Hi Scott, First and formost: Martin, if you are a self admitted wanna-be, the best > thing you can do is to advocate hiring a professional.
Well, I am here already so it's not going to cost them much to use me for this. Certainly much less than brining someone else in from outside, justifying budget, etc. And at this stage it's just a few new screens for an existing webapp. If it comes out any better than what they would have come up with on their own, it's a win. (And I really, really WANT to do this! And I'm not a *complete *amateur—I have done a ton of reading, podcast listening, etc., and I have already given them feedback on existing products, which was appreciated and acted upon.) Second: the goal is to make better GUIs, right? That becomes straightforward > if you are granted the power to write the first spec, make the first > screenshots, and have your boss rallying the development team to make the > first prototypes based on your designs... That's exactly what they want me to do. Actually, they want me to design it, then straight to production, no prototypes. Which is why I want to be sure I actually do it right. And if doing it right includes getting some user input on what I design before it gets built (which I think it should) rather than just going full speed ahead and assuming I know best, then that's what I'll do. Most bad GUIs suffer from the same two dozen or so mistakes - you don't need > to be a design maestro to correct or prevent them. True, but I would think that getting user input (thru some sort of usability testing on wireframes/mockups/paper prototypes/whatever) would (a) catch anything I might have missed (me being fairly new to this thing) and (b) show whether what *I think* would work actually matches user goals and activities. (I am working in the dark to some extent—no previous user research or even day-to-day interaction with users.) Third: If you have trouble getting support from programmers, go to your boss > and ask for more ammo. Fortunately, I don't think that will be too much a problem. In fact, they seem to welcome the fact that I will be working with them on this. Lastly, as far as where to start... Pick small easy clear wins and repeat. > Once you've proven you can deliver and have earned a positive reputation, > only then look to expand. Right on. That's solid advice that I can definitely follow. Thanks very much, Martin ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
