The Software fauna is made of several species. Most of the time those species coexist peacefully. Sometimes they even collaborate. But also sometimes they fight for the same piece of territory.
That’s the feeling I had while re-reading “The Inmates Are Running the Asylum” by Alan Cooper. It triggered a series of thoughts (that translate into a series of posts). This post is part of this series.
The Need for Blueprints
In the first part of his book, Cooper analyzes the issues in the development process. Among them is the fact that “Without blueprints, software builders don’t really have a firm grasp on what makes the product “done”". Of course, in Cooper’s world designers are coming at the rescue and provide this blueprint.
There is a great truth in there: without blueprints the whole process is in big trouble. However, it seems Cooper forgets that software development is a sports team. There is not ONE blueprint in a project, but several, as for construction by the way. The blueprint for the infrastructure of a building is not the same as for the electrical wiring. Same thing in software: you will have a technical blueprint (often called software architecture), a functional blueprint(sometimes called product architecture), an interaction blueprint (the one provided by designers) and a business blueprint (provided by product management). If any of these blueprints is missing, you’re in serious trouble. Not for the same reasons, but in serious trouble still.
Truth be told , when Cooper wrote his book, interaction blueprint was largely ignored and that’s what triggered his writing. Still, design is not everything. It is important. It is crucial. But it is not everything.
Who Owns Desirability?
Cooper is very clear in his answer to this question: designers. (see Chapter 5)
Here again, Cooper is making complete abstraction of the fact that software is a team sport. He prefers to see it as “designers rule” (or should rule).
In my previous post on desirability, I present desirability as a combination of 3 elements: features, usability, and sexiness. Well, designers certainly own parts of this, but not all 3:
- Goals and Features typically come from Product Management. They are the ones who understand the needs of the buyers and users of the product. They have done market research, discussed with many customers to understand what challenges they are facing, and then picked the ones they will address with the product.
- Usability is squarely in the realm of interaction designers or HCI experts (Human-Computer Interface). They are the ones who understand the cognitive challenges associated with using a computerized solution. They are the ones who have this unique set of skills that can translate the goals identified by product management into user interactions, and a user interface that fulfill these goals.
- Sexiness is shared between marketers, graphic artists and interaction designers. Graphic artists will know how to add that pizzazz to a well-crafted interaction. Marketers will know how to emphasize a particular “pizzazzed” interaction so to put the focus of the buyer/user on it.
