1,000 people with bad taste do not make a Sir Jonathan Ive.
I get the feeling adding designers to a project has the same startup costs as hiring new programs with the results of crappy sorta conforming to the theme design being just as noticeable.
However, then you wind up with 1,000 different products with 1,000 different design languages, if the designs are even thought through well enough to be considered having a design language.
Yep, I'm on an engineering team at IBM and this is basically what's happening. In my (admittedly limited) experience, I can only think of one thing that had multiple designers working on it, and it was basically a marketing website.
There are design guidelines and even some base templates and sass files and such to keep things looking somewhat similar.
I'm a recent hire at IBM Design and leading a design team.
nfriendly, your experience is what it's like working with a non-IBM Design team. The old way is to have a single designer on something and that person has little to no authority to be the users through the design process. That's all changing now.
From my understanding, there have only been a couple of hundred products (in the 3 years since IBM Design was created) that have been updated using IBM Design Thinking. There is actually a dedicated design team (min 5 designers) working on each product that is getting attention at that moment in time.
But there are over 5000 products that IBM sells, so it's going to take a while to get to them all (also assuming some of these will be consolidated as the design cycles address the user's needs). There will be a lot of time that passes before all the engineers at IBM (with it's 400K+ employees) get to have a dedicated design team on their product.
Having been a number of startups and advertising agencies before this, the "design culture" is strong here with a lot of smart folks fighting to turn around a very very big ship.
Interesting question. Theoretically, no, because ideas are a dime a dozen, and there's no "one true way" to solve a design problem. But I think what you'd run into over time, which may be parallel to the man-month myth, is a higher-order approximation of groupthink. Meaning - "Let's apply this interaction pattern to solve this class of problem because we've done it before," repeated ad-nauseam. This will actually result in that parallel of the man-month myth - "solutions" (note the quotes) will be churned out at an increasing velocity, like a giant rubber stamp factory. The big difference is obviously ideas are much easier to create and document than software is to build. I don't think this is a result of the User Centered Design process, however. I think it's a result of the oversimplification of the interaction design sub-process, coupled with the broad lack of interest in the business improvement part of the process.
The problem with design studios this large, and operating on this consultatory premise, is that they will never get to influence the business "why" of solving a problem - they will always be handed a brief, and will always have their solution bounded by decisions made prior to their involvement. They are compelled to do work on what someone else has determined to be the problem, not to uncover the problem themselves and work outwardly from there.
You actually see this all the time in finance - there are entire companies built around the idea of churning out datagrid UIs to banks that don't ever stop to consider the real underlying conditions of why a process is the way it is, or have the opportunity to change it. It just results in a lot of same-same being generated over and over again, and it's easy money for consulting groups to get into the biz - just buy a small (or several) design shop and start billing yourself as being in tune with "UX." Deloitte, KPMG, MarkIt On Demand, EY, PWC, Accenture, EMC, and a bunch of other places are doing it just that way.
Of course it's very important to have a beautiful Z System mainframes. I like the effort they are putting into it, but do they customers care (even for the software)?
Design is more than how something looks. To reframe your question, you might say "but do their customers care if the stuff they buy works?" To which I hope they do care.
FWIW Since IBM bought Silverpop the product has had a gigantic design (and functionality) upgrade. It is very noticeable and has made the product feel far less painful to use.
Even though IBM doesn't seems very sexy startup. But they survived 100+ years and trying to find way to stay in business.
They learn and adapt. They contribute significantly to Open Source. Now they are understanding importance of UI/UX design and trying to invest heavily on it.
Lot of big name startup even though succeed for short or medium term but struggling a lot in long run. I really enjoy reading the below book about IBM
Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? by Louis V., Jr. Gerstner (Outsider came to IBM as CEO)
IBM is nearly in verge of collapse during early 90s. And he pulled it off.
