Design as in hidding buttons

by javier on 1/11/2008

Check this out:

Now, this is what I call design. Or at least is the kind of design that I do on a regular basis.

Many of my clients come with their own “remote controls” crammed with dozens of buttons. My job is to decide which ones get hidden, which of them remain and how to sort them out. I’ll eventually add something, but that is not usually the case. That’s why I like o say that I am not good at inventing stuff but at improving it.

I saw the picture at Makememinimal, I think I am going to save it for an ocasional presentation. It’s a good way of explaining my job ;)

There are 4 comments in this article:

  1. 1/11/2008carlos says:

    i think that if you decide which of them “remain”, which of them are really useful, then you are doing product design.

    however, if you “only” decide how to sort them out, how is the action flow and how to reduce and priorize the number of buttons with the same functionality, then you are doing interaction design.

    i love them both :-)

    of course, in my opinion they are (they must be!) very linked. in fact, i can’t think about a product if i don’t envision its interface

    but, i really think that if you begin to “build up” the interaction design without definite funtionality, you could do sorta “lazy” or “tricky” design.

    sure, you can notice bizarre functionalities at the interaction design process (who not?). but then, i’d rather “go back” to product design phase and redefine the “rules”.

  2. 3/11/2008Julio Loayza says:

    Me encanta. Llevo años pensando en hacer un mando a distancia para personas mayores. Vi alguno en la web, pero que se limitaba a tener botones gigantes (siendo a su vez gigante) ¿Quién se anima? :-)

  3. 14/11/2008Tonic says:

    Genial idea. (te la copio)
    Por ahí he visto algunos mandos a distancia que tienen dos caras: Una con todos los botones y otra con los botones básicos. La cara no usada se queda tapada. Sería como una interfaz con dos perfiles de usuario.
    Creo que eran de Sony.

  4. 19/11/2008Monster-Munch Keep It Simple Stupid says:

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