June 19, 2003
Themes in User Experience, Part III - Emotion in Business
At the DUX 2003 conference, I found myself on a panel talking about organizational and business issues. I was substituting for Jeff, who was unable to attend.
It was a great panel -- each panelist presented ways they were able to get folks in their organizations to appreciate user-centered design. After the panelists spoke, I realized a thread emerging about the value of emotional pulls. Bill Bachman from Adobe used "UI Trivia Quizzes" and report cards to make smart interface design less dull, more engaging. Steve Sato found that a CD with video of customer visits and usability tests, "[engaged colleagues] at an emotional level that is rarely touched by logic alone." Jeff had found a similar response when showing tests of the usability of PBS' member stations. Jan-Christoph Zoels showed beautiful design prototypes of washing machines that hinted at compelling future possibilities.
It was surprising, on what was essentially the "business panel" for touchy-feely emotions to keep cropping up. There's a tendency to assume that business is driven by numbers, and in talking to most user experience folks about their difficulties in work with 'business', the primary issue is a lack of good metrics.
This panel showed that metrics is only part of the picture. You need to compel others viscerally as well. It reminded me of a comment my partner Janice made in her workshop on "Managing Design Politics" -- people use their intellect to rationalize a decision already made through emotion.
June 15, 2003
That Tricky Word, "Design"
Appropos of the DUX 2003 conference, I've found myself grappling with my relationship to the word "design." It came to a head on the Tuesday following the conference, when I participated in a panel recapping what had happened. Before it began, I was chatting with co-panelist Hugh Dubberly, and mentioned that in the next iteration of the Adaptive Path website, we will not refer to our work as "user experience design," and are in fact moving away from the word "design" altogether.
What's wrong with "design"? Well, there's nothing wrong with the practice, but plenty wrong with the word's associations. Right now, particularly in the field of web user experience, the word "design", without a modifier, means visual design. Adaptive Path doesn't perform visual design services (though we love partnering with those who do). But, more importantly for us, "design" has been relegated to the world of tactics. "Design" is what happens after the strategy has been settled, the specifications determined, the raison d'etre developed.
This is unfortunate. Design, with a capital D, ought to stretch beyond tactics, and into strategy. Design methods are brilliantly suited to figuring out WHAT to make, not just HOW to make it. I find Herbert Simon's definition apt: "Everyone designs who devise courses of action
aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones. The intellectual activity that produces material artifacts is no different fundamentally from the one that prescribes remedies for a sick patient or the one that devises a new sales plan for a company or a social welfare policy for a state."
However, I see no need to be a champion for the cause of "design." When we hired a consultant to help us reposition our marketing, she had two concerns -- the phrase "user experience" and the word "design." The former concerned her because it's jargon-y, requires definition, and often gets confused with user interface. The latter because she sees the word design in our marketplace being used by firms that don't do what we do, and that we do what they don't do. While we're willing to fight the "user experience" fight, because we feel we can help define it, fighting the "design" fight simply doesn't interest us.
Again, not that we don't do design. Information architecture and interaction design are valuable kinds of design. Even the strategies we craft could be considered 'design'. But, I don't think we're wedded to the term 'design.' None of us went to design school. We don't feel the need to be associated with the word. In fact, we find that potential clients see "design" as a commodity, somewhat interchangeable, and not understanding its true value, often go with the less expensive option.
(For what it's worth, I think pretty much the exact same thing about "usability" as I do "design" -- it's tactical, and quite possibly, even *more* of a commodity. But writing about the term 'usability' would have to be the subject of a whole other post.)