First of all, I'd like to introduce myself as this is my first post here. I've been designing interactions for 35 years and I'm delighted that we are starting to identify as a profession.
Michael, I know what you are saying about these elements being apparent (rather than real) solutions. It's true. But for me, an interesting question is "why is it this way?" I agree that progress bars are often very inaccurate but I don't think that was a design goal. And neither did the TSA when designing security processes start with "how can we waste money and fool the public." Conspiracy theories aside, what we are seeing is yet another example of the inability of most organizations to produce top-notch products and services. There are lots of places where an organization can slip up. Sometimes there are powerful fools like the person who looked at the sky on a screen for a football site I designed and told me "I don't like blue." Sometimes it's a stakeholder with an agenda that runs counter to good decision-making: "great idea, Charlie but we don't have time to get it right." Or the programmer who told me, "I don't want a graphic artist. I'll do the screens myself" (and they look it). The core of the problem is that excellent design is built on a clear, comprehensive and consistent vision of the resulting product. In any organization, there are many stakeholders with different degrees of insight, a lot of personal agendas and flawed communications and interpersonal skills. It is almost impossible to maintain the conceptual integrity of a design from conception through implementation. Sometimes the organizational problems are intractable. Other times they can be managed. Rarely do you achieve the results you originally envisioned. Lest I appear downbeat, let me also say that there is a lot of creativity and good ideas within organizations. The problem is how to best integrate all the good ideas and still keep the design on track. About ten years ago I came to the realization that if I were to be a highly effective designer, I had to understand and manage the organizational issues that could affect the design and its ultimate implementation. I found a lot of interesting literature in the fields of organizational change and product innovation. And some good stuff on managing teams. Sadly, I think that the nature of organizations is to grind the polish off designs. As designers we need to understand this tendency and manage well to minimize its impact. That's why I believe that designers need a good understanding of how to manage the organization's perception's and how to influence decision-making. Even with the best management, it's really hard to turn out a top drawer product on the first release. For that reason, it's essential to evaluate the product's performance in the field, identify the problems and correct them. And managing that is a whole organizational can of worms by itself. Charlie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=24028 ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
