Continuous Design

Design was a discipline ruled by deadlines. Those hard and fast deadlines help to spur the mind. The deadline is the difference between the intangible and the tangible. It is the point when ideas, drafts, blueprints and prototypes are printed or manufactured. The designer used the time before the deadline to flex his creative muscles and to create and finesse the artifact to be produced, but once the deadline has past, the designer is done. Of course many designers berate the fact that there is never enough time, but secretly they will be relieved that their creative thoughts have taken on form and they can brush themselves down and say “Job done! (now lets head to the pub…)”.

In this world if we learn something new about the audience or the market for our product we start a new project, undertake the exercise from scratch and produce the next generation or a completely new version of the product. This all takes time but at the end of the new project the job is done. You can move on again.

This model was born in the Industrial era where large machines and production lines and production schedules were needed to produce these tangible artifacts. Why then do we try to apply the same working model to digital products in the digital era? It doesn’t make any sense at all.

One certainty in life, is change. Change is constant. Technology changes at the speed of light. Technology responds to human need. Human needs change with developments in technology and it becomes a self-perpetuating cycle. Add into the mix social, environmental, political influences and the cycle of change is an indomitable force.

As ‘digital engineers’ we need to embrace change as the lifeblood of a digital existence. We need to stop fearing change, accept it and work it into everything we do. Now I might be sounding all a bit William Gibson here, (circa neuromancer) but as designers we need to jump on board. Technology is leading the charge for change and we are being left behind to choke on the dust.

What we need to do is open up the discipline of digital design. In this lightening paced world we can’t apply the traditional models of learn, design and test. We can never learn enough before change occurs; we can never design enough before change occurs… ad infinitum. We need to find a new way of working.

Here’s a suggested starting point:

·      Do ‘just enough’ learning to know who our (current) audience is, rather than months of in-depth research on an ever shifting target.

·      Utilize design patterns and tweak to fit, rather than reinventing the wheel every time.

·      Design no longer belongs to the designers. Collaborate on the designs with business, technology and customers to ensure feasibility, desirability and feasibility from the outset.

·      Focus on the ‘minimal desirable product’ and get that out to market as quickly as possible.

·      Refine and iterate the product through a continuous cycle of ‘test and learn’

·      Accept that design is never ‘done’ and embrace the notion of ‘Continuous Design’

More on this topic to follow…