A tale of 3 names: getDesign(in)

If you're bemused (or perhaps even grammatically horrified) by the new blog name, then that's possibly because it's very deliberately a play on words. 

My idea for this approach first started with the creation of brushstrok.es - I wanted a domain name that closely matched my logo and business name as much as possible - which was the word brushstrokes with a blob of paint in it. The Spanish top-level-domain .es provided the perfect answer: you can just type brushstrok.es into your address bar.  

My reworked business and tech blog is about design, in its various forms - whether it's processes, devices, experiences etc. good and bad. Things are designed, and whether that design is good or poor often depends on how the thing is to be used or viewed or interacted with. So, I wanted to literally capture that exact property in the name of my blog and the domain name, if possible.

My first idea was actually designsUX (UX being an accepted moniker for User Experience) - because this also had the property being read as "design sux". In one fell swoop it was able to convey two concepts, purely on how you viewed it, which is just what I was after.

However, after pondering it a week, I felt that of the two concepts being conveyed, design sucks wasn't really a strong one. I mean, yes, often it does suck due to lack of care and thought - but in principle, design itself doesn't suck - that is, after all, the point of my bloggings.

And then I had a flash of inspiration - thinking of designing (designin' dontchaknow!) and the availability of .in Indian domain names, I came up with "get designin" - realising that this can be read as both "get design in" (i.e. start to embody good design principles) and "get designin!" (i.e. start doing it). This was perfect, far more positive and could be encapsulated entirely in the domain name, just as brushstrok.es was. 

Not only that - but there is a sort of third interpretation too, just around "get design" - i.e. to understand it. I felt I could bring this element out by quoting the name as getDesign(in), to show the "in" as paranthetical. Three birds, one stone. A name that literally demonstrates that the impact of design is in the eye of the beholder. 

For those of you that aren't enamoured by the choice of capitalisation, I do apologise. The choice has been made to reflect typical computer programming style and is thus a reference to the technology roots and interests of me and my blog; I'm aware it makes for lousy English. 

iTalkSpeech becomes getDesign(in)

Everything evolves and I'm finally getting round to deprecating my iTalkSpeech blog in favour of getDesign(in). Quite simply, this more accurately represents my interests, activities and skills. There'll be more on the choice of name later. 

It previously made a lot more sense to focus on the speech/voice world, since that aligned more with the bulk of my work.

However, not only did that align less well with everything I do outside of work, but that was a while a ago. It no longer really makes sense to be so narrowly focussed on the speech industry specifically, given that I'm looking at the wider picture of business, technology and experiences for customers; and really, always have done.  

For the sake of the search engines and the old content (which has been preserved), here's the old intro:

The speech technology blog: news, views and reviews of the speech recognition market, speech technology industry, voiceXML landscape and world of IVR and voice self-service; with a smattering of interaction, gadgetry and social media.

Moving forward, I'm looking to say and highlight much more about the world of interaction and design in all its various forms, from beautiful technology that delights us, to the dysfunction of huge corporate processes that destroy us. I hope you'll join me at www.getDesign.in.