Conceptual Integrity

I came across this concept a while back when my friends asked me about it.

Initially, I thought that it was all about being original, having an idea of your own, not building upon an idea that is accumulated from other designers. But, now, I think I have finally managed to grasp the idea of this theory.

1. It is interdependence and synergy. It is almost like a jigsaw puzzle, you put the different pieces together, but they all help one another to form the bigger picture. Even if you are short of a small piece, the entire picture will collapse and crumple, that is precisely how crucial that one piece is.

The arcane balance of the entire system lies in the fine dependence of one on another.

It is not about editing or plagirism, it is more of an inspiration, getting an idea from an idea. The key here is the initiation of a whole new tree, not a branch from the old tree.

2. Omit the useless adjunct ideas even though they seems impressive but they are de facto independent on their own. Add ideas that are coherent with the ONE design idea of the product. This is especially important in product design, I once heard from an expert commenting about a cereal box in the market. She said,"There are simply too many things cramped up in this cereal box, that is not necessarily a bad point since you have a plethora of benefits, however, if you are fighting for a spot in the market, you need to be focused in order to penetrate the market."

She is right, you have to be focused. The consumers do not have the time to read about all your rattlings on the content page, they simply want to know what sets you apart from the rest. If you are just adding a lot of stuff in, they might be worried that those stuff you added in might clash with the initial stuff the original product possess.

That is the problem with modification these days, will it crash the entire system? I'm sure a lot of us are worried whenever programs are modified because once we install them, our computer system tend to slow down due to incompatibility.

All in all, I will like to reiterate that the idea of conceptual integrity is coherence, interdependence, synergy and of course, specialization.

Credits -mayo