Message Design and Content Creation

23 January 2007

Kathy E. Gill

Agenda

Review: Nature of Design and Teams Overview : PM/UCD Team/Project Discussion Leaders Team exercise

1. Nature of Design and Teams

Is there anything about “design” or “teams” that you’d like to share?

2. Overview: PM/UCD

The Challenge One Possible Answer Benefits The Process Summary

The Challenge

Only 28 percent of IT projects are delivered on schedule and within budget

http://www.ciscoworldmagazine.com/opinionw/2001/08/23_itprojects.shtml

Only one-sixth software projects completed on time and within budget

http://www.stsc.hill.af.mil/crosstalk/1998/jul/causes.asp

The Challenge, cont’d

One-third of complex software projects fail, costing U.S. companies $81 billion

Cost overruns add another $59 billion Of the challenged or cancelled projects, the

average was 189%over budget, 222% behind schedule and contained only 61% of the originally specified features

http://www.stsc.hill.af.mil/crosstalk/1998/jul/causes.asp

Answering the Challenge

Projects fail because “the system did not meet user needs”

Enter: User-Centered DesignCentral tenet: who is the audience?Not a “step” but a “process”

Value for Investment

$1 invested in usable software = $10-100 in benefits

80% of maintenance costs are due to unforeseen user requirements; only 20% due to failures

Relevance and Impact

Productivity - People and SystemsCall-centers, e-commerce web sites

User PerceptionTivo v Replay, VCR Plus

Training CostLarge component of new implementation

Cost of ErrorsMedical errors, airplane crashes

An Engineering Approach (1/3)

ConceptDetermine objectives – clearly identify

audience(s) Basic Design

Functional specification (hardware, software, human); requirements; task analysis

An Engineering Approach (2/3)

Interface DesignApply empirical data, mathematical functions,

experience, principles, population measures, and design standards

Production Integrate production requirements, test, and

update

An Engineering Approach (3/3)

Deployment Investigate use, modify, evaluate

Follow upProcedures, product evolution

And Yet …

The process is NOT linear! Nor is it a “waterfall” (a traditional software

development process)

UCD: ISO 13407

Provides a clear understanding of the ‘context of use’: users, tasks and environment

Iteration of design solutions using prototypes

Active involvement of real users Multi-disciplinary design

Then Why Is It So Hard?

No accepted/agreed-upon structure for web/digital media design teams

No industry-wide standard for web project management

Cross-functional teams have disparate working/communicating styles

Some Keys to Making UCD Work

Have the right project managerOrganizes resources: team, equipment, $Leads development of all deliverables :

audience definition, functional spec, etcCreates overall project planEnsures workflow worksFigures out how to stay in budgetCoordinates Communication

PM Resources

Project Management Institute, www.pmi.org

Association for Project Management (UK), www.apm.org.uk

International Project Management Assn., www.ipma.ch

Steps (1/2)

ID Goals (audience, client) Determine Stakeholders (define) Research Market (needs, competition, etc) ID Team Roles, Responsibilities

Steps (2/2)

Create Project Workflow (w/milestones)Creative TasksTechnical TasksAdmin TasksMarketing Tasks

ID QA Concerns Manage Scope Creep!

Summary

Good interface design enables increase in productivity, reduction in errors, and better user experience

The key to good design is customer-focus

3. Team/Project

Review individual goals. Review possible projects Move someone from Team 3 to Team 1

and/or are the groupings still correct?

4. Discussion Leaders

There are only three members of Group 1 here … are you OK with leading discussion on standards? (I forgot to go over this with Group 1 last week – my bad!)

5. Exercises

Review website examples Also, eReserve (add document), Cingular

(review phones) v Palm (review devices)

Next Week:

Finalize Team, Project, Roles Task Identification