerators? At the Samsung Accelerator, we keep At most companies, designers sit in a our teams very small on purpose. So to find a CEO who came up through dark room with their heads down. But everyone does the work, designers and the design ranks (just like myself). at the Samsung Accelerator and on each founders alike. I spend as much time But now I’m just one of many. Today, team working within, designers have a answering customers’ e-mails as I do some of the world’s most powerful and seat at the table. They have the opportu- making larger product decisions. And influential companies are headed by nity to not only shape the look and feel everyone on our team, regardless of designers and creatives. And that isn’t a of the product but also to help steer the their title, has a say in the direction of trend I see changing anytime soon. overall product and company. our company. I like to build consensus amongst the team anytime there’s a How much of your role is on the What are the attributes you look for major decision to be made. That’s just design side? in designers joining your team? my style. I’m still very active in the day-to-day Samsung Accelerator is built around design process, when I can be, though being nimble and reactive. So anyone Do you believe that designers are I definitely remember what it’s like to joining our team needs to be ready to more or less in demand in today’s have a design director looking over my turn on a dime and take on the jobs start-up world? shoulder, so I try to give my designers that need to be done—even if those I think designers are more in demand the distance and breathing room that tasks don’t fall under their official “job today than ever before, not just in they need to do their best work. But I description.” We’re a very multidisci- the start-up community, but in every still have a lot of love for design, and plinary team and everyone wears a lot industry and at every level of business. I try to get my hands dirty as often as of hats around here. We also look for And the role of designers within a possible in nitty-gritty design work. people who are self-directed. People who don’t need a direct assignment to take action, but can recognize a problem and take the steps to solve it. How do you identify these designers? Through the years, I’ve been lucky enough to work with some of the best thinkers and designers out there. So that’s the first place I look for talent: my network that I’ve created in my career. But I also believe that the best recruiting tool you have as a CEO is your own team. Your employees are a deep well of talent—talent that’s already been vetted. Not just vetted based on their skills, but vetted as a solid culture fit for your existing team.

256 Nicolas Ledoux Nicolas Ledoux and Pascal Béjean are principals of a and small Paris branding and graphic design agency called Pascal Béjean ABM Studio—short for “Art, Book, Magazine”—the name of their e-bookstore app. With Oliver Körner, they design Digital Books and Magazines books, catalogs, publications, and brochures for their by Contemporary Artists virtual publishing house as well as for a number of French cultural institutions, including the famous Théâtre Art Book Magazine App Nanterre-Amandiers. “Like most of our friends and Catalog: L’incident colleagues, we worried about the future of print, the Art Director: ABM Studio dumbing down of intellectual content, and the greed 2013 demonstrated by distribution channels,” they say. So they have gone ahead and created an online alternative to high-quality, paper-based publishing. How did you come up with the idea prove that the Web could give indepen- of publishing artist books for iPads? dent publishers access to readers who Over the years, we have launched and want something different, original, and published quite a few experimental exclusive. Our artist books are for sale, magazines, each one exploring a at prices that are frankly affordable. different facet of our involvement with cutting-edge graphic design and the Why is your app only available on contemporary art scene. All along, we iPads and not on other tablets? have been in touch with a network The introduction of the iPad was of designers and artists with whom truly a breakthrough, but the thing we share information, resources, and that attracted us to this revolutionary projects. We are distressed when we device is the fact that Apple users are see bookstores promoting cookbooks design-conscious, more so than most rather than art books. people. We were pretty sure that our application would appeal to them. At the same time, we are fascinated by new technological breakthroughs However, this is just a first step, as and have in our studio a savvy we would like eventually to break our program developer with whom we “Apple dependency” and explore other collaborate to create apps. We saw an delivery systems. The App Store is opportunity to fill a gap by designing indeed a convenient tool for beginners an application that proposes books by like us, but it imposes a price structure artists online. Our goal is to set high that is too restrictive when it comes to standards of quality. We wanted to artist books.

257 Section Four Chapter Fifteen Designing Apps For Mobile Devices Art Book Magazine App You have designed an interface for vinyl, or paper products and replaced Vertical Interface your app that is perplexing at first: it with colorful flat icons, the naviga- Art Director: ABM Studio It doesn’t use the graphic codes that tional vocabulary of Apple’s interfaces 2013 Apple users have grown accustomed is still old-fashioned in our estimation. to. Why did you choose to disorient your readers? What we wanted to do is reinvent We were reacting against the Apple the experience of buying books online aesthetic of the last few years, with so that it would be in synch with the its rampant “skeuomorphism”—fake digital realm rather than the analog wood shelves, fake on-off buttons, and world. One of our concerns was to fake torn paper and leather for the create a comfortable and serene calendar, and so on. Even though iOS7 graphic space, far from the noisy cleaned up all references to Formica, visual environment of so many online bookstores.

258 Typography on the Web Did you think that your potential Art Book Magazine App readers were people who were Catalog: Our House in the By Jason Santa Maria critical of the quasi-universal visual Middle of the Street standards established and enforced Designer: P. Nicolas Ledoux Typography is absolutely essential. by Apple? 2013 The vast majority of the Web is text, It wasn’t a consideration, really. and where there’s text, there’s an However, we were aware that the Apple from scratch. We collaborate with opportunity to communicate through graphic guidelines had been created to some artists to conceptualize their typography. It’s transportable, accommodate all sorts of constraints editorial project. For others, we suggest translatable, and the very stuff we having to do with the codes of mar- ways to create interaction. We can have use to talk to one another across keting and global communication. We an impact graphically, or we can act as time and space. And typography is didn’t have to worry about that graphic editorial consultants, art directors, or at the very core of that experience nonsense. We believed that our readers production managers. on the Web. were ready for a challenge that would stimulate their imagination. The real challenge today is to define The constraints of a boundless Web the difference between a printed book page may seem difficult to wrap Are you involved in the conceptual, and a digital book. You need to exploit your head around, but it really graphic, or technical development the new opportunities, blur the bound- comes down to the absence of rigid of the books you are publishing? aries, stimulate contradictions— control in typographic presentation. Yes, quite often. We get involved in other words, you need to reinvent Methods for typesetting on the Web wherever our expertise is needed. the experience of the book as such. have come a long way in recent Sometimes we create our own books years, but more importantly, they We learned from the demise of the rely most heavily on suggested CD-ROMs. We are convinced that typographic style than a fixed digital books must not break away experience. The fluid nature of what a Web page can even be is what makes things so exciting. The ability to tailor typography for a situation, even beyond a desktop or a mobile device, means you are designing to be flexible for myriad potential experiences. The biggest challenge I face is helping people understand that the Web is not print. It sounds like it would be obvious, and the two mediums do overlap in areas, but they are very different in terms of the user experience. People interact with a Website differently than they do with a fixed medium like print, and the design of a Website needs to be understanding of that fact. At the same time, centuries worth of design principles don’t immediately transfer to the Web in the same ways. Many graphic designers think the Web is a barren place for design, when the reality is they are proclaiming they lack an under- standing of the medium.

