Max Sims’s blog

Most designers design with emotion in mind. If they give a darn about any aesthetic designers are designing to the emotion of desire and self satisfaction. This is one of the reasons to get into the game. If it were only about sensation they would become sculptors or painters though not very good ones. The desire to make things work better than most can imagine is the yin to aesthetics’ yang. I would actually draw the yin/yang symbol with grey edges since design is much more than mere form and function. Catchphrases like form follows meaning, less is a bore and form follows emotion try to frame the terms. It is used as a differentiator or a catchy way to get business. Emotion is appealing to the irrational and function to the rational. Grandpa and granddaughter are overjoyed by learning to use a new tablet in an ad is reaching at a strong emotion. Emotion discourages thinking in this case. What is the purpose or need for this tablet? What happens when it is obsolete? None of that goes through the consumer’s mind. Wasn’t consumption a horrible disease?

Designers try to meet users needs by first compelling them to buy the product. Once bought good companies would want to not frustrate their users. A literal touch point is how the software or product “feels”. The tactile interface can convey quality and premium feel. One technique is color; another is the form. Do they meet expectations? Exceed them? Does the red excite the user? Does the soft compound curve form say something about you. What car are you wearing?

A major touch point is the hot line or web page when something does work as they thought. I’m sure support people have very thick skins. How customers are handled will increase or decrease their frustration. Through out the life of a product the memories associated with it will also control the emotion. A favorite motorcycle used on various road trips every year will provoke the consumer to “bond” with the product. When its time to replace it the brand values will carry the day. Logic has nothing to do with it in this case.

Should a designer abandon all emotion and think in pure function? The paradox is that this too will evoke emotion. If you look at a Lockheed SR71 airplane or an orchid they are made for pure function but that is why they are so beautiful? Perhaps the engineers are working to the three E’s: Economy, Efficiency, and Elegance. From the works of Gustave Eiffel to the thin shell concrete bridges by Robert Maillart (Santiago Calatrava’s spiritual grandfather) have all incorporated the three E’s. Can a user experience or software attain this level of function? Imagine if it did.

This provocative title will hopefully guide my career and many of my classmates. I feel strongly that the boundaries of physical and digital design is the future. I have worked in both realms and supposedly open minded organizations say pick one or the other. Imagine a screen that forms the proper button with the correct graphic then retracts when not needed. Adaptive physical interactions through novel materials such as shape memory alloys or magneto ferrofluids would yield a treasure trove of research possibilities. Another idea is of reactive interfaces. The user isn’t just controlling something physical and digital but the outputs react to the stimuli and a true interaction is formed. Hmm dreams of theses run through my head. Tactility is still a fantastic way to engage users. The slightly greasy screen of my iphone is devoid of compelling engagement as far as feel is concerned. A luxury car company I know of will not succumb to a big screen instrument panel. Every little button, rotor and knob are precisely engineered. If the information can be enhanced digitally they are all for it. I think that micro-screens will be incorporated into all of the control surfaces we use today. Think of how much work that is alone. The control and screen will become one. What is senses will be sensed back. What is seen will be overlaid with a new reality.

An industry that need interaction and don’t know it is actually transportation. Ergonomics and styling rules the day on planes trains and automobiles. This would include things like boats, construction equipment and rocket ships. Many times messing up on any of these devices can cost people’s lives. Interaction design (with a modicum of electronic automation to prevent human error) points to new ways of doing the communication to and fro. Another industry would be scientific and medical devices. How can a materials scientist feel and see how the molecules on the surface of a crystal are acting when pulsed by a femtolaser?- How would a molecular biologist be able to interact with an invivonanoscope when the reactions happen in femto seconds as well? What does a maternity ward in the NIC-U at Stanford need to monitor a preemie? I won’t be able to tell you yet but I will try to take the steps I need to learn how to.

Well we are mostly done with the work and will get a much deserved rest. Once again I had great teachers and was able to arrange them with questions. I think they have all earned a place on my advisory board when I take the dive into startup land again. I really like the mutual passion I had with my team members for our project. I don’t think we deviated much from our original idea but we were able to refine it thanks to all of the advice(OK may it was even instruction) we got. Many people asked why I didn’t waive this class and I felt that I wanted to earn so much from Maria, Pam, Mary Anne and especially Christopher (sorry guys she’s my role model). I wish we could follow on withte course on how to run a Design Business since I would love to start a consultancy with some of my classmates. I am impressed with quite a number of them and complement them when its one on one. I guess if I wanted yet more business classes I would get the DMBA. Anyway it was great and I learned a lot.

