He presented all the insights in a delicate framework, well structured, thoroughly defined and articulated. I feel all the fragmented pieces of activities, trials and learnings I experienced in the previous projects are woven together.
I use the books’ outline for a quick reflection, to reconfirm why the process should and could be planned. For example, the Gather-Process-Explore-Focus diagram in the “Practical Design Discovery”.
I also dive into his assertions and statements. They speak out the truth I somehow have strong feeling but not able to articulate. For example：
The success of the task directly relates to the quality of the inputs, and may be measured on the quality of its outputs.
Later, I realized even the book “Designing Together” which I read some time ago is also from Dan Brown. It is quite impressive to be a design professional running his own agency, working on client projects and still be able to allocate the time for so many books.
At the Acknowledgement chapter of “Practical Design Discovery”, he wrote:
Nicole helped me find out who I am, through writing.
This is inspiring. I truly believe out of the process of writing so many books, the writer is on the way finding themselves, the passion, the perseverance, the knowledge and wisdom.
Book of ”Communicating Design“
This book has two parts: Design Diagrams & Design deliverables. This classification itself is interesting and reveals how much discussions and thoughts are behind it.
The two parts cover:
- Design Diagrams: Personas, Concept Models, Site Maps, Flowcharts, and Wireframes. Each of these is a separate, stand-alone diagram that needs a document around it to provide context.
- Design Deliverables: Design Briefs, Competitive Reviews, Usability Plans, and Usability Reports. These are multi-page documents that tell extended stories, incorporating diagrams from the first part of the book.
The book goes into detail of each artifact, including anatomy, tips on creating and presenting. I enjoy the clear definition and supportive visuals given for each artifact, for example:
Site map is avisual representation of the relationships between different pages on a web site. Also known as a structural model, taxonomy, hierarchy, navigation model, or site structure.
When creating, I now learn the lesson: create for your audience, avoid being self-indulgent.
The greatest misuse of a document is to create it for its own sake, and not to ensure its contribution and value to your project, your team, or the end product.
When presenting, Dan recommends a basic flow that can be applied and adapted for all kinds of artifacts:
- Establish context
- Describe visual conventions
- Highlight major design decisions
- Offer rationale and identify constraints
- Point out details
- Communicate implications
- Solicit feedback
- Provide a framework for review
I find this flow helpful to reflect on my own work, especially how to think ahead the potential risks of the design solution and communicate clearly the implications to stakeholders, and how to better plan for feedback or “homework” part (review after the meeting).
Book of ”Practical Design Discovery“
It took me only 2 nights to finish this book. The whole book follows a well-developed framework as shown below:
One chapter is about the “Framing problems”, another is about “setting direction”. The whole DISCOVERY phase (or as he advocates, should be a mindset) can divide into 4 steps:
- Gather: Divergent for problem framing, including research activities and some informal activities
- Process: Convergent for problem framing, to make information meaningful and accessible, into problem statements, project objectives and contextual statements
- Explore: Divergent for direction setting
- Focus: Convergent for direction setting, to define principles, concepts and models.
The clear definitions of “principles”, “concepts and “models” impress me a lot. I feel I climb to the top of the mountain and able to see the entire landscape of Discovery phase outcome so clearly for the first time.
Dan even breaks steps into “compose”, “revise”, “refine”. It resonates so much with my work process and makes me conscious of the purpose of each granular step and reflect to improve further.
The following chapter is about how to plan the discovery phase and how to document the outcome. Super practical, interesting to see how he puts swimlanes of activities and mark out deliverables as key milestones, and how a basic plan being adapted for different situations.
I feel lucky these books came to me right at the moment. After being the Product Partner role in Ginetta and conducting a series of project with heavy concept phase, the books bring clarity and helps my self-reflection.