Material and Bootstrap are very different, so I'm not sure exactly what you're looking for, but FWIW, IBM does have some resources available, including what appears to be working code in the "animation library" https://www.ibm.com/design/language/resources
Yup, the IBM Design Language is a growing library/guidelines for all new IBM Designed products. Still a work in progress, but there is finally a unified look/feel/function for future apps/sites.
> But they survived 100+ years and trying to find way to stay in business.
They haven't had to try too hard to find they way. They sold to big business 100 years ago and they still do today. The fact that computers became prominent in smaller businesses doesn't change their success with the biggest.
Hey IBM, instead of just telling us you care, how about actually creating a delightful experience for ClearCase, ClearQuest or DOORS.
I guess it's easier to simply say "Design" 37 times on a static site, maybe add some bright colors, people of 'diverse' background and a hoodie for effect. Nailed it!
IBM has hundreds, if not thousands, of products that they own and maintain. Understand that the research for a design, designing it, and then developing it takes months to years to accomplish. IBM won't be able to update all of their products, but they will work on the ones that they can and then carry design consideration to all new products. Thats all a company can do. Same goes for Microsoft, Google, etc. IBM is a bit late to the game is their only issue.
Also consider, how are they going to get designers/people who care about design if they don't advertise it first. Yes there are products that need work, but to fix that issue they need to say Design 37 and more times just to get the attention of the right people. I am sure in your line of work as well, things don't just happen immediately because you want it to and sometimes to solve one problem you need to solve two or three others first.
See the comment by slantedview in these comments for another example.
Cringely isn't the only one offering serious criticisms of IBM:
rdtsc↗
Regardless of what happens with IBM, this sounds like someone with a chip on his shoulder. He wrote a book about how bad it is, then blogs about it.
It is like someone who got out of a relationship (didn't he work there?), but then keeps obsessing and talking to everyone else about it for 10 years after.
Cringely was an early employee of Apple and has worked for PBS (another TLA), as a journalist.
My point here is to urge people to be cautious when including IBM in their career plans. If you can get past Cringely's flamboyant writing style you will see that on the topic of IBM Cringely is informed and has been accurate for years.
Please do your own research into IBM's treatment of employees and customers before hooking your cart to IBM's horse.
IBM is truly owe of the most loathsome tech companies in our industry. They have a long record of treating their employees horribly. Many people I know have been laid off at IBM and made to train their (foreign) replacements. One person I know has worked for IBM 3 times (twice through acquisitions) and was laid off all 3 times! Please keep this stuff in mind as a contrast to their flashy new marketing.
So IBM just happened to target the same guy three times? Not disagreeing that IBM has had issues with hiring/firing, but three times seems like an insane coincidence.
They have to. It is part of the strategy and how it can manage to stay alfoat. At some point software consulting business was big so they had consultants for big projects. Then I don't know cloud got bit, so now what should they do, keep hoards of consults on payroll as a jobs program like TSA? Maybe retrain them? The fastest and easiest way it so lay them off.
At some point I've heard they sold cheese slicers. They probaby had experts in that. What should they do when the market situation changes? Keep selling and hiring more people in that area or lay them off.
IBM is largely a relic from a bygone era. You know, the era where people of color didn't exist and women were largely relegated to secretarial roles.
I have it on good authority that you need to pay for snacks at IBM. When an executive was asked why this was so, they replied that: "the coffee is free, because it will make our engineers more productive."
> I have it on good authority that you need to pay for snacks at IBM.
I work for the State of Oregon. It's pretty much illegal to give employees free food without a business justification. Buying my own snacks and coffee is the default, and not a huge deal; I'd rather have money to spend as I deem fit than more calories. Complaining about not having a mini fridge full of Red Bull and a cabinet stocked with Doritos is a great way to make yourself look tone deaf and selfish when the vast, vast majority of American society doesn't have these fringe benefits.
