October Meeting review
By Paul Pehrson on Thursday, October 22, 2009
Hey fellow chapter members. This is Paul Pehrson, chapter vice president.
I’m sitting right now with 13 fellow chapter members listening to Grant Skousen’s presentation at our October meeting.
I thought I’d give you my thoughts on the meeting, for those of you who are unable to be here tonight. This is sort of a “live-blog” post, so you will get some stream of consciousness thoughts. They probably don’t all connect like a normal, finished article.
Grant is talking about design and data; how you should design your products and where you get the data from on which you base your design.
I really like Grant’s emphasis on having writers involved early in the design process. As writers, we have a broader perspective, sometimes, than do the developers. Grant included several quotes that all point to the idea that you have to design your product with the end users in mind. You need to totally understand how your users think, how they work, and what they want.
He discussed contextual design: watching the users actually do the task, then figuring out how you can make the task easier for them.
It would be interesting to see writers involved early in the design phase. It seems that the interaction designers or the developers don’t want to include writers early on, because they think all we do is write the help docs when the product is almost done. But if we could really sell our value earlier in the process, we could make a difference in ensuring the product is adequately designed for the end user.
I hope Grant will let us post his slides of the meeting afterward. He had some great quotes and content that you might be interested in, even if you weren’t here.
“What is the most ignored paradox in software development? Every time you add something you take something away. Screen real estate, interface quality… [etc...]”
“To innovate does not necessarily mean to expand; very often it means to simplify.” (M. Russell Ballard)
“With the right amount of user data, you can help get things designed for the user.” (Grant Skousen)
Tom Johnson asks an interesting question: does this idea of simplifying apply to documentation as well, or are we just talking about the interface itself? Grant’s answer is that as you simplify the product, you can simplify the documentation. Complex products require complex documentation. However, simple apps don’t require complex documentation, because they are so much easier to use.
Ben Minson asks how do you determine how many users to watch? Grant says it depends on your budget, but generally, you watch until you can see emerging patterns that repeat. Then you have an idea of where you need to focus your efforts.
In wrap-up, thanks to Marj, Kurt, Greg, Bruce, Deloris, Ben, Ann, Lisa, Mandy, Tom, Lynn, and Shawn for attending our meeting. A special thanks to our presenter, Grant Skousen, for an informative and interesting discussion on user experience design.
