Forefront - November 2015

Slides to go with ruminations on platforms and frameworks.

There's a short accompanying blog post here: http://www.ermlikeyeah.com/forefront-leeds-26-november-2015/

Transcript

1. Do things in the open, it makes things better.
2. Platforms. Frameworks. Simon Wilson
 @ErmLikeYeah
3. Ray and Charles Eames
4. “The Eameses saw design not as the pursuit of originality for its own sake, but as a process of thinking about problems and their connection to surrounding historical, social and technological conditions.”
5. “The Eameses saw design not as the pursuit of originality for its own sake, but as a process of thinking about problems and their connection to surrounding historical, social and technological conditions.”
6. For Charles and Ray Eames, process was everything.
7. Ways of working are fascinating.
8. As a species, as a race we seek patterns, routines. We seek assurance. We seek certainty.
9. We hate the unknown.
10. We like to know.
11. Approaches = springboards
12. Frameworks = springboards
13. Production and QA Research & design Business analyst Product owner
14. User researcher Interaction designer Content designer Business analyst Product owner
15. User researcher Interaction designer Content designer Business analyst Product owner
16. User researcher Interaction designer Content designer Business analyst Product owner
17. User researcher Interaction designer Content designer Business analyst Product owner
18. User researcher Interaction designer Content designer Business analyst Product owner
19. User researcher Interaction designer Content designer Business analyst Product owner
20. User researcher Interaction designer Content designer Business analyst Product owner
21. User experience is the team’s work.
22. Our work is always a hypothesis.
23. We are creating stimulus that we test.
24. Work fast.
25. This is really, really easy.
26. Work in-browser using a prototype kits built on node.js and Mustache. We share prototypes across departments on Heroku. Some of it leans on other frameworks, like Twitter’s Bootstrap. And all this stuff - on Github, in blog posts.
27. This means I can do even more work on trains.
28. This is really, really hard.
29. (But it could be harder.)
30. 1. We work agile. 2. We empower and trust the teams. 3. We have to deliver against policy. 4. We design around user needs.
31. Agile is really, really hard for some people.
32. Less obvious frameworks.
33. 1. We have weekly meetings for the communities. 2. We have monthly cross- government meetings. 3. Sharing knowledge is encouraged. 4. …as is putting your hand up.
34. User-centred designers working in government are empowered. But we have a design platform in place, well documented as a design service manual. We work with patterns.
35. As designers we know this.
36. Outside of that we venture into the unknown. (Agile, yo.)
37. My job: Single-handedly the most thrilling and the most nerve wracking experience of my life.
38. Daily, I work to make things that work.
39. It is not about what the designer thinks is right.
40. It is not about what the designer wants.
41. It is about what works for the users.
42. It is about what works for the audience.
43. I owe a lot in my career to my agency background.
44. …but I was lucky to spend a large chunk of my career working somewhere that believed in an approach to work, its people, and the people knowing these.
45. Care about your people, your work, and how the two respond/react is the most effective framework.
46. It’s about ego-less design.
51. We whittle many down to one.
52. We are in a world where we talk less about “digital” as a niche interaction by the public.
53. People just interact with things.
54. We are all designing services that people just use in the real world.
55. We are designing the platforms of their everyday lives.
56. The way people interface with government, national or local. Banking. Booking trains. Aeroplanes. Watching TV, movies. Upgrading packages. Utility bills: giving meter readings.
57. We are making too many assumptions. We are not looking at the real service design.
58. We are not providing ourselves with enough of a framework, assurance to know our work is… working.
59. Reeves Rosser
60. Research. A/B testing. In print. In the 1930s.
61. What has actually happened to working out what is the right thing to do?
62. What has actually happened to defining what is the right thing to do?
63. I want to be creating things, discovering and knowing it is the right thing to do.
64. We have a concept: Government as a platform.
65. How much does your place of work provide a platform for others?
66. How much does your place of work give you a platform to do your work?
67. Work = frameworks + people
68. Simon Wilson Twitter: @ErmLikeYeah
 Blog: www.ermlikeyeah.com #ofthegovernment Thank you.
69. Everything is architecture. The problems of environment have become more and more interrelated. Charles Eames, 1977