Someone reminded me yesterday of a talk David Lewis and I gave at one of the Information Design Conferences in the early 90s. We likened the information design process to a lens.
Information designers take requirements and constraints that were previously uncoordinated and unrelated, from different parts of an organisation, and focus them in a single design solution that is coherent and usable by customers.
![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_tEp5heymgodaFkaDs9JujapPQIpWZOtguoXyAwbEy8SVta7OPzMsah8oh3C4FILGszZCDdVrA9VQiBU3dcquvs72sqazuAayZ610BXTP8eSN4hzB2RdHG2ThLiXD6rpDUPkMv5vrEGNQ=s0-d)
Then, as we consult and amend our perfectly-focused solution, it shifts just slightly out of focus before it's implemented. The final solution is never as good as the penultimate one.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFweFNcFowVR2Z2N8o-fsH2yh-gpc07WqooUNaw1gWLDw1SW4pcEwC7lJXCn3HFiZEwo6so1pSudePZFP5lrMBVd6KWGDMeuvU6P8AxMmS4PLh2VbqTw5Yj18LVKIK-AfTrpNuXkLo7w59lz36GvCgtWP9REs8EqisfZ4e271a9rkyXnJrGXY/s320/design_lens2.jpg)
And finally, there's often a stray photon that arrives from nowhere, completely bypassing our lens. The marketing director's twelve-year old son has drawn a great logo (it's happened); someone has read that italic is always illegible; someone doesn't like green.