The Imperfection Artist

Stewart Curry
I M P E R F E C T I O N S
The
Imperfection
Artist Using real data to create more
authentic and empathetic products
d.zone 2017Alarm Bell from Monsters, Inc.
Pixar Animation Studios 2001

Tia Kratter
• Pixar employee since 1993
• Art Director of Brave
• First worked on Toy Story
• Make the world more authentic
and real by adding imperfections
“Imperfectionist”

It's very easy in the computer
to create something perfect.
What they really wanted from
me was to beat up this world.
When I got my first business
card from Pixar, it said “Tia
Kratter, Imperfectionist.”
Scuﬀ marks, splats, scrapes,
divots, dirt, that kind of thing.

Monsters, Inc.
Chipped Alarm Bell

The Uncanny Valley
The real world is flawed, it’s worn and it’s messy.
Anything too perfect feels a bit off to us. We need to
see the dust and scratches.

Wabi Sabi
An imperfect beauty
Shino chawan (tea bowl), Japanese artwork.
1917

Soetsu Yanagi — The Unknown Craftsman
“ We in our own human imperfections are
repelled by the perfect, since everything is
apparent from the start and there is no
suggestion of the infinite.”

http://www.stonebonewoodcloth.com/wabi-sabis

Wabi Sabi
• Iterations and feedback loops
• Agile development
• Wireframes and sketches
• Prototypes
• Constant improvement
in product design

Imperfect beauty
We don’t need to make something that lasts
forever or is perfect and complete. We can focus
on the quality of what we make, and how it
evolves as it is used.

How to be imperfect
The Simpsons, “Bart vs. Australia"
Season 6 / Episode 16

https://www.reddit.com/r/theydidntdothemath/
comments/6srxnq/basic_math_counting_to_5/

Embrace Imperfections
• People aren’t perfect
• Tools aren’t perfect — or they are too perfect!
• Systems, data, inputs — all imperfect!
• Design for imperfect people
• Design for boardrooms and real people, not billboards and models
• Use imperfect data to challenge our assumptions and understand our users
Designing products for real people

Imperfect Real People
Not everyone is a model!

Product design ≠ Marketing Design
Beautiful imagery and perfect copy is ideal for
marketing material and billboards, but it’s not
a good fit for product design. Product
designers are interested in the hands-on
experience, not billboards.

Real People…
Having real images of diverse people
and situations can give us a better
understanding of our users and how
our designs work in real life. 
 
https://www.diverseui.com
…come in all shapes and sizes

Real People…
By making our designs inclusive we
open our products up to people with a
wider range of abilities. 
 
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/
design/inclusive
…may have limits to their abilities

https://twitter.com/SlowSlownews/
status/895661487607492608

Real People…
Stack Overflow allows
for a 5 minute grace
period to edit
comments before
locking them
…make typos

Real People…
People find work-arounds,
hacks, and new uses for what
we make.
…don’t use products
as we intended
Frisbie Pie Tin / Frisbie Pie Pan 
Circa 1940

Slack
Where work happens
Slack has many thousands of
online communities using it
outside of the intended
workplace use-case, but won’t
support blocking people to
mitigate abuse.

GoFundMe
Social Fundraising
Most people use GoFundMe to
raise money for themselves, a
friend or loved one during life's
important moments… like medical
expenses, education
costs, volunteer programs, youth
sports, funerals & memorials -
even animals & pets.

GoFundMe
Social Fundraising
or a fried chicken addiction!

Nokia Lumia
Contacts

Andrew’s Mum
Contacts

http://www.anorak.co.uk/289837/strange-but-true/man-
posts-letters-in-dog-poo-box-for-two-years.html/

http://www.superherohype.com/news/402907-new-terminator-will-
reveal-why-the-t-800-looks-like-arnold-schwarzenegger#/slide/1
Rise of the Machines
AI’s aren’t perfect either

Empathy Matters
Age of algorithms
We are building tools that have
a powerful impact on people’s
lives and perceptions. 
 
