Ghost in the Pixel

From Vlad Margulis, UI Designer at Google:

Just as speed doesn’t define the essence of a jaguar, but merely represents a trait that evolved for its survival, intellect doesn’t define the essence of a human being. The essence of humans is the depth and range of emotions with which we experience our interactions with the world.

Key things to focus on at the beginning of a new project:

1. People:

• Identify all the key players, get their contact info (email, phone, IM) and their physical location/time zone too
• Get their schedules of availability for this project, including days they telecommute (WAH)
• Identify the official decision-makers and approvers: technical, business, design (tech = engineering + QA leads)
• Identify the role of other people involved (contributor, informed, etc.) and who to expect might pop-up down the road
• As the project evolves and scope is re-defined (which always happens!), more or different people will enter/exit as needed, adjust as necessary

2. Process:

• Decide the working style and process
• Decide whether to do in-person, phone conf, web conf, etc.
• Decide level of day-to-day involvement
• Make sure all in agreement, with room for adjustments down the road

3. Deliverables:

• Decide what the final deliverables will be and how success will be measured/identified
• Decide what the working/interim deliverables will be and how they will be reviewed (see Process above)
• Make sure all in agreement, with room for adjustments down the road

4. Schedule:

• What are the deadlines and milestones? What is expected at those points in time?
• Make sure all in agreement, with room for adjustments down the road

5. Materials:

• Gather the latest version of critical documents as fodder/material for analysis and discussion
• MRD, PRD, ERD: all technical and business requirements
• User Research: all personas, scenarios, use cases, taskflows, architecture or concept maps that have been done already even in preliminary form
• Prototypes, if any
• Screenshots, specs if any, and photoshop files
• Latest builds, if any

From various notable personalities in the design world, collected altogether…

“In essence, design offers a pathway for bringing theory–ideas bout the nature of the world and how we should live our lives–into closer relationship with practical action and the creation of diverse kinds of products and experiences.”

— R. Buchanan, Design and the New Rhetoric

“Design is the art of causing change to occur in accordance with taste and intent”

— Clement Mok, Time for a Change

“Design is the method of putting form and content together. Design, just as art, has multiple definitions; there is no single definition. Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that’s why it is so complicated.”

— Paul Rand

“Design is a plan for arranging elements in such a way as best to accomplish a particular purpose”

— Charles Eames

“Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.”

– Steve Jobs

“To design is much more than simply to assemble, to order, or even to edit; it is to add value and meaning, to illuminate, to simplify, to clarify, to modify, to dignify, to dramatize, to persuade, and perhaps even to amuse.”

— Paul Rand