259 Section Four Chapter Fifteen Designing Apps For Mobile Devices completely from publishing traditions please. When you discover the work Art Book Magazine App but, on the contrary, must capitalize of a painter on one of our books, the Catalog: Our House in the on our historical heritage, know-how, impression is very intense because it’s Middle of the Street and savoir faire. Sure, you can publish personal. The feeling of immersion (above) an ordinary digital book in a few clicks is total. The tablet does not exclude Designer: P. Nicolas Ledoux and for practically no money. It would enjoying traditional publications— 2013 look basically like a Word file. But pub- it is just another way of being absorbed lishing a good digital book takes a lot in the content of a book. Art Book Magazine App of work! Those few clicks require that Catalog: Didier Courbot the content of the book be completely You have chosen to appeal to readers (bottom) integrated with its form in a way that who appreciate contemporary art and, Art Director: ABM Studio is both technologically relevant and thus, are most likely to be curious 2013 ergonomically correct. about the power and possibilities of digital images. Do you know There are no norms yet for what what motivates your customers to constitutes a good digital book. Readers buy your books? who are nostalgic about the feel One of the reasons they buy our books is and beauty of traditional books are to express their support of our venture. suspicious of digital books, and rightly They want to believe that it’s possible, in so. Downloaded publications are our day and age, to develop independent standardized products that look alike publishing initiatives, and they express because they are generated by the same their point of view by collecting auton- software. The fear is that the online omous and unusual publications. They publishing industry, like the music want to take part a real alternative. industry, will only support highly pro- moted artists and only release the most conventional and profitable best sellers. Some of the books you publish emulate, electronically, the pleasure of “turning” pages. Yet, let’s face it, the tactile impression is not the same. What are the real advantages, for readers, of digital books? They are many advantages! First, the navigational options: the ease with which you access text, chapters, notes; the way you can zoom in and out; the addition of video and sound, not to mention the quality of the HD images. The tablet itself is a fascinating object. It gives readers access to spe- cific books but also to entire libraries. It is a virtual space, one in which you can go to explore content as you

260 Frédérique Krupa Games as Powerful Motivators Frédérique Krupa is a Web and documentation manager as well as a partner at Simple is Beautiful, a start-up that creates software for touch-screen, handheld devices. SiB’s first titles, DrumTrack8 and SpillPills, were released in 2009. A former editor at I.D. magazine and assistant professor of industrial design at RISD and University of Art, she is now Chair of Communication Design at Paris College of Art. “That was a two-decade long progression during which I learned to focus on the user’s experience,” she says. “I consider that the designer’s role is to be the advocate for the end user.” You were trained as a product design by handling the tedious business end and design critic. How did you go (i.e., sales and distribution). I consider from being an assistant editor at myself a designer in the widest sense I.D. magazine to developing apps of the word, and my work encompasses for games on touch-screen, handheld aspects of product design, graphic devices? design, user experience design, service I have a personality that enjoys manag- design, and game design. ing complexity, theorizing, optimizing, and analyzing structures and systems, You are also Chair of Communication but it took me a while to realize this Design at Paris College of Art. Does was a valuable (and relatively uncom- your interest in game design relate mon) skill. I ventured into Web design to the fact that you teach system in the late 90s for a company called design methodology and understand Virtools, a game-industry software complex processes? developer, and evolved in new media I’ve always split my time evenly from there. between industry and academia. I became chair of the department Simple is Beautiful’s app develop- because communication designers ment business evolved about five years have an important contribution to ago from a mutual frustration with make to the field of new media, and traditional software development. they need to understand how this We took advantage of the opportu- differs from the print industry. You nities that arose, thanks to Apple’s usually work in multidisciplinary touch-screen devices and the iTunes teams using core technology that App Store. This made small-scale, evolves very quickly on system-level independent software development projects rather than on linear economically viable for the first time

261 Section Four Chapter Fifteen Designing Apps For Mobile Devices MugguM Photography App processes. It can be a tough sell for What role does “graphics” play Side-by-Side Symmetrical Portraits students who are very “hands-on” or when designing a game? Is the Designer: Taylor Holland prefer working alone from start to quality of the visuals a very small Developers: Aymeric Bard and finish. But it’s important for students part of the equation? Frédérique Krupa/Simple is Beautiful to understand that there are design Aesthetics, in general, is an undervalued 2011 methods for managing complexity. part of the equation. “Visual quality” has been so caught up achieving My personal interest in games really photo-realism as a technological feat stems from wanting to understand that a game’s aesthetics was seen as user motivation. Games are powerful less important. Now we see that the motivators, provide a great deal of next-generation consoles are no longer satisfaction, and teach social cohesion. playing that card. So the game’s visual Understanding why someone plays quality will shift from technological can give great motivational guidance achievement to aesthetic experiences. when developing other types of I can’t think of an “ugly” game that software, such as for educational sells well. Even games like the Sims or or training purposes.

262 Minecraft (which I don’t appreciate, but Teams, expenses, and production my kids love) take an aesthetic stance schedules can vary enormously in and follow it through. There are some scope. Casual games for touch-screen amazing games like Limbo that are devices can be created in weeks by just gorgeous, even if the gameplay very small teams. Their gameplay is is macabre. obviously very limited. On the other end of the spectrum, Grand Theft Auto What sort of misconceptions do V has been in development for over students have regarding a career five years and has been one of the as a game designer? most expensive productions ever, When most people hear the word “game surpassing budgets normally devoted design,” they picture AAA titles for the to blockbusters. You play for 120 major game consoles to the detriment hours, and its script is better than of everything else. The industry is much, a Hollywood movie. much broader than that. First of all, there are nondigital games like boards games, Students don’t really know what’s card games, hybrid games, and so on. involved in game development, There are video game for PCs, phones, often confusing game artists, game tablets, handheld consoles. There are designers, and programmers. Game casual games, serious games, MMORPGs, designers spend more time writing educational games, and so on. than anything else; they develop the gameplay—including rules, structures, Smack That Gugl Girls and Games Action Strategy Game for iPhone Developers: Aymeric Bard and An increasing number of women ago. Girls have caught up as consumers Frédérique Krupa/Simple is Beautiful are graduating from art schools with of digital media, but this belief that by 2010 degrees in graphic design, communi- creating women comfortable with using cation, Web design, and design man- technology, we would be creating more agement, yet they are still significantly female content producers really has not underrepresented in most design fields— panned out. and particularly the male-dominated game design field. “I’m choosing to focus my research on the early years because we lose prob- Frédérique Krupa is doing PhD research ably half of the female demographic in sociological causes, particularly neg- by adolescence,” Krupra adds.”By the ative stereotypes and self-esteem issues. time they get to college, most women will “There’s been amazing research done not even consider a SET career (Science, here, but I regularly get told ‘girls aren’t Engineering, and Technology) because interested in video games’ or ‘boys they believe it is not ‘natural.’” are better at math’ when I tell people I am working on correcting this gender So Krupra is working on video games for imbalance,” she says. young kids because games are excellent vehicles for critical reflection. She wants These are gross stereotypes. Girls have them to question stereotypes and discov- now surpassed boys’ SAT math scores; er skills they may not have suspected. it was a 200 point difference when “If I can get more girls and boys excited Krupa was in high school 25 years about technology, all the better.”

263 Section Four Chapter Fifteen Designing Apps For Mobile Devices DrumTrackHD App, Drum Step Sequencer, Toolbar Developers: Aymeric Bard and Frédérique Krupa/Simple ss Beautiful goals. . . Game artists give visual form competitive, since it is one of the more More and more women are gradu- to the gameplay set up by the game “glamorous” technology industries. ating from design communication designers. One of my students was a And since video games have been schools and entering the workforce. walking bible of video game knowl- mostly designed and targeted for a As teachers, how do we prepare edge, and I suggested that she think male demographic, the profession them to become leaders in the about going into the profession. She is overwhelmingly male. various fields where communication said to me, “I couldn’t. I’m not good at is critical? math.” To which I responded, “Can you Why is the game design field male It’s important for women to develop write?” Public perception of software dominated? Is it changing? self-confidence, which is easier said development is that it’s 95 percent pro- The technology field has always been than done, and to learn to take risks— grammers on a team. It’s usually closer male dominated, and statistically, it’s even if it means failure. Failure is not to 35–50 percent. getting worse pretty much all over the a bad thing if you learn from your Western European and Anglo-Saxon mistakes. Feminine qualities that Would you say that most students countries. There’s been a tremendous are reinforced in education, that is, discover an interest for game design amount of attention being focused on discipline and perseverance, in the as they progress in their design this gender imbalance for at least 20 end make them better employees than studies, or is it something they always years, described as a leaky pipeline engineers. Women have a different knew they wanted to do? problem whereby women are aban- relationship to technology, one that As it stands now, the people who go doning or losing interest in science, is more cooperative than dominating. into game development are usually engineering, and technology (SET) Girls need to be encouraged and people who grew up playing video starting in elementary school, through- rewarded for risk-taking. games and have their sights squarely out their education, and into their set on that industry. It is highly early professional careers.

