Design is Expensive

prog21.dadgum.com

52 points·msl··7 comments

An interesting thought I ran across once, is that there is no such thing as "no design":

> Questions about whether design is necessary or affordable are quite beside the point: design is inevitable. The alternative to good design is bad design, not no design at all. -- Douglas Martin

That's an interesting thought, indeed. I guess it sums it up nicely.

Unfortunately, before convincing people that design is inevitable, you have to convince them that design is not decoration. :)

There are plenty of ways to get random, emergent and simply chaotic outcomes when building a system without thought or care. I wouldn't call those things 'designed'.

They aren't designed in the traditional sense that someone arranged those things with intent or clarity.

But the lack of care, on purpose or as oversight, also makes a statement–it means something, and definitely signals a point of view (even that of lack).

From the quote, I would assume that the author sees design both as a process and as an outcome/result. Meaning maybe that he is not considering those things as badly designed but, instead, as a bad design.

As the author notes, taking the time to design anything (including a video game) yields better results than a simple combination of concepts.

His example of sounds while displaying graphics shows that even if graphics are decomposable, sounds are linear, and as such, require a different modality of planning and design.

It is not often I find an article written about true design. Great read/conclusion.

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