Designing is an ubiquitous activity. Yet in so many instances it almost seems like design is disconnected from usage. In the midst of following fads - the entire purpose of design gets lost !!
We went to a restaurant .... and it seemed like everything that could be wrong ... was wrong !!!!
1. The play area for children was in a dark dim corner ... ?? Could not see the children ... much less the playground artifacts ... what kind of child safe zone is this ?
2. The entire restaurant was mostly dark ... in this dim dark world -- there were pathways ... which had unexpected dips in levels with no visual demarcation .... plus the natural stones had plenty of unevenness to cause stubbing !! An invitation to people and children to fall on their face !!!
3. The low seating was atrocious ... I don't have back pain and yet I found it difficult to keep leaning forward at that angle to reach for my food !!!
4. Candle light dinner ..... aaah .... supposedly romantic .... it seems the designer forgot that candle light dinner does not mean ... we be unable to see the food or the menu !!! :) IMHO candle lit dinner should be just enough that it hides flaws and creates a glow instead .. with adequate dim lighting to ensure you can see what you eat and most importantly the expression on the other person's face ... after all this is why it is supposed to be romantic right ? More often than not this generally this means a smaller table ... most restaurants never get this balance right ... !!!!
And I can go on and on ...For a restaurant of that kind .. food is just one of the things that it is rated on !!! :) The entire design seemed to ignore the people who would come to the restaurant and be served !! :)
If design is intelligence made visible .. I definitely saw no sign of it .... And this is a hep & happening place here ... sometimes I wonder .... :)
We had an architect who was interested in designing our bathroom lighting with expensive lighting and extensive work details .... the point forgotten - the said design would make the bathroom dimly lit !!!
This same person refused to keep the kitchen platform at a comfort level for me ... said the height that was chosen was standard. But this so-called-standard would give me a pain the neck while cutting vegetables and a gas cylinder could not fit underneath it either !!!! What kind of standard was this ? Standards are there for a reason ... but if it does not help towards an easy usage of the object ...... what is the point ... ??
Have you come across a website where what the company is about is buried under so much flash .... that it takes forever to get to the core [ we would rather go elsewhere thank you ]. I would think that if under 5 seconds you don't know what the website is about ... most people would just skip ....
Aesthetics are very important no doubt .. but while designing these aesthetics .... it is important to remember ...designing should always be connected to the purpose of its usage... otherwise after the novelty is gone... it may well find itself out of favor too ....
After all - "Good design keeps the user happy, the manufacturer in the black and the aesthete unoffended" - Raymond Loewy
3 comments:
Design is one thing, its simple lack of application of mind in most cases. Couple of days ago, I somehow inadvertently landed in a old age home in Chennai (http://www.kudumbam.com/). It is in every way how a care home should not be advertised. The problem I think is two things (a) we often do design for the sake of design (b) we often forget to look at the creation in the eyes of who will/should appreciate it.
I agree Rao. Sometimes it seems like things are just thrown together hotch potch and .... that is it !!!
n sometimes its too many cooks spoil the broth situation... too many ppl giving ideas, or same person having lots of ideas which do not co-relate. Some of the bad houses I saw had such small bedrooms that would get cramped by just placing one cot, n the toilet of situated in a place where u hav to twist urself in watever space available to reach there. The worst however though was the kitchen having neither a window nor an exhaust :-O
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