One of the things Chris Bangle raised during his talk was a quote that Lincoln was alleged to have made to Grant during the US Civil War. Lincoln said...
"When you are in the field, you are the Union."
So Bangle is obviously big on empowering the people that work for him. But that also means that the folks that are empowered need to assume the mantle of responsibility and risk that that entails. Bangle equates this with sowing the seeds for your own revolution and challenging folks not just to see the world in just one way. He also lends his voice to John Thakara's when he states that classic design may not be the best way forward. I see obvious paralles to this in the world of hardware (can I upgrade someting or do I need to replace it every year) and software (more efficicient software uses less processor power (or uses it more efficiently) allowing me to have more efficient (and less power-hungry) data centers.
Although he doesn't use the words that we may use around the Web 2.0 and technology, community and social networks and social networking Bangle also challenges the elite nature that designers tend to exhibit (Such as Nussbaum's recent post iterates). Bangle suggest that designers are NOT the only people that can make things and that the tools that we use to make things now are going to be made available to everyone, and soon. He compares this to how reading and writing used to be only in the purview of the elites. How ridiculous that notion seems today huh? Will we all be designers in the future?
Bangle concludes his talk by reiterating that his designers work in a medium that 'speaks' to them. In his case he means clay. He wonders if 'code' can speak to software developers and designers. I think it does already. Talk to a Ruby developer or the creator of Ruby and they will say as much. As a designer I often get into the 'flow' of an application when I design an interface or graphic or a logo. Microsoft's INTENT is to create the next generation of tools that will allow designers and developers to do just that. You'll tell us if we are successful or not or what's missing.
Once all the tools, frameworks, gauidance, content are ready and released, I'll be more than happy to.
Posted by: Marlon Smith | March 23, 2007 at 12:19 PM