What do you find today that differs from Raymond Loewy’s MAYA (Most Advanced Yet Acceptable) principle?
One can hardly open a beer or a soft drink, to fix breakfast, to board a plane, buy gas, mail a letter or shop for an appliance without encountering a Loewy creation. Raymond Loewy believed that: “The adult public’s taste is not necessarily ready to accept the logical solutions to their requirements if the solution implies too vast a departure from what they have been conditioned into accepting as the norm.” So by finding and understanding the consumer’s sweet spot, Loewy ultimately claimed his place in history as the Father of Industrial Design.
Raymond Loewy spent over 50 years streamlining everything from postage stamps to spacecrafts, with a concept that he is credited with originating: MAYA or “Most Advanced Yet Acceptable” principle. Meaning that planned obsolescence is defined as that the designer needs to create a desire to own something a little newer, a little better, a little sooner as necessary. (a concept that Steve Jobs and Bill Gates have made their, not only carriers on, but a fortune as well) But Loewy thought that the adult public's taste is not necessarily ready to accept the logical solutions to their requirements if the solution implies too vast a departure from what they have been conditioned into accepting as the norm. So a good “Trendmaster” has to know how to find the sweet spot on the trend curve…the place where new is exciting and attractive, yet understandable and acceptable. That’s where profits come from.
But what I see today over the what was the Loewy plan is that it seems like more and more designers are becoming more and more influenced by style, falling into the 1980s “Designer Clothes” syndrome of fashion over function. Meaning that designers today never think about their design and get to carried away over their fashion vision and think design is style when the opposite is the reality. Design is not style, about giving us just a shape and not the guts or the tools to use such items as Loewy had given us. Function is out and form is in seems to be the mantra of today’s designers. More design, more production, equal more sales is the philosophy of what to create over why we should and what are the uses for it. Never before in Industrial Design have designers seriously sat around the table thinking of what can go on the latest the toothbrush, or the shoe horn; drawing up elaborate plans to solely make and sell products just because they look good. Before the logic was use, then “how can I make this product more appealing to the eye”.
So, what is the point of good design? To create good experiences. Good design makes the objects, places, and interfaces we use every day pleasurable to interact with. It allows people to do the things they want or need to do, in ways that are (at least) painless, and (at best) delightful. Also good design does something else: it raises the bar for what people expect from their experiences, advancing the public high-water mark for “best user experience.” As the creator of a web or mobile application, yanking that bar upwards is the goal. It’s hard to find a better example of MAYA in action than Apple. One only has to look at the evolution of the iPod to see the interplay between “Advanced” and “Acceptable” ratcheting upward over time.
Some early iPod features were, in part, concessions to what was then familiar -such as buttons that were distinct from the scroll wheel. The first generation iPod was a groundbreaking product in its own right; as time broadened both cultural acceptance and technological possibilities, Apple’s iPod designers were able to push their product design farther and farther, losing the extra buttons and streamlining the interface. Taken to one extreme, the designers of the iPod Shuffle eventually eliminated the playback controls from the it entirely, placing them on the headphone cord instead. (In the next generation, the Shuffle’s designers reversed this decision—a sign that design innovations which force customers to use your proprietary headphones are unlikely to become Acceptable.) Now, in the time of the iPhone with a full touch screen, early iPods look quaint, almost archaic. But in 2001, the iPhone would likely have been too far outside the bounds of the familiar to make any sense to consumers. Only because of the progression of MAYA do we take for granted its sleek look and feel today.
Raymond Loewy’s MAYA is inseparable from the aesthetic he popularized: streamlined forms that evoke speed and modernity. In Loewy’s time, these were fresh innovations:L
1)Push the boundaries of design and technology beyond your users’ expectations, but keep enough familiar patterns to let them orient themselves.
2)Gradually advance your design over time, as technology and public sentiment evolve to support this advance.
3) Make it sexy where reasoned arguments fail, eye candy often succeeds. This applies both to the visual aesthetic, and the technology underneath it.
But, overall, make it functional first.
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