In my last Four for Friday post, I included a link to some ridiculous products that appeared in the SkyMall retail catalog, which included a “covert” cat box/planter, a bizarre multi-function folding cane, and an unwieldy and impractical-looking “back massager.” I can only imagine what the shipping costs must be for some of these inane items.

However, the more I thought about these items, the clearer it became to me that the problem with many of the items was simply that they just try to do too many things, running head-long into the law of diminishing returns.

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Last time around, I made an effort to define the word design (in both its noun and adjective forms). This was my summary, for those of you just joining us:

…the definition of design (when used as a verb) is, simply put, creation of something for a specific practical purpose. Logically, then, it would follow that design, when used as a noun, refers to objects–whether a logo, a tea kettle, or a Herman Miller Aeron chair–that resulted from the design process. That is, a “piece of design” is the “something” that was created for a specific practical purpose. Design as a verb is the action–design as a noun is the output.

I hasten to point out that I do certainly include printed materials and websites amongst those “things” that can be (and are) created via the design process.

So, basically, with design reduced to a very formal and stiff definition, you might be wondering where, exactly, personal expression and artistic flair joins in. When we start talking about individual design solutions, we’re talking about style.

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Back in 2003, McDonald’s campaigned to have the meaning of the word “McJob” changed. Oh yes, it’s a real word, one that actually appears in the Oxford English Dictionary, defined as “an unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects, esp. one created by the expansion of the service sector.”

While McDonald’s battled fiercely to have the definition changed, they were ultimately unsuccessful, prompting CNN to declare that “‘McJob’ is a word that’s here to stay.” While this is all well and good and feels like a triumph for those of us who cringe when we think of monolithic corporate chains, by this point you’re probably wondering what, exactly, the implications of this news (non-)story are for designers and practitioners of media. It isn’t that design jobs and entry-level media jobs are, in fact, McJobs (though I know it can certainly feel that way sometimes to young people just breaking into the business). The object lesson here is actually one of semantics, because it seems that we lack consensus on the formal, operational definitions of several critical words that we bandy about carelessly on a daily basis.

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“I could’ve come up with that.”

I’d be willing to bet that most people who have watched commercials on television (or, for that matter, shows on television, and probably movies or books as well) have either uttered that phrase themselves or heard someone say it in a dismissive tone.

But when consumers are actually encouraged to create their own content, the end product is almost always abysmal.

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