This post sounded as if it is almost related to the previous post regarding Jane’s question on her non-design trained boss.

Very interesting take on the subject.

I totally agree that the only people who care are designers.

when i first started out i took design at face value.

as i matured and progressed i found myself constantly asking questions about why someone would do that or how?

i either look at someones work with great envy or great pity.

A lot of the time i find myself justifying my designs to my boss only to then go back to the drawing board to make something that evidently just “LOOKS GOOD” :-(

great post

Client education is a full time job in itself.
Interesting post.

[...] is this more significant when relating your work to non-designers indeed, it seems very few non-designers really care about the multiple layers of interpretation of [...]

I cannot help but agree to this post. Very often, when I show my friends design websites that have products that are unconventional, aesthetically pleasing but less functional, or product designs that tell a story, they would often misinterpret the designer’s intentions and take it at face value.
Sometimes, they would remark that ‘the design does not make sense’. Perhaps designers are too caught up in creating something different that they neglect what consumers are really looking for? Even though ‘lifestyle’ products are becoming more popular amongst consumer these days, the functional aspect still cannot be neglected. When creating a product too minimalistic, or too gimmicky, designers often get too caught up with the semantics and emotional value of the product that the pragmatic aspect is compromised.

That being said, I do believe that it is still possible to design something different and let the product speak for itself to the consumers. Besides good visual communication and a product where form follows function, consumers need to be able to relate to the product with the most mundane things in their everyday life. This does not mean that our designs become literal because that just makes a product kitsch and gimmicky.

There is probably no formula to bridging the language gap, but perhaps in some phase of our design process, we can take a step back and really seek the opinions or people who are not in the design field. Their opinions may or may not affect the final outcome of the design, but at least, it would help in bridging the language gap.

I guess if we want people to care about our design, we got to care about their opinions.

[...] Key among the sermons are: Bridging the language gap: who cares about my design? Don

[...] with business and business people. A few recent examples were featured on Design Sojourn ( http://www.designsojourn.com/bridging-the-language-gap-who-cares-about-my-design/ & http://www.designsojourn.com/question-of-the-week-my-non-designer-boss-thinks-i-suck/ ). How [...]