Design

Design related discussions. Sharing of knowledge on various issues.

Playstation Knobs That Could Have A Unique Tone

Playstation Buttons

If you’ve been a kind of a gamer, you can’t miss out on those 4 colourful ubiquitous signs of the PlayStation controller. On the other hand, there are chances that you completely miss their significance beyond using them as primary controls for interacting with the game environment. PlayStation logo and product designer Teiyu Goto explains the real reason behind choosing symbols over alphabets, which previous generation consoles were already doing, and it makes total sense:

Other game companies at the time assigned alphabet letters or colors to the buttons. We wanted something simple to remember, which is why we went with icons or symbols, and I came up with the triangle-circle-X-square combination immediately afterward. I gave each symbol a meaning and a color. The triangle refers to viewpoint; I had it represent one’s head or direction and made it green. Square refers to a piece of paper; I had it represent menus or documents and made it pink. The circle and X represent ‘yes’ or ‘no’ decision-making and I made them red and blue respectively. People thought those colors were mixed up, and I had to reinforce to management that that’s what I wanted.

Techcrunch

It’s not so much the design or the use of geometric shapes which are just perfect for a suggestion method & recall during the gaming interaction, but the colours of the ‘circle’ and the X that has got me all knotted up — based on Goto’s theory the ‘yes’ or ‘no’ decision markers should have been green and red. Ultimately, the buttons serve a different purpose today regardless of their conceptual origins. Speaking of which, maybe the red and blue for ‘yes’ and ‘no’ might find its inspiration from the Japanese traditions and culture?

It’s widely noted that more often than not colours are mere tools for marking a differentiation on the user-interface with the element, just like the four different shades of the geometric shapes. Today, one could conclude that the green, red, blue, and pink tones on the Playstation consoles are not just any colours but elements that are identified by an entire gaming generation as the basis for creating a strategy with a recreational intent, and for making advancements into the story. The time to make those subtle changes in the colours might have passed a long time ago.

Requirements Gathering or Requirements Generating?

This question hasn’t bothered me more in my career than in recent times after I went through an online UX course. So in UX parlance, what would be considered as a reasonable vocabulary — is it gathering of the requirements or is it generating of the requirements? Designers ought to comprehend user needs and generate feasible ideas for the real world, so clearly, it’s the connotation of the word ‘gathering’ which is at conflict here more than the approach itself.

According to the information given on his website, Joe Natoli is a speaker on topics of User Experience (UX) and Design for 29 years, from national and global conferences, and has launched eight successful online courses. Two of which I happened to reflect upon on Udemy a few weeks ago and both were insightful at the very least. However, it was his differentiation and comparison of requirements gathering versus requirements generating in both the courses that made me unusually inquisitive about the synonymous terms. It’s also purely language semantics at play here as I explain in detail below. But first, this is Joe’s take on the point in question from the UX Strategy Fundamentals course:

I want you to know about requirements up front (which) comes from a very smart lady by the name of Kim Goodwin who said that requirements cannot be gathered. OK this is important because I hear that phrase a lot (and) in the last 26 years I’ve heard it more times than I can count. We’re going to gather requirements which essentially means we’re going to get a bunch of people in a room and they’re going to tell us what they need and we’re going to write them down. We’re gathering from them. OK. It does not work that way. And if it does it’s not going to be successful. As she says there’s no requirements tree back. We’re not going to go pick requirements off the tree or any one of these and this one looks particularly good. I think we’ll do that. It doesn’t work that way. You have to iterate and generate requirements you have to kick them around and decide what’s right what matters what doesn’t matter what can work what isn’t going to work. It’s a process. It’s not an answer. You need to find out what users need to be able to do with your website in terms of functionality in terms of the content that they see and interact with in terms of data if they fill out a form and give you information or they look at reporting where they get data and information.

UX Strategy Fundamentals → Section 4: Determining and Controlling Project Scope – Lecture 17. UX Focused Requirements: An Introduction.
Continue reading…

Why Are Online Portfolios Suddenly Vanishing?

Nothing personal but it’s worth observing this recent phenomenon of certain designers maintaining online portfolios in private, and it’s a question that has baffled me the most. Until I meet someone who has kept the ‘daggers’ hidden under a cloak of secrecy I will never get conclusive evidence. I was reading an interesting and highly insightful article on Medium from a UI/UX designer talking about grid systems for mobile/desktop UI designs. There was no doubt in my mind that this individual had done immense research to validate an approach of using a grid system, and I was impressed enough to look at his body of work. His online portfolio link had been provided but my eagerness soon turned into despair when I found everything except for the design work was public! After creating an impression with your writing and intellect why would you want to hide your designs? And this isn’t the only instance where I found the portfolio ‘locked up’ for a private viewing it’s become a trend.

It defeats the entire purpose of maintaining an online portfolio that is meant to be accessible 24/7 and aimed at like-minded designers, peers, and most of all, recruiters and employers who might be looking for a talent like yours. Online portfolios can be a great way to project your individual talent not just for exploring job opportunities, and for the industry at large to comprehend what a design process resembles in an individual’s capacity! But the core question still remains unanswered – why are designers turning secretive all at once?

