What I talk about when I talk about design

Somewhat scattered thoughts on Design

Transcript

1. What I talk about when I talk about Design Amar Singh, 2015
2. What is Design?
3. “Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it's really how it works.” Steve Jobs
4. “Design is choice, and there are two places where there is room for creativity. 1. The creativity that you bring to enumerating meaningfully distinct options from which to choose 2. The creativity that you bring to defining the criteria, or heuristics, according to which you make your choices” Bill Buxton
5. “A way to find the right problem” To me, Design is:
6. Why a Design Process?
7. “And what I learned from them is that if you place your trust in a good process, then the end result will probably be pretty good. It’s that simple.” Julie Zhou
8. The myth of the Genius Designer A shared approach on how to find and solve problems A framework to evaluate ideas, inform priorities and prevent myopic work
9. Need for a common vocabulary A common vocabulary enables people to understand context more easily Understanding context allows for better feedback, which is the most important thing
10. What’s a good Design process?
11. Narrow inputs, elaborate solutions.
12. IDEO
13. Bill Buxton
14. Roger Martin
15. Frog
16. Our working model
17. Concept Car
18. My current mental model
19. ‘Process’ is a loaded word. Processes are organizational habits. Be deliberate about the habits your cultivate, you are forming habits anyway.
21. On Design Habits
24. Research / Discovery is the most important phase in the Design process. The outcome is finding the problem. Regardless of how well you design and execute a solution, if you are not solving the right problem, you are wasting your time. Spend an outsize time doing research. It creates better work.
25. Designers are comfortable with ambiguity. The people we work with are not. We get the most valuable feedback by communicating effectively. Therefore the vocabulary and representation of our process should be easily parsed and understood by non Designers.
26. Going through the stages ensures good work The Type and # of Activities will depend on Complexity Immediacy +
27. DEADLINE DICTATES THE ACTIVITIES There is another side of the design profession that is generally not too visible. It is the organized professional who knows how to plan, and understands deadlines, when to dream, and when to get down to it. Let me give you a concrete example. When I spoke with Hong- Yiu Cheung about doing the design of this book, the first we did is sit down for an afternoon and go through almost every design book in my library and his, disucssing what we liked, and what we thought might fit this title. Within twenty-four hours Hong-Yiu produced his first deliverable. It was not a package of the sample page designs. Rather, it was the spreadsheet above. It worked backwards from when we wanted the book in print, right up to when we were speaking. It laid out the schedule for virtually every step of the book’s production. The key point was, before even thinking about the details of design, he had to understand exactly how much time he had to do it and still meet the deadline. Stated another way, this spreadsheet let him know exactly how much time he could allocate to different concepts without putting the project at risk. It also told him exactly when he had to make decisions, and meet specific milestones. It is precisely this kind of discipline that provides the freedom for the designer to explore the creative potential of the project.
28. On Feedback
29. “Man is fallible, but maybe men are less so.”
30. Julie Zhou on a rigorous design process 1. You have gotten feedback from enough people such that you understand at a deep level all the reasonable perspectives one could have. 2. You have thoroughly explored the solution set of the problem. “I repeat, the goal of critique is to help the designer make intentional decisions.”
31. A template for asking for design feedback I am working on <$project_name> Which has the goal of <$goal_of_project> We are currently working through <$design_phase> And I’m looking for specific feedback on <$areas_of_feedback>
32. How to run an effective Design Meeting State the purpose of the meeting in the invite (with any supporting artifacts) State the purpose of the meeting up front (declare what you want to achieve) If necessary, set an agenda and use your iPhone timer to move the meeting forward Before the meeting is over, ask the participants if they received what they were looking for While someone is presenting, clarifying questions only. All other commentary on post-its Meeting notes/summaries don’t get read. Post-it action items handed to the owners will
33. Areas of opportunity
34. Design Research Owner for insights - both qualitative and quantitative Ensure we’re making intentional decisions A collective consciousness of learning across the organization
35. Interactions with Users User Personas and User Journeys Site visits to people’s homes and ethnographies Better understanding of the motivations and fears of those using the product
36. Designing with Data Make a hypothesis - challenge each other’s hypotheses Which insight is driving that design decision