264 16 E-Commerce with a Soul Understanding how a brand lives in cyberspace is the first thing. However, getting involved with e-commerce also requires that you figure out how to translate the virtual brand image into its analog dimension. Sure, you can propose great products online, but the “unboxing” of the goods happens in the real world. The designers inter- viewed here are comfortable creating digital content, but they are also aware that the quality of the thing they sell makes the difference. Ethical and environmental factors, as well as aesthetic values, are very much on their mind. The good news is that you don’t the websites. The mini-outlets slowly need to sell the farm to explore morph into a full-fledged commer- the possibilities of this new form of cial venues. Burö Destruct in Bern, commerce. An increasing number of Switzerland, sells designer toys graphic designers create distinctively and hip art supplies. Vier5 in Paris, branded “indie” products they sell France, publishes a men’s fashion directly on their website. T-shirts and magazine and a very smart line of posters, but also fanzines, fonts, toys, clothes. Aaron Draplin in Portland, and home accessories are routinely Oregon, features Action Caps, Field available in their virtual gift shops. Notes Pencils, and Dock Beanies on The ventures may not bring in revenue, his carefully curated list of populist but they always enhance the identity “merch.” and credibility of their creators, many of them championing the idea that The next series of interviews graphic design can and should proj- features graphic designers who have ect itself into the third dimension. jumped ship and embraced e-com- merce as a full-time job. In some rare cases, these online stores become the raison d’être of

265 Section Four Chapter Sixteen E-Commerce with a Soul Randy J. Hunt Growing into a Job Randy J. Hunt, a graduate of the SVA MFA Design/ Designer as Author + Entrepreneur program, calls himself a designer and author. He leads design at Etsy, the global marketplace for independent creative busi- nesses. He proudly announces that the community of Etsy sellers sold more than $1.3 billion of merchandise in 2013. The products they sell range from handmade items to craft-manufactured design products, vintage goods, and supplies for making. Hunt came to Etsy as an interaction designer. By working alongside other designers, engineers, and people throughout the company, he evolved the role of interaction designer into what Etsy calls “product design” —a combined role of interaction design, UX design, interface design, and front-end engineering. He is responsible for ensuring the Etsy brand is not static. Holiday Seller Campaign 2013 What does Etsy mean? for design team growth as well. Designers: Melissa Deckert, The true meaning of the word “Etsy” Thankfully, other leaders at Etsy Nicole Licht, Jeremy Perez-Cruz is a secret known only to our founder, respected both design and my point Photography: Aaron Cameron Muntz Rob Kalin. Any stories you may have of view, and that allowed me to use heard about it are probably wrong. resources and have their trust in Or maybe they’re right. developing design inside the company and the community. How did you get your position? I grew and evolved into my current In your role, what are your position at Etsy. I was given the responsibilities? opportunity to grow that team and As the voice of design for and within eventually started what is now called Etsy, I work to make sure design is our “brand design” team as well—com- part of our strategic discussions and munication design, art direction, illus- informs and supports our decision tration, and design for advertising and making. This manifests itself most marketing needs. Along the way, I led clearly in the digital products we build and grew our product management, and in our brand communications, user research, and product marketing though it’s often integral to many teams as well. It was helpful that as the other parts of the company in less company was growing, so was I. Also, obvious ways. As a manager, my role the company’s growth drove the need is to make sure that designers have the

266 Etsy iPad App Designer: Chesley Andrews Holiday Seller Campaign 2013 (opposite) Designers: Melissa Deckert, Nicole Licht, Jeremy Perez-Cruz Photography: Aaron Cameron Muntz information, resources, trust, and col- When designing for an online com- elegantly solving problems. Also, laborators they need to get great work pany like this, what are the major I’m always looking for what we call done. As leader inside the company, responsibilities to the client? “world class and quietly awesome.” I work to set a great example and One: preserving and amplifying the That means stellar work and low ego. offer inspiration and guidance—often values and value of the brand. Two: employing design to help make that facilitating scalability in both concept Are there different kinds of design happen—to help us fulfill the company’s and execution of design work. skills that come to the fore in the mission to reimagine commerce in digital age and space? ways that build a more fulfilling and You have a large staff, and growing. There are three skills that tend to be lasting world. What do you look for in designers? increasingly applicable: I look for designers with strong Does “leading” give you enough fundamental design skills, typography 1. Time-based design: Interaction and opportunity to design? most of all. I find the people who user experience design is designing I work from the point of view that understand good typography also for experiences that take place over anything can be approached as a understand systems thinking, infor- time. Understanding the arc of an designer. These days I design high- mation organization and hierarchy, experience over time is crucial. level strategy, and I design teams. and it’s a good way to judge their taste “Flows, not pages” we like to say. From time to time, I have the chance level. Beyond that, I’m looking for to engage in more elemental design people who can communicate very 2. Systems thinking: The context of our work at Etsy, and also in projects I well in written and spoken venues choices are often complex systems. do in my leisure time. I’m equally and who have an interest in problem Being able to understand and design satisfied and fulfilled with designing solving more than beauty making. The kits of parts and process that adapt all along that spectrum. elegant designs tend to come out of to various inputs and circumstances is crucial.

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268 3. Software engineering: much of what we’re designing is powered by and enabled by software. Being able to manipulate software is a powerful skill. These aren’t the only skills that come in handy though, and so perhaps the most valuable of all is the interest and willingness to learn new skills. For those looking to work in this online world, what should they show to get hired? Great typography, a willingness to learn, entrepreneurial spirit, and designs for complex systems that they’ve put in front of real audiences and then iterated based on feedback and learnings. Because we work in complex systems and address complex problems, designers who can write and can share their process are most prepared to succeed. Fundamental communication skills apply. Activity Feed Designer: Jung Park

269 Section Four Chapter Sixteen E-Commerce with a Soul Lucy Sisman Online Editorial Ventures Lucy Sisman is the principal of MiddleBlue, an online store that sells shirts, bags, accessories, and scarves made from saris by rural women from a small town near Bolpur in the Birbhum district of West Bengal, India. She also launched wwword, a website for all “readers, writers, illiterates, browsers, time wasters, mavens, and bores, and all those who use, abuse, love, and hate the English language.” Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, she was an award-winning creative director (for Allure magazine, Mademoiselle, and Details), an advertising art director, a brand and corporate identity designer, and a packaging designer. Allure Magazine What did you like most about being from asking the right questions to “Highbrow Eyebrows” a magazine art director? using the right pencil. Client: Conde Nast I loved working in magazines. I loved Art Director: Lucy Sisman the pace, the drama, the discipline, Yet, somehow, you never “signed 1991 the diversity of my job—from quiet up.” Even as the founding art moments working on layouts; crazy director of Allure magazine, you deadlines and all-nighters; bullish, remained a freelancer. Why? rowdy competitive meetings; long There is something about working collaborative hours in the studio or for somebody else that I just don’t on location inventing images—and all like. I wanted to feel that I could just with someone else picking up the bill. walk out if it got too unreasonable I knew I loved design. My father had or unbearably punishing. Of course, been a designer, and as a child I used to I never did, but all the time I worked help him, so I knew something about at Allure I kept my own office. So the way a designer worked. What when I finally left Condé Nast, I first appealed to me about design went back and built it back up. still intrigues and delights me: I like the tidiness of a well-thought-out I was determined not to be pigeon- design solution, the simplicity when holed into one area of design: I liked everything falls into place. I’ve always working on editorial, advertising, believed that, if a designer does thor- books, corporate identities, branding, ough and exhaustive research at the logos, packaging, TV, and video— beginning of any job, then it will work and I wanted young, energetic people out well. Research can mean anything around me who enjoyed working on a wide range of things, too.

