“Present the data from one of the world’s most reliable sources of international development statistics.”

The magnitude of the project seemed inconceivable at first glance, and its social and economic ramifications staggering. But I am happy to report that our work for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has become one of our most successful projects to date. I write this blog entry after-the-fact, the project has gone ‘live’ and you can read more about the OECD here and learn about the project itself from 2Paths, the company that hired us to conduct user research and design the user interface to drive this web application.

The project began back in November 2007, with 2Paths having initiated a detailed scoping and budget phase with the client. They decided early on to bring design experts on to the team to lead the interface development for this project.  DesignStamp joined in January and development was to begin in March.  Our task was to gather as much knowledge about the project as possible, from the work 2Paths had already done, the various user types identified and also understand business requirements from the client.

1. Our search for this knowledge meant doing extensive interviews with users from around the world who came in contact with OECD data for a variety of reasons. We conducted in-person interviews, phone interviews and also relied on video conferencing technology to be able to do small focus group style interviews.
2. We then made the trip to Paris, to gather business requirements from the OECD and echo our understanding of their vision, as well as what the end-users desired.  It was important that we speak with the staff that managed the current databases on international development statistics.  We learnt about the issues OECD development staff had in using the OECD.Stat interface and also documented queries from users.
3. This knowledge combined with our user research gave us enough information to be able to create the set of user personae (PDF) that would inform the rest of the project work ahead. The persona process is invaluable in helping not only help keep the end-user in mind when designing solutions but also lend focus to project scope.
4. We moved quickly from a lo-fi wireframing deliverable whereby we explained our proposed solution to the client using sketches, to high fidelity prototypes that enabled us to present click through scenarios and validate our approach based on common tasks that users may undertake to extract data from the interface.
5. Having received approval on the wireframes, we worked with the 2Paths development team and the client to hit 2 to 3 week iterations and tackle off user stories that helped us build components of the project in a priority sequence.
6. We worked with 2Paths to merge our design with their agile development process.  DesignStamp designers were kept a minimum of 2 weeks ahead of developer work, so that we could get client approval on the interface decisions and be ready with assets for developers to complete the user stories in time.

Lessons learned from this project:

1. One of our big wins was to align ourselves with the client from the get-go and work with them as partners trying to solve the problem. We took the time to understand the “pain”, and appreciate their goals before we started to do any design work.
2. The time 2Paths spent educating the client on how an agile development process works was worth the effort. Having client buy-in was invaluable, as they knew what to expect, what not to expect and just how we would tackle off the project in incremental bits. 2Paths did a great job managing this.
3. The OECD was the perfect client in many ways. Perfect client=Accommodating, collaborative and open to providing us with the knowledge we needed to do our job well.
4. The agile process works only when the client, and the entire team appreciate the benefit of frequent deliverables. It was also important that designers were kept 2 weeks ahead of the developer work, so that we could have time to work on, and gain approval on interface decisions, prior to the developers needing graphic assets.
5. Modern communication tools helped our global team produce a global project. Say what you will but the project would have been severely impacted if we could not rely on web conferencing and being able to share our desktops in Vancouver with a client in Paris. We had weekly check-in points to keep the client in the loop at all times. Remote conferencing was invaluable for that (even if it meant that the Vancouver team was bleary eyed, attending conference calls at 7 am in the morning!).

This project tested our process by the shear magnitude of the design brief. This project has proved to us once again, that we don’t just create good looking work; we solve problems. We do so by following a user-centric design process that marries business objectives with user goals. And at the end of the project, our biggest rewards: The glowing testimonials from the client and the users who have tested our new interface. You can view our design solution for this project here or contact us if you would like to learn more about our process for solving complex business problems.

2008 has been an eventful year for you. Yup, you read right, for you. It was a year that saw your investments plummet, and a year that promised you “change”. Change can be good, change can be bad. But change was definitely in the air this year for you.

I suggest that 2008 was the year that big became uncool. Big loans, big debts, big car companies, big wars and big promises. All blew up big and showed us that we need to change our way of thinking. No more spending more than our means and living the big American dream. Maybe the problem was scale. If we thought small, if we cared about the little guy and the little things, we may not be in the big mess that we seem to be in? Maybe we could have set up schools to teach something useful to a group of 20 kids at a time, rather than map out how to spend billions of dollars to conquer countries and seize the big oil?

