REGRESSION TO THE MEAN

I think that if I keep finding these psychologically oriented topics, I will need to create another category to this blog. I am finding that a psychological understanding of the client’s process something that has not been addressed in our design world.

So far, we have addressed emotional/intuitive client responses. And we have also described the typical logical rationalization of these emotively derived opinions.

When a client accepts a design, it might be called an extreme response. It is extreme because the design may run against your client’s intuitive predictions. For example, if they expected to see a gable roof solution, and instead they accept something let’s call more modern, this acceptance is contrary to their initial intuitive prediction.

The acceptance of outcomes that are contrary to intuitive predictions only occurs when there is very good information to support this direction. Enter your excellent drawings and models here. When your information is excellent, then it gives your clients a basis for adjustment or moderation of their intuitive predictions.

And without that good information, it is likely that decisions will be made in which there is regression to the mean. And we all know what that is like. An interesting feature is questioned and then eliminated. Abject functionality might end up trumping aesthetics. As designers we are in this situation in which we see our designs being dumbed down right before our eyes. Now we have a term for this; regression to the mean. And regression to the mean is why there is a preponderance of mediocrity in the world of design.

So a client’s predictions, or expectations, are modified with very good information. And our job is to give that good information. And hopefully techniques like Transparent Drawing will serve as another tool for the conveyance of that information.

As we saw in emotional vs logical responses, this is human. These are simply human tendencies. And the understanding of these human propensities only gives more light on the designer / client interaction.