The Unplugged by Ruven Meulenberg

While researching user experience design techniques, I stumbled upon some nifty whiteboard magnets for prototyping called GuiMags as well as a complementing book called The Unplugged.

GuiMags look like the nicest way to prototype something before going to HTML and CSS. Labor intensive forms of prototyping don’t seem to add much value, and paper and traditional whiteboard prototyping only works until you’ve changed your mind about something and have to throw your work in the trash or erase half the board.

Although I decided to postpone a magnet purchase until I am doing design again, I was able to get my hands on the book. Its premise: we limit ourselves by the technologies we use. Instead of thinking outside the box, we’re often thinking and functioning in it. A large part of this thinking inside the box is how we develop software.

Although, everyone interested in the topic should pick up the book, here are a few of my takeaways:

• Every major form of art that involves technology (music, film, video games, graphic design) starts outside technology. Artists do not limit themselves by their technology but by the limits of their own minds. As a software engineer, you often limit yourself by the technology you use day-to-day.
• Spend as much time as you can iterating on concept and design before going to implementation.
• Design the software front-end not the back-end first.
• Just like there are code freezes, freeze the product when it has passed the design phase.
• It is often wise to outsource the implementation.
  • This serves as a peer review of the design before it goes to implementation. Software developers traditionally think about the back-end first.
  • Different cultures have different strengths: “England and Western Europe are great at design, Ukraine and Macedonia have amazing and prompt developers who can think for themselves, the Netherlands always emails back the same day, India is extremely polite, etc.”
  • Work can be done while you are sleeping. “This can cut the development time in half.”
  • Because you already know what you want and won’t be constantly changing the design, contractors will want to work with you even if you pay less.
  • Only be satisfied with five-star developers.
  • Pay more than you agree to pay.
  • Do one-week sprints. Longer sprints end up getting delayed, with excuses.

With the last (sub)point in mind, I think this methodology is well-suited for an agile development process.

There is a lot to gain from reading the book, so make sure to grab a copy for yourself.

Did Evite and Facebook Ruin Commitment?

I’ve noticed something interesting over the past decade: commitment to social events has plummeted. When I was young, someone would plan a party or event, send out paper invitations, and get responses from people stating whether or not they were coming. It worked wonderfully. The host knew everyone got the invitation and knew how many people to plan for. It also built a sense of excitement for the get-together as people found out who else was going and speculated on what the day may hold for them.

When Evite became the normal way of sending invitations, people treated them the same as paper ones even though there was a new socially-acceptable response called “Maybe.” People responded with either a “Yes” or “No.” One or two people would say “Maybe” because of some other prior commitment that may not have ended in time. What used to be a “No” was now a viable “Maybe.” However, during the years of Evite’s reign, the “Maybe” population grew. More and more people were responding “Maybe,” not because of prior commitments, but because of subjective reasons. People confessed that they didn’t know whether or not something else might pop-up that day or if they would feel like participating the day-of.

Now that Facebook Events has begun to overthrow Evite, people have become accustomed to using “Maybe” more than “Yes”–especially if the event hasn’t reached its tipping point–the point at which an event gains momentum because of size of the “Yeses.” Often, people don’t even respond but use “Remove from my events” instead. Even the “Yes” and “No” responses aren’t certain–they tend to reflect the invitee’s excitement level about the event rather than his commitment to attend. On several occasions, a “Yes” response meant nothing because the invitee never checked her calendar.

Did Evite and Facebook ruin commitment?

David Allen on Twitter and Cocktail Parties

I recently heard David Allen’s commentary on Twitter. He’s an experimental user and has some good thoughts on its utility. One thing he said particularly stood out to me as a nice heuristic when determining the bounds of my commitments to others and myself:

Am I going to too many cocktail parties this week? Or should I be going to more cocktail parties this week given what I’m doing?

The answer to those two questions, especially the second one, helps one discern whether or not to even go to cocktail parties…period. If you can’t answer “yes, I should be going to more cocktail parties…but for reasons X and Y, I can’t,” it’s time to reevaluate why you’re even going.

Each time a potential commitment arises, ask ”what am I doing in life right now?” If it has changed since the last time you took on such a commitment, reconsider whether or not you should take it on again. If you shouldn’t, don’t.