More On Enemies of Design.

A lot of these are pretty funny. Good for them.

But a few of the comments seemed a tad thin-skinned to me. Perhaps they should remember Konrad Adenauer's famous maxim (he was the first Bundeskanzler of West Germany in the 1950s):

"A thick skin is a gift from God."

Frankly, VanPatter embodies the description. If you look through most of his discussions, he makes it a habit of drawing more attention to his own perspectives than drawing out those of his 'visitor's for the purpose of the reader. Evaluation: It's his stage and he's not going to tolerate being upstaged by anyone.

In a genuine, open attempt to discuss this with him, he blew a gasket.

That said, the premise is still flawed. Good design and arrogance actually don't go together. Where you might find it...you're looking at a compromised example of design. The arrogance comes from feigned competency.

If this whole buzzing fuss isn't the best example of Creative Abrasion in a loooooooooong time I don't know what is! Thanks Bruce for provoking one hell of a healthy, entertaining dialogue. It reminds me of one of Tom Peters' maxims: "if you're not pissing people off you're probably not doing anything important."

And re "good design and arrogance"..am I the only one who thought good design was about making ANYTHING more accessible?

I have a challenge to my peers. We all know how much business loves the 4 quadrant explanation for any complex issue. Perhaps that's the new X axis on the grid that explains the dilemna of embracing big D design --- arrogance to accessibilty. What's the y axis? Green to Red, or Green to Black?

The "trashing the designer" tactics that Paula Thornton is using here are not fooling anyone. Those tactics have been made transparent. See NextD’s UnIdentical Twins. Some people are obviously hell bent on undermining not only any expansion of design but any positive modeling of design. NextD does a lot of wonderful sharing and modeling of what is possible for design. Apparently some feel threatened by that. Paula Thornton is the poster girl for the reactionary desperation that is out there, a foot soldier of the nasty brigade. Knock off the nastiness and go get a life.

Paula Thornton does not represent the Information Architecture community.

Enjoyed the title jokes. Attack From Mars would also make a great title for Paula Thorntons comments.

Odd how so many people misinterpreted defending good design for trashing design. As well, I simply pointed out how one individual was unwilling to engage in a conversation and a good many people took to attacking me without the benefit of a conversation or for understanding.

It is this sort of behavior that diminishes good conversation, understanding AND design.