Streamlining the Design Process
by
RACING WITH THE CLOCK
Will SchroederMathWorks
Your therapist will tell you
… that the most important part of the hour is the last five minutes
What can we accomplish in two hours?
Choose Teams4: Good size for a rapid design team
Set The Task
The Use
Case is the test task
DesignDesig
n time:
5minut
es
Show and TellShow and Tell 10
minutes
Fix and Repeat
Keep
strict
time
2X
• At the break:–Teams formed–Design task introduced and explained–Functional prototypes of 3 approaches–Two design reviews for each design
Hour #1
Prepare for Test
Prep for test
2X
Test
Test
2X Rotate and
Test
Test
Rotate and Test
2X
Test
2X Rotate and
Test
Debrief
Debrief
2X
• In the second hour:–Prototypes polished for testing–3 usability tests – for each design –Users gave comparative feedback–Developers, observing, absorbed all this
Hour #2
Feedback was good ...
Participants:• “Having artifacts [designs and
supporting materials] to go back to was very valuable.”
• “Seeing designs is better than simply recording them in a spec.”
• “I like including users in collaborative design.”
• “No time to over-think solutions.”
• “… the opportunity to view the ideas of other groups and borrow ‘guilt free’ was a good thing.”
Developers:• “… we had done quite a bit of
design work on this feature”• “… pleasantly surprised with
the designs.” • “… validated our design
(there were many similarities), came up with new ideas, and exposed a design issue ….”
• “… created and explored more design ideas in minutes than we had come up with in a month.”
Have you heard the one about the talking dog?
One short year later ...
Still perfect team size
2X
Starting a design task is very
difficult
2X
Nature abhors a vacuum
People LOVE their own ideas
So they add unnecessary requirements
Giving pre-work failed
Stern speeches failed
Handing out lists failed
The facilitator describes a problem
Each team makes its own list of specific instances of the problem
Then they chose one to seed their design
Later some teams chose to cover more cases
Design always works
out fine – 5 minutes is
plenty
2X
Show and tell
enhanced the
designs
2X
2X
Not getting the full benefit
Facilitator prompts the explanation, orchestrates the design critique
... and keeps up the tempo
Could go on longer (under control)
Participants give notes – even draw ideas
Wastes time,
dilutes effort
2X
• Participants lose the thread of their design
• ... Enthusiasm• ... Momentum• They need to
“renegotiate the contract”
• “preparing for test” just wastes time
• Breaks aren’t needed
• Tests work fine with minimal or no preparation
Rotated users gave astounding
feedback
2X
No scouting, no show and
tell, not enough revision
2X
Participants did not see all tests
... And they did not take notes
... So there was not enough feedback
And there was no “fixing” between tests
One user testing all designs is about the useful limit
Multiple rounds of testing requires more than two hours
No formal process
2X
Make recording part of the process- List of pains- Keep and
number sketches
Take notes in show-and-tell
Facilitate debriefing
IN A NUTSHELL
PIECES• Players chose
goals • Blitz design
sessions• Show and tell• Parallel testing• Iteration• No breaks
GLUE• Facilitation• Time Pressure• Structured
activities– For timing– For feedback
• Levels of design
Questions?
Getting the right design and the design right, Maryam Tohidi, William Buxton, Ronald Baecker, Abigail Sellen - April 2006CHI '06: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in computing systems