Re: A failure to communicate

Anthony,

Convincing developers of user-centred processes is always a challenge as
you
so rightly put, but they have to be involved early on to ensure that the
solutions that are put forward are feasible.

Obviously, developers love to get on and code, so you need to get them
to do
a bit as you are scoping the design solution. We actually employ a
process
that we call RSD (Rapid Systems Development) that encourages the use of
rapidly building prototypes, testing with users and rebuilding
prototypes
first in units and then in the whole system. Getting them to assist with
the
build of interactive prototypes is invaluable to getting them involved
in
the development early on, and to understand the usability issues that
yours
and their solutions highlight by seeing users use these prototypes can
really help developers understand that this sort of approach is
worthwhile
to the user and them. After all, they won't want to rework massive
amounts
of code near the end of a project, nor will they want their hard work to
be
useless to end-users.

I'm not saying that our approach is smooth; far from it at the moment,
but
developers are coming around to user-centred design and are even
reminding
the interaction designers of usability issues when they get carried away
with visual design issues.

Has anyone else got any great ideas of integrating development and
design on
IT projects?

Jason

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