Seperate
Got tons of ideas on what to include in your project? Want to seperate the wheat from the chaff?
Often, we'll have a lot of ideas that seem great at the time, but either these aren't good ideas or they just aren't suitable for the project. Here's a technique that I use, one that I find helps me to figure this out as early as possible - when I have the least amount of time and effort invested in the ideas.
You'll need a pen and some paper.
- Write a list of everything you think should be included.
- Re-write this list, and under each item write why this item should be included. If you can't think up a good reason, cross the item off the list.
- Leave the list for a while, then come back to it. Look over the reasons you've written. If the reason doesn't sit well with you, then cross that item off the list.
By physically writing them down, I find the ideas and the reasons are made to feel more concrete, and shaky ones become more obvious. Besides: if you don't have a reason for doing something, are you really designing?
What do you think? How does your process work?
Comments
David Barrett:
Well, I was trying to cover as broad an area as possible. This is useful in so many contexts, I didn't want to tie it down to any particular one.
The other problem is that any example I could give, I can't, for reasons of confidentiality.
I stopped the redesign series for a few reasons - the main one being that I didn't see a point in redesigning the site if I was going to be packing in most of my freelance work (due to the new job). As I didn't get it, I guess I better start designing (and writing about it) again.
Des Traynor:
Well, you can give fictitious examples to illustrate your point. Or examples from work done in the past.
In my opinion, examples are extremely important, especially in these type of posts/talks, because otherwise people think that this is just common sense. (Which in fairness it is). Its only when you apply it to examples that people see its importance...
David Barrett:
Good points. I'll take them other advisement. Thanks Des.
David Barrett:
NOTE: Some comments have been deleted at the request of their authors.
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About this entry
Dave posted this entry at 01:49 AM on April 19, 2005. This entry was posted in the category Design .
Des Traynor:
My process is basically ,
1) What is the bare minimum required for this creation to do what it is supposed to do?
2) What is the simplest interface I could possibly use that all users will understand?
This creates the tool, and the interface.
3) What are the most tedious aspects of using this tool, how can I make them easier
That will get all the basics, the only thing missing is the features that the users didn't know they wanted. It takes a creative mind to envisage those ones.
Dave, you are in danger of becoming "abstract from design", if thats possible. I seriously think that in future talks/blog posts you provide practical real world examples about how to apply this. Most people would read this and think "Hmm, use a pen and paper and write a list, so what? Oh, wait , you make changes to the list as time goes by, wow."