[IxDA Discuss] design by committee??

[Lada Gorlenko]

WR> it is tedious and possibly even impossible to justify every little
WR> decision.  To be honest, I don't want to add another meeting to my
WR> already full calendar to explain why the button has to be orange
WR> versus blue, and why the font should be Trebuchet instead of Arial.

One thing I learned working in large teams is to pick my fights. If
someone desperately needs Arial (for whatever reason), is it *really
important* to use Trebuchet or is it because *you* want it? And if
it's not Trebuchet, what's the loss? 

I've also learned that developers in particular can be your good
friends, if you listen to their "design opinions" carefully. A couple 
of developers improved my designs because they knew the underlying
product technology better. Although my designs seemed optimal from the
design perspective, they were not so overall, given the technological
constraints we had to work with. I am ever so grateful to my
development teams for their help.

Think big and fight big. Separate design critical decisions from
the rest. Trade non-critical decisions, if they buy peace and
progress. Don't come across as someone who always wants to be right
about design, even if this is exactly what you are paid to do. Come
across as someone who fights only when the fight is worth it. If
someone's design decision is a politically important matter of taste
with little real impact, skip it; if it can turn into serious matter,
do stick to your expertise by all means.

On the "blue vs. orange button" (did you make up your example?), see
Telegraph's article "Baby died after untrained doctor took 50-50
gamble on pressing right button":
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/03/21/nhs121.xml)

Lada