Preston McCauley — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:00:52 GMT

THere are a few commentes I wanted to make that stirred some thoughts up in my head. Quick background: I’ve been doing UI design for almost 10 years now here are many things I have experienced.

1. What frequently happens when increasing a team’s literacy in a corporate environment is it’s extremely hard to do.

A smaller company or start-up this is practical and possible. In a larger enviornment I have found this next to impossible. People become extremely territorial. You have to be extremely patient to change the culture.

2. Trying to stay ahead of the sprint / development cycle from a UI perspective is a lot of hard work. This is especially true when non-technical and non-UI people can’t visualize a lower fidelity design – such as a paper prototype. I’ve resorted to hybrid proto-typing methods with interactive PDF’s and notations and physical demonstrations of these.

3. In several companies I have noticed teams of UI designers and a lead UI person to coordinate the overall design vision.

It becomes really hard to do this if you are the Only UI designer. Every design decision becomes increasingly complex and sometimes justifying your designed experience becomes a daily occurence.

4. Your developers not just the Product owners and UI designers must share the same vision. This is easy to say hard to do.

Thinking and Making: Comments by Preston McCauley