270 Paper: Sixties Issue During that time, you became quite ing with temperamental employees, Client: Paper magazine successful as a branding consultant. struggling when times were hard, and Art Director: Lucy Sisman Why did you eventually turn your I thought how nice it would be to go 1984 back on this profession? and read all the books that I’d always It wasn’t so much that I turned my wanted to read. back on branding, it’s just that I felt I’d got far away from design. I had So, again, I gave it all up and went great clients—The Limited, Express, to Oxford to study English for a few Victoria’s Secret, Abercrombie, Sony, years. I didn’t really know what I would Shiseido, P.S.1, Revlon, Bruno Magli, do afterwards, but I thought that Lilly Pulitzer, Sears, Diesel, Johnson would just take care of itself. & Johnson, Clairol, Ralph Lauren, LVMH—but one of the downsides of Did it? success is often that it takes you away Yes, but it wasn’t straightforward. After from what you really love to do. At a Oxford, I came back to New York to certain point, I got tired of marketing work on a “green” magazine with an directors, negotiating contracts, deal- old friend from Condé Nast. The idea morphed a bit—magazine turned into

271 Section Four Chapter Sixteen E-Commerce with a Soul MiddleBlue Website Art Director: Lucy Sisman 2014 website and then into a store—but for instance. Independence is vital. my partner wasn’t really interested In the old days, I had people to do in commerce, so he bailed and I was this kind of thing for me, but the left with this new interest in making world doesn’t work this way anymore. things. Through a rather circuitous route, I found a woman in India who knew women who needed work, so we landed on this idea to make scarves from vintage saris, using a unique traditional stitching technique. Pretty soon we had over 30 women working for us. We called our e-commerce ven- ture “MiddleBlue.” We work on Skype. Did your understanding of graphic How would you define the very hard working on your own site, where design principles play a role in your special visual characteristics of you’re the client as well as the designer. entrepreneurial venture? your product line? It’s important to have conversations I’m not sure how anybody can start What I sell is handmade, so I thought with yourself, so you can criticize any kind of company if they aren’t a it was important to make the site feel the work without the inner designer designer, as there’s so much graphic as friendly as possible. The other thing getting offended and ignoring practical design involved from the logo is, I didn’t want to spend money on needs altogether. onwards—labels, tags, press kits, photography, particularly at the begin- promotional material, posters, web- ning when everything was an outgoing site—it’s never ending. But beyond expense. It then seemed obvious to that, designers are trained to solve shoot my friends wearing what I sold, problems, and being an entrepreneur so, in effect, I’m constantly updating is all about problem solving: starting the photography. It’s very straightfor- at the beginning and then doing 500 ward—daylight, no hair or makeup— things all at once, each one equally but that’s the kind of photography I important and urgent. like anyway. As an entrepreneur, I also had to In your experience, what are the grow as a designer. One of the key most critical design features of a things has been learning that new website that sells goods online? technology and keeping up with it: A good website—for anything—has retouching my own pictures or mock- to be simple and work quickly. It’s ing up some dummy packaging myself,

272 Nancy Kruger Cohen Addicted to Start-ups Nancy Kruger Cohen is chief creative officer (CCO) at Mouth, a Brooklyn startup that sells indie gourmet products online. A former art director of Metropolis magazine and ESPN magazine, she eventually went into advertising, creating campaigns for Polo Ralph Lauren, while at the same time developing her writing skills (one of her stories was published in The New York Times). “But all along, I wanted to feel more of a sense of ownership,” she says. “I wanted to take a risk myself. That’s why Mouth feels like an inevitable destination for me.” Mouth Packaging Art Director: Nancy Kruger Cohen

273 Section Four Chapter Sixteen E-Commerce with a Soul How did you go from being an art Mouth Website director (Metropolis magazine, and Art Director: Nancy Kruger Cohen more) to getting involved with an e-commerce venture, and what lessons have you learned along the way? I was always interested in both writing and design, so I was drawn to mag- azines from the start. I was lucky to land at Metropolis, and then at ESPN magazine. Although not a sports fan, I realized that I could develop strong opinions about any subject, as long as I cared about the mission, process, and people. After a few more magazine stints, I shifted into advertising at the agency Carlson & Partners. My client was Polo Ralph Lauren. My job was to create what was then called a “magalog”— a cross between a magazine and a catalog—for which I oversaw every- thing from photography to writing to design. From there, I became a consultant, creating print and TV ads, books, and identity branding for all sorts of clients. All of these work environments, by the way, were essentially start-ups. I’m addicted to a certain type of intensity and tend to gravitate to challenging projects like redesigns and new brands—basi- cally, creating something from nothing. Is that why working at a start-up appealed to you? Yes. I was ready for it. From Ralph Lauren, I had learned about the importance of “the brand”—of a clear and consistent message. It was invaluable. But it got a little frustrating and soon I was ready to move into the business side of a creative project. As much as I had loved diving deep into photography (I had worked with Bruce

274 Mouth Breakfast in Bed Art Director: Nancy Kruger Cohen Weber and witnessed a true artist up the photography is visceral. The You also developed original packaging close), I knew I needed to get back to typography is simple and unfussy to ship the products you sell. Why is words and concepts. (I am a sucker for a classic sans serif this so important, and did you need paired with a hit of retro script). special skills? At the same time, your understand- And the logo is a vernacular object, a The “unboxing” is a key brand ing of graphic design principles must hand-branded wooden tasting spoon. moment. So this was just another have helped you establish the visual design challenge of a different sort— presence of Mouth. What are the most critical design coming up with a creative yet functional Absolutely. I was brought in to help features of a website that sells way to wrap and ship the products so create a brand, which began with goods online? that our voice would carry through. establishing a clear point of view about The brand experience needs to be who we were: friendly, witty, and . . . consistent from start to finish, from Photography plays an important role hungry! Image and words needed to website home page to the checkout to in establishing the Mouth brand. How work together to form an accessible, the final bag of goodies that arrives by would you define the very special conversational voice. So our site design mail. The user experience, at the same visual characteristics of your site? is clean and makes use of the grid and time, must be easy, without too many Above all, the site needs to be white space. The colors are vibrant, and layers of clicking. mouthwatering. Most online food

275 Section Four Chapter Sixteen E-Commerce with a Soul stores just show packaging, but we I put 100 percent into anything I’m navigation. Creating marketing post- make it a point to show the FOOD doing. Whether I’m writing an e-blast, cards or new tote bags. Writing and itself. Our photography tries to designing a home page carousel, art designing e-blasts. Curating new gift replicate the experience of being at directing a pro bono invite for the collections. Brainstorming promotions. a market, opening the jar, and having local school, or assembling a birthday My partners are brilliant and make me a taste. Our CEO, Craig Kanarick, is party goodie bag—it’s just me being laugh, daily. And, of course, I love the our photographer, and I pinch-hit me, interested and invested in the ideas food. Snacking is a job requirement! as food stylist! and people I care about. I no longer compartmentalize my interests and So you write in your spare time, skills. Graphic designer, writer, moth- you are the mother of two girls, er—I’m not sure I see a need for these and you are involved in a number labels anymore. I’m not in a box. of community projects. Is there a connection between all your What is the most interesting part Mouth Website interests and talents? of your day? Art Director: Nancy Kruger Cohen The connection is me. These are all I love the diversity. Working with the things I love and care about. And our tech people to improve site

276 17 User Experience Specialists User experience (UX) is today something of a buzzword. Those involved in this relatively new practice are not “touchy-feely” but aspire to make it an exacting discipline based on research and data analysis. Universally recog- nized as part of “best practice” standards, UX is the study of how to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty. Paradoxically, putting the user still an amorphous, multidisciplinary first is a new idea. For decades, concept, incorporating aspects of graphic designers were focused psychology, sociology, ergonomics, on delivering their client’s message and computer science, just to name in the most efficient and persuasive a few complementary disciplines. In manner, forgetting the consumers in other words, user experience design- the process. Nowadays, thanks to ers are not specialists but polymaths. the fluidity of the digital language, They are the Renaissance men (and the communication between a brand women) of the digital age. As such, and its audience is a two-way street. they find their place in software In fact, innovations are often customer development, but also in fields where driven: the way people experience fast-paced technological advances a product or a service is very much threaten the user’s sovereignty. part of the brand equation. Designers who make a profession of UX are the first to admit that it is

