Trusting the design process
the journey? I see it as a composition of core elements that define a " trust fabric " woven into the work of practicing interaction design with our cross-functional peers. Let me explain further... Mindset as the foundation of a good process. There are some excellent habits of mind for a successful journey through a design process. All are grounded in a " bias to action " —as design is a practical art—yet motivated by a desire to reflect and learn and adapt, while moving forward. For instance, all project participants should adopt a Zen " beginner's mind " —a sense of curiosity, of truly wanting to know about a customer's unmet needs and latent pains. They should always be asking, " How can we make things better? " They should ask how they can apply HCI-informed techniques toward understanding or resolving the complexity of a situation, beyond agile project spreadsheets or arbitrarily selected metrics. Everyone must be totally willing to try, risk, and fail forward! It's all about learning to improve oneself, the entire team, the philosophy of success, and the overall strategic approach of progressively creating and capturing value via supporting customers' goals. Design skills and methods as the tradecraft to deliver something real. Knowing the mechanics underlying the technical execution of HCI methods is crucial, since that serves the actual, tangible basis of showing the evidence of a process transpiring and helps others to witness its applicability and value. Therein lies a vital aspect of the trusting—seeing expertise unfold in execution! From contextual inquiry to heuristic evaluation to generative models of ideation, HCI I t's often stated—usually in a casual way, to offset any anxiety by non-design stakeholders in the midst of a lengthy project engagement— " Let's trust the design process. " But what does that mean? And is there even a bona fide design process to trust? As HCI-informed experts in the technology sector, we're loath to see the practice of designing good interactions as some messy, funky artistry of random inspiration à la Don Draper in Mad Men—fueled by whiskey, cigarettes, and couture. That misguided notion is certainly not helpful to our quest to be viewed as critical to business and technology value, with a seat at the table in enabling strategically impactful decisions. Thus, UX firms and corporate UX departments dutifully cite a rigorous process that connotes systematic action and thoughtful predictability, with …