“the 4 R’s” Reach | Render | Review | Remix
It’s my design approach, stay lean and green and you will learn alot! It took me a long time to learn how to ask the right questions and let the people help me determine what they need. Don’t do work in a bubble, REACH out to users, test your assumptions. RENDER some ideas at various fidelities or code and REVIEW and learn from independant feedback. REMIX your stuff accordingly, do this often and in small manageable iterations ( I call it swinging for singles and not the fence ) and you will be winner.
Research and investigation are critical to discovering problems and opportunities. Spend time reading up but also spend time talking with others about your assumptions and ideas.
- Research and investigation are critical to discovering problems and opportunities. Spend time reading up but also spend time talking with others about your assumptions and ideas.
- Lean what others are doing, using and/or thinking. Understand their issues
- Observe thier surroundings, patterns and processes
- Try not to tell them your ideas, make it all about their ideas
- Determine priorities, get your “TOP 5”
- Research and understand the concepts you are unfamiliar with
A picture is worth a thousand words. Its true for most, sometimes people just need to “see it”. Paint your picture little by little…swing for “singles” not homeruns
- Don’t go overboard, whatever it takes to show the concepts
- If you have to start with a diagram that shows a process that is fine, then do interfaces next
- Use dummy text sparingly, in context examples convey better
- Consider facilitating a group design studio
- Remember its about singles, not a home run
Rapid iteration and rapid feedback equals design momentum. Use what you have learned ( from reaching out ) and what you have prototyped ( rendered ) to validate your work thus far
- Prepare a list of assumptions and questions in advance of meetings
- Try to stick to open ended questions, they provide more unique responses
- Hold back on devulging your design intent, see if they can figure it out, watch and learn
- Review your notes, look for patterns across all feedback and generate top insights uncovered
- Prioritize your actions and next steps
Did you get it right the first time? Probably not, but that is to be expected and a great way to keep the learnings flowing. Apply what you learned thus far and go for round 2
- Leverage the prior synthesis, insights and actions to guide your changes
- Stay with the same level of fidelity or kick it up a notch
- Work with physical, paper or code prototypes
- Spend more time with information architecture, propery sturcture and naming is important to the users
- Consider clever ways to mimic interaction design, show dropdowns, modals, popovers ect as if clicked
Design Artifacts
