Ask anyone, I’m a big usability guy, that’s my specialty. Sure, I like to do “graphic design” and I even like to “program,” but first and foremost, I’m a user advocate: if it isn’t good for the end-user, it’s no good for no one. That’s why when I see an article in the New York Times Real Estate section called “Going Off the Beaten Path for New Design Ideas,” it’s no wonder that my interest was piqued.

You have to go read the article for yourself (no doubt free for a while), but I’ll summarize just a little for you executive types (like I’m one to talk). In the article, writer Lisa Chamberlain discusses how hotel super-chain Marriott International has gone and hired design power-house IDEO to re-architect their TownePlace Suites. IDEO is well known within the design world for designing the first Apple mouse and the Palm V, notables amongst their thousands of other clients and projects.

What really sets them apart from the competition is IDEO’s process: think “unfocus” group instead of focus group: record the side conversations among participants; instead of “interview”, think “ethnography” (living and breathing in a place to get to understand that user as a person, and the culture that surrounds them).

The results of IDEO’s process are fascinating, yet simple. In the new lobby, instead of the traditional couch and coffee table, there are so-called “10-minute perches” where guests can flip through magazines and sip a cup of coffee. They’ve also designed a huge wall map, showing the hotel’s surrounding area (sights, parks, restaurants, recreation areas). But it’s more than that: guests can directly annotate the map with their own finds and treasures: a repository of knowledge for a transient community of travelers. In the hotel rooms, a modular wall unit takes the place of a standard dining table, so that guests who work in their suites can adapt the elements to make an office.

In a world where the new mantra seems to be “simple is better,” call me old-fashioned, but I’d rather just cast that one aside for the ol’ standby: “think different“.