For allot of you reading this, this is not a new or revolutionary idea. But rather a mindset that we have been using to design new digital experiences for some years now. For me, this notion of ‘Playful Design/Development’ was introduced during me collegiate years by an interactive artist by the name of David Rokeby. I had the pleasure of attending David’s presentation/lecture on his “Very Nervous System”. This for me was one of the most influential lectures about his creative process. If you’re not up on David’s work, you can always googlize him on the WWW. Or better yet, check out this video:

David’s process in creating this timeless experience had an extraordinary influence over the way I approach design/business problems to date. It’s essence is the idea of going from concept to prototype and then using the system to help inform and prioritize the next iteration of the concept.

I remember when I started designing interfaces for cd-rom experiences (circa 1995, Macromind Director). I would start off sketching on paper the various design ideas for the various states of the interface. As soon as I had a couple strong directions sketched out, I would then cut out these states and try to see how I might flow from one state to the next. Sound FX included This was such a great exercise in helping to visually brainstorm with the other team members. As well as poke wholes in the grid structure that I was using as my underlying framework for the interface.

Now that Flash Catalyst is almost a release candidate, I think it would be useful for me and hopefully others that I start to capture my experiences with this product and how I will use it as part of our design teams process at R/GA - San Francisco.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 2:07 pm and is filed under Design, User Experience (UX), Flash Platform, LinkedIn. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.