277 Section Four Chapter Seventeen User Experience Specialists Bruce Charonnat Understanding Human–Computer Interaction Bruce Charonnat is a partner at Tangible, a consulting firm in San Francisco that specializes “in helping clients create intuitive, branded user experiences for applications, websites, and handheld mobile devices.” He brings to each project more than 20 years of graphic design experience across multiple media, including interface design, information architecture, usability testing, and site strategy. In 1983, he was the first art director of MacWorld, which he designed on one of the first prototypes of the Macintosh 128K. Back then, it was called “desktop publishing.” “In the 1990s, user experience design was a whole new world that opened up to those such as myself who grew up in the world of graphic design,” he explains. “However, graphic design is just one of the many streams that flow into the world of user experience design.” Premier Issue of MacWorld Can you tell us what the relationship is collaboration between design and Art Director: Bruce Charonnat between graphic design and experience engineering is critical to the success of 1984 design—as practiced today? any user experience. And in order to be I see user experience as a much a successful user experience designer, broader term than graphic design. one must be aware and up to date with Its roots go deep into the history of engineering trends. But, ultimately, the communication, human-computer designer and the engineer have different interactions, imagery, and technology. responsibilities. These two skill sets are In our work now at Tangible UX, user not mutually exclusive, of course, and experience design requires such diverse many people today are fluent in both. I resources as the researcher with a PhD see more and more of that with younger in cognitive psychology, the library designers, and less so with the designers scientist, the interaction designer, the from an earlier generation who visual artist, the engineer, the analyst, migrated out of the world of print. the marketer, and many others. Successful interactive devices today When it comes to developing user always have a strong social network experiences, is there a difference be- component. How come community tween “designing” and “engineering”? building is such an important part Absolutely. To the same degree as there of “interaction design”? is a difference between the architect I would say that community build- of a house and its builder. Of course, ing is an important part of the world

278 The User Experience on Tangible Website (Top) of mobile design—that is, design Art Director: Bruce Charonnat for smartphones, tablets, and so on. 2014 Interaction design is a process that is equally applicable for social and User-Friendly Macintosh nonsocial experiences. As an example, in MacWorld (Bottom) designing Pinterest and designing Art Director: Bruce Charonnat Microsoft Excel are both exercises in interaction design. But one has a much more dominant social network component than the other. While I would say that “social apps” are becoming more and more dominant in our daily lives, they do not obviate (yet!) the need to design products with less of a social component. Tangible UX helps clients gain strong user acceptance of their products. Is it a well-known fact in the industry that users have trouble “embracing” the functionalities of interactive devices? What users have trouble “embracing” are poorly designed products and expe- riences! As well they should. Embracing a well-designed product or experience should be fairly effortless. I have heard stories of children aged 1 to 2 that can call their parents on a smartphone. Do designers today have to acquire a solid knowledge of programming to be able to develop more “user- friendly” experiences and interfaces? I would not say that programming skills are required as much as they are extremely advantageous to the user experience designer. Some people who gravitate to user experience design have more of a combination left-brain/ right-brain fluency. As I mentioned before, knowledge of engineering trends and solutions, and the ability to speak to that world, are more critical to the designer than the actual ability to code.

279 Section Four Chapter Seventeen User Experience Specialists Michael Aidan Michael Aidan is in charge of digital brand platforms for the Danone Group. In his position today, he develops the Using the Audience as Media digital framework for Danone, a company whose prod- ucts include bottled waters but also fresh dairy products, Evian Live Young baby nutrition, and medical nutrition. “Oddly enough, I Print Campaign have always worked in companies whose main products 2013 are liquid,” he says. “Before Volvic, Badoit, and Evian waters for Danone, I worked on shampoos for P&G, perfumes for YSL, and beverages for Pepsico.” Maybe it’s not a coincidence: He is fascinated by the concept of fluidity—the free-flowing transversal communication between contents and audiences. Can you tell us what evolution in Do you know that today, according mind-set you’ve witnessed in the to the latest polls, only 16 percent last 20 years? of the brands out there are considered The most striking change is cultural, truly relevant by most people? In other not technological! The digital age has words, over three quarters of the completely transformed the relation- existing brands are in a take-it-or- ship between people and companies. leave-it limbo. Dialogue has replaced one-way street communication. Captive audiences are Specifically, what is your role at a thing of the past. So are techniques of Danone today? persuasion. Brands today are seeking I am in charge of accelerating the engagement with users. At Danone, digital revolution! This means working this new mindset forces us to rethink on the tools, the technology but, more the way we approach marketing. We importantly, the mindset and the focus on storytelling—and high-quality contents. The marketing culture content is the key. needs to adjust to all the changes we mentioned before. I’d like to develop Even innovations have changed: tools and provide sources of inspi- Whereas in the past they came from ration so that we can progressively companies with money to invest in switch to a more intuitive connection R&D, today they come from customers, with consumers. Linear thinking individuals who are often more tech- doesn’t produce results anymore. nologically savvy than the marketers We need to work the way start-ups themselves. As a result, instead of do: take risks, stay agile, dare to do trying to be “on message,” brand the things that have yet to best tested. managers are now focusing on the user experience. More power to the people!

280 Evian has been successful at this. In campaign. We also developed a Baby for our brand and surround ourselves 2009, we launched the “Roller Babies” & Me app for Facebook, Android, and with the best talents to make it happen; campaign on YouTube. It went viral iPhone. Right from the start, we got that is to say, create the “chapters”: immediately. We got 2 million clicks 1000 downloads a minute. Our servers advertising, packaging, innovations, in three days. It was one of the first kept crashing. A nightmare, but also a promotions, or services. YouTube-exclusive campaigns marketer’s dream: people willing to be by a major brand, with now over part of your brand story. How does one develop the “digital 200 million total views—the Guinness language” of a specific brand? World Record for the most viral video How do you define your philosophy The digital language is not the lan- advertisement of all time. The heart in terms of brand strategy? guage of “persuasion” but the language of this campaign was on the Web, not I like to think of myself—and all of emotions. Your job as a marketer on TV. And it was a first for us. marketers—as storytellers. This is is to generate enthusiasm for your neither science nor art. We need to brand. How do you do that? First, In 2013, still on a roll, so to speak, tell a story that generates enthusiasm you tell a story about the brand. Then we followed up with the “Baby & Me”

281 Section Four Chapter Seventeen User Experience Specialists you invite the public to enter into loved ones. And to do that, you have Evian Baby and Me the narrative, to interact with it, to to be entertaining, upbeat, amusing. Mobile App become “engaged” with it—digitally, You can’t be didactic. You don’t sell 2014 of course—in a way that was not a product, a service, or a lifestyle conceivable 20, 10, or even 5 years ago. anymore: You provide a delivery keters do, to learn from each other, to system for emotions. see what works and doesn’t work, and So, the very concept of interactivity to share ideas and information. Instead is being redefined as we speak? Can you train marketers to think of being trained, our marketers will Yes, you have to inverse the traditional “digitally”? train themselves. Using the app across relationship with your audience. The The best way to think digitally is the board will provide the common way consumers experience a brand is to communicate digitally. We have experience we need to understand the brand. And that brand is “relevant” developed an in-house app—Danone the new paradigm. To survive, brands only if it provides a way for people to iBrand—to encourage our staff to look must learn to navigate the digital flow. engage with friends, colleagues, and around, to be inspired by other mar-

282 Hugh Dubberly Hugh Dubberly is the proprietor of HD: Dubberly Design Office, a 12-person software and service design consultancy Mapping the Relationship in San Francisco, ”focused on making hardware, software, between Ideas and services easier to use, more effective, and more fun, through interaction design and information design,” he iPad Repair App says. At Apple Computer in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Design: Michael Gallagher and Dubberly managed cross-functional design teams and Jane Brown later managed graphic design and corporate identity for Creative Direction: Robin Bahr the entire company. While at Apple, he cocreated a series 2013 of technology-forecast films, beginning with Knowledge Navigator, that presaged the appearance of the Internet and interaction via mobile devices. At Netscape, he became vice president of design and managed groups responsible for the design, engineering, and production of Netscape’s Web portal. In 2000, he cofounded DDO. Dubberly edits a column, “On Modeling,” for the Association for Computing Machinery’s journal, Interactions. You’ve been in the design business puter-based phototypesetters and for many years, specializing in design then laser printers. (In a summer services. What are the key changes or job at Xerox during grad school, I shifts you’ve seen in graphic design developed font specimen sheets for over the years? Helvetica 300, the first laser version I graduated from college in 1983, of Helvetica.) Ten years after the a year before Apple introduced Mac intro, most printed material Macintosh. A couple of years later, was being prepared entirely on Macs. I joined Apple, and about 10 years later, I joined Netscape, when it was 2. From print to online communica- still a start-up. I was lucky to “grow- tions. Corporations used to spend up” professionally as the technology hundreds of thousands of dollars matured. This process involved several each year to produce glossy annual large shifts: reports, in addition to brochures and other printed “collateral.” In 1. From “pasting-up” “mechanical art 1987, Apple released HyperCard, boards” (my first job at a design and we created the first interactive firm the summer after high school annual report, sending a floppy disk was doing pasteup) to using com- along with each printed report. A

