[IxDA Discuss] Common design mistakes?

[Stacy Westbrook]

This exact thing is happening to a project I'm working on right now.

The functional spec *I* designed to (wireframes, flow charts, visual  
design) is different from the one released when the developers  
"finished" the project; they fleshed it out in production. There's a  
VP who has been "directing" the functionality and specs all along the  
way, disregarding the target audience of in-house users, and now the  
tool is completely unusable, two months behind schedule, and a  
complete mess. The worst part is that said VP thinks the tool is  
great! Apparently, he's never tried to use it.

It's hard to create a usable, functional design when someone is  
changing the specs on you. And the engineers don't understand that  
one interface layout may work for one set of functionality, but it  
won't work for another or if additional complexity is added to the  
functionality. So they just cram it all in to a design that wasn't  
meant to hold all this widgetry.

So I guess this is a reverse bad design case: my design was fine for  
the original plan, then someone changed the functionality and didn't  
ask for a redesign or even a review to see if it still made sense.

Talk about frustrating.

On Aug 14, 2006, at 12:09 PM, Bret Hekking wrote:

> [Please voluntarily trim replies to include only relevant quoted  
> material.]
>
>>> I am thinking of putting together a half-day course for CHI  
>>> 2007.  As
>>> I prepare for it, I'm curious about something.  What, in your
>>> experience, are the most common design mistakes made by novice or
>>> untrained designers?  (Or those most likely to be taking an
>>> introductory CHI course?)
>>>
> Great (albeit loaded) question!
>
> In my experience, in which most design has been done by developers,  
> the biggest
> issue is designing for the wrong audience, either based on personal  
> preference
> or based on what the VP, C-level exec, etc. likes, rather than upon  
> what users
> need. Obviously, these are much more expedient approaches, but also  
> much
> riskier.
>
> Bret Hekking
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
> http://mail.yahoo.com
> ________________________________________________________________
> Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)!
> To post to this list ....... discuss at ixda.org
> List Guidelines ............ http://listguide.ixda.org/
> List Help .................. http://listhelp.ixda.org/
> (Un)Subscription Options ... http://subscription-options.ixda.org/
> Announcements List ......... http://subscribe-announce.ixda.org/
> Questions .................. lists at ixda.org
> Home ....................... http://ixda.org/
> Resource Library ........... http://resources.ixda.org