Michael Roller

Five Questions for Jed Farlow

Born and raised in Boston, Jed Farlow studied human factors and ergonomics at Cornell University and then industrial design at University of Cincinnati. He currently works at DEKA Research & Development, creating smooth and understandable user experiences for life-saving medical and infrastructure (power, water) systems.

How do you define of good design?

Good design fulfills a stated need or solves a problem, efficiently and elegantly.

What is your favorite part of the design process?

The concept generation space between research and refinement, generating solutions to specific parts of the problem. At the moment, this involves a lot of back and forth with engineers about feasibility.

What challenges you most as a designer?

I’m having a major debate with myself about the sometimes subtle differences between design, art, and junk. A lot of what gets praised by the ID world at large seems off-base to me, and I’m trying to decide what’s reasonable to do about it.

In the context of your job, how do you define success?

Basically, success is how well-suited one of my products is to its users. We test this. Early involvement in projects is a big deal; the earlier I or my team get asked to provide research or input, the more successful we’re likely to be. I’m waiting for a few major projects to get released, so my definition is likely to get updated as I see how they are received and used (or not!) by their markets.

What has been the most unexpected part of being a professional designer?

The amount of subtlety and diplomacy it takes to protect design intent and user experience through the development process.

Thanks, Jed!

Tags: definitions, five questions, interviews

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