Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 1
A Hard Lesson To Learn
In 2008, as the global economy crashed, I had the unusual good fortune of starting a new
job. I'd just come from an international advertising agency called Digitas, and I'd had design
experience with several other companies, but I was about to discover that I still had some
things to learn.
My new job was with Key Experiences, a small multi-disciplined team within the larger
AOL corporate structure. At AOL, they did their product development using a methodology
that was different from those I'd experienced at any of my previous employers. I'd always
designed using a sequential product development process known as
“Waterfall”
design.
Waterfall got its name from a metaphor that reflected the process. This was a framework
where a concept spilled from the pool of creativity at the top, then flowed down through
in-house testing and analysis, to the river of production below. Only then did it reach con-
sumers. If a product manager or designer saw an innovation that could improve an old func-
tion or create a new one, he or she brought the idea to the team, where it was judged mostly
on the basis of aesthetic value: Did it feel right? Was it new? Was it intriguing? Was it down-
right amazing? Did the innovation bring
us
delight?
In the Waterfall model, the basic product idea came from the top. A client, or senior man-
agement, decided there was a need for a certain product or service. It might be anything from
a social network for music lovers to a mobile app for horseback riders. Our job as designers
was to turn this request into an intriguing, amazing product that would send users' happiness
quotient through the roof. If our initial design passed this test, it then went through phases
of revision, development and internal
usability lab
testing, to ensure that the components
worked as we had planned. Finally, the product hit the consumer market.
It was a great system for designers. We could conceptualize, create and develop whatever
we dreamed up, purely on the basis of whether it addressed the business request from senior
management with impressive style and flair. We were artists and this was our art. In a world
populated only by artists, this method might have worked pretty well. But users come from
a different perspective, and they often have trouble operating products that emerge from this
linear Waterfall design model.