Do I see my self working in an interactive space? Hmm…
I have worked on interactive computer aided indutrial design software and have had a book cover and even a Progressive Architecture. I guess I alredy have and I do intended to advance the state of the art. Ideally I would love to work in the car industry where electronics and interaction design are greater determinants of vehicle purchase over styling or performance. Electric cars offer a golden opportunity to set new paradigms of how people transport themselves. There is automobility and mobility with mobiles. The idea of being able to transport yourself or have teleprescence right now seems limitless. Interaction design feels like what computer animation was in the early 90’s. The Toy Story and Avatar of IX is still a ways away. Physical interaction and control theory, new materials that sense and respond will give us interaction designers a lifetime of work to do. I do see that disciplines are merging ID people can make Arduino devices (no surprise since it came from the IVREA design school in Italy.). Kids are programming robots and neophyte are making phone apps. Yes there will be lots of dreck but I wait to see the Fallingwater of IX.

There are some great interaction design opportunities in the car industry. Audi has an entire sensory lab that takes into account olfactory senses and makes sure that the dials and knobs have the right premium feel (literally). Imagine IX people taking the kind of care and craftsmanship for how people interct with their electronics. What happens when you get a robocar that you don’t own but want to feel like its got your settings? What would the user experience be when you have a car that literally drives itself or takes the kids to soccer? How would you get traffic information and how would your interaction with your music be made tangible? All of these things are being thought of in labs today and would relish the opportunity to take what I am learning here in Grad school and apply it to my thesis and the real world.

I have been down this road before. I had 3 employees and oe intern. I insisted that we quit at 6 and get on with our lives. Lunch was a great excuse to get ourt and see the world. When there were cool summer blockbusters we would be the first in line provided there was no looming deadline. I never overpromised my people. I had no compunctions on serving them coffee if they were working away. When my administrator di a good job I gave her the one gift she never had. that was time. My wife and I baby sat her three boys while She and her hubby went to Il Fornaio and Watercourse way. I can use any one of them as a reference. This was in the mid nineties before google was on the map. I let them do whatever creative job they wanted as long as it contributed to the company portfolio on friday afternoon. I too would do this to keep my chops up (mastery again). On their birthday they were given the day off. I made sure my intern was not raked over the coals and paid a generous salary. N one was to do menial work for me suchas get the dry cleaning.

I went on to be the director of startup and gave everyone the job they needed to do but never interfere. I actually preferred not to say a thing and spent more time keeping my boss off of their backs. I am on the boards of two employees’ companies and talk to them fairly often. This was in 2000 when we were last together. Once we all went to Chevy’s for lunch and had margaritas. One of them said it was my birthday so a big song ws sung by the restaurant staff and I returned to work with a very large sombrero.

My dream company would have this kind of and cool to the employee culture. We would also share the financials as if we were publicly traded. I would like to have an idea democracy. Everyone in the company can contribute. I would let and encourage innovation at the highest to lowest level. Another thing I would do is when someone deserves a promotion but doesn’t want to manage people I would give them the equivalent salary raise and rest in the fact the the person can still do what they are good at. I was lucky enough to have worked for a companies like this. When it works its like and orchestra. When it doesn’t its the same but they sound like a bad tuning up before the show begins. I also believe in being frugal when travelling since I ghave also seen wretched excesses in that regard.
The type of people would complement each other so I would love to hire in pairs if possible. There could be friction but it should be used to generate light not heat. generous maternity and paternity leaves would have to be a must and two people could work 20 hours each for a position if they wanted part time work. If some one were to be fired it would be of no surprise to them. either by reviews and being honest or seeing that it was purely financial. I would like to have people who get up in the morning and are estatic about what we are doing and that we are changing the world (in a positive way but then again DARPA projects can save lives but kill others) If we succeed every one get a proportionate share. Ideally I would like to have something that is creative and technical that tries to solve one of the world’s wicked problems.

The Software I use most frequently is probably Autodesk Sketchbook Pro. It is used for doing loose drawings and approximates the pencils, markers and airbrushes of my early design days. In the interest of full disclosure I did work on an early predecessor called Studio Paint. It cost $45K and only ran on a $150K machine. What’s so great about it? Ypu can learn to use the toolset in a few hours and the best user is one who can draw well. This is the great leveler. A lot of the digital content creation software can do a lot more but it is a multiyear learning curve and the power user is the one who knows all the settings, option boxes and clever workarounds; not the best artist with the tool. The shortfall of the software to a certain extent is its best aspect. It can draw, has some ellipse guides and rulers but there is always a desire for more functions. It has a X and Y symmetrical drawing mode but wouldn’t radial be nice? What about french curves like its more expensive older brother? All of these would be nice but it would make it unwieldy. They have made a variation of this SW called Sketchbook designer that can make free flowing pencil curves that can be edited after the fact. I am still learning it. It just can’t be started up and have something done quickly since you need to know where the command is. The versions of the SW on the iPad and iPhone are very similar but I still prefer drawing on my Mac with a Wacom Cintiq over all of the versions. The main reason is that the work I do on it is indistinguishable from my hand drawings. No other package has come close. Every time there is a new version a little more feature creep occurs. I mostly use the 2009 version for that reason. Every once in a while( with some forethought ) I will use the 2011 edition due to some great little feature. I have seen this evolve for 16 years and as you can see it is a pretty nifty package

