BIG IDEAS come from small thing around us…

Some thing nice just happened…

As I had mentioned earlier…field study resulted in an interesting ‘observation’ on people's behavior which gave a small idea and which finally resulted in a BIG CHANGE in our approach to our ‘Product’ :)

There is some thing new that I realized recently…one need a good EYE to do an OBSERVATION…its very easy to loose out small subtle things which appear so obvious and are taken for granted…but these are the things that can really change the way you look at things/behaviors…

I know I’m a little vague but please bear with me…I have signed a “Non Disclosure Agreement”… ha ha ha haa ;)

I guess that’s the most precious aspect of design…be sensitive and open…be observant… allow and accept results/ideas… KEEP THINKING….and creativity will fill you up…

Designing + Managing a Software Product Design

At Yahoo! I’m designing a product (something that I love doing :) ). What Yahoo! had was a new technology & what I’m doing here is that I’m using that technology to make a new product for Yahoo. This is great opportunity for me because not only that I am trained into designing products (and not only UIs) but also that I’m really passionate about ‘designing'. I have been quite lucky that I have been given full liberty and great amount of “charge” of this project.

There have been quite a number of learnings as this project is moving. What I have realized and what I’m learning is that designer needs to be good manager. As a designer what I need is to innovate, be creative and bring new ideas to the table; and as a manager I have to break up the designing process into phases, where each phase leading to some conclusion/learning and the next phase building on the learning of the previous one, constantly evaluate results, build and modify timeframes (based on conclusions from the previous phase which might sometimes be surprising - It very often happens when your tying to do something new. Where the conclusions can not be very definitively predicted.) And then to make sure the project is completed “satisfactorily” with in time frame. It’s one learning that one can not get in an academic environment and one that is very vital for a designer.

I’m not a management guru and this is not from any book. It a reflection of what I’m doing or have done. It’s sometimes good to sit back and ‘reflect’ on what you are doing or what you are learning…so here it goes… with my experience this is what one needs:

VISION – a vision to see the not only the results but also in between milestones.

ANALYSIS – to be able to break that vision into reasonable milestones and to analyze the problem statement.

FOCUS and CLEAR – it very easy to get carried away as a designer and lose track of the original problem statement. A clear focus brings a better design.

FLEXIBILTY – both to accommodate new ideas and to respond to it (by modifying the project plan to accommodate the findings). With whatever little experience I have most often a good Field Study results in some surprises to designer/user study researchers; and it’s very easy to keep a blind eye to them if we are too biased or in love with our designs. We generally tend to see thing the way we want to, things that support our assumptions and ignore the real learning.

What I have been missing out is ‘People’s Skill’. That’s because till now I had a good experience from people. I have been a little lucky. So I would include all that one I face it or get a LEARNING from it ;)

It’s an important aspect though…

I’ll be updating you as my project goes on…

The relevance of huge resources of Design Patterns…

I was going through the enormous database of the UI Design Patterns. Its been posted on our intranet and meant to be refereed by designers.

While going through them I asked myself “who read all these?? Do people have patience to read all this and then design?? OR can someone actually read them and design??”. There would be around hundreds of patterns in the library… but are they helpful?? Is creating a huge about of articles or files the right way…isn’t this library losses its relevance as it grows huge?? So how should these material be build so that not only do they are allowed to expand but also remain easily usable…

I guess we the user researches need to research on our own resources and make them more effective to use. The objective/need of a pattern library is absolutely unquestionable – “to bring consistency and create a knowledge bank of items for reference”. But by simply creating a library are we able to solve this objective?

I guess an application which can “push” relevant articles/pattern for reference or an effective search system build for UI could be one of the ways to effectively use our own knowledge bank…using a knowledge bank is EQUALLY important than just creating it…else it kills the purpose. So no fun in creating, spending and making effort for a system that can not be used…

The learning – understand the user, visualize the effect of scalability on the system and last but not the least ‘define an OBJECTIVE to a system’. And make sure the solution addresses the objectives.

With better focus come better design ;)

The big fight

Taking time off from work to write my blog...FYI…I have joined Yahoo! Software Development, Bangalore…

I don’t understand why people in offices use such short cuts…FYI, FYR, etc etc…

Anyways…while traveling back to my home I was watching some nice bungalows outside my bus…apart from wondering when will I own a similar one…I went back to my Architecture day and I had a passing thought about the connection of architecture with User Interface.

When I was into Architecture we had some arguments on which is better and who should do what…between Civil Engineers and Architects…what do an architect do and why can’t an engineer design a house/building…?? You want to answer that?? It has always been tough both for architects and engineers to win that argument…but obviously because the construction field is so well established that we are aware of each others capabilities…no one want to go to an engineer for designing a house…but would definitely consult him/her when it comes to actual construction.

Some what same tussle I find in software industry. Who should design a software?? Who is authority on users or UI?? The argument continues…

Let’s put the two together to bring out an example…suppose you want to buy a house and you went to a see a house…this new house is fire proof, highly secure, earthquake proof, KATRINA proof…columns can stand for next 100 years…rock solid foundation…its even BOMB proof…aircraft hit proof and what not…

BUT looks ugly…to open a window one needs to stand on a stool to open it and view it…has no ventilation…one has to bow down to go from a door…

So will you buy it…is engineering the only aspect of a product??? I guess its not so…designing for HUMANS is as important as its functionality…engineering alone can not ensure that the product is going to be USEABLE and hence USEFUL…

So designing is as much needed in software as engineering…hope ‘engineers’ realize the importance and give us (designers) a chance to be a part of it…