[Sigia-l] the lesser importance of home pages -> moresplashpagefun?

[Stewart Dean]

On 28/12/05 10:47 pm, "Listera" <listera at rcn.com> wrote:

> Stewart Dean:
> 
>> Engineering is important to a real world architecture project and it's
>> important to building a web site or delivering,
> 
> Nobody's said engineering (or accounting, for that matter) is not important
> to the process. There is, however, a huge difference between being a part of
> and leading the process.

Why do you need a lead? You need a manager and someone to 'lead' on all the
aspects of the project but that lead can easily be broken down.

>> for example well constructed content  can make a site much more usable and
>> vastly improve the user experience.
> 
> Problem is, a well engineered/constructed/delivered/etc site can still be a
> horrible user experience.

And a well designed user experience can be unusable if badly implemented.

> Therein lies the crux of the matter. Role players
> can make or break their own parts. But even if/when they perform their roles
> brilliantly, there's absolutely no guarantee that the overall UX will
> succeed. The originator/conductor of UX process in its entirety is the
> Designer, as I described it.

And once again I point out 'Designer' is the wrong term as it can confuse. I
also repeat my claim that effective user experience design is a team effort
as other people are more skilled at elements of the user experience, content
creation for example. If you are not experienced in editing, content
creation then you are not looking after the entire user experience.

   
>> Are trying to tell me that you don't think that content does not affect the
>> structure of a site?
> 
> I'll try this one more time. I'm saying that every part of a process
> ultimately affects the whole. Content, technology, graphics, hosting, IA,
> interaction and so on. But the integrated coordination of it all (the art
> and science of balancing the needs of the owner and the user) is the
> Designer's domain.

No it's the team's domain. I define the user experience and guide it but I
require different skills to lead on different elements. I'm not going to
tell the visual designer how to do the design job but will say when I think
that something is unclear etc. Others will and do offer suggestions on the
user experience. 

There's a saying - a good idea doesn't mind who has it.

I think fundamentally we have different philosophies - I have a team
collaborative approach where the user experience is crafted by those best at
their area of expertise whilst you maybe prefer centralised control. I can
only say from experience I know which one works better (if you get the right
team). 


>> Let's use a real world example, when you build a building then you have
>> architects and project managers. The same is true when you build a web site.
> 
> Hopefully, either as owner or user, you won't want your building to be
> designed by a general contractor, plumber or electrician, but by an
> architect, the "conductor" in this process.

I personally would prefer the plumber to advise the best pipes to use for
the job as they know more about plumbing than the architect. You make my
point for me.

 
>> On a film you have a director and a producer
> 
> (Incidentally, I come from a film background, with an MFA in it, as well as
> years of study of civil engineering and architecture.)
>
> Most people who even care about any of this, could tell you who directed a
> movie. But only a scant few who produced it.

And? If you don't have a good producer the film doesn't happen!

> While producers (and DPs or
> editors or casting directors or writers, etc) are important to film making,
> the one person who has by far the most impact on a film (the "conductor"
> here if you will) is the director, after he's hired. Very few things happen
> on a film without the director's involvement/consent/direction. In the end,
> a film lives or dies on the competence of the director.

And the same is true for the projects I work on but if I work with good
people the result if far better. I alone cannot produce a great site
(although I can put a fairly good one togther on a small scale).
 
>> I have seen folks merge the PM and IA role, I've done it myself, but in my
>> experience the results are much better if the roles are separated.
> 
> Again, your assumption here (PM vs. IA) is not something I even worry about.
> In my world, IA is part of Design, PM is not, though certainly not
> unimportant.

The project manager is part of the project, just as the producer makes the
film happen.

I really think you place too high an importance on your involvement.
 
>> In short the best results are achieved by a team...
>  
>> How it shouldn't be is one person doing multiple roles to a so-so level,
> 
> It'd be silly to tell, say, Jonathan Ive that he shouldn't involve himself
> with the totality and design integrity of the a product like the iPod but
> let the 78 people of various backgrounds on his team "design" it.

'Totality' is the wrong word here. With product design the whole user
experience needs to be supported by effective engineering. The engineers may
not get the glory but with them it's a shiny white plastic box. The
engineers alone will not come up with an appealing product - the vision
needs to work and is often down to one person - but then, it's just the idea
at the end of the day. I could come up with a better concept of MP3 player
but have no obvious way to get that idea into production.

Ideas are easy.


> Good
> design doesn't come out of committees and not without strong, strategic
> leaders.

Brainstorming with a good team can produce very strong ideas. I can assure
you Jonathan didn't work alone. Nor did Einstein or any other great thinker
you can think of. The idea of the lone genius is largely a myth.

> Which is not to say good design can be *implemented* without a good
> team. Design is a holistic process of solving problems, artificial titles
> and turfs do nothing but impede the process.

Then stop using then 'Designer' is easily designated as artificial by the
user of a capital D!

If you care about users you also care about those you work with, be it team
members or clients. To invent your own terms not understood by the user is
not good user experience - and so it is with team members.

Stew Dean