Design Demand: Understanding 'need' through the design process

Seminar Invitation:

When? Oct 23, 2012 from 06:30 PM to 07:30 PM

Where? Room Q107, The Collaborative Space, 1st floor, the Quinn Building, UCD Belfield. 
Google Map reference for directions: http://goo.gl/maps/iyhoh.

Contact Name: Allen Higgins

Henry Poskitt from frontend.com poses the question "what is design?"

There are two contrasting views on the design of objects for use; one that a successful design disappears from view; the other, that design is evident in its outward character be it aesthetic, arresting, bold, pleasing etc. Although the aspiration to produce good design is pretty well embedded in the language of digital development what does it mean, really? And how do users really fare? Particularly users outside of the one-standard-deviation-from-the-bell-curve of the normal distribution?

Siobhán Long and Karl O'Keeffe from Enable Ireland Disability Services will also be on hand to field questions dealing with how users with different needs and abilities evaluate the systems that designers produce.

Readings: Architecture and Agility

Foote, B. & Yoder, J. (2000) Big Ball of Mud. IN HARRISON, N., FOOTE, B. & ROHNERT, H. (Eds.) Pattern languages of program design 4. Addison Wesley.

Beck, K. (1999) Embracing Change with Extreme Programming. Computer, 8.

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Read the articles and post a thoughtful observation or question on your own blog!

Innovation is a hobby of mine...

"Innovation and disruption, overused and in danger of losing their meaning" Steve Vinoski on what every developer absolutely needs to know about engineering, business and organisations. How is it that technically inferior products can win? Having products all along the life cycle is what you need to do but what very few actually pull off.

Listen to the intro then forward to 17'. From 34' on the role of management.

Miscellaneous
Apollo Computer Inc
Sun Microsystems
Disruptive innovation (sustaining, disruption, over-serving)
Clayton Christensen
Steve Vinoski's blog
Orbix
Orbacus
NoSQL
Oracle NoSQL Database
TALC (also see Geoffory Moore's Crossing the Chasm) 

Readings: Social Research and Coding Techniques

Read chapters 8, 9 & 10 of Strauss, A. & Corbin, J. (1998) Basics of qualitative research: techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory, Thousand Oaks, California, USA, Sage Publications, Inc.

Read chapter 1 of Ragin, C. C. (1994) Constructing Social Research: The Unity and Diversity of Method, Pine Forge Press.

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In the same way that the constructs of the social sciences are constructs of the second degree, that is "constructs of the constructs made by the actors on the social scene, whose behavior the social scientist has to observe and to explain in accordance with the procedural rules of his science" (Schutz, 1954) so too the constructs of systems development are constructs of the social actors involved in development, either directly or indirectly (e.g. developers, management, customers, critiques).

Both the research methods for gathering field data, data on customers or users, and the methods or interpreting data, that is data analysis and theory induction, are crucial tools for the business analyst, for the developing requirements, for understanding and interpreting how systems are used and how they can be further developed.

Qualitative research methods are therefore crucial tools for gathering requirements, for trying out designs and their implications 'in use', to reveal unintended uses or consequences arising from new systems (like the Cobra effect), or to suggest gaps that might be addressed.

Reference:
Schutz, A. (1954) Concept and Theory Formation in the Social Sciences. The Journal of Philosopjhy, LI, 257-67.

Read the chapters and provide a thoughtful observation or question (post to the comments section below).