I am going to, narcissistically, use DesignStamp as an example of why I have always thought that small is better than big. Here are top reasons why:

1. Small and focused = not being anything like the BIG 3. And that’s a good thing.
2. Smaller hierarchical overhead means, we react faster, and create solutions that best meet market and client needs.
3. Our greatest strength is to keep our focus on what we do best. To bring 3 sometimes seemingly contrary worlds together and have them build the same thing: brand, business and technology. Technology simply provides the tools for us to translate business goals and create better experiences that build strong brands.
4. We use fewer resources by not having a big office to maintain and virtualize how we work. We pass that benefit to our clients through reduced costs. We also drive less. Really. We are the masters of modern communication and work with people around the world efficiently and effectively. Our productivity and miles-driven ratio, we hope, is inspiring for other businesses.
5. We spend more time in discovery than we do in execution. Smarter initial questions asked means we spend less in overall budget than large production teams that just build what business owners think is required. Our small team model demands shorter production cycles as do our clients budgets.
6. Our bottom-line effects each of us personally. We are all invested in building a profitable, sustainable business. The level of care is reflected in the work we do. If it won’t look good in our portfolio, we won’t do it.
7. Flexibility is the requirement in this economy. We have always valued that in how we approach projects. Whether it is the size of the team assigned to our project, or the technology we use, we are not married to any particular format/platform, if it is not right for you. Our process has flexibility built right into it.
8. We are not anonymous, we do good work by being personally accountable and maintaining a positive attitude. This creates strong constructive relationships between us and our clients. Most of our clients come back to us for projects, which means we develop a shorthand with them that is invaluable.
9. We partner with our clients. We don’t work as external agencies to just deliver the goods asked of them. We function as partners who can validate business goals with audience adoption and technical constraints.
10. We love challenges and constraints. Designers are trained to not just accept boundaries and limitations, but prove value within them. Designers of buildings and furniture work within the constraints of gravity and space to provide excellent solutions. We do the same within the limitations such as pre-defined budgets of time and costs.

So I suggest that if you are focusing on the right thing you have nothing to fear. Fear is self-perpetuating and only leads to more of itself. Positivity breeds positivity. We value clients who remain positive in challenging times, and we do our best to bring a level of fun to every project.

Our focus is to remain small, and steadfast in what we do, and how we do it. We wish you a fulfilling 2009 in which you see small things bring disproportionate happiness to you!

I write this month’s article in the spirit of bringing some joy to my fellow designers. A happy designer is one that has happy clients. There is no greater professional joy than to know that your work matters and is being appreciated by those who use it, and those who pay for it. While clients (those pay for the work) wait to derive happiness from the reaction of the end-user (those that will use it), the design process often precedes that usage. So the client and the designer must work together and alone, against odds, creating work together that has yet to see light of day. Someday the work will be known to, and used by, millions but for today it is tended to and developed by the two people who care most about it.

I have written articles about ethical designers, and I have bantered about how to be a good designer, but this month I write a few tips targeting clients. I think every designer should get their client to read these. And clients: ‘Tis the season to give. So go on, give your designer some love! Here are the 10 things that you can do to share some joy with your designer:

