Avanceé.Agency

Musings on designing experiences & (re)engineering complexity

Oct 2018

Intuitive As Design

Arguing for intuition over prediction or known indicators? Yes and no.

In between a clearly identified problem and its “so obvious” solution is the chasm called opportunity. It is within this space so many projects live and die. Some of the better ones become well-known, not just for an ability to solve the initial problem, but for those people on its edges to also find providence towards a solution. In conversations with many about the goals for Avanceé, its clear that the problem space is one in which many just have a hard time articulating what exactly might be the issue. Not because they aren’t knowledgeable about the issues, but because clarity is a perspective, not a destination, for so many problems.

A project noticed over the weekend, Modulz seems to want to give voice to some of the problems encountered by those who are in developer and design spaces, but find the gap between demonstrating the solution and building it has too many layers. The product should be impressive when it ships. For (a not small amount of) developers and designers, it will address a very real problem in communicating clearly what the solution(s) is supposed to entail. A programmatically accurate representation of the solution, with the roadmap attached to those tasked with the tools to make the traveling smooth. It is strategically and practically correct as a design method. It isn’t living within the framing of intuition — that’s a good and bad thing.

When we share the concepts and designs from past projects, we are deliberate in sharing those pieces which sit on the side of softer-content. Scribbles, basic shapes, and low-fidelity representations of what has been eventually created leaves room for the story around what the design was supposed to communicate. This isn’t by accident. What many want to know is “what does their solution look like,” not “what is my problem not clearly stating” or “what am I not asking about the problem I’m communicating.” These questions aren’t supposed to be the basis for marketing an unknown entity. Yet, Avanceé is purposely running on that side of the track because opportunity rarely finds itself communicated in the initial conversation. Often, its in the perspective of the problem. A but more intuition than mapped prediction.

Modulz and similar approaches to enabling designers and developers to more clearly articulate solutions are an opportunity. However, this clarity comes best when leveraged with a piece of that “gut” feeling. If we were to take the term AI as augmented intelligence, then we would see that platforms like Modulz should exist not so much to make structure more explicitly understood, but augment what designers and developers do by intuition — see the problem and the solution from a different perspective. One which enables them to advance past the constraints of the issue, to the clarity of what is empowered when the problem’s core is answered.