[IxDA Discuss] product SUITE design

[Eugene Chen]

Some great comments above. A couple other considerations:

What is the real usage pattern between products? How many people use
the total set or subsets of the products vs. individual products (I
would want to have actual metrics here)? Moreover, which set of users
or pattern of uses is most valuable to the company? Common design may
have a certain viral effect - locking in users to use product B,
because they already like how product A works. 

In a product suite, consistency is probably of more benefit to
experienced users who have time to move between products, learn the
shared elements, and leverage the consistency. 

Besides usability, consistency could have a real benefit in
development and maintenance. Designs will be easier to specify,
update across products etc. Designs, code, documentation, messaging,
visual assets might all be reusable. This could help raise quality as
well as reduce cost. Time saved by carefully factoring common design
elements can be re-channeled into the product-specific design
optimization.

Commonality can become a management tool as well. In many product
orgs, specific teams of designers/developers are devoted to
platform/framework/standards work.

In short, this could be time to think beyond the usability hat. This
is also part of design strategy--there are ways design can benefit
the organization in addition to helping users.

Best,

Eugene


User Experience | Research, Strategy and Design
http://www.eugenechendesign.com







. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
http://beta.ixda.org/discuss?post=18944