  • I believe there are a couple of factors and the most important one feels like the designer’s work for an organization is covered by an IP or a non-disclosure agreement. Designers aren’t allowed to showcase their visual thinking process in public without breaking the law and it’s a precarious situation they find themselves in all the time. So it’s only inevitable that they strictly make their work ‘on-demand’ to skillfully dodge the scrupulous eyes of the employer. So this applies to specific client work, but what about side projects which are independent of an employer’s discretion?
  • Another version could be to prevent employers, recruiters, and peers or colleagues from unfairly judging their work. UX is a pretty subjective domain having a nuanced process that’s dictated by the culture of the company. For instance, designing a ‘persona’ could end up within multiple formats across the industry and could still make sense in their individual capacities. If employers or recruiters were seeking to judge the designer on the basis of the perception they carry about a standardized ‘persona’ format they might well be disappointed. In such a case, candidates may prefer discussing the portfolio on a personal level by blocking access to the portfolio.
  • In relation to my previous point, some designers may also have a misguided personal view about their own work, finding it archaic and unfit for public viewing.
  • And lastly, some designers, in general, might be scared their work is at risk of getting plagiarized.

Be as it may, portfolios in any form are actually articles to be judged. They’re also seen as a ‘gateway’ to your innermost beliefs and design thinking processes, and might largely differ with an individual’s mindset. But it’s critical that that difference should be presented boldly and to position your unique qualities in the market. Aiming to build a career in design I miss the point and find no logic or prudence in keeping your talent confidential. The mantra should always be to stay open-minded, invite diverse opinions, and spreading the knowledge of design.

Innovation Through Serendipity

There’s a well-known ‘eureka’ story around the occurrence of ‘serendipity’ or an unplanned discovery. Hiero the monarch of Syracuse, gave a silversmith some silver and gold to make him a crown but the king wasn’t convinced if the silversmith had been an honest craftsman. So he commissioned the famous mathematician Archimedes to check if the silversmith was a fraud or otherwise. He failed to find a solution, but one day as Archimedes was taking a bath and as he settled in the bathtub he noticed some of the water overflowed. He found out that it was the exact amount of weight that occupied his body. That’s how the Archimedes’ principle came into being and humans found a way to keep giant cargo ships floating on the deep oceans.

The definition of Serendipity, in a nutshell, is a happy coincidence, an unexpected event that apparently occurs due to chance, and it often happens when we are searching for something else. Once can be assured that almost everybody in the corporate world might hate to leave things to chance but in especially design as a field it’s mostly common to expect serendipity to occur with or without due process and provided the outcome isn’t driven by expectations alone.

But it has also been mentioned that serendipity isn’t an act of coincidence alone. Rather, in innovative processes, serendipity is more about making “connections or insights that occur when we are searching for one thing to find something else.” So effectively, being serendipitous means discovering what we didn’t know, 1 and Apple is one company. that is notoriously famous for making innovation choices based on the serendipity of extraordinary individuals such as Steve Jobs. 2

Nonetheless, in the sense of the most revealing inventions made through a serendipitous approach they are broadly categorized into three types:3

  • Discovery, that was not sought (e.g. Velcro)
  • Discovery, that was being sought, but found in an unexpected way (e.g. vulcanization)
  • Discovery, whose use is different than originally planned (e.g. Post-It).

Moreover the essence of serendipity can only be explored with an open mindset if not with the larger organization at least within the confines of the design culture. It essentially requires moving beyond our personal customs, culture, and prejudices and observing the external considerations of the customers as well, and by learning to spot the opportunities while simultaneously connecting with the internal views and research. This may appear to be a highly contradictory and an arduous exercise but adding the quality of serendipity to the research spectrum would eventually lead to some surprising results. It’s worth taking a chance.


  1. Collins, R. (n.d.). The Key to Innovation: Serendipity. Retrieved February 29, 2020, from https://optimityadvisors.com/insights/blog/key-innovation-serendipity ↩︎

  2. Medeiros, J. (2018, June 26). Here’s Why Steve Jobs Said Intuition is Absolutely More Powerful Than Intellect. Retrieved February 29, 2020, from https://www.goalcast.com/2018/06/26/steve-jobs-said-intuition-is-more-powerful-than-intellect/ ↩︎

  3. Meige, A. (2015, September 18). Serendipity and Innovation. Retrieved February 29, 2020, from https://open-organization.com/en/2010/04/25/serendipity-and-innovation/ ↩︎

Life Inside A Power Socket!

This walkthrough of a ‘secret’ room behind a power outlet is literally the most astonishing and cutest video I’ve come across this year. The level of detail crammed in such a narrow confined space is on a whole new level altogether. There’s an AirCon, a red clock signifying an evening time, a refrigerator with a microwave sitting on top, and a table with a PC (that’s actually a Mac) and leaving just enough space for a mouse to fit in. There’s even frame displaying a Diploma in Karate above the desk!

Besides, the desktop lamp there’s another computer right in the front as you enter the ‘room’ with some sort of a game in progress. This set up’s so cool! Who wants bigger desks with dual monitors when we can own two PCs and in such an innocuous place; trust me, it’s like going back into the 90s! The best part about this interior is the miniature Mac on the table with an OS9 splash screen, upon pursuing some information online I found it could either be a PowerMacintosh 4400 or a Macintosh II.

It totally baffles me as to how the pieces have been constructed with such pristine detail — the table, toys, the chair, the lamp, even the blinking light on the CPU (or is it an Internet router), and everything is skillfully assembled inside the narrow interiors, behind a power socket, but looking extremely comfy! In reality, not an inch to stretch your arms but still a decent example of efficient use of the location. Like a perfect world within a tiny world.

It’s a creation of a young Japanese artist called ‘Mozu’ who designs such handmade miniature splendours. This latest build is called ‘The Secret Base of Kubito’ and the time he spent to complete this masterpiece was 4 months! It’s a personal space / an office room together, and away from the glare of the outside world. It’s a truly magnificent work of art!