calibration (or, "why doesn't anything just work?")
as a communication designer, my goal is to provide solutions that clients and viewers alike can appreciate and understand. recently i have become more aware of design issues relating to many products in my everyday life, which poses the question: are products no longer following the idea that they should provide solutions instead of cause more concerns?
cases in point:
case 1 - i select colors. i design. i print. i look. print – fail.
what do i mean? well, that perfect on screen selection of turquoise that i spent time on selecting is now a bland, blue-gray in print. that wonderful on screen hue of magenta that i fell in love with is now a sad, reddish brown in print.
many will respond “did you use your pantone guide? did you calibrate your printer? is your screen calibrated? you can never achieve the same colors on screen as in print, especially at home and especially if you don’t preform these calibrations.” but i beg to question, why cant i simply design and print? why should we have to worry about these things?
case 2 - i get my new television. i turn it on. it is HD. but things dont look HD. new television – fail.
what do i mean? well, in the store televisions are calibrated by the maker’s representative with settings that are almost impossible for the general consumer to replicate. even if you are technologically savvy, the maker’s settings are still quite elusive to replicate.
why can’t i simply turn on the TV and appreciate a crisp, advertised-quality picture?
case 3 - i listen to music, daily. i would say at the very least 50% of my day consists of music listening to some degree. and yet somehow, the quality of the sound is just not quite right. maybe too much bass. maybe the treble is shaky. maybe the pitch or surround sound are a bit off. did i calibrate my sound settings? did i chose the correct speakers?
and the question becomes: why can’t i just listen to my music without having to become an audio engineer to appreciate the sound that was intended to be heard?
do you see the pattern here? this same scenario can be said for a vast majority of products. i believe in today’s society with all of the “advancements” that are being made — specifically in technology — these “advancements” are actually working against us. i remember printing something and being amazed that i could now hold in my hands what was on screen. or buying a tv, turning it on, and it looked great to me. or playing my cd and it sounded like my favorite artist was serenading me. and now? now we as consumers have an over-abundance of choice; we are drowning in options and are barely able to stay afloat. with the endless amount of printers, tvs or sound systems to choose from, we also have just as many settings to tweak. options are wonderful and give us power as individuals, but is there a thing as too much power? are companies forgetting who they are creating products for? i would dare to say that the average consumer would more enjoy simply plugging in their printer and printing; turning on their tv and watching; playing their music and enjoying — than having to fuss around with buttons, knobs and menu selections. im sure even professionals in their respective fields sometimes wish this were the case. and yet we cant.
we must calibrate.
i’m not sure that there will ever be a time where the idea of simple technology just “working” how we hope or intend for it to work ever will exist. in fact, something that i often hear in many different fields is that “simplicity is often more difficult to achieve (properly)”. and while truly simple technology may never exist, i cant help but wonder why doesn’t anything just work?