March 24, 2011

Rev 2.0 01102010

Effective Solution Design Using Design Principles

Dmitry Nekrasovski

OpenText User Experience Design (UXD)

Copyright © Open Text Corporation. All rights reserved.

To get us started, a story…

A man came up on a construction site where three men were working.

He asked the first man, “What are you doing?”The man replied, “I’m laying bricks.”

He then asked the second man, “What are you doing?”The man replied, “I’m building a wall.”

He came up to the third man and asked the same question.The man smiled and answered, “I’m building a cathedral.”

How do you get people working on a project

to stop laying bricks

and start building cathedrals?

Agenda

• Why design principles?• What design principles are (and aren’t)• Case studies• Creating and using design principles• Exercise, discussion, Q&A

Why design principles?

Have you encountered any of these in your projects?

The panacea: “This will fix everything!” Vague project mandate People within the team don’t understand project goals Unclear boundaries and vision Ambitions exceed resources Too many competing requirements Multiple attempts to solve the same problem Varying interpretations and expectations Target audience is “everyone” Endless feature creep

Why design principles?

One of the biggest challenges to project success is

Getting everyone to agree on

what exactly your project is!

Slide 11

Got it!

Sounds great! When do we get started?

Slide 12

Why design principles?

Another is

Maintaining a consistent vision

as the project goes on

Slide 14

Zzzz…

Why design principles?

And yet another is

Maintaining focus when stakeholders

change their minds…

Slide 16

… Also known as the “swoop and poop”.

Why design principles?

“Strategy should bring clarity to an organization…

People need to have a visceral understanding

of why you’ve chosen a certain strategy

and what you’re attempting to create with it.”

- Tim Brown, CEO, IDEO

Design principles are a means

to achieve this understanding.

Agenda

• Why design principles?• What design principles are (and aren’t)• Case studies• Creating and using design principles• Exercise, discussion, Q&A

What design principles are

A simple set of unique characteristics that describe• The qualities we want to achieve• The experience we want a system to deliver

What design principles are

“Design principles are the guiding light for any software application. They define and communicate the key characteristics of the system to a wide variety of stakeholders including clients, colleagues, and team members.

Design principles articulate the fundamental goals that all decisions can be measured against and thereby keep the pieces of a project moving toward an integrated whole.”

- Luke Wroblewski, ex-VP Design, Yahoo

What design principles are not

Design principles are not a mission, vision, or values statement.

Design principles• Support the larger

organizational mission/vision• Make it tangible in the context of

the specific project • Ensure that it is followed as the

project evolves

What design principles are not

Design principles are not universal tenets of good design.

“Make the system easy to use” is not a good design principle• It’s not specific enough• It means different things to different

people

However, “make it easy for people to do X when Y” could be a good design principle.UX Honeycomb by Peter Morville.

http://semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/000029.php

What design principles are not

Design principles are not specific design guidelines.

A design principle states what the desired design outcome is.

A design guideline describes how to achieve that outcome in a particular aspect of the design.

Microsoft Windows UX Interaction Guidelines http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511258.aspx

Agenda

• Why design principles?• What design principles are (and aren’t)• Case studies• Creating and using design principles• Exercise, discussion, Q&A

Case study: Facebook

Universal: our design needs to work for everyone, every culture, every language, every device, every stage of life.

Human: our voice and visual style stay in the background, behind people’s voices, people’s faces, and people’s expression.

Clean: our visual style is clean and understated. Consistent: reduce, reuse, don’t redesign. Useful: meant for repeated daily use Fast: faster experiences are more efficient and feel more effortless. Transparent: we are clear and up front about what’s happening

and why.

Case study: Facebook

Universal: our design needs to work for everyone, every culture, every language, every device, every stage of life.

Human: our voice and visual style stay in the background, behind people’s voices, people’s faces, and people’s expression.

Clean: our visual style is clean and understated. Consistent: reduce, reuse, don’t redesign. Useful: meant for repeated daily use Fast: faster experiences are more efficient and feel more effortless. Transparent: we are clear and up front about what’s happening

and why.

