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A surprising and insightful design pattern from architect Christopher Alexander.
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A surprising and insightful design pattern from architect Christopher Alexander.
Christopher Alexander1 sets up the problem for this design pattern:
People are different sizes; they sit in different ways. And yet there is a tendency in modern times to make all chairs alike.
He goes on to point out that chairs are manufactured for the average person, but very few of us are average.
What is less obvious, and yet perhaps most important of all, is this: we project our moods and personalities into the chairs we sit in. In one mood a big fat chair is just right; in another mood, a rocking chair; for another a stiff upright; and yet again, a stool or a sofa... a setting which contains chairs that are all alike puts a subtle straight jacket on experience.
What’s this got to do with information design? It’s an argument for variety, sensitivity to genre, and questioning our usual assumptions. And against using the same style or template for everything.
But I also wonder (half seriously, perhaps seriously) whether we haven’t stumbled on a design method to replace personas. Instead of inventing a cast of characters, just have a bunch of different chairs in your studio, and imagine who might sit in them, and what they’d like to read. Remember Frasier’s Dad’s armchair?2
1. This is pattern number 251 from Alexander C, Ishikawa S & Silverstein M (1977) A pattern language: towns, buildings, construction, New York: Oxford University Press.
2. In case you don’t know what I’m talking about: Helen Lewis (2017) Martin Crane’s hideous chair was the true star of Frasier. New Statesman, 10 August 2017.