Designing from the gut is something that has been on my mind recently. It is the ability to make an educated guess about something, how an interface should look, what the up-arrow should do, what color should a character’s shirt be for the user to feel connected with him. It’s becoming so familiar with a topic that when trying to design something you can make a pretty good guess as to the appropriate decision, and tweak the result for the best outcome.
Jesse Schell discussed this in his game design class and related it to microwaving pasta. You don’t know exactly how much it will take to reheat a dish, but you know how long it will take to overheat that dish and make it explode. You put the food in and guess how long it will take to get a little hotter. Then you test it, and see if it is the desired temperature. If not, you guess again and tweak all over again. Each time making smaller and smaller adjustments until you get the desired effect.
This is my choice way of dealing with everything. I take in as much information as I can, digest it, and figure out what it means. Seemingly unrelated things could inform something I’m working on, and I will use it.
I have been redesigning lots of things recently, and learning more and more about graphic/story/character/programming design has helped. Looking at example codes, figuring out what has worked in the past, and augmenting it for my needs. Digesting current trends, figuring out why they are indeed trends, and relating it back into the design.
There will be a new comic coming soon.
Tags: design, game design, relating
Though I appreciate the emotion of “designing from the gut,” I think it is a dangerous road. Designing from the gut seems a lot like designing for yourself. How do you know what color users want the shirt to be unless you do some research? I think that good design requires a strong vision, but it’s gotta be backed up by innovative research methods—more than “guess and tweak.” You’ve gotta really do some delving to find out what people want.
So I think that Jesse’s method can lead to okay design; but truly great design can’t come from guessing.
That’s what I mean when I say it’s more of an educated guess. With research and a strong vision, a good product can be made.