This train stall was down to a
tragic incident, but made the
brands involved look heartless.

People are Inspiring
By using real data, and designing for real people,
we can validate our ideas and create features
that people will love. By listening to them, we can
generate new ideas. Through inclusive design,
we can be ethical, responsible designers.

Imperfect Data
Communication is messy
Lieutenant Commander Data 
2338—2379

“ One should be immediately skeptical of
presentations that lack adequate sourcing or
presentations that contain only tendentious or
highly selected, cherry-picked sources.”
Edward Tufte
The History of Rock 'n' Roll, 1955-74 
from Edward Tufte's "Beautiful Evidence"

https://www.reddit.com/r/CrappyDesign/comments/
6tfl8m/my_sons_educational_alphabet_puzzle/

Mockups
Designing for the real
It’s easy to create an effective
design when you have
complete control over what
shows on screen. By using real
data we can challenge our
assumptions and test our
designs more effectively.
Unsolicited Facebook concept 
https://www.behance.net/gallery/23597009/Facebook-Concept-Redesign

Designing a photo app
Assumption: Let’s organise
people’s photos by day
Modern Design Tools: Using Real Data

Josh Puckett — Modern Design Tools: Using Real Data
“ Using real data forces us to ask questions like
these, revisit our initial assumptions, and
ultimately make better design decisions.”

Example
Not a good avatar
If I attempt to make my
Google avatar from a file
that isn't obviously a decent
photo of my face, Google
lets me know.
Are you sure people will recognise
you in this photo? It doesn't seem
to have a face in it.

Chat
Cross talk
In an ansyncronish conversation, it’s
sometimes hard to follow what’s going
on. We have no control over who says
what, and when. It can sometimes be
hard to know who’s replying to who
!
"
#

Imperfect Situations
Life is never neat

Anger over 'appalling' cabinets named Dublin's 'mini-Stonehenge'
Irish Times
Susan @susanbrodigan 
https://twitter.com/susanbrodigan/status/893024577370173440

“Ah you wouldn't even notice it”
https://www.reddit.com/r/photoshopbattles/comments/6rawhd/psbattle_new_electrical_cabling_cabinets_on/

Imperfection Situations
• Direct sunlight!
• Loud rooms
• Flakey internet
• Missed emails
• In transit
Meanwhile, outside the studio…

Example
Insecure connection
When Chrome
detects you’re on an
insecure connection,
it refuses to auto fill
credit card details.
http://littlebigdetails.com/post/148149377838/chrome-when-it-detects-
youre-on-an-insecure

Example
Speak up!
Google Hangouts notices when
you’re talking while your
microphone is muted
http://littlebigdetails.com/post/147044397283/hangouts-notices-when-
youre-talking-while-your

Example
Twitter’s “GIFs”
“An MP4 can be twice as smooth and
thrice as pretty, but still come in at a
quarter the file size. For Twitter, that
means lower bandwidth bills. For you,
that means less waiting around for GIFs
to load.”
Gasp: Twitter GIFs Aren’t Actually GIF 
https://techcrunch.com/2014/06/19/gasp-twitter-gifs-arent-actually-gifs/

Example
“Adult” products
Amazon replaces the product
name with the order number
when you order something
that could be embarrassing if
it appeared in a notification!
http://littlebigdetails.com/post/137622133283/amazoncom-the-order-with-
the-number-as-a

http://www.stonebonewoodcloth.com/wabi-sabis
Real People
Empathy and understanding
Imperfect Data
Challenge and validate our assumptions
Imperfect Scenarios
Delight our users

Takahiro Kyono
Leonard Cohen - King's Garden, Odense, Denmark - https://flic.kr/p/jeufQu
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect oﬀering
There's a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in
Leonard Cohen, Anthem

Thank you
Stewart Curry
d.zone 2017

The Imperfection Artist

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