M364 Block 1, Unit 1, Activity 6

Start by reading the interview with Gitta Salomon on page 31 of the Set Book.

List the main characteristics of Gitta's approach and the activities she carries out.

How do these relate to the activities in the ID process and the characteristics of the ID process?

Gitta Salomon's approach appears to involve iteration through the following activities:

1. decide how to engage with the client's team ("the client")
   
2. get the client to present their product (or demonstrate it, if demonstrable) and explain their target market, the competition and other relevant features of the product context 
3. Gitta Salomen's team ("GS") take notes, videos, tracings etc 
4. GS then construct a "coherent framework" from these resources, aiming to get to the "big design problems of the product" 

The characteristics of this approach are:

1. it has a strong focus on the client relationship and client communication, in that it explicitly addresses effective communication from client to GS, from GS to the client, and within the client's team. 
2. it reflects her view of interaction design as a "design discipline" featuring guidelines and good practice, but still requiring both creativity and analytical thinking, as opposed to a science or a set of rules
3. it iterates through the activities in order to evolve the design(s) against client feedback

The GS approach shares with the set book ID process the emphasis on iterative design and communication, but differs in that the focus of the communication is the client rather than the end user, and in that there is less explicit structure to the overall process.

It could be said that the GS approach, with its focus on the client relationship, has a slightly art-of-the-possible or descriptive flavour, whereas the OU approach, with its focus on the end user, has a more ideal-case or prescriptive flavour.