[Sigia-l] We could just use whiteboards instead.

[Listera]

"Derek R" wrote:

> design-by-dictatorship

I like it, I might adopt it. :-)

Re: technology.

The *entire* purpose of the design/development process is to create a purely
d-i-g-i-t-a-l product. It's by definition synthetic, 100% shiny technology.
Not soup, not soap, not bliss, just pixels and ones and zeros. That process
is not personal therapy, communal cleansing or cosmic synergy. It's the
process at the end of which a 100% digital product is delivered, not some
analog stuff rudely interrupted by high falutin technology. We *are* talking
about technological products that can only be created with computers and, in
turn, can *only* run on computers. So let's get on with it.

The user, for whom this entire exercise is conducted, care not a whit what
color the post-its were, if the Visio arrows had shadows or if the
wireframes has rounded corners. All that stuff is work product,
sausage-in-the-making. What matters, and the only thing that matters, is the
quality of the end product. And the sooner we get to a functional *digital
prototype* the more time we will have to perfect it.

Re: collaboration.

As I have said enough times here before, I look down on design by committee,
often a favorite of large orgs. Users or non-professionals should not be
asked to design, period. While I expect my doctor to ask me if it hurts, I
neither expect nor want him to consult me on medical strategy. There's a
reason why I'm in his office and not a butcher's. I expect him to thoroughly
interview me, but I don't want him to give *me* the impression that with the
few disjointed facts and anecdotal info that I have I should be diagnosing
myself.

Yes, I am an (aggressively) active professional. I believe my clients pay me
for that. Many of my past projects have been rescuing large-scale projects
that have gone off the track, mostly due to lax management and design by
committee. 

Re: cooperation.

This is a thorny issue. During the earlier parts of my carrier, I was
involved in many projects where PC technology was introduced into unwilling,
uncooperative environments full of suspecting, in fact, revolting people. So
I'm very familiar with this.

People who think their jobs will be replaced or their domain knowledge will
be siphoned off by new technology, will resist and not cooperate. It just
doesn't matter whether you interview them in a dark room or sing lullabies
in a well-lit boardroom with lavender post-its, they will withhold
regardless.

For 95% of the people "involved" in the design/development of an online app,
it is *not* part of their job title/description. In other words, whether
it's in marketing or manufacturing, they already have their own jobs to
worry about. So let's not try to include anybody peripherally involved in a
projects into the romantically designated "collaborative team". The "team"
that drives the design/development should be and is a small group of
professionals whose job description is just that. The VP who gets excited
enough to jump at the whiteboard is not part of the "collaborative team."
And I see no reason why professionals should not collaborate digitally,
especially when designing purely digital products.

Re: responsibility.

Perhaps the real reason why I react strongly to this is that those who
expose so much of their internal work product are often insecure about what
they are doing. It reminds me of the many questions posted to this list.
People just don't do their homework, refine their issues, think through the
problem. They "share" it at the *earliest* possibility and expect others to
do their job. They are always looking for salvation in somebody else's
research or thinking. This is counterproductive.

Ziya
Nullius in Verba