No, the OTHER side
15 Apr
People that know me well know that I like to dabble in the land of creative design and usability. There’ve been some discussions at work of late around whether or not developers (i.e. techies / geeks) can make good design or usability decisions. Some of the developers became offended when I said that they could, but since none of us has a degree in Arts or Cognitive Science we would be leagues away from those who have. I know enough about this area to know what I don’t know and on almost every project that I’ve been on, I’ve ended up being the front-end expert (though in a previous company we did have creative & cognitive experts and I was the team’s interface to them and their standin when they were too busy); this has taught me a lot but also opened my eyes up to a huge area of knowledge and skill that I don’t have (not to mention talent!)
Anyway, now I have proof as to why most techies are bad at design (though some don’t realise it!). A few years ago I bought a book called “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” and starting using it’s lessons to learn to draw better. And it worked – I drew better (not good enough to sell, but better – even portraits). It used the theory that one side of your brain is used for rational thinking, using numbers and words; the other side (the right) is non-verbal and thinks intuitively, in patterns and pictures. My theory is that developers spend so much time using the left side of their brain that they are not used to using the right side and that’s why we need other people to do design / usability (not to mention things like cost and time-constraints).
I’ve also just realised that this closely relates to my post below.
Anyway, you can see the thoery and the book’s use of it here
Absolutely. It’s a matter of application. And if there’s one book that will teach anyone, it’s that one. My point was that most developers, in general, don’t apply or learn those skills. However, I’ve noticed a reasonably high number of musicians in our company but from what I’ve read there’s a very close correllation between music and mathematics so maybe that explains it.
Note that part of the message of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is that *anyone* can learn how to draw. Granted it takes practice and some people will learn faster than others.