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Re: [microsound] iMarketing
I was talking about my experiences. The company I currently works for
treats branding and usability as different things. Making software that
clients can actually use productively gets us more contracts and allows
us to keep the same clients and hence their support contracts.
Often clients have their own design guidelines for software and websites
which we have to adhere to, but it's not unusual for these to be created
by people who actually understand HCI related issues. So it's not all
marketing lead. Although, I'd like to think the company I currently
works
for is fairly mature in this respect.
I can even get away with jokes about marketing people and
'the B Ship' in the office (Douglas Adams fans will get the reference)
On 13 Feb 2004, at 17:43, Kim Cascone wrote:
People who design interfaces aren't marketing staff. They are most
likely familiar and possibly take part in research in Human Computer
Interaction. They attempt to understand how and why a user interacts
with software a certain way, using ideas from psychology where
possible
(an obvious example is the 7 +/- 2 rule).
I spent five years working for audio software companies during the
dot.com
bubble and I have to say that this is simply not the case...most user
interfaces are designed by a process of arm-wrestling between the
marketing
dept (who know exactly what their market wants and needs via divine
guidance) and the engineering dept (who will over-design a simple
door-knob
given the chance)...
I have spent countless hours in pointless meetings where marketing and
engineering imagine they are engaged in some sort of fantasy role
playing
contest/battle of wits while I read email on my laptop and pretended
to be
taking notes for the meeting...
having ANYONE on staff that knows a whit about HCI/UI design is a
luxury
most music/audio software companies cannot afford...at least this has
been
my experience...
--
http://alex.bash.sh
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