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284 few years later, my team produced experience is built through a series of Fisheye Browser an online annual report to accom- “touch points,” which form a customer Design: Ryan Reposar pany Netscape’s printed report. journey. Of course, the journey can be Creative Direction: Hugh Dubberly Today, financial information is planned or to some extent designed. 2012 available online, and glossy printed Thus, interaction at a series of touch annual reports are a thing of the points along a customer journey may past. When I worked for Apple, the be thought of as service design—or San Francisco Bay Area had four design for service. Service design also world-class printers; today, it has recognizes a shift in our economy from none. a manufacturing basis to an informa- tion and service basis. 3. From communicating about products to designing communica- Today, hardware products, such as tions products. Graphic designers iPod or iPhone or Kindle, exist largely used to work primarily for folks in as windows into services. So, the focus marketing communications, who of design has expanded from the form worked for folks in marketing, of objects to the behavior of systems. who served engineers, who ran The introduction of the term “service the company. Today, many graphic design” acknowledges this shift, and designers work directly on products organizations like the Service Design and report to product managers. In Network seek to build knowledge addition to helping the people who about service design and help design- create communications about prod- ers improve in this area. ucts, designers are now just as likely to be creating the actual products. Concept maps may have been part of the design toolkit in the past, but it The term “service design” is emerging is another emerging component and of late. What is the methodology and central to your work. What is it and goal of this? its relationship to design? As design emerged from craft during Concept maps are tools for organiz- the nineteenth century and through ing ideas. They “map” relationships much of the twentieth century, design- between ideas. At the simplest level, ers focused on the form of objects. concept maps are node-and-link Good designers have always had a diagrams, where the nodes are nouns broader view, and design managers and the links are verbs. In English, often have had to consider not only node-link-node forms a sentence— form but also meaning, structure, subject-predicate-object. Concept and context. HfG Ulm introduced the maps are similar to mind maps, except concept of “environmental design” that the links have labels. A concept (meaning the design of everything), map is also very like an outline, except and the Dutch firm Total Design and that many branches or leaves at the the U.S. firm Unimark also promoted edge of the outline are connected. a holistic approach. These were early precursors to the idea that a brand Since much of our work deals with software (which is intangible) or services (which unfold over time),

285 Section Four Chapter Seventeen User Experience Specialists we need ways to understand existing MyAlere iPad Diet Tracker systems, confirm our understanding Design: Ryan Reposar of others, and create and share proto- Creative Direction: Hugh Dubberly types. That means we need tools for 2013 modeling systems, which is one of the main ways we use concept maps. Your firm creates products. Among them is one of my favorites (because it works), the Alere Diet Tracker. How was this developed in your hothouse? Design proceeds through iteration. The Alere Diet Tracker was no exception. We had designed a couple of diet appli- cations earlier. One version was for use in a blood glucose meter. It included a database of more than 500 food-calorie pairs, cross-referenced in a complex hierarchy. It also enabled users to perform calculations based on calories eaten and blood sugar level to deter- mine suggested insulin doses. Needless to say, it was complicated—and thus cumbersome to use. Still another diet app we developed used calories, food type, and amount of exercise to suggest meal combinations that would help users reach weight goals. Again, a complex product concept. We also surveyed existing diet apps—Apple’s app store offers more than 100. Most of them are complex, in part because food is complex (official food classification schemes list seven or more dimensions); metabolism is also complex (the body resists losing weight as a defense mechanism); and unlike hardware, complex software costs no more to manufacture than simple software—in fact, more features can be a selling point. All these things lead to complex diet apps. From our frustration with this complexity, we asked, “What’s the simplest possible

286 National Geographic Member Center diet app?” That led to a challenge: Design: Michael Gallagher and “Could we design a diet app that is Jane Brown essentially one screen?” That became Creative Direction: Robin Bahr the product concept and the basis for 2012 the design. I am very impressed by a project you conceived to show National Geographic how to refocus its energies. Is the role of the designer now to be a strategist? Steve Jobs said it well: “In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains and the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.” Of course, designers can practice quite usefully at any of these “layers.” It’s fine to practice at the layer of form. It’s also true that the inner layers, at least to some extent, constrain the outer layers. An interest in form leads naturally to an interest in meaning, structure, and context—to understanding related systems and the ecology in which a product or service will operate—to wanting to influence the success of the product or service in the broadest possible way. That leads naturally to discussions of the organization of the product team, the team’s process, larger product development processes, and then to the organization’s larger structure, processes, goals, and, ultimately, to how the organization fits with and adapts to its environment. All these things are design questions, and

287 Section Four Chapter Seventeen User Experience Specialists discussing the answers benefits from which should be part of design What do you look for when hiring design thinking, prototyping, and the education, for example, for DDO? involvement of designers. We like to hire people who are Formal Systems: information curious—people who are not only The skills needed for strategic and structures and network topologies interested in learning but also taking systems thinking are different than an active role in their own learning. those for pushing type around. How Dynamic Systems: stocks + flows, Ideally, a designer would have great are these skills imparted to your resource cycles, lags + oscillations, formal skills, deep experience with the employees? explosion + collapse, dynamic patterns of interaction, basic coding Typography remains vital for design, equilibrium + homeostasis skills, writing and presentation skills, in part because so much of the prod- and experience in product management. uct of design involves type (even in Control Systems: feedback + stability, architecture and industrial design) goal-action-measure loops, requisite Not only are physical products being but also because design is a conversa- variety integrated into systems; so, too, are tion, involving teams, which benefits online products and services. from shared models, which inevitably Living Systems: self-organizing, require typography. Typography, well dissipative systems, autopoiesis, The simple act of connecting taught, includes a kind of systems positive deviants, coevolution + products changes their very nature. thinking—rules-based systems, such drift, biocost Apple’s iPod is more than a music as style sheets (CSS), proportion, player. Amazon’s Kindle is more than grids, and signage systems. So, there’s Conversation Systems: observing-un- an e-book reader. They are integrated already a basis for systems thinking derstanding-agreeing, learning-coordi- systems of hardware, Web-based in typography. nating-collaborating, goal-task ladders, applications, and human services. bootstrapping, ethics+responsibility Facebook is more than an online However, other disciplines have social network. Google is more than developed approaches to systems, an Internet search engine. They are product-service ecologies—networked platforms creating opportunities for organic growth. The networked platform revolution requires us to rethink our assumptions about products—and about design. We must think about integrated systems in new ways, define new ways to measure their progress, and organize new devel- opment and design processes. Zite News Reader 2013

288 Matthew Stadler To Publish: To Create a Public for Books Mathew Stadler is the founder of Publication Studio, a small Portland, Oregon, DIY publishing venture, which he established in September 2009 with Patricia No. Their business model was simple: Print, bind, and sell books, using cheap, widely available, low-tech, print-on-demand technologies. Even though their involvement with the dig- ital culture was minimal, their approach was exemplary in terms of user experience. The way they actively went about creating an audience for each book published was remarkable. They brought together potential readers by arranging lectures, meals, picnics, outings, and lively dis- cussions. “I love the social life of books,” says Stadler. “I thought about it a lot before opening Publication Studio. It was the rhetoric around which we shaped our venture.” Revolution: A Reader by Lisa Robertson and Matthew Stadler 2013

