Corridor Conversations

Met Rohan after a long gap today at the staircase landing. He is doing his Information visualization design project with an MNC and we got into conversation regarding his project and usual design teacher questions as to who was he designer for, and so on. The conversation moved on to the topic of familiarity of people with past information media and interactions and how introducing the next version has a tedious learning curve across immediate generation too let alone older ones. New products get introduced with no historic or perceptual connect with added newer navigational logic and semantic. The change is a step up and not a seamless tread. Walk into a bank and see how the middle aged staff struggle with newer systems or software versions. You see the younger staff tutoring them, while their child back home is faster in switching channels. It seems as they/we designers may say, there will always be the gaps and can be bridged, but hello bridges are on rivers, we are talking about easable transits with no deliberates. Divya, student designer, has reasoned in a similar way in a context different. While designing a convenience for his grandfather for a condition due to aging, he stated ‘Design for Transition’. Saying bye, we said to each other, we don’t seem to design for the Transition! This it is, the next.