[IxDA Discuss] the appearance of change

[Gloria Petron]

Hi Charlie,
I agree wholeheartedly with your statement,

About ten years ago I came to the realization that if I were to be a
> highly effective designer, I had to understand and manage the
> organizational issues that could affect the design and its ultimate
> implementation.


I wanted to ask you more about the books you've read on the topic of
organizational politics, and ask if there are any you recommend. For myself,
I recommend Gary Klein's *Sources of Power* and *The Power of Intuition*.
Both books cover the relationship between interaction design & project
management, and how these things can affect the way Navy fighter pilots,
firefighters, and others make split decisions during emergencies. Another
great book is Donald Norman's *The Design of Everyday Things* where
mass-market thinking squares off against usable design; one of his most
stark examples is an airline crash traced back to unusable controls.

On a related note, for awhile I worked alongside my company's 6 Sigma team.
Sadly their ideals were never really taken seriously by upper management and
eventually the department went belly-up (I hear this happens a lot).
However, even though I could see how some of their methodologies could be
called into question, I thought that their devotion to measurable results
was something that they and I, an interface designer, had in common.

Regards,
Gloria