[IxDA Discuss] Create winning HW/SW designs (was Re: Bill Moggridge talk at Ideo tonight)

[Edwin Booth]

On Saturday, November 04, 2006, at 12:37PM, "Bill DeRouchey" <bill at flume.com> wrote:
>This is an overly long way to come back to your point above and say that 
>the UI is not only software. Even calling it hardware and software forces 
>an artificial split. The UI is the whole product, the whole concept. 
>Hardware and software are then components of the implementation once the 
>concept and cognitive model are agreed upon by every one involved.

I agree totally, in theory. In the best circumstances, a truly integrated team develops an integrated product together. In practice however it doesn't always work out this way. To the contrary, it seems most 'digital products' (to use a term that avoids the HW/SW split) are created by divided hardware and software teams, either within a single organization or across multiple companies. 

I'm not promoting a HW/SW split. Rather I have observed and lived it; and it seems very common to a lot of companies. The work schedules, terms, backgrounds, etc are usually very different between the people working on SW and HW. There's a lot of ignorance and misconception from either side. So, in a lot of ways it should not be surprising that "product" designers don't know or recognize much about the things that seem so, so important to software UI people. 

So, to Jared's point about being productive, one principle for creating great products is having an integrated team. Hardly novel. Having a strong overall project leader who shepard's the vision of the whole product would be another one, I suppose.

Last I saw Jared speak he presented his challenge to the usability field to become either 1) a real science, or 2) recognize itself as a craft. In that presentation he mentioned investigating the design groups behind web sites that are generally recognized as being usability benchmarks (Amazon, etc). Low and behold, none of them had a formal usability department or centralized usability practice. Rather they had a culture of being focused on the customer and of experimentation. Jared, please correct me if I misrepresent.

I wonder if the same is true about companies that make great integrated HW/SW products? They don't bother with the professional distinctions and just focus on the customer and making great stuff?