Should_We_Be_Afraid_of_Modern_Technology

Guidelines for Good Design This paper is devoted to considering such question in design practice as guidelines, which designers are supposed to follow in order to develop a good design. In general, in the process of development of some technology or a products designer is supposed to make sure that the most of the targeted audience will be able to use this product or technology. The philosophy behind this design is entitled inclusive or universal. This means that, as many people will use the new product as possible. (Nicolle, et al, 2001, p 3) Design guidelines are certain sets of rules, which direct designers and develop a range of activities expected to be used in order to develop the product or technology. But as it is known, design is used in a great variety of areas: beginning with product design, to web design, to building design, to research design and living spaces design. Guidelines differ from standards. Guidelines only show the directions in which designers are supposed to work. But standards are requirements which must be followed otherwise this will be a breach. The question may arise whether all designers in these areas have common guidelines or whether each industry and field has to follow its own design patterns and guidelines. It is understandable that guidelines for web design will not be applied in the field of product design. Thus, each professional has to know a certain set of rules, which are applicable only for his industry. These guidelines can be studied at university when a professional obtains the basics of profession. But in the process of working each designer is supposed to study further getting to know when there are some new guidelines developed for his field. The proper search of specialized literature and resources will help to find out about guidelines in each field mentioned above. This is necessary because each process whether it is goods design or architectural design has to conform to predefined rules in order to develop product, which will be used by the entire target audience. This paper as well will try to distinguish between different guidelines for some of the design fields. Furthermore, for certain, there can be some common rules for each designer that can appear in all of the guidelines regardless of their industry or field. Sometimes it is almost impossible to say at once whether there exist design guidelines for some kind of design or not. It is the easiest way to state that there are no universal rules for each design practice. And this is true, but only partially. This paper will try to prove that this statement is not absolutely correct. The first example of design guidelines can be rules for design of residential housing. In this case the local authorities develop the rules generally. The guidelines usually include such requirements as consideration of density, common open spaces, preservation of natural features, land disturbance, recreational amenities on-site, the mix of housing types, crime prevention, site layout guidelines, vehicular and pedestrian circulation and access, building design itself (including the choice of building materials, architectural detail), landscaping, lighting, and many other guidelines which the architects are supposed to follow. These guidelines are supposed to regulate the design process in order for an architect to match the people’s needs, to make the residential area comfortable and safe. (“Multi-Family Residential Design Guidelines and Standards”, 2004) The variation of architectural design can be city (or its district) design, which also follows its own guidelines. They may include preserving unique character of a certain district or street, enhancing pedestrian orientation. (“Downtown Design Guidelines”, 2008) Web-design is a really complicated process, which requires deep knowledge. Guidelines can include either general recommendations or guides to certain areas of operation. For instance, in the process of website development there are guidelines for making websites for different audiences. For instance, academic website the environment should be rather graphic-free for the academy is not much interested in the decoration but rather in content itself. And in the development of intranet for some company the awareness of the browser used by the company’s employees will allow to expand the intranet’s possibilities through using the features of this certain browser. Websites for consumers have to be compatible with older browser versions because sometimes users are not that sophisticated to use new innovative browser types. (Niederst, 2001, p 14) Similarly developed guidelines can be created for any type of web-design practices – designing display formats, effective wording, graphics, and many more. (Brown, 1998) Another field – pottery and furniture design. For this area of design there exist guidelines, which have been known by the mankind for centuries and even thousands of years – from the times of Ancient Greece. The most important guideline for pottery and furniture design is the Rule of the Golden Mean. “The Rule of the Golden Mean simply states that: “The smaller is to the larger as the larger is to the whole””. (Fairfield, n.d., par 2) Other rules for this type of design include the rules of thirds which are as well rules of proportion and allow designer to develop pottery and furniture which is not only practical in use but also beautiful and proportionally developed in order to carry an aesthetic meaning along with utilitarian purpose of use. Web-based training is one more domain, which includes and implies design process, and here the learning process is designed. As well as in many other areas, good design of this process of learning has its own rules which are recommended to follow for due to them learners will be able to grasp the information in a more productive way. These guidelines include the following. First of all, the formal development process has to be established in order to create adequate materials for certain users that are the target audience for certain learning process. Technology is advised to be used only under condition that it corresponds with the topic studied and is not very complicated for users. Also, user is supposed to interact with information offered but not only to view it, otherwise will user not be able to master the material introduced. The website has to be intuitional and the data adaptable to the intellectual abilities of any user who studies online. It is known that user can be used to different learning styles such as visual and verbal. Each category of users has to be able to understand and benefit from offered information in the same way, thus, all the abilities of many users are supposed to be taken into consideration. Each user is also supposed to choose one’s own way and path of learning; there cannot be any predetermined linear path for studying. As well, it is very important not to include content, which can annoy users or prevent them from learning. Respect for people’s privacy and right to learn the way which is the most convenient for them is vital. Finally, when the design is ready it is preferable to test it on real people similar to those who will eventually use the material and the website for learning. This is necessary because designer may have one’s own concept of the website and learning process which will not do for users at all. (In this case the statement “test early, test often” is the best strategy in order to make sure that the design is appropriate and corresponds with the developer’s goals in all means. If all these guidelines are followed, the website for web-based training will be useful as can be. (“Rules for Good Design”, 2008) All the above-mentioned guidelines and practices allow us to make some conclusions, which are to be outlined hereinafter. First of all, there are no universal defined rules or guidelines for any type of design. As it is evident from everything said above, each field, each industry and each type of design has its own different from others guidelines. Second, still, some of the guidelines can be similar for any type of design and any type of product and technology. These guidelines are connected with customers who will be the targeted audience for every certain design. What does this mean' It is known that any product has its own users or consumers who have to be satisfied with this product. (It does not matter whether this product is a new good, online community, new technology for the Web or a new building to live in.) All designers expect their products to match with customers’ needs. Consequently, good design guidelines imply the development process, which makes products able to satisfy customers. This is what unites all guidelines for design. The product has to be useful (for work or entertainment), easy to understand and use (intuitional), and of high quality (in order to assure customers of the developer’s seriousness and responsibility). Further guidelines naturally differ according to the area of product’s application and have to be studied separately and especially by designers during their educational course and various programs, which are expected to improve designers’ qualification. To conclude, the basic and central goal for any design has to be customer satisfaction and comfort. References: 1. ‘Downtown design guidelines’. (2008). [Online]. Available from http://www.hopkinsmn.com/planning/design.html Accessed January 19 2008) 2. Fairfield, R. (n.d.). ‘Some rules for good design’. [Online]. Available from http://www.woodartbydan.com/articles/the_golden_mean.pdf (Accessed January 19 2008) 3. ‘Multi-Family Residential Design Guidelines and Standards’. (2004). [Online]. Available from http://209.85.129.132/search'q=cache:GFVIIwbUJAIJ:www.opkansas.org/_Assets/pds/design_guidelines/multifamily_guidelines.pdf+residential+design+guidelines&hl=ru&ct=clnk&cd=3#16 (Accessed January 19 2008) 4. Nicolle, C. & Abascal, J. (2001). Inclusive design Guidelines for HCI. 1st ed. London: CRC. 5. Niederst, J. (2001). Web design in a nutshell. 2nd ed. Sebastopol: O'Reilly Media, Inc. 6. ‘Rules for good design’. (n.d.). [Online]. Available from http://www.webbasedtraining.com/primer_rules.aspx (Accessed January 19 2008)