[Sigia-l] seeking rules

[Eric Scheid]

From: Tanya Rabourn <rabourn at columbia.edu> (2/5/02 14:57)

>I think that these statements that are passed off as rules happen for two
>reasons, a fundamental misunderstanding of the word heuristics, and a need
>to feel secure in the face of too many design options and not enough
>knowledge about who will be using the site.

There's another possible explanation which is best explained by analogy, 
and that analogy is well represented by this paper:

Darwinian Processes and Memes in Architecture: A Memetic Theory of 
Modernism 
http://jom-emit.cfpm.org/2002/vol6/salingaros_na&mikiten_tm.html

     The process of design in architecture parallels
     analogous generative processes in biology and the
     natural sciences. This paper examines how the ideas of
     Darwinian selection might apply to architecture. Design
     selects from among randomly-generated options in the
     mind of the architect. Multiple stages of selection
     generate a design that reflects the set of selection
     criteria used. The goal of most traditional architecture
     is to adapt a design to human physical and psychological
     needs. At the same time, however,a particular style of
     architecture represents a group of visual memes that are
     copied for as long as that style remains in favor.
     Darwinian selection also explains why non-adaptive
     minimalist forms of the modernist style have been so
     successful at proliferating. The reason is because they
     act like simple biological entities such as viruses,
     which replicate much faster than do more complex life
     forms. Simple visual memes thus parasitize the ordered
     complexity of the built environment.

A chilling account of how a user-unfriendly architecture fashion has 
become globally dominant...

     There are obvious stylistic similarities between
     military and modernist architectures, since many
     modernist buildings look forbidding, ominous, stark,
     alien, faceless, and present a generally hostile
     appearance. The reason for this impression is that they
     utilize some of the same typology from military and
     prison architecture. Here we face a paradox: how could
     society select an architectural style for human use that
     has a similar typology as the military style, which was
     developed specifically to make people feel
     uncomfortable? Our explanation is that modernist
     architecture is a 'parasitic' meme group that is
     non-adaptive to human use and sensibilities. At the same
     time, however, the group of memes defining the modernist
     style of architecture has memetic advantages that helped
     it to take over. It is for this reason that modernism
     won out over competing styles. 

This has kept me awake at night. Are we heading for a similar plague of 
Modernism in HCI?

e.

______________________________________________________________________
eric at ironclad.net.au                 i r o n c l a d   n e t w o r k s
information architect                      http://www.ironclad.net.au/