Rob Varney Design Director

If you could redesign anything, what would it be?

I think everything can be improved upon. There isn't anything I’d not want to have a go at redesigning: I'm not just interested in being challenged by "champagne" design briefs for "cool" clients. The process of design inspires me, and the sense of achievement felt when you've demonstrably improved on what came before, whatever that may be.

I do wonder if I get more annoyed than others about things that aren't designed well. You know, handles that stick out of doors that you have to push instead of pull. Signage that fails to direct. Having a website that simply doesn’t do what it should. I suspect that my annoyance is because I know that these problems can be solved. Sometimes you wonder if no-one’s thought about how people are going to use the things they've created.

What can design achieve?

Design influences change and defines culture: society's everyday thinking and language. It moves things on a little; occasionally a lot.

The shift from buttons to the touch screen; people's interaction expectations have changed as a result. One job we have as designers is to build bridges between new technology and its users: working out how to help people take the greatest benefit from these new tools. The next challenge will be when we can design touch screen interfaces that manipulate digital information using different types of tactility, within three dimensions rather than two. Bring it on.