Understanding Beauty: A Framework for Designers IDSA NEC 2004: Pasadena Uday Gajendar BEA Systems, Inc.
What’s the big idea? • Shift beauty from style to experience • A model to structure and focus the dialogue with design peers about beauty • Classroom and workplace guidance to think about, debate, advocate for aesthetics 2 understanding beauty : IDSA NEC 2004
A little context... Yves Behar exhibit Beauty? Design? Experience? 3 understanding beauty : IDSA NEC 2004
Beauty: It’s all the rage! fashionable cool pleasing sensual sexy poetic hip sharp desire stylish evocative elegant 4 understanding beauty : IDSA NEC 2004
Let’s shift expectations... emotion pleasure aesthetics user experience UX Beauty total integrative aesthetic experience fun satisfaction desirability visual + behavioral + reflective 5 understanding beauty : IDSA NEC 2004
A model of beauty... architectur � psychology philosophy computer scienc � 6 understanding beauty : IDSA NEC 2004
M. Cziksentmhalyi | Psychology Optimal Flow Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience • Self-directed optimal experience • Re-ordering the contents of consciousness • Immersive engagement in a system/activity • Challenge and fulfillment, results in renewal 7 understanding beauty : IDSA NEC 2004
M. Cziksentmhalyi | Psychology Optimal Flow Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience 8 understanding beauty : IDSA NEC 2004
John Dewey | Philosophy Lifestyle Design Art as Experience • Interaction between person and her environment: tools, spaces, materials, etc. • Structure/pattern: “doing and undergoing” • Dynamic integration of thought, emotion, action into consummate whole • Result is “an experience” to be relived/shared 9 understanding beauty : IDSA NEC 2004
John Dewey | Philosophy Lifestyle Design Art as Experience 10 understanding beauty : IDSA NEC 2004
David Gelernter | CS Machine Beauty Machine Beauty • Marriage of “simplicity” and “power” • Direct engagement of material to accomplish task • Functional elegance and utility • Mechanical austerity 11 understanding beauty : IDSA NEC 2004
David Gelernter | CS Machine Beauty Machine Beauty 12 understanding beauty : IDSA NEC 2004
Spiritual/Cultural Appeal • An “architectonic” approach to design • Strive for balance, harmony, unity within one’s life and aspirations • Awaken cultural synthesis/communal membership • Life-enhancing value, inspiring the spirit Walter Gropius | Architecture (Bauhaus) Scope of Total Architecture 13 understanding beauty : IDSA NEC 2004
Spiritual/Cultural Appeal 14 understanding beauty : IDSA NEC 2004
What’s the value? • In the classroom: prepare students to become leaders, advocates, influencers • In the office, try the following: • Create high quality diagrams, demonstrate craft with deliverables • Make aesthetic enrichment a UX goal • Raise questions in UX reviews: is this a lifestyle, is it flow, is it simple/power, etc. • Change attitude: it's not just visual stuff, don't just dismiss it as UI job, it's everyone's job 15 understanding beauty : IDSA NEC 2004
Final Thoughts • Caution: will take time, gradual insinuation, not overnite change • Higher value: create positive, memorable, rewarding experience • Aesthetic imperative is how to get there im·per·a·tiv 1. a. A command; an order. b. An obligation; a duty: social imperatives. 2. A rule, principle, or instinct that compels a certain behavior 16 understanding beauty : IDSA NEC 2004
Revisit the model... architectur � psychology philosophy computer scienc � 17 understanding beauty : IDSA NEC 2004
A last word... It’s when art comes down from the wall that things really get interesting... -Michael Graves 18 understanding beauty : IDSA NEC 2004
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