I think that is great advice. I like it. But their are some enormous A-holes that engineer. I think every department should have one person from another department on that team as a liaison. The last four or so gigs I've had have been on engineering teams and it is not my background. What brought me to it is that as a designer you hit road blocks when someone says 'You can't', 'Don't', etc... It is often b*ll sh*t and the engineers are operating behind a curtain like the wizard of OZ.
With the last PM I worked with I said 'if you can explain it we can make it happen.' I don't think a good engineer says it cannot be done. I've also worked with stellar engineers and I always make it a point to ask what is a good deliverable for you (why) and the good ones have sent me exactly what they want and why they want it that way. The others riddle off reasons why they are of a superior breed and the like, they usually couldn't engineer their way out of a wet paper bag... On Sun, Jan 25, 2009 at 5:00 PM, Janna Hicks DeVylder <[email protected]>wrote: > In work environments like this, I have found that forcing our discipline > into the process is the least effective... the "you MUST work with us" > mantra will fall on deaf ears. It's often relationship building, one person > at a time. Get one or two engineers who have seen the positive impact your > perspective has on the end product become your advocates. > > Also no one likes to feel like a dumb ass. Everyone wants to feel like they > know what they're doing. So consider how you can approach the challenge as > less a Debbie (or Donnie) Downer [ie. here are all the things that are > wrong > with what you've made], and more how you can make them feel like the > perspective you brought made their work better. May seem easier said than > done, but I think most of the battle is getting someone to feel like you're > a needed resource because they couldn't possibly do the work as well > without > you. > > janna > > On Sun, Jan 25, 2009 at 5:12 PM, Ali Amrohvi <[email protected]> wrote: > > > As a User Centered Design graduate I find it quite irritating to be > > working in an environment where engineers run everything. > > > > > ________________________________________________________________ > 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
