The Ongoing Epistemology of Productize Philosophy for Product Design
#12 Productize Philosophy
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Hey, Everyone.
Welcome to the 1st Checkpoint Letter of Productize Philosophy. Even to my most cynical, self-doubting part of the brain, I am actually quite satisfied with the letters I've put out so far and it felt like an ideal time to do a quick-recap. While doing this recap, I ended-up writing sort-of an ongoing epistemology of my approach to Product Design.
Let's go.
The Ongoing Epistemology of Productize Philosophy for Product Design
People have vastly diverging ideas of what a Product Designer does. I've not known of a field that cries for a more stable definition than Product Design, and actually I am not really fan of the term myself. If forced to pick out of a hat, Interaction design is a term I would prefer over UI/UX or Product Design. Designs you can interact with is more specific in it's idea for what part of the design one must focus on. For instance, when creating interactive designs, visual design is essential but it is not the driving force behind what part of an interaction-flow creates value for the user.
If you're mostly enamored by pixel-perfect screens and gorgeous animations, I would suggest there are much more interesting visual-design professions you can venture out into. Everything from paintings, animations, photography and fashion is a more interesting visual-design profession than interactive designs.
Now, I've been largely unsatisfied with the literature available on Interaction Design. The various methodologies are more analogical than consolidated by first-principles thinking. Maybe someday I will expand more on it in a future letter. But today, what is of interest here is laying a strong foundation over which I can build a theory of Interaction Design. The way I see it,
The north star of great interactive designs is how the design helps the user leverage the technology underneath to create value, for both the user and the business.
In the very first letter, I introduced the tenant of non-prescriptive designs[#1], where I told you we should never prescribe what a user does with a tool. An information product must capture user's intention, but never presume what it means. Then I did two letters on Timeless Designs, both from aesthetics and functional point of view [more anecdotal, than being definitive]. It is in timeless functionality where I demonstrated the most profound tenant of First Principles Thinking[#2].
First-Principles Building is how a philosophy progresses and we explored how Marshall McLuhan philosophized the ways humans interacts with a variety of mediums [#3]. This is the dynamic a Product Designer must understand to grasp human-interaction, which is obviously the beginning of how a Product Designer ventures out into understanding human behaviour.
First-Principles thinking also established "a certain physics"[#6] that must be made inherent to visual designs, which is essentially what Android's Material Design achieved. Beyond this physics and the technicalities of typography, iconography, etc., visual design must be left un-theorized and absorbed from experience. The look-and-feel must be largely learned by looking and feeling.[#4]
And finally, we went deeper to the information layer of 0s and 1s[#5], that defines a Medium as what stores and projects information into the Space and Time of a User. As an interaction designer, your job is to design these mediums that helps a user leverage the technology underneath; creating value in the process.
Now, admittedly the letters serves only the base-logic of each topic, explained with the help of an anecdote. I will definitely be expanding on each topic in future letters. Also, as to the role a Product Designer plays in a team, I suggest you to check out this essay I wrote which establishes a "Product Designer as the StoryTeller of the Company." For now, I highly recommend you to at the very least read the following letters:
*MUST READS* 😁
#1: Non-Prescriptive Designs and the First Letter
In the very first letter, I introduce the foundational tenant of non-prescriptive designs and lay out the mindset for a Product Designer.
#2: First Principles and Eliminating the Need for AI
In this letter, I introduce the tenant of First Principles Thinking to make highly-functional products and beyond. And ofcourse, these features my essay deconstructing HEY E-Mail and how they eliminate the need for AI.
#3: Medium is the Massage and Live Online Courses
In this short letter, I share with you Marshall McLuhan's philosophy for how humans interact with various mediums. This is essential for an Interactive Designers to understand human nature.
#4: Minimal Viable Theory for UI and Build Over Buy
Why UI should be theorized to the minimum and mostly learnt through experience. Also, Casey Neistat's Build Over Buy worldview.
At the foundation of our world is the information layer, and the information theory by Claude Shannon shall be the first piece of text anyone must study.
#6: Physics Matters
Fields get revolutionized as they're fundamentally re-configured to account for a certain physics, by way of thinking through First Principles. Material Design did the same for Visual Design.
*OTHER LETTERS THAT ARE JUST AS INTERESTING* 🤣
Beautiful Complexity is Persuasive
Simplicity is vehemently repeated and Complexity is almost eliminated from the vocabulary of good product design. But complexity can not only afford more functionality, but can actually persuade a cult-like allegiance to your product.
How to [visual] design Timeless products?
I deconstruct two visual designs, Notion [software] and iMac [hardware], to show how timeless designs can be created.
Weird Hardware, Cables and UX is the ultimate moat.
The role of UX in Business Strategy as exemplified by Apple. Also, why Microsoft makes Weird Hardware?
Turning Down Millions for Better UX
An exploration into one of the most legendary companies in Silicon Valley, Basecamp, and how their contrarian decisions at the crossfire of Users and Business Goals.
Human as a Medium
Humans can be talked about in the same terms as the Technology they employ, when both are viewed as Mediums storing and projecting information.
This entire theory is actually born out of practice. Last year, I finished designing my product and as of now, I am looking for a Technical Co-Founder, among other team members, for the same. It is code-named Project PCPI.
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Talk Soon,
Abhishek Agarwal
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