1. Don’t rush it. The first to market syndrome plagues most of the online business world. Sometimes the quality of the final product can be directly proportionate to the time spent on building the product. Ask for timelines from your designer, and work with them to meet your business needs. Consider breaking up your project into phases if necessary. Your customers will love you, not if you launch your product within a month, but if your product actually meets or even exceed their expectations.
2. Design briefs are important. Design briefs help define the problem and the desired solution. It’s important to at least identify the problem that needs to solved, the target audience and the intended impact even before the first pixel is drawn. Good pre-planning and a targeted brief just means that everyone is facing in the same/correct direction. You should be a partner in helping craft this document. It doesn’t need to be a thick document. Good design briefs are short, succinct and capture the key points that help define the project and its requirements.
3. Don’t design for the designer. Don’t ask your designer if they can move that one element 5 pixels to the left or right. Of course they can. But if they are good at their job, everything was done with intention. Good designer lay out grids and work from them, so moving elements means everything could potentially have a ripple effect. They are presenting you the best solution for the design problem you posed to them in the design brief (see #2). If you don’t trust your designer or don’t like their work, the issue may go far beyond the 5 pixel shift. There may be other things that need to shift (either how you relate with the designer or your business to another designer!)
4. Help Manage production. It is important that assets are managed with care during production. I find it humorous to see files names such as “final_final.doc”. It’s good to get used to versioning and working within a structured pipeline to provide assets to your designer because you are ultimately helping them deliver intended results on time. Trust me, more chances that the copy will be correct if you give a file named “About_copy_GD02.doc” for implementation instead of “final_final_07_FINAL.doc”.
5. Communicate. Well! It’s important to define communication protocol early on. Instant Messages and impromptu phone calls are usually not productive because they interrupt the flow of work and catch people unprepared. It is best to define when/how often status and feedback meetings would take place. I find weekly check-ins is a good thing along with the usual stream of emails as needed. Meaningful subject lines and well-formed emails help matters. It is best to not have stream-of-consciousness communication as it can make it difficult for the recipient to follow along and result in misunderstanding and wasted time seeking clarification.
6. Help define expectations. In the end, everyone wants the same thing. A successful project. Success means everyone walks away happy and looks forward to another opportunity to work together. Good pre-planning also means that success metrics are defined and so the end-result can measured against those objectives. This also removes subjective desires or at the very least identifies them. In my experience most people in this world are not bad, lazy or mean. Most misunderstandings happen when expectations are not aligned. Set expectations, develop trust and a plan and then build something good together.
7. Don’t hire in-house full-time designers. The agency model works so much better than having in-house designers. Designers who benefit from being exposed to a diversity of projects, bring fresh energy and perspective to the client work they take on. In-house designers who deal with only one product, one problem at one time, end up stuck in the politics and become colored by the subjectivity that surrounds them. Obvious exceptions are designers who work in large, kick-ass companies where the entire ethos is built around keeping design integral to the company’s mojo. These companies have built successful brands by design and work hard to keep their designers (and thus their design) fresh and innovative e.g. Apple, Google even Harley Davidson!
8. Do some small talk. While familiarity breeds contempt, a lack of humanity and connection leads to communication that is not natural and that can negatively impact project quality. It takes only a few minutes, but connecting with each other at a human level creates a more fulfilling and positive work environment. Some of my best clients are those that I can see myself socializing with. That doesn’t mean that I would socialize with the, but I get them. And that matters.
9. Care about the project. Like a tiny seedling, a project needs to be taken care of, and tended to, by the stakeholders. Neglect, apathy and negativity can severely hinder the project plan and result in ugliness all around. Only hire people you think can care about the project you want them to work on. Don’t hire people who show even the slightest indication of being flippant or bored by your project needs or its objectives. They won’t be able to sustain the energy required in later stages.
10. Respect! If you read the previous points, you know this article is not really about design at all. It is not really even about the final product. It’s about how people come together to achieve common objective. And the process for creation. How people connect, and how the process flows, depends largely on communication and mutual respect. If you have to share a common objective to solve a given problem together in the best way possible than you have to respect each other. Respect is the oil that makes this machine run smoothly. The design process can be fulfilling and rewarding in not only its outcome but in the how the end-result is made. And if there is mutual respect that process can be joyful. That is why our guiding principles are all about respect.

We wish you, our clients and everyone around the world, a joyful festive season. We expect a whole bunch of new-ness next year. See you in 2008!

competitive advantage

1. We are curious. The best designers are those that bring knowledge to a project but gather perspective from the end-user. Designers are trained to know that they don’t know all the answers and the best solutions to problems lie in examining context and defining the target. To design for a better future, a designer must uncover how the people lead their lives today. Ask questions, uncover truths and dig to find out who they should be designing for.
2. We create brands. Don’t hire a designer who uses the words logos and brands interchangeably. Instead look for designers who think logos are only as important as lipstick on a beautiful woman. Creating a brand means adding true market value that transcends features or benefits.  I paraphrase and borrow liberally from the Brand Gap but the idea is that imagine Coke without it’s brand. It’s worth half it’s current market value:
3. We create distinction in crowded marketplaces. Clever design and niche products have made Apple successful again. Good design has always been the cornerstone of what Apple has been known for. Everyone knows that the soon to be available iPhone has nothing amazingly new about it. But we also know that Apple will make access to the features and the shear visuals so appealing that the iPhone will make other phones look like Stone Age tablets. Apple understands and leverages the fact that design is the ultimate competitive edge.
4. Designers are excellent translators. Got business goals? Got technological constraints? Designers can uncover user goals and then find the sweet spot where business goals and user goals converge. Even better, they can ensure that technology can be leveraged to meet those goals. Designers help business dream big and beyond what exists today and also ground those dreams by presenting a set of very real, tangible user goals. Sure you want to build a flying pig but no one wants one! Good design means building products and services that are useful. Less wasted time, less bad products.
5. Design = Innovation = Design. When Business Week wanted to launch a section on design their research told them that their readers assumed that the section would be all about architecture and interior design. So they renamed that section to be called Innovation. A sign of the times we live in. Design walks around wearing a veil called Innovation. Whatever you call it, you are dead in the waters without it. Design not keeps businesses alive, it helps them float to the top and be seen as victorious over their competition.
6. Design saves lives. My Treo’s tiny buttons have caused me to have many a close-call car accidents (I know, I know, no multi-tasking while driving). That said good design has probably saved my life many a time. From my steering wheel car stereo controls to the 3 point safety belt that keeps me from kissing my windshield. ABS brakes that don’t require me to do anything different than just use a brake like I always would. Designers dare to think different and when they do; they reward us with products that work. While your badly designed website may not kill people, it may contribute to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) or just good ol’ web rage.
7. Designs are user advocates. If you ever have the pleasure to be in a feature discussion meeting, they start to sound like a religious debate . I would never…I always…My mother has said…My girlfriend swears she would never…People use whatever anecdotes they possibly can to prove their point of view and ‘win’ the debate. A ‘good’ designer would bring good research to the table. Research based on fact, research based on user goals to validate direction. Use your designer as your stand-in for the user you should be designing for, and trust that they are the voice of the people. That’s who they want to please. That’s who makes you money and keeps you in business.
8. Designers make things pretty. Human nature: “If it looks good, it must be good”. Test this: try using a black and white monitor again.
   We are highly visual creatures who make snap judgments on the basis of how things appear in that moment. This is how we survive, hunt and gather and marry people who will make use beautiful babies to carry forth our civilization. Designers understand this and use this knowledge to make us products that fit in with our idea of beauty. Beauty is not skin deep, it is the knife’s edge.
9. A design process is a good process. You don’t develop a brand, you design a brand. You don’t develop a software application, you design a software application. Having a user experience focused design approach means that the entire production cycle should have design validation at key points throughout the entire process. This keeps the focus where it should be. On the paying customer.
10. Designers love constraints. Tell a designer that they have complete freedom to do what they want, there is no target market and there are no financial or technical constraints. They go crazy. They literally go nuts. They become artists creating for themselves. Designers are defined by constraints and embrace them with open arms. After all, to design for a fixed target, to design for a set of rules and goals is what defines design. It’s what we do.

