Inside-Out Philosophy
The I-O approach is founded on two basic elements:
1. An intentional committment to the relationship and interaction between the inside and the outside. Not just designing each independently.
2. The definition of inside and outside to not only include the literal, but also the metaphorical (internal desires for example).
The driving glove concept focuses more specifically on the physical definition.
not merely designing each independently. Form in this manner no longer strictly follows function but is designed to interact, reflect, and engage with the interior as well as the external audience. Thus, the user enters this interaction equation in a very deliberate way. The emphasis of the current philosophy is for an individual’s personal benefit.
Memphis, Tenn., is not only home of the blues, Beale Street, and Graceland but also nine buildings that reflect today’s inside/out design. Along the city’s roofline sits a dynamic lighting display, which receives its input from motion sensors inside the buildings. The exhibit, as suggested by its inventor, was created to make people aware of their own movement. Described as a “living canvas,” movement and energy become visible from afar and represent the interaction between people and architecture. In this way people become an intimate partner in the object’s purpose.
Inside/out design has matured in its literal interpretation but now embraces a metaphorical interpretation as well.
The metaphorical interpretation aims to provide an emotional benefit that speaks to the core desire of the consumer. In this new definition, inside stands for the inner emotion of the consumer, and outside is the outward expression of the product that serves or satisfies this emotion. Using this definition design teams can generate highly desirable solutions, as they appeal directly to the core of the consumer. The leap that we’ve made is that we no longer merely define inside/out in a “literal” manner at the forefront of design. Rather, we think of inside/ out design as an interaction spectrum—from literal to figurative—and expertise is developed once a team understands when to use the literal and when to use the metaphorical.
original drawings that were not practical to create.
Rather than limiting a designer’s scope, inside/out design focuses the scope of interaction so that the designers can unleash their creativity on innovation that is practically beautiful. The result of Dreyfuss’s approach, which involved collaboration with the engineers and an understanding of the customers through ethnographic research, became the Bell 300 with the first rotary dial. However, Dreyfuss’s philosophy was based on early inside/out thinking. Roughly 75 years later, one wonders what sort of telephone he might design today.
Inside/out thinking is adaptable and can be considered on a literal level or on a highly metaphorical basis. This adaptability, as well as a focus on the interactions between the touch points, brings an altered perspective to design that has differentiated results. Three specific designs illustrate inside/out thinking on various levels of pragmatism.
May + June 2008
“...I suggested that a telephone’s appearance should be developed from the inside out, not merely created as a mold...and that this would require collaboration with Bell technicians. My visitor disagreed, saying such collaboration would only limit a designer’s artistic scope.”
—Henry Dreyfuss, Bell Labs, Designing for People
interactions
For those who have read Dreyfuss’s Designing for People, you know how the story ends. The “visitor,” a Bell representative, changed his mind. The commissioned artists, tasked with designing phones of the future, returned beautifully
The second annual Muji Awards invited competing designers to Re-think, Re-design, and Re-imagine an everyday thing. The challenge was searching for the right “RE” statement to guide our design and ultimate submission. After extensive brainstorming, the M3 team narrowed their focus to “Design a product to positively impact the environment by REversing the way that product and packaging relate.”
Team members brought in products and packaging that effected a positive or negative impact on the environment. Our
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