alan@tivoli.UUCP (Alan R. Weiss) (05/23/91)
When I was a teenager in junior high school and then high school, I
fell in love with cars. I became a car nut, and studied the car magazines
such as Car & Driver, Motor Trend, and Road & Track with the zeal of
a convert. In doing so, I naturally became familiar with the principles
of good automotive design (e.g. "hey, dude, that car looks bitchen!").
I learned what good design was, and what the "experts" considered bad
design. I followed the trend from late 60's wretched excess to
70's wretched excess to the clean wedge lines of Guigiaro. From
Pininfarina to Guigiaro to GM's Irv Rybicki and Ford's Jack Telnack,
I judged cars according to my standards and the standards of the people
who wrote about them and actually bought them.
I learned that Raymond Lowry, designer of the Studebaker Avanti,
was actually an industrial designer extrordinaire: he designed
furniture, buildings, Coca-Cola machines, and trains with equal aplomb.
I learned that the Bauhas design philosophy had its parallels in
the automotive world ("form follows function").
IF YOU WANT TO LEARN WHAT MAKES A GOOD USER INTERFACE, STUDY GOOD DESIGN.
In all fields. Architecture, automotive design, submarine design,
furniture design, movie directors, and so on.
And you sure as hell don't have to do it in any formal school, although
learning about engineering, art, and science all help you develop
your own perspective.
What is lacking in our nascent field is the connection from our world
to the larger world of Design, Art, and Engineering. Its coming,
to be sure.
How many people know the name of the developer of the Xerox Parc Place
Smalltalk user interface?
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Alan R. Weiss TIVOLI Systems, Inc.
E-mail: alan@tivoli.com 6034 West Courtyard Drive,
E-mail: alan@whitney.tivoli.com Suite 210
Voice : (512) 794-9070 Austin, Texas USA 78730
Fax : (512) 794-0623
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