So I propose to you, get designers to rule the world and we will be happier, waste less by building products and services that we actually want to buy and use well. Fire your local self-serving politician, hire a designer and we will live in closer harmony with the planet which we happen to inhabit.

P. S. I apologise to my high-school English teacher. I realise that the title of my article is grammatically incorrect, but what can I say. It’s ambiguity was seductive!

Whether you are building a product or even a campaign to sell it, read this article, consider its impact on how you have traditionally thought about things, and then ensure that your company is working responsibly (and hiring responsible designers). Pre-thought, planning and good judgement are your most powerful allies and secret weapons for survival in this increasingly complex, fast moving economy.

Lets’ assume you goal is to make a ‘good’ product. What will define this goodness? Is it:

• The feature list?
• Launching in time for (insert your choice of event here). Or
• Making your investors happy?

I can assure you, that if you answered yes to any or all of the above, you are not alone. Most businesses tend to start to stare at their belly buttons at one time or another. It’s natural and it’s a reaction to concentrating on the known instead of dealing with the unknown. While it is good to look inward at times, there is a danger off being blindsided by the real changes that are occuring in the marketplace everyday. Navel gazing is comfortable and offers an addictive sense of control. You can bully your developer into producing the feature list you desire, and working crazy hours will produce a broken alpha product ready for your targeted launch date. You can present a bouncy PowerPoint presentation to your investors and their eyes will glisten with the promise of what you put forth as a future release.

But the global market is littered with the ghosts of companies, big and small, that died from the effects of navel gazing. To stare at your collective navel as a company leads any one or all to the following phenomenon. (Consider the following to be the ‘what not to do’ part of the article’s title.)

1. Amnesia (Simple questions such as: What are we doing? Who are we? Why are we in business, remain unanswered)
2. Blindness (Our competition is way too far behind us for us to care)
3. Paranoia (Make our NDA longer, with more legal clauses than the next prenup Anna Nicole Smith would have to sign…they are out to steal our idea)
4. Temporal Megalomania (We control time. We lead the industry and have the best product. The market only changes when we are ready for that change)
5. Self-Inflating egos (We will always be better than them. We know best)
6. Manic Mood Swings (We have the world’s best product, we have the world’s worst red-tape, we have competent management, we have incompetent workers)
7. Self Mutilation (Fire, lay off and basically chop off limbs in an effort to fix the unknown problem)
8. Suicidal Tendencies (Work on the basis of a fixed burn rate. Spend the money today, we may not have a tomorrow to look forward to)
9. Prostitution (We are building a cool product because we want a company like Yahoo! Or Google to buy us. We don’t need to ship to market, we just need to build the bloody thing, so we don’t need to prove worth)
10. Inertia (The inability to react to anything due to all of the above)

So who’s thinking about your end-user? No one. The user is, for all intents and purposes, dead. They have been sacrificed for a quick turnaround and a bloated piece of technology. In next month article we will delve into the elements to focus on instead of that navel.

Companies that have thought about these elements have always prospered. Whether it is huge success such as that enjoyed by companies like Google or Apple, or the small resounding success of your neighborhood ‘no-brand’ coffee shop. They all share something in common.

Till next time…!