We have to communicate stuff to the client, printer, developer and our computer’s as well – designers are transmission hubs.

I reckon on a small budget job 20% of my time will go into unconscious communication (like colour semantics) and on a bigger job it is more like 80%.

Cheers Hayden

I like your thinking Shaun. I’ve never really tried to equate how much time is associated with communicating through design.

I will have to try it out

Thanks for the mind-food Hayden and Shaun.

Design is a mode of communication where objective understanding should be the primary concern.

A design’s success should be measured by how clearly its intended message was understood by its intended audience. If the message wasn’t understood, or was unclear, then it wasn’t good design.

I agree with you Brendan, but not in all cases.

I think there is a lot to be said for coded designs. People like to solve puzzles, there’s a satisfaction within that. I am not saying that kind of design is appropriate for all projects. In reality, it only serves a few, and requires really good execution.

I don’t think design always deals with messages and communication either; I don’t get many stories from an Eames chair. Sure they may be bought by someone wishing to convey a message about themselves. But the chair, as an object, is maybe 1% message and 99% comfort.

That is the crossroad where graphic design and furniture / product design can part ways. I think graphic design is about communication; that essentially why it exists, isn’t it?

After reading ‘What is a designer?’ by Norman Potter, I’ve been wont to try and keep all ‘design’ bundled together for as long as possible in an attempt to find those ‘universal truths’ of design.

I can see how it’s not exactly relevant in this discussion though.

I don’t know if I agree with you about communication, but perhaps that is because I come from an architectural background myself.

I like Sam’s reference to Eames. To quote that particular architect: “Design is the appropriate combination of materials in order to solve a problem.”

That problem is not always about communication but sometimes about security, performance, stability, access, longevity, fitness for purpose etc. – which I feel is as true for (in my case) web designers, as it is for product design.

Perhaps this is where web design parts ways with graphic design, and holds hands with product designers ;)

You’re right guys, product design and the idea of communication don’t sit well together but I don’t think they are completely absent of each other.

For the Eames chairs, and possibly any product, the communication comes at an earlier point in the design process. Design communication goes between the designer and the customer and less between the customer and their counterparts. One of the primary objectives when designing a product is to sell them. How can we sell lots of units? One way is by designing a great product that communicates its benefits clearly.

In product design the communication gets embodied within the form and function of the product… Is this chair more comfortable than any other? Will it provide health benefits for the user? Does this design suit my decor? Will it be worth the extra money? These are the questions that the customer will be asking themselves at the time of purchase; these are the questions Charles Eames has to communicate answers to through his designs.

I guess communication can also come from other senses – eg the feel of the chair. As a web designer myself I think usability is largely about communication too. Performance is communicating fast, Stability and Accessibility is just communicating to everyone etc.

Tho I prefer “experience design” if I am looking for an umbrella term, it helps remind me that my work has a bigger context.

Ellatron, James, Sam, Shaun… What are your thoughts around measuring the success of design as a product or architecture? Is it as simple as success or fail?

Not at all, I think those two absolutes, success and failure, are almost mythical.

My best guess at things, is that there’s a ‘Continuum of Quality’ but it’s very rare, if not impossible, to reach either end.

There’s always going to be someone, somewhere for whom the design is a failure, and vice versa.

That was brilliant Hayden. Who is Saussure?

Thanks Chris

Ferdinand de Saussure was one of the forefathers of thinking around the linguistic signs and semiotics; the language of signs. As you can imagine language association to signs plays a large part in communication design.

The idea of the sign, the signifier and the signified play a large part in my representation of communication.