Far, far worse is the series of things IBM's been doing to benefits. They've shifted the 401k match to the end of the year, so you have to survive any layoffs and stack ranking system to earn your contribution. Early retirement has been slashed from 6 months pay to 1 month.
IBM 401k did move matching to the end of the year. I was annoyed about that too until I realized that Google employees only get 50% matching on their contributions, capped at $8250. Meanwhile, IBM contributes 1% automatically and matches 100% of your contributions up to 5% of pay.
I work for a large not-for-profit company. We don't get any free snacks or coffee free here either, but the other benefits outweigh that... like 10% 401a contribution, $30 per month commuter benefit, and $25k tuition reimbursement per year.
Coffee and snacks aren't everything. And honestly they're not much.
I was hired as one of the product designers in the winter class of 2015 and love my job. It’s not smooth sailing but it is also my first job out of college and it is incredibly rewarding to see the kind of impact you can have on shipped products and also really inspiring to see a 100 year old company trying to change from the inside out. We have an amazing culture in the design studio and I couldn’t imagine working anywhere else right now.
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[ 2.1 ms ] story [ 133 ms ] threadI get the feeling adding designers to a project has the same startup costs as hiring new programs with the results of crappy sorta conforming to the theme design being just as noticeable.
There are design guidelines and even some base templates and sass files and such to keep things looking somewhat similar.
nfriendly, your experience is what it's like working with a non-IBM Design team. The old way is to have a single designer on something and that person has little to no authority to be the users through the design process. That's all changing now.
From my understanding, there have only been a couple of hundred products (in the 3 years since IBM Design was created) that have been updated using IBM Design Thinking. There is actually a dedicated design team (min 5 designers) working on each product that is getting attention at that moment in time.
But there are over 5000 products that IBM sells, so it's going to take a while to get to them all (also assuming some of these will be consolidated as the design cycles address the user's needs). There will be a lot of time that passes before all the engineers at IBM (with it's 400K+ employees) get to have a dedicated design team on their product.
Having been a number of startups and advertising agencies before this, the "design culture" is strong here with a lot of smart folks fighting to turn around a very very big ship.
The problem with design studios this large, and operating on this consultatory premise, is that they will never get to influence the business "why" of solving a problem - they will always be handed a brief, and will always have their solution bounded by decisions made prior to their involvement. They are compelled to do work on what someone else has determined to be the problem, not to uncover the problem themselves and work outwardly from there.
You actually see this all the time in finance - there are entire companies built around the idea of churning out datagrid UIs to banks that don't ever stop to consider the real underlying conditions of why a process is the way it is, or have the opportunity to change it. It just results in a lot of same-same being generated over and over again, and it's easy money for consulting groups to get into the biz - just buy a small (or several) design shop and start billing yourself as being in tune with "UX." Deloitte, KPMG, MarkIt On Demand, EY, PWC, Accenture, EMC, and a bunch of other places are doing it just that way.
IMO, "does it work?" is a QA question. The design question would be "does it do anything useful?"
And their biggest problem isn't design.
It is their culture, and I would argue a lack of focus and direction.
They learn and adapt. They contribute significantly to Open Source. Now they are understanding importance of UI/UX design and trying to invest heavily on it.
Lot of big name startup even though succeed for short or medium term but struggling a lot in long run. I really enjoy reading the below book about IBM
Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? by Louis V., Jr. Gerstner (Outsider came to IBM as CEO) IBM is nearly in verge of collapse during early 90s. And he pulled it off.
http://www.amazon.com/Who-Says-Elephants-Cant-Dance/dp/00605...
They haven't had to try too hard to find they way. They sold to big business 100 years ago and they still do today. The fact that computers became prominent in smaller businesses doesn't change their success with the biggest.
I guess it's easier to simply say "Design" 37 times on a static site, maybe add some bright colors, people of 'diverse' background and a hoodie for effect. Nailed it!
