Brief intro presentation about design foundations given at UX Hong Kong, Feb 2015. Notes: what are foundations… They are a framework for understanding, to give us a shared aesthetic language for criticism. They are also a framework for practice. A way to practice manipulating the fundamental elements of design. Rowena Reed Kostellow described foundations in this way. As a way to internalize the formal aspects of design so that the designer can think about the larger problems at hand. Kostellow’s foundation elements included these aspects, based on a way of understanding the fundamental formal aspects of three dimensional objects. (http://features.cgsociety.org/newgallerycrits/g08/211308/211308_1337678681_large.jpg) (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/Disney_Concert_Hall_by_Carol_Highsmith_edit2.jpg) … but then things like this came along and we needed a new way to think about them in terms of aesthetics, theory, and practice. how do we talk about this critically? how do we learn how to design these things with the same level of competency and quality that Kostellow taught with her foundations courses? (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LxVsP_Fa9pQ/UkmEX5K29vI/AAAAAAAAErQ/RhAth4heZic/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-09-29+at+1.07.37+AM.png) What is a beautiful design in the world of software and systems? (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v395/Evilweredragon/macmemory.png) What craft skills and practice do we need as designers in order to create beauty in software? New foundations give us a set of formal and aesthetic tools that we can practice. They are a way to think about the basic elements of design for your medium. They are things you can practice designing and creating to understand the basic properties of your work. “Good” - This is a very complex notion. What do we mean by “good”? How do we evaluate it, communicate it, and create it? There are a few things we need to understand in order to get there: - the constraints of the problem space - the qualities of the solution addressing the problem space - and the way in which the solution has addressed the constraints which is really about the aesthetic qualities of the solution — how does the designer synthesize all of the problem requirements and constraints into an aesthetically beautiful (appropriate?) solution? In order to have any sort of productive discussion about aesthetics we need to start by understanding our language, how can we describe aesthetic and formal aspects of a solution in a way that others will understand? In order to agree to disagree on the beauty of a design we have to know what we’re agreeing or disagreeing about And that’s what foundations give us. A language we can use together to better understand what we mean by “good”, and a set of formal properties that we can practice working with, crafting, and manipulating to see what solutions we find most appropriate and aesthetically pleasing.