This site is rarely updated. benbrophy.com is more up-to-date. - Ben
Is my design process too heavy?
I am still lamenting missing SXSW this year - inspiration is dripping from the attendees' blog entries . Jason Freid from 37signals did a new and improved version of the talk he gave at Web Design World in Boston. He is advocates moving right into designing an application's UI, even coding the back end, without going through a long process of scope statements, wireframes and functional specs.
Jason Freid linked to this commentary on his design methods by Khoi Vinh. (That's just a beautiful website, goes right into my list of feeds to read). I share his instinctive caution - I've been burned by the not getting buy in and understanding from all of the players in a project, and all those specs and scope statements really help create a mutual understanding. But I also yearn to be free, to just get it out there and start putting things on the screen.
My Docwalla project has ground to a halt. I was happily planning lots of improvements to the wish list. For some reason i imposed a whole a process on myself, despite the fact that I'm the only person working on it, and it's just no fun any more. This article reminds me that I need to start playing more and working less on Docwalla.
I have similar feeling with the Sakai gradebook. Those wireframes have been changed so often, it's just ridiculous. And little edits keep coming in from my cherished colleagues at Berkeley. I groan when I open that OmniGraffle file again. I am drained of gradebook creativity. I'm alienated by the technology used to code the gradebook - I'm used to being able to tinker with the presentation code myself. Is the only way I can communicate with people who I know and like is through these strangely formal documents. It's hard not to feel weighed down by this endless process.
I'm going on too long. Time to open up that OmniGraffle file and make a few more edits.