Boxes and Arrows: Comments by Praveen Kumar Verma

Praveen Kumar Verma — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 14:12:00 GMT

Nice article Masood. I think the problem lies in educating the organizations about the value of User Centered Design. Organizations must consider design as an intrinsic and integral part of all the processes rather than an extrinsic or secondary option. Many organizations still look down upon their design units as a burden rather than a revenue generating center.
Organizations are full of left brained people who find it easier to embrace technology than design. Vendors convince organizations for buying technology by showing figures; on the other hand design is about value and user delight rather than figures. If we could quantify the value of design successfully for CIOs and CEOs, they would find it easier to embrace design rather than technology and the world would be a much better place to live in.

Praveen Kumar Verma — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 16:27:52 GMT

Hi Alex, No it does not talk about how to design and test for user experience. It is more about getting aware of the process. What is it and what could it bring to the organization? More for managers and executives rather than desingers.

Praveen Kumar Verma — Tue, 29 May 2007 05:27:18 GMT

I am very impressed and loved your thought process to use comics to communicate design. Really innovative and engaging. And thanks Rebekah for sharing the visio stensil.

Praveen Kumar Verma — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 02:15:44 GMT

Nice read Joe. The best thing about this article is that it is not about a tool or process but about perceptions, values, and attitudes. Also it is about redefining the thought process to cope up with the ever changing world and preparing oneself for unknown and unidentified challenges. It teaches one to look beyond “I” and to develop compassion and empathy for everyone. Loved the way you used history and personal experiences to corroborate your thoughts.

Now talking about ignorance. If ignorance was bliss we would have never opened knowledge centers like universities and libraries churning and showcasing loads and loads of information. We thirst for knowledge and consume it all the time. May be ignorance is bliss sometimes (once in one million) but it is knowledge that prevails and keep us going.

I would rather rewrite it to: Ignorance [informed] is bliss [rarely]
I know that there is nothing called “Informed Ignorance” but just a wishful thinking.

Waiting for more to come in the series.

Praveen Kumar Verma — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 10:21:56 GMT

Nice article Joe! Lately I got a change to work on Sharepoint 2007, the client was migrating from Sharepoint 2003 to 2007. As usual, Information Architect was called upon when they had already messed up the system. Most of the times, the client takes help from internal IT staff to set up the portal and realize their mistake when it is already too late. Internal IT teams lack the capability to capture primary user tasks and to create content categories.
Your series was really insightful in terms of designing and standardizing portal. Your articles really helped me in providing me consolidated information about portal design. Keep up the good work Joe.

Praveen Kumar Verma — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:23:18 GMT

Nice article, Andrew! I am also a firm believer of being with the user and empathize with him to understand his motivations and aspirations. But as we all are aware, we are not living in an ideal world.
For example, I was told in my last project – before even it started – that I could empathize only with two user groups because I was supposed to create two personas only with the allotted budget. In such situations, when constraints restrict the creativity, we are left with no choice, but to compromise and do our best on the basis of our experience, expertise, and exposure.
And this is what distinguishes artists from designers. Artists defy the rules and work on their whims and fancies. Designers, on the other hand, are trained to work in constraints for the masses. Therefore, sometimes I dream of to be an artist. :)

Praveen Kumar Verma — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 08:26:37 GMT

Sure Joe. Every project comes with its unique set of requirements and nuances. Mostly, designs are context specific because there are so many variables that control it. These variables depend on the project in hand; however, the bottom line is to understand the design thinking and to leverage upon it while building a site or portal.

The important thing about your article is portal vocabulary. I was doing all the design without any language. However, after reading the article I was able to articulate my thoughts in a better way.

I used almost all the concepts you provided in one way or the other. As an IA I was already familiar with all these concepts through experience or exposure. The important thing is that you put them together as a binder which one could refer back to.

In the end, I would say that I like the way you approached portal design. You made it look unified and created sense out of it. Basically, you stitched together the fragments of portal design that were spread all over in my mind and perhaps everybody’s. Thanks for creating this “101 of Portal Design”.

Praveen Kumar Verma — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:47:55 GMT

It is too early to comment on the article as I am still waiting for the second part. However, I feel that preventing the failure of a product or organization is not our job.

As an IA our job responsibility is to bring in creative inputs for the product from user’s perspective. We must ensure timely addition of our inputs to the product development and fight for our cause when it comes to defend UXD process. But the success of a product or organization depends on many factors that are beyond the purview of IA. To try to address these factors is not a good idea as an IA as we are not trained for that. Let CEOs, Salesmen, and MBAs do their job and not encroach their territories.

In our language it’s like allowing a developer to do Information Architecture though he is not trained to do it. He is likely going to falter even if he tried to.

Our contribution for the success of the organization is to deliver our best and to fight for the users till the last drop of blood instead of starting doing something else.

However, it is a nice topic to debate about which is really evident from the comments that this article has attracted.

Praveen Kumar Verma — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 13:42:43 GMT

Daniel, it is a nice read. Use of surrogate sources to gather information is a good idea, however, it takes the discussion back to the relevance of the data collected. What we are gathering here is second hand information and not the first hand had we talked to the users. But sometimes we designers are left with no choice but to use such methods.

Despite of the low cost and less time needed to do extreme user research, we shall always discourage our clients to go for it. Extreme user research should be practiced with caution and care. Nothing could replace the joy of talking to the users and designing for them.

Praveen Kumar Verma — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 13:45:22 GMT

@Jens: I think I should have been more explicit while writing. Anyway, when I said that my intent was to talk to the users about their tasks, needs, aspirations, desires, and motivations. I did not mean to ask them about their interaction with the site. We must keep in mind the famous quote, “Users are not Designers and Designers are not Users.”