The Giants

Designers from the mid-century made fascinating achievements in different areas and their works indubitably made valuable contributions to the later appeared design majors such as our newly introduced interaction design. 

Charles Eames and his wife, Ray Eames, always focus on a big idea and hold a positive attitude while they are conducting experiments for their works. They believe that it is okay to be playful. They used their different versions of chairs to show people the possibilities and the joy of design. Charles and Ray encouraged people to do as many experiments as possible until they felt satisfied with their works. 

Karl Gerstner is a graphic and responsive website designer who studies how to make things more convenient for users. Gerstner developed layouts that suit any kind of electronic device. His idea of making designs that can work anywhere becomes one of our primary goals when designing. 

Ladislav Sutnar is also a web designer but he is better known as the “pioneer of information design.” Sutnar tries to understand and view his work from the users’ perspective; many of Sutnar’s works of symbols or iconography serve as cognitive guides for the users and they can be read quickly and efficiently. Sutnar’s thought of taking care of and navigating viewers has now also become one of the most important things that the interaction designers have to do.

Henry Dreyfuss contributed a lot to the interaction design with his study of humans. He believed the designers must understand the users first. They have to understand the body structures, habits, and feelings of the users. If a product creates friction between the user, then that product will be considered failed. Dreyfuss’s principle changed how designers do research; the design research nowadays is turning more toward the users’ looks and experiences.