Also consider, how are they going to get designers/people who care about design if they don't advertise it first. Yes there are products that need work, but to fix that issue they need to say Design 37 and more times just to get the attention of the right people. I am sure in your line of work as well, things don't just happen immediately because you want it to and sometimes to solve one problem you need to solve two or three others first.
For example, Cringely has a book outlining IBM's problems: http://www.cringely.com/2014/06/04/decline-fall-ibm/
He has many posts in the same vein (note dates in the URLs):
* http://www.cringely.com/2016/01/11/wheres-the-beef-ibm/
* http://www.cringely.com/2015/07/21/ibm-is-so-screwed/
* http://www.cringely.com/2015/01/26/ibm-right-gadfly/
* http://www.cringely.com/2015/01/22/ibms-reorg-hell-launches-...
* http://www.cringely.com/2014/10/27/fix-ibm/
* http://www.cringely.com/2014/10/21/ginni-comes-senses-late-i...
* http://www.cringely.com/2014/10/12/ibms-power8-servers-less-...
* http://www.cringely.com/2014/07/25/fed-suckered-ibm-failing-...
* http://www.cringely.com/2014/07/16/ibm-apple-just-big-deal/
* http://www.cringely.com/2014/06/15/ibm-back-ussr/
* http://www.cringely.com/2014/01/23/ibm-sells-intel-server-bu...
* http://www.cringely.com/2013/08/07/fulfilling-customer-requi...
* http://www.cringely.com/2013/07/25/the-new-ibm-vampires-in-o...
* http://www.cringely.com/2013/06/20/ibm-to-customers-your-han...
* http://www.cringely.com/2013/04/22/the-decline-fall-of-ibm/
...and many older columns.
See the comment by slantedview in these comments for another example.
Cringely isn't the only one offering serious criticisms of IBM: rdtsc ↗ Regardless of what happens with IBM, this sounds like someone with a chip on his shoulder. He wrote a book about how bad it is, then blogs about it. rfreytag ↗ Many blog entries preceded the book, some by years - look at the URL dates.
It is like someone who got out of a relationship (didn't he work there?), but then keeps obsessing and talking to everyone else about it for 10 years after.
Cringely was not employed by IBM according to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_X._Cringely
Cringely was an early employee of Apple and has worked for PBS (another TLA), as a journalist.
My point here is to urge people to be cautious when including IBM in their career plans. If you can get past Cringely's flamboyant writing style you will see that on the topic of IBM Cringely is informed and has been accurate for years.
Please do your own research into IBM's treatment of employees and customers before hooking your cart to IBM's horse.
At some point I've heard they sold cheese slicers. They probaby had experts in that. What should they do when the market situation changes? Keep selling and hiring more people in that area or lay them off.
I have it on good authority that you need to pay for snacks at IBM. When an executive was asked why this was so, they replied that: "the coffee is free, because it will make our engineers more productive."
IBM, not even once.
I work for the State of Oregon. It's pretty much illegal to give employees free food without a business justification. Buying my own snacks and coffee is the default, and not a huge deal; I'd rather have money to spend as I deem fit than more calories. Complaining about not having a mini fridge full of Red Bull and a cabinet stocked with Doritos is a great way to make yourself look tone deaf and selfish when the vast, vast majority of American society doesn't have these fringe benefits.
Far, far worse is the series of things IBM's been doing to benefits. They've shifted the 401k match to the end of the year, so you have to survive any layoffs and stack ranking system to earn your contribution. Early retirement has been slashed from 6 months pay to 1 month.
IBM's 401k benefit is easily verifiable: http://www-01.ibm.com/services/socomm/shared/pdf/IBM401PlusP...
Google no longer lists their 401k benefit publicly, but there is this: https://www.quora.com/What-exactly-is-Googles-employee-401k-...
Coffee and snacks aren't everything. And honestly they're not much.
I suspect there is a large number of people who'd rather get paid more and buy their own snacks.
I'm not sure if your comment was a parody of HN/SV echo chamber thought bubble.