Baking bread and interaction design

On baking bread:

From Outlaw Cook, p.215

Why, then, would anyone prefer a natural leavening? In response, it might be argued that at the very center of the artisanal process is not so much insistence on fine ingredients nor mastery of any particular method, but rather a willingness to assume personal responsibility for the thing made. Paradoxically, this means surrendering control, for there can be no responsibility without risk of failure. But willingness to assume that risk restores the baker’s artisanal status even as it offers the possibility of creating an incomparably crusty and full-flavored loaf.

This reminds me of a passage from one of the guest authors in Thoughts on Interaction Design that talks about how to best insert oneself, as a designer, into a company’s existing processes and workflows. She said that this is a process of finding opportunities to do good work on small projects, documenting that work, and then using that documentation to get bigger jobs with more responsibility. But, she says, in order to have an appropriate amount of responsibility (quite a bit), you must have some skin in the game, as Alan Cooper puts it. A certain risk of failure must be present to legitimize both one’s own sense of responsibility and others’ perception of your responsibility.

Now, about surrendering control… I believe this means that we must approach interaction design projects each one uniquely. We cannot rely solely on heuristic solutions, especially on the first go-around, lest we encourage mediocre interactions. Each solution, each loaf, must be designed (or baked) according to the specific constraints (or weather conditions) of the project. In that way, the risk is increased giving credence to one’s role as designer even as the potential value of the interaction is augmented significantly.


p.223

Our culture, so imaginative in finding ways to innovate, is not so inspired in finding a way to sustain a commitment to providing excellence in humble necessities. Indeed, sometimes it seems to conspire against it.