This does sound like a dream project: getting 4 months to research & design!
Within the agile discussion here, I did not read about how important it is that the build-in-progress be seen by all the team-members from the start. I am now in a situation where I find that what has been built in the past three months is a complete & random rehash of developer-designed screens ( a very large component) & my designs (small component). The primary philosophy appears to be: launch on time, & ready-to-use code dictates all else: use what you have, & all else will follow! At this late stage, I am finding that there is very little change one can make except for some cosmetic ones. In doing a post-mortem, I am inclined to think all of the following may have contributed to this: - Not being able to see the product-in-progress in time. - Territory issues where developers have gotten used to completely owning the product, no matter that all previous products launched have been failures. - The teams being too large & geographically dispersed. I now think that where the teams have to be large, 1-2 members from each should be owning the product, communicating frequently, & shepherding it through. - I am also exploring how my design documents can be enriched to provide more detail, especially since folk were remote & there was no face-to-face. -Anjali www.artbrush.net ----- Original Message ----- From: Christopher Fahey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 11:35 am Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Fwd: Thoughts on Alan Cooper's Keynote To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > On Feb 12, 2008, at 11:04 AM, Cagwin, Virginia wrote: > > Like David mentioned, interaction design must come first. It's the > > > only > > way I found a project to work successfully. > > > Interestingly, I am about to begin Phase 3 of a major project with > the following phases, each of which slightly overlaps the others. For > > context, the whole process is overseen by a small product management > > team while the design and programming teams are largely specialized > > consultant firms (including my team at Behavior). > > 1) Strategy- and Design-Focused (4 months): Thoroughly design a > version 1.0 prototype and test it with real users. No tech > development. Just collect requirements and design something that > meets a business strategy and delivers an awesome user experience. > Identify the technological needs, but don't code anything. > > 2) Engineering-Focused (4 months): Agile programming team develops > the product using the prototype as a target, with occasional light > input from the design team but mostly focusing on solving and > innovating tech solutions. Expose the development product regularly > > to a small user test base and collect feedback. Meanwhile, the design > > team begins conceptualizing the version 2.0 product. > > 3) Close Collaboration (4 months): Design team ramps up again, using > > the lessons learned and opportunities identified during the tech > progress, plus the prototype and product user testing feedback, to > work alongside the tech team to finalize the UX and implement the fit > > and finish of the product. Much triage is anticipated. > > It's a little more complex than this when you drill down a little bit > > (there are design cycles that are heavily focused on branding and > larger corporate integration issues and that have little to do with > > the features and functionality), but this is the basic idea. Design > > first, code it halfway, then collaborate closely down the home stretch. > > I'd love to hear what people think of this approach, especially if > you've tried something like it. I'm pretty confident in it, at least > > for now. > > Cheers, > -Cf > > Christopher Fahey > ____________________________ > Behavior > biz: http://www.behaviordesign.com > me: http://www.graphpaper.com > > > > > ________________________________________________________________ > 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 > ________________________________________________________________ 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
