Reference: see older post
I know I said I'll do the notes there too, but they grew too much, so I'm putting them in a new home. Note that I plan
to edit this post too :)
( Read more... )
Looks like a good motivational introduction, but very little about how to actually do it or even what to keep in mind while you're doing it. Depending on the audience that may be ok.
One of my quibbles with professional "designers" -- of any sort -- is that they're usually not users of the products they design. They'll design a product that's easy to learn, for example, but doesn't allow an advanced user to add shortcuts. They'll design a website that looks fantastic on their monitor, but breaks horribly on a laptop with Javascript turned off. They'll design a program that's easy to use, but only if you can figure out what fifty obscure icons mean. And don't even bother if you're blind. They'll specify features that look good on paper, but either can't be implemented or make the product unusable in the field. And so on.
The solution is not "the people making deciding what they want from engineering apart from engineering", but the designers, engineers, and users working together in a tight feedback loop. Ideally, everyone in
( ... )
It's intentionally not a howto -- the audience is fairly non-technical. I just want to go over implications. BTW: allow me to recommend to you a wonderful book called "About Face 3" by Alan Cooper. I had a lot of fun reading it.
I'm having a lot of fun reading Producing Open Source Software. The introduction and first chapter have a lot to say about the design process.
You should give an example of a well-done interaction design, not just the horror stories. That's assuming you can find one, of course. Firefox, maybe.
I see that I commented too early in the writing process.
...but a large part of the problem is not who "designs" the product, but the fact that it's a product in the first place: there's a software company trying to sell the product, and a separate bunch of users consumers who are expected to buy it and use it. That's why the process is broken.
Evolution may be slow and "wasteful", but it produces the best results in the long run. And sometimes in the short run as well: the open source process can be amazingly fast.
This looks like a very interesting presentation! Not a lot of terribly new ideas, but you really expressed the key essence of several very good books here. You should turn it into a proper article-length blog post too; this reads great, for the people who are unable to attend your talk, but it's unfortunate that it's a bunch of sentence-fragments in outline form.
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One of my quibbles with professional "designers" -- of any sort -- is that they're usually not users of the products they design. They'll design a product that's easy to learn, for example, but doesn't allow an advanced user to add shortcuts. They'll design a website that looks fantastic on their monitor, but breaks horribly on a laptop with Javascript turned off. They'll design a program that's easy to use, but only if you can figure out what fifty obscure icons mean. And don't even bother if you're blind. They'll specify features that look good on paper, but either can't be implemented or make the product unusable in the field. And so on.
The solution is not "the people making deciding what they want from engineering apart from engineering", but the designers, engineers, and users working together in a tight feedback loop. Ideally, everyone in ( ... )
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You should give an example of a well-done interaction design, not just the horror stories. That's assuming you can find one, of course. Firefox, maybe.
Reply
...but a large part of the problem is not who "designs" the product, but the fact that it's a product in the first place: there's a software company trying to sell the product, and a separate bunch of users consumers who are expected to buy it and use it. That's why the process is broken.
Evolution may be slow and "wasteful", but it produces the best results in the long run. And sometimes in the short run as well: the open source process can be amazingly fast.
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