Just like my old Vincent Vellum sketches of yore

Having been in industrial design as well as computer graphics I have seen the bet and the worst prototypes in my day. On the software front I had made a lone User requirement Doc for some functioanlity I wanted in Autodesk Alias Studio. I wrote the paper and showed what the user would see step by step at first with hand drawings. I sent it up to HQ and heard nothing back. The main UI person Steve Spencely got it right away. It was to be able to digitally pencil sketch on construction planes then dial in a radius between surfaces. You would then be able to make parting lines for door cuts and such. Steve said next time you are up here lets talk with the SW engineers. I had made screen shots of our modeling system and went over it in Illustrator so it looked like I had the functionality built in. I used the SGI equivalent of Powerpoint to have these as a slide show from the user’s perspective. When I made it up finally Steve gathered the most amenable engineers and I presented the slide show. I walked them through step by step what I thought was a pretty cool way to work. One engineer Craig McPheeters got it. He said did you know that would use iterative math? I responded with what if we faked it? The dialogue began. They said they all saw the drawings but didn’t understand why you would want to have radii on all corners. The fact I showed it in their SW meant it closer to reality. my lower fidelity work was to far removed from it. I had learned that you want to prototype something to talk to and at the fidelity that approximates your audience’s reality

http://au.autodesk.com/?nd=class&session_id=5150
I think that good storytelling has many elements which of course varies from story to story. The classic Hero Wih a 1000 faces by Joseph Campbell talks of the hero leaving the village. He encounters obstacles, faces his/her worst fear and conquers it. When they return to the village they are a changed person. Another way to look at stories is that the hero trys to get somewhere and all of these unexpected things thwart them from getting to their goal. You could also think of a character’s world changing and going on to the adventure. When Luke Skywalker’s aunt and uncle are found dead on Tatooine his world has changed. he can go on his quest to save the princess. In Little Miss Sunshine the best possible thing happens (often though you start with the worst like Finding Nemo’s mom eaten by a larger fish). The girl is picked for a kid’s beauty contest while her brother obsesses on being an Air Force pilot. Paul Dano’s brother character’s world changes when he realizes that he is color blind and his hope is dashed. From then on he works helping and looking out for his sister.

I spoke at An Autodesk University conference on what I call a Product narrative where learning about storytelling is essential to convincing that your design should be made. If you have a spare 45 minutes I would suggest seeing it at

A great example of my journey is the long relationship I have had with Samsung products. I became aware of the Samsung brand when I would visit IDEO Samsung design studio in Palo Alto. Based on what they learned they struck out on their own and used other design firms while shoring up their own team. in 1995 I bought a Samsung 35mm camera designed by Porsche design for a trip to work on post production in lovely Barcelona. I loved the feel of the camera in my hand as well as its logical layout. It surpassed all of my expectations in terms of form and function. It was something I was attracted to in Fry’s no research just a quick buy and a faint memory of the stuff i saw in PA. Advance a decade later and I had a project with Samsung to design a wireless device for the bay area. It was very conceptual and the best part was I got to go to the gallery opening in Seoul. I had a tour of the main design center where every floor looked alike. I was impressed by how high up designers were in top management. I came away deeply impressed with their culture. After that point all of my electronics would be Samsung. This time I was looking for a large screen TV. I read as much as I could on ratings sites as well as Amazon. I tend to enjoy seeing future products in spy shots on sites like Gizmodo and Engadget. They rumored that a new 1M:1 contrast ratio line was coming soon. In a few weeks it was announced and on sale in Asia. Shortly afterwards I had to go see it in the store. I went to a Best buy near work and took it all in. I was just about ready but my CFO (wife) said get a deal or something. I went to a Best Buy in East Palo Alto because I want to support their local taxes. I wwent the whole family and new the model number etc. I then saw that the previous generation model was 500K:1 but at a $1000 less. When comparing the screens and seeing how quickly even the one I would buy I decided on the cheaper version. I had studied every spec on that one as well and knew that Best Buy had a only two left. Black Friday was a few week away but I knew that Blu ray plaeyr would take step down in price below my threshold for new tech ($200) I bargained to that price for the total deal and enjoy my Samsung Blu ray and 46″ TV (yes I know its a guy thing).

The Sammy has proven ultra-reliable and of course 3D tempts me. My long time positive associations with that brand at very deep touchpoints (beyond a consumer). Luckily I have also had these type of experiences with other well known brands and for this reason I will be very loyal. I had a horrible interview with major brand car company and I wiil never buy from that brand ever. I associate their drivers as being the biggest jerks on the highways. Even though the head of design I have known for a quarter century.

How did you delegate the work and maintain quality control?
I know that in all of these cases function is primary but what do think about beauty in the building?