289 Section Four Chapter Seventeen User Experience Specialists In an interview, you once said that Maple Bacon Strip Tease selling books on demand was like by Rudy Speerschneider selling loaves of bread in a bakery. Is 2009 it possible to make a living by selling books on such a small scale? This is The Same Hillside The idea was that book production by Shawn W. Creeden should be tied more tightly to interest 2011 in the book, like the daily provision of bread from a bakery. New efficiencies in digital and handmade production made it possible to do so and still sell books at a competitive price. The most important recent change then was the availability of cheap, perfect-binding machinery. Cheap, but high-quality, digital printing had already been around for awhile. And there was a lot of great, unpublished literature already available. You bought a small digital printer, a hand-operated book-binding machine, and went into business with practically no experience and no investors—yet you made it work. What was your most important asset? The most helpful thing was our poverty. We had to sell books or stop making them. That motivated us to insist that our work was valuable, should be paid for, and not to tolerate the “everything should be free” ethos of many progressive cultural experi- ments. All work should be paid for. If more people would stick to this radical stance, I think we would have a health- ier culture and economy. How did you choose which book to publish? We (Patricia No and I) published any book we thought was great. Since we made them one at a time and were obliged to sell whatever we made, it

290 Vertex What is the most compelling reason designed by PS, and books by artists by Tim Roth to buy a book, in your opinion? are usually designed by the artists or 2013 Because you want to read it. by book designers they or we choose to work with. was important to only publish books For the most part, the books you we thought were great. There were published were not by well-known Can you explain why promoting a many of them. authors, had not received reviews, book to the right audience can be were printed digitally, and didn’t assimilated to “a political act”? The first print-on-demand book I have illustrated covers. Why were No. But I think every economic published was one year before Patricia people willing to pay $20 of them? interaction is already political. So it and I opened PS. It was a reader I had I’m not sure why anyone buys books. makes sense to me that anyone trying edited and annotated called Where Each time I was party to such an to sell books in the market is already We Live Now. That fall I gave a talk exchange, it seemed obvious to me that engaged in a political campaign, in Vitoria, Spain. I spoke about “the the work involved—the writing, the of sorts. social life of the book” and about the book production, the social interaction logic and the meaning of the word of selling—were quite obviously (to Would you recommend book publication, which I described as “the everyone) worth well more than the publishing as a venture for people creation of a public.” It’s then and there price paid. If you think about the sorts who want to try to live creatively that I figured out what I would do next. of things we routinely pay 20 euros or outside the conflict of art versus I would create a public for the books 30 or 50 euros for (music, food, a night commerce? I would publish. This idea became the out, clothes), it isn’t surprising to find I don’t understand the dichotomy. I central focus of Publication Studio. that a great book is among them. suggest you publish books if there are books that do not have publics Do you agree with French author You rubber-stamped the titles of but you believe they should have. Charles Nodier, who said: “Only your books on ordinary stock from second to the pleasure of owning recycled file folders. Yet the result You left Publication Studio. What books is the sweet satisfaction of was oddly beautiful! What inspired is your next project? talking about them”? your aesthetic choices? I left a long time ago, because I Yes, we used any means possible to Again, our poverty. The best choices am a writer first, a publisher second. host and enrich the social life of our we made, aesthetically, were all I was interested in helping conceive books! the product of trying to articulate, and activate this infrastructure so that rather than obscure, our poverty I, as a writer, could benefit from it. and our passions. That has been my work for about three years now—just writing, and getting Did you design the inside of your to use PS for publication where it fits, books as well, or did authors give as the correct tool for me. you print-ready files? For the most part, we designed the Latitudes and Longitudes books, inside and out. Later, as we (opposite) began to work with more visual artists, by Lyndl Hall they took on the task of designing the 2012 insides of the books and sometimes also the covers. As a general rule, books of literature published by PS are usually

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292 18 Geeks, Programmers, Developers, Tinkerers Designers today do not have to be able to write strings of codes to thrive in the digital environment, but it helps. While programmers are seldom designers (their work is so engrossing, they tend to lose track of the big picture), designers who master the basic principles of computer language are at an advantage. They are the folks who think in terms of possibilities instead of mere solutions. They can navigate effortlessly between print, digital, dimensional, interactive, motion, and environmental media. For this next generation of design In general, geeky graphic designers thinkers, the breakthrough design and programmers are in demand process is generative design. It is everywhere, in every design studio, a computational modeling system ad agency, or brand consultancy. that generates three-dimensional Not only can they “fix” computer patterns through a series of repetitions bugs and restore the functionality of (iterations), replicating the way forms various peripherals; they also think in grow in nature. The main application term of systems rather than short-term of generative design is data visualiza- design solutions. Hired as the “IT” tion and the simulation of architectural individual on the team, they are often structures, but its sci-fi aesthetics makes offered a partnership in small orga- it the perfect visual language for spe- nizations, so critical is their technical cial effects. A small number of graphic but also intellectual contribution. designers use it to create interactive installations in the context of special events or contemporary art shows.

293 Section Four Chapter Eighteen Geeks, Programmers, Developers, Tinkerers Frieder Nake Controlling Computers with Our Thoughts Frieder Nake is professor of computer graphics and interactive systems at the University of Bremen, Germany. His involvement with digital art goes all the way back to 1963 when he was studying mathematics. Many of his art pieces, created by strings of mathematical codes, are held in museums in Germany, England, the United States, and Japan. Now 75, he is still a pioneer in programming and an active player in the field of generative design. “What keeps me going is the excitement that comes from being able to apply algorithmic thinking to problem solving,” he says. Random Polygon What is algorithmic thinking? the word). The program becomes the Frieder Nake In algorithmic work, the most description of things and events that 1965 important parts of a design are done may (or may not) happen. There is in thinking—in the mental domain. no certainty. It’s as if, before you do anything else, you stop and try to determine which Also exciting is the fact that you specific features your design should must think in terms of entire classes have—even though you don’t know or sets of design, not in terms of a yet how these features will interact single work. Algorithmic work can with each other. You must anticipate generate designs that are “art,” even all the options and possibilities but though they contain elements that then leave it to the program to proceed we do not control. with the actual execution. The excite- ment is right there: in the discovery Can you clear up another thing: of how, where, in what manner, and What is the difference between to what extent the predetermined generative design and digital art? features will appear. Are the two terms interchangeable? No, they are not interchangeable—not Of course, nothing will happen if I in the sense that any piece of digital art only “think” about it. I must shape my is also an example of generative design. thoughts, wishes, intentions, vague ideas, and half-baked decisions into a If you use a rich—or not so rich— program—into algorithms. So I must piece of software to generate design make my aspirations explicit, but not on your screen, it is, by definition, so explicit that only one option is left. “digital” (and may even be consid- I must really think in terms of possi- ered “digital art”). However, it is not bilities (in the philosophical sense of necessarily “generative.” In order to be “generative,” some parameters, proce-

294 dures, and “decisions” must be left That’s a good formulation. The only know what’s best. The space between to the program. difference I would see is this: I am better or best is so vast that we should not suggesting that graphic designers be content with something good, Granted, it is a little confusing “should” explore all possible design agreeable, okay, nice, and so on. because, in some way, all design is solutions instead of trying to find necessarily “generated” or else it is not the (almost) absolute best one. More Today, the majority of graphic de- design. When we talk about generative modestly, I would say that since the signers are merely computer “users.” design, the term “generative” is not “best” design solution is so unlikely to They don’t question the choices that used in its broadest sense but in a spe- be found, the experimental and explor- operating systems and software pro- cific interpretation: when the prepara- ative attitude may be more promising. grams make for them. This situation tion for the actual material production saves time, but is it dangerous? of the work involves, to a large extent, What would be the best use of It seems, indeed, that it is as you algorithmic thinking. generative design in a contemporary say: that a great number of (young?) design practice? designers use all these incredibly Graphic designers are applying analog I am afraid, I do not know. It is a matter powerful software packages, and thinking to “find the best design of attitude. As I mentioned earlier, accept the results. These packages solution.” Instead, should they use the notion of “best” is ill defined. We are powerful—they deliver acceptable algorithmic thinking to explore kid ourselves when we believe that we results day in and day out. Nothing in the possibility of infinite solutions? the experience of most graphic designers tells them not to trust their software. The User Experience on Tangible Website (Top) I don’t like to speak of such a Art Director: Bruce Charonnat situation (to the extent that it is true) 2014 as “dangerous.” But, in some way, the word is okay. The situation is par- User-Friendly Macintosh ticularly dangerous for experienced in MacWorld (Bottom) designers who have more to lose when Art Director: Bruce Charonnat they defer to software. Their expertise and experience seem less valuable, somehow. Young designers, on the other hand, have more to gain from trusting their software. Often, they come up with quite agreeable design solutions that they would not have imagined otherwise. However, I am afraid to say, time constraints cannot be ignored when it comes to work that is assigned or com- missioned. An automatically generated, pretty good (though not quite “best”) design solution will often suffice. Fields of Random Cross-Hatchings with Vertical Random Lines Frieder Nake 1965

