On 25 Feb 2009, at 20:54, oliver green wrote:
Hi All, Frequently, various departments from my firm will ask me to "fix" their UI. They show me what they have implemented and what they can do to improve it. This is a new experience for me. What questions should I be asking in these initial engagement? what should I be wary of?
The thing to be wary of is that you're in, as far as I'm concerned, the worst possible position when it comes to getting things fixed - right at the end of the process. Like testing, design is something that needs to be done as early as possible - and if possible all of the time.
Of course you need to help improve the product - and other folk have already given some excellent suggestions. Getting a good grip on what the user goals are, and doing some usability testing to identify key problem areas would be what I'd do as a first step.
However - as well as that - I'd be working on getting involvement earlier in the process. You want to be working with the development group so that problems can be spotted and fixed before they get released. You want to be working with the product owner so that it's more likely that they develop a product that the user actually needs in the first place.
You want to be stopping problems getting into the product, and being involved in the development process so you can get problems fixed during the tight-feedback loops of development - rather than the long feedback loops of product release. Otherwise you're always going to be fighting fires rather than designing products :-/
Cheers, Adrian ________________________________________________________________ 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
