listen to make, make to think

The Design Services Team (DST) at SAP has a guiding motto that I love: listen to make, make to think

to me that's all about not designing by shooting from the waist, but actually researching what the needs are, sitting down and thinking what that means, and using prototyping as a tool to help you think and get to a better solution.

it reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:
"how do I know what I think
until I see what I say?"
attributed to both E. M. Forster or W.H. Auden

presentaion zen

Over the winter break i took with me to india an excellent book, Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds, an american (i think) now living in Osaca, and working as an associate professor of management at Kansai Gaidai University in Japan.

The book is about how to make more compelling and clear presentations, addressing tips for both creating a good deck and delivering the presentation in front of an audience. I found it very very useful and interesting, as he brings not just basic ideas, but also food for thought from other disciplines and a bit from zen philosophy.

The two that stuck with me the most for both design and life (more about them another time) are "Eat until 80% full" and "Be here now and somewhere else later, what's so difficult about that?".

I just found this shortened summary of the book, though I still recommend reading the book, but this might be a handy reference.

mayo clinic's SPARC approach

I liked this approach by mayo clinic's SPARC program. it's a great acronym that resonates well with how i think about the design process, just way more eloquently phrased.

SPARC = see, plan, act, refine, and communicate
it's meant to remind participants of the design-oriented methodology so they'll continue to employ it when they return to their departments.

A Prescription for Innovation, FastCompany article
SPARC program website

design synthesis by Jon Kolko

just heard a lightning round talk on Interaction Design Synthesis: Translating Research into Insight, by Jon Kolko at the IxDA conference, interaction 09.

jon had a definition i really liked of design synthesis, with every word in it to essential to the definition:

design synthesis is an abductive sensmaking process of manipulating, organizing, pruning and filtering data in an effort to produce information and knowledge

jon's website: http://www.jonkolko.com/

starting a communication project: creating a good communication plan

standing on the shoulders of giants, I've decided to add this wonderful piece of advice from Kim Erwin on how to create a communication plan.

Kim has made me a true believer that when starting a new communication project, it is well wroth your time to hold your horses, and before you start designing take 20 minutes and create a solid communication plan.

a communication plan should consist of these elements: target audience, communication objective, key message, communication model (and what design principles would that model infer).

creating a communication plan helps focus your efforts, and keep you on track. later you can and should evaluate your design against this plan.

here are a few tips from Kim, each a true pearl of wisdom to keep close to your chest and repeat as a mantra:

The point of a communication plan is to inject
some realism into the assignment. You are
constructing a scenario that has objectives and
constraints, just like real life.

The idea is that each element of the communication
plan informs the next one. Your audience has a
need, which informs your objective, which defines
your key message, which suggests a framework +
principles. Voila, that's a communication plan.

Therefore, if your audience is weakly defined, you
have little more than a prayer of creating the
logic you need to design.

Here's my tip: if your audience definition starts
out with "People who..." just stop and rewrite.
The probability of you, in the real world, being
asked to design for "people who" is remarkably
low. You will design for specific user groups,
specific clients, and in specific industries.
Those people will have specific needs and
objectives that you will have to design into.
That's what we're aiming for.

And when you have finally arrived at a key
message, think about which of the communication
models might help you think differently about the
problem. Pick one. Itemize the design principles
it suggests (look at SeeID for these). Add this to
your communication plan.

I hope this helps clarify and streamline your
efforts. It's common for students to pick a key
message before they have an audience. It doesn't
work. The rest of the plan feels force fit. And
the whole bit lacks logical coherence.

So start with the beginning and end with the end.
In order. That works. I promise!

taken from an email from Kim Erwin to the Theories of Information and Communication class, Fall 08, Institute of Design.