at Gizmos, Inc: the mill on Ricci Street

Welcome!

Digital Development Process

other Kiln pages
visual tools | types and examples | prototyping
case study: JJFC for MBA 604, Spring 2002

Boil an egg. Bake until done.

You've seen recipes. Like an academic lecture from an all-powerful professor, they tell you what to do without showing you how or helping you experience why. What does done mean?

The process of team project management. Let's restate that: the process of managing a team working on a digital project. It comes between the theory in the Showroom and Playroom and the hardware and software in the Toolkit. Much of the information in the Kiln won't refer to computers at all.

Four Basic Processes

Even though these processes are laid out in four neat columns, they are iterative. You go over and over them, they loop back around, and more than one can be going on at once. It's not unlike how the Earth rotates on its axis, rotates around the sun, rotates with the solar system within the galaxy, which is part of the Milky Way, which is part of several larger movements we don't have names for. Yet all the while, we feel as though we're standing still.

Each of the activities in the columns are themselves processes with steps within them. If you're familiar with one, you can use it to help you learn another.

James Jefferson Furniture Company case study -- Spring 2002

designing

concept mapping, mental maps: visual tools and types and examples of visual tools
storyboarding / presenting

Intelligent Borrowing
from Chapter 3 of
Task-Centered User Interface Design: A Practical Introduction
by Clayton Lewis and John Rieman

The foundation of good interface design is INTELLIGENT BORROWING. That is, you should be building your design on other people's good work rather than coming up with your own design ideas. Borrowing is important for three distinct reasons. First, given the level of quality of the best user interfaces today, it's unlikely that ideas you come up with will be as good as the best ideas you could borrow. Second, there's a good chance, if you borrow from the right sources, that many of your users will already understand interface features that you borrow, whereas they'd have to invest in learning about features you invent. Finally, borrowing can save you tremendous effort in design and implementation and often in maintenance as well.

When You Need to Invent

At some point in most projects you'll probably feel that you've done all the copying that you can, and that you've got design problems that really call for new solutions. Here are some things to do:

Think again about copying. Have you really beaten the bushes enough for precedents? Make another try at locating a system that does the kind of thing you need. Ask more people for leads and ideas.

Make sure the new feature is really important. Innovation is risky and expensive. It's just not worth it for a small refinement of your design. The new feature has to be central.

prototyping

prototyping

Paper prototyping
by Carolyn Snyder
November 2001

Sure, it's low-tech, but this usability testing method can help you sidestep problems before you write your code.

Wouldn't it be great to find out what users (and marketing) want before you start coding? Paper prototyping lets you do just that. While it may seem counterintuitive to test an interface without using a computer, paper prototyping lets you get maximum feedback for minimum effort. After a few usability tests with a paper prototype, you'll have confidence that you're implementing the right thing.

building

plan
acquire (make, scan, buy, download)
manipulate (edit, combine, compress)
assemble
test
evaluate
improve
store

distributing

protect (copyright, back up)
present
distribute

project management

set a goal
set objectives to meet the goal
set time limits
set milestones or checkpoints
flowchart the project
encourage risk-taking and creativity
assign tasks
direct individuals
direct teams
reinforce commitment (ask team members to add value through their tasks)
document the project extensively and keep everyone informed

Project Management Forum

Center for Project Management

Creative Office software

topics to come

the team / hats / skills
the proposal
site analysis
style guides

creating the initial design | the human factor | user analysis
concept mapping | storyboarding
interface design | prototyping

repurposing old content
creating new content
chunking | digitizing | creating | acquiring | manipulating media assets
assemble | test | evaluate | improve

copyright, domain, and site hosting

project management