[Sigia-l] Programming IAs was: Little things an IA MUST know/do

[Phil Glatz]

At 11:45 AM 4/24/2003 -0500, Donna wrote:
>What about the following statements?
>
>A writer should be facile with the language that they write for/in.
>
>A  glassware designer should have some hands-on experience with molten silicon
>
>A cloth designer should have spent sometime sitting at a loom.

counter argument:

Andre de Toth, the great film director, created "House of Wax".  While no 
great work of art, it is considered by many to be the technically finest 
3-D film ever made.  Andre was blind in one eye, and had no experience in 
ever seeing 3D images (he worked out his shots mathematically).

But I'm sure he had a great understanding of the theory, and an instinctive 
feel for composition.


I've worked in shops that didn't allow designers to touch HTML, who still 
could create beautiful web page designs.  My experience has been that the 
best designs come from those who understand the strengths and limitations 
of the medium they are working in, even if they don't do the hands-on work.

As a person coming from the technical side of things, I've found that 
knowing too much about the available technology can have a negative effect 
on designers, as they can fall into the trap that many techies do of 
wanting to try out the latest gadgets, rather than solve the particular 
objective at hand.  This is the "give a child a hammer, and the whole world 
becomes a nail" syndrome, and something that anyone can fall victim to.