This link has been bookmarked by 10 people . It was first bookmarked on 29 Mar 2008, by gsiemens.
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27 Nov 09
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25 Nov 09
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24 Aug 08
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20 Jun 08
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Clarify. Simplify. Implement.
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Design reviews: Brutal refinement and pixel-perfect goodness
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Zero training
Every user is time poor. They have no interest or time for attending training sessions. Training is the first and biggest hurdle to adoption of your new system and process. While complexity exists and training is required, users can always reject or work around the process with a politically acceptable excuse - "It's too hard".
Our aim, through simplification, is to make people's life easier, reduce the burden on their time and remove all the excuses. The reward is adoption, engagement and relief that that finally it's been done the way everyone always thought (individually) it should be.
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Staying simple
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- The implementation phase is much easier. (e.g. multi-step, parallel workflow problems become one level approval).
- The solution becomes very agile and iterative, since it's only through the project process that new clarifications and simplifications become apparent.
Clear, simple solutions challenge traditional project economics
With a robust process of clarification and simplication, two things happen:
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- Focused on user experience. All projects and features must provide a significant improvement to the user experience or process. If the cost of implementation outweighs that improvement, then keep looking for a simpler approach that is not so expensive to produce.
- Just in time development and design. Accept that clarity and simplicity are a journey, no one has the vision to see that far in advance. Be disciplined enough to realise that sometimes small feature additions need large architectural change just to keep the overall application as simple and consistent as possible.
- Optimised for lifetime value. The cost of an application must include the cost to end users of training, inconvenience and usage. For example, the cost of implementing single sign on must be compared to the cost of X users performing Y logins over Z years.
Project economics and style change to become:
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As Mark Twain once wrote "I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead".
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08 Mar 08
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27 Feb 08
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