On Oct 20, 2007, at 5:24 PM, Christopher Fahey wrote:

> I always work in the opposite order. It's the way I think. What the  
> user sees *is* what the product does. How the functionality is  
> presented *is* the functionality.

Some of our larger clients have been using our behavior design specs  
(wireframe decks) as part of their documentation–more than just an  
initial document, it's on ongoing updated spec for the dev team. They  
still have their functional spec that's 60pp or so and more than  
anyone cares to read.

I've often wondered why we don't just have one document. But I've  
also wondered if one document would be better or worse. To be honest,  
we rarely find any visual designers who read the functional spec–they  
typically rely on our behavior designs instead. So, perhaps it's  
better to have two separate docs? Or would it be better to just have  
a prototype that serves both purposes? Maybe provide the more  
detailed functional specs in an underlying layer that the dev team  
can get at that isn't in the way of the designers?

Fortunately, instead of having a functional spec written before our  
behavior design specs, we're finding more and more of our clients are  
trying to do them in tandem with each other. Just last week, one of  
our clients wanted our behavior design for a specific piece of  
functionality so that he could write his functional spec. That's  
progress.


Cheers!

Todd Zaki Warfel
President, Design Researcher
Messagefirst | Designing Information. Beautifully.
----------------------------------
Contact Info
Voice:  (215) 825-7423
Email:  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
AIM:    [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Blog:   http://toddwarfel.com
----------------------------------
In theory, theory and practice are the same.
In practice, they are not.



________________________________________________________________
Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)!
To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Unsubscribe ................ http://gamma.ixda.org/unsubscribe
List Guidelines ............ http://gamma.ixda.org/guidelines
List Help .................. http://gamma.ixda.org/help

Reply via email to