295 Section Four Chapter Eighteen Geeks, Programmers, Developers, Tinkerers Random Walk Through Raster, Series 7.1–3 Frieder Nake 1966 and observe the results generated by the computer. Paradoxically, though designers are not touching anything, they are in more control than if they were actively intervening. A funny dialectic, isn’t it? Generative design proposes a totally Do you mean to say that when As you were talking, one thought different approach, one not compatible human beings program machines occurred to me: Should we reevaluate with the realities that most graphic to generate forms, the result is mathematics as a new art form? designers encounter. You cannot tell necessarily “human”—even though A lovely question, allowing for only a client, “Let us define the outcome of machines did the work? speculative answers. Indeed, there this project only to some extent. Let Yes. A lot of design work that is is a broad trend currently to bring us explore it algorithmically. Let us be now shifted over to the machine together mathematics and art, or content with what we get because we (the computer) is actually performed science and art—many projects of do not believe in best solutions any in the interactive mode. This means, this kind, almost in a torturous way. more.” That would not be comfortable! indeed, that a great number of actions I am hesitant, waiting, skeptical. and decisions are left with the human The issue here is the collaboration designer. Insofar it is “more human.” Mathematics has, of course, strong of man and machine. What’s human aesthetic components. For example, and what’s mechanical? I call this In some instances, designers set up the expression “mathematical ele- question the “machinization of human the entire environment, with all the gance” is used to describe simple and work.” I use this un-English word on parameters and automatic procedures effective theorems. The aesthetics of purpose to describe the transfer and (algorithms) they want to control math is in the actual carrying out of transformation of human work into without necessarily intervening math. And that’s not new. It has always “machinic” form. interactively. Then they can sit back been with us, but we have not noticed and have ignored it. If there is now some more attention, that’s nice. But the “artistic” part is not so much in the way computer can be made to visualize some mathematical processes. Algorithmic thinking should remain different from aesthetic thinking, and that’s good and welcome. La différence is important for us to notice and preserve.

296 Mark Webster Mark Webster’s principal line of work has been in the field of graphic design, but his main activities over the Iterations and Algorithms past five years have been focused on how programming can enrich the practice of graphic design. In line with Dessin via processing Code poster this, he created in 2011 the nonprofit organization FAB, Designer: student Free Art Bureau. Its mission is to promote programming Client: Mark Webster practices in the arts and in an open and sharing manner. 2014 Through a variety of activities, events, and lectures, he tries to empower and build creative communities that are free from the restraints of closed systems. “Code and programming have become a major part of my thinking and understanding as one plausible approach to creativity,” he says. “I am passionate about how to find ways to distill new practices with other disciplines.” What do you say when people ask one could call, essentially, the making you what you do? of a program. Creativity is manifest in many fields of work I practice—writing, designing, Where graphic design and program- teaching, musical composition, and ming find a common ground is in their thinking! But I have no specific job process. Both can follow what I have title per se. I prefer to describe what I come to call over the years a “system- do and often answer that I teach design- atic approach”—often referred to as ers to program computers to do things computational or algorithmic thinking. that will help them in their everyday Whether you use a ruler and pen or practice. I help designers define the write code to draw up a grid system, rules that generate possibilities. the process is inherently similar on a purely conceptual and mental level. In plain English, I would say that you So, designing a program is not teach designers programming skills. different from designing a grid? But I often wonder, what is the main There are a lot of overlaps between difference between a graphic designer the designer and the coder. What is and a programmer? important to realize is that a system— The very act of designing can be a grid or a program—helps establish a viewed as a form of programming. coherent process from which is born a Designing implies a logical and sys- vast possibility of creative applications. tematic approach to creation. When we design, we are often undertaking what A grid is a tool set that enables the designer to position elements in space

297 Section Four Chapter Eighteen Geeks, Programmers, Developers, Tinkerers “Art Design Code,” and establish a formal coherence as a not simply a tool as such; nor is it just Poster for a Conference whole for the final composition. Like- another means for creating dynamic by Mark Webster wise, a program is a set of instructions websites, interactive tools, or data Designer: Mark Webster/ based on a number of rules and a set visualizations. Learning to program Free Art Bureau of parameters. When we follow these is learning an essential set of skills 2013 rules, we produce an outcome. In both that opens up to a new way of think- the grid and the program, there is scope ing–“algorithmic thinking.” I believe for possibility built on an underlying this knowledge can help the graphic logical system. It is the unique inter- designer reinforce his or her conceptual action of these rules, the tweaking of approach in the designing process parameters and the media used, that will as well as open up new and exciting give forth to a wide variety of results. possibilities in their practice. Will knowing how to code make your What is the difference between students better graphic designers? “algorithmic thinking” and “generative Beyond the technicalities of teaching design”—another term that attempts designers to code, my task is much to define this relatively new approach greater in ambition. Learning to to graphic design? program is more than just learning The two are obviously interlinked, a technique for making things. It is although, there is a subtle difference.

298 Algorithmic thinking refers to possibilities. Generative design is the with visual artists in mind. That is computational problem solving. outcome of working with iteration to say that it uses keywords in its Generative design is what algorithmic and algorithms. language that are easier to relate to thinking produces: an infinite number for these people. It also simplifies a of design solutions. How can graphic designers learn number of more complex concepts more about programming? that are more laborious to implement However, I don’t like the expression There are a lot of resources on the in other languages, such as C++, for “design solutions” very much. I’d Internet about programming, and example. Processing is a simplified rather think in terms of possibilities there are increasingly more scripting version of the more complex language, than solutions. Instead of solutions for languages and tools. It can be quite Java, which is still a highly influential problems, generative design proposes overwhelming at first to delve into and powerful programming language. “programs for possibilities.” This this subject without some clear and idea extends Karl Gerstner’s seminal concise references. In terms of a tool for “algorithmic work described in Designing Programs, thinking,” Processing introduces and written in 1964. I would highly recommend reading uses the major concepts of program- Processing for Visual Artists, by Casey ming that are found in so many other Another way of thinking about Reas and Ben Fry, to learn the fun- languages. It is these concepts that generative design is as a means of damentals of coding practice. If you are at the basis of beginning to think designing through iterative processes. want to get an idea of code as a tool in with code. These processes are based on strict its various applications, then Code & rules. The rules are “algorithms.” Form in Design, Art and Architecture, There is an international community by Casey Reas, Chandler McWilliams, of people working with Processing and LUST are an informative introduction. from many fields of work: interaction At this time in writing, there is no design, animation, art, architecture. It book that explains this new approach is widely used in research and as a ped- specifically aimed for graphic designers. agogical tool in art and design schools I am currently working on that. around the world. So, Processing is the perfect language in my opinion to start Can you explain the main advantage to learn about programming and code of the Processing programming for creative practices. It is equally a language as a tool for thinking? great foundation for those who may Processing was conceived specifically want to move on to learning other languages at a later stage. What do you mean by “iterative “Code” process”? Logo for a Conference on typography Iteration is a powerful means as generative design, Bordeaux for prototyping ideas quickly and Designer: Mark Webster/Free Art Bureau generating a myriad of possibilities. 2012 The creative process is always one of exploration and experimentation. There are no fixed, strictly defined solutions as there are no absolute ideas. Code is a flexible medium that enables one to express and implement many