Are these really specific to Facebook?

Or are they just principles of good design?

Case study: HTC Hero phone

Make it Mine: Allow people to personalize their phone to match their personality and reflect different moments in their lives, to a level never before possible.

Stay Close: Make staying close to people through a variety of communication channels and applications as simple as turning to a friend and saying hello.

Discover the Unexpected: Present people with pleasant surprises, even when they are just using the basic functions.

Case study: HTC Hero phone

Make it Mine: Allow people to personalize their phone to match their personality and reflect different moments in their lives, to a level never before possible.

Stay Close: Make staying close to people through a variety of communication channels and applications as simple as turning to a friend and saying hello.

Discover the Unexpected: Present people with pleasant surprises, even when they are just using the basic functions.

Notice how specific and unique these design principles are.

They can be used internally to drive design decisions.

They can also serve as the product’s marketing message.

Case study: Open Text Enterprise Connect

Case study: Open Text Enterprise Connect

Associating design principles with vivid visuals can help make them memorable and “sticky”.

Agenda

• Why design principles?• What design principles are (and aren’t)• Case studies• Creating and using design principles• Exercise, discussion, Q&A

Creating and using design principles

“7 Easy Steps” for creating a set of design principles

1. Research/gather relevant inspiration.

2. Brainstorm with your team.

3. Craft 3-7 descriptive, memorable principles.

4. Ensure the principles align with business and user goals.

5. Ensure they are specific enough to be useful for making design decisions.

6. Ensure they're short, memorable, apply to the whole system, and don't conflict or overlap.

7. Get buy-in from stakeholders and project sponsor(s).

Creating and using design principles

When to use design principles

Project inception Planning and prioritization Team building - getting team members on the same page Evaluating benefits of new features or customizations Evaluating designs – begin design reviews by reviewing them Aligning project phases: implementation, rollout, training, support Explaining decisions to stakeholders

Creating and using design principles

3 steps to make design principles “stick”

1. Make them visible and social:

Create posters, leaflets, or videos to attract attention.

Creating and using design principles

3 steps to make design principles “stick”

1. Make them visible and social:

Create posters, leaflets, or videos to attract attention.

2. Tell stories with them:

Gather stories about how the use of the principles (or lack thereof) impacts users and stakeholders. Share them within the project team and around the organization.

Creating and using design principles

3 steps to make design principles “stick”

1. Make them visible and social:

Create posters, leaflets, or videos to attract attention.

2. Tell stories with them: Gather stories about how the use of the principles (or lack thereof) impacts users and stakeholders. Share them within the project team and around the organization.

3. Keep them fresh: Revisit the principles at the start of each project or when presenting to key stakeholders/project sponsors.

Agenda

• Why design principles?• What design principles are (and aren’t)• Case studies• Creating and using design principles• Exercise, discussion, Q&A

Exercise: Design principles for an onboarding knowledge base

Your organization is about to hire 100 new employees across all departments and functions within the next 3 months.

You are leading a small team in charge of creating an onboarding knowledge base for these new hires. You have 4 weeks to do this.

The knowledge base should answer all the questions the new hires have, but should not overlap with existing HR and departmental resources.

There are minimal resources allocated to support and update the knowledge base once deployed.

Take 5 minutes to come up with 3-5 design principles.

Remember to make them• Short• Specific• Memorable

Time to share your answers!

Actual design principles that were developed for this project

Answer recurring questions. What do I need to do on my first day? Week? Month? What does X mean? Who to talk to about problem Y?

Find answers, quickly. Easy to search. Shallow hierarchy. Content grouped in ways that make sense to new hires.

Make it simple to maintain. Link to rather than duplicate existing content. Make it easy to make quick updates/corrections.

Provide only common division content. Content relevant to specific roles/functions should be managed by those departments.

References

Stephen Anderson, (Design) Principles to Build By

http://www.slideshare.net/stephenpa/design-principles-to-build-by

Luke Wroblewski, Developing Design Principles

http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?854

Jared Spool, Creating Great Design Principles

http://www.uie.com/articles/creating-design-principles

@dmitryn