Charles Darwin
Flickr user: cpurrin1
Changing successfully
Adapting your interface over time
Daniel Burka – Digg Creative Director – Pownce Co-founder – Silverorange Co-founder

Credit: Martin_Heigan
Your design sucks
Trust me, you can do better

Credit: Mark Trammell
aka chasingfun
Are you in or out?
contract work vs in-house design

Credit: Flickr user
‘notsogoodphotography’
Handling feedback
What do people want and why do they want it?

Desire paths
Don’t try to predict everything
Credit: Phil Gyford

Adapt to Scale
It’s a great problem to have

Subtraction is iteration too
Try to remove as much as you add
Credit: Rev Dan Catt

Credit:
kimballhoman + (flickr)
Realign, don’t redesign
Cameron Moll is clever

“Every time I hear a designer say the word
innovation I reach for my revolver....
so I can shoot them in the face”
Stuart Butterfield, Flickr
March, 2008

Adapt to survive
If iterative design isn’t instinctual, be convincing

A case study
Digg comments

Step 1
Get it out there

Step 2
Add sophistication

by dburka 20 minutes ago
Of course, what McCain is trying to avoid anyone noticing is that the problem isn't regulators failing to do
their job; it's that that man he tapped to write his economic policy - Phil Gramm - removed oversight of the
instruments that are laying waste to the finance sector from the regulators' job descriptions.
Reply to this comment
by marktrammell 16 minutes ago
We all know McCain is incompetent when it comes to the economy, and that Phil Gramm sold out the
finance sector. You would think they would have brought in someone with substance when Phil hit the road.
5 Replies to this comment
by dburka 14 minutes ago
We all know McCain is incompetent when it comes to the economy, and that Phil Gramm sold out the
finance sector. You would think they would have brought in someone with substance when Phil hit the road.
Step 3
5 Replies to this comment
by kurtwilms 12 minutes ago
Start revising
We all know McCain is incompetent when it comes to the economy, and that Phil Gramm sold out
the finance sector. You would think they would have brought in someone with substance when
Phil hit the road.
Reply to this comment
by kevinrose 10 minutes ago

Set goals
Add multiple levels of nesting
Reduce complexity of nesting
Discourage top-posting
Increase participation
Improve quality of discussions
Address scaling issues
Make things feel simpler & improve interactions

by dburka 20 minutes ago
Of course, what McCain is trying to avoid anyone noticing is that the problem isn't regulators failing to do
their job; it's that that man he tapped to write his economic policy - Phil Gramm - removed oversight of the
instruments that are laying waste to the finance sector from the regulators' job descriptions.
Reply to this comment
by marktrammell 16 minutes ago
We all know McCain is incompetent when it comes to the economy, and that Phil Gramm sold out the
finance sector. You would think they would have brought in someone with substance when Phil hit the road.
5 Replies to this comment
by dburka 14 minutes ago
We all know McCain is incompetent when it comes to the economy, and that Phil Gramm sold out the
finance sector. You would think they would have brought in someone with substance when Phil hit the road.
5 Replies to this comment
by kurtwilms 12 minutes ago
We all know McCain is incompetent when it comes to the economy, and that Phil Gramm sold out
the finance sector. You would think they would have brought in someone with substance when
Phil hit the road.
Reply to this comment
by kevinrose 10 minutes ago

Measure success
Add multiple levels of nesting
Reduce complexity of nesting
Discourage top-posting
Increase participation
Improve quality of discussions
Address scaling issues
Make things feel simpler & improve interactions

Credit: Flickr user xjrlokix
One long year...
( I’m sorry )

Then we got it right
Well... sort of

Gather feedback
Explicit and implicit

Set new goals
(Idea is to avoid feature creep and gauge success)
Make things feel simpler & improve interactions
Improve performance
Add most requested functionality

Create some comps
Somewhere to start discussion

User test #1
Focus group novices and experts

Ask for more feedback
Really? Yes.

Create refined comps
In this case html/css/js comps

Implement
Work closely with the development team

User test #2
Perform task analysis

Things we didn’t do
Set a public timeline
Try to get it perfect
Include everything people wanted

Launch it!
Start gathering feedback again...

Summing up...
Feedback, feedback, and more feedback
Follow how people actually use your system
Subtraction is iteration too
Measurable goals are crucial
Avoid concrete timelines and avoid bloat
Leave time to iterate, in fact plan for it
Credit: Flickr user ‘ucumari’

Homework
Stewart Brand - How Buildings Learn

Thanks! Questions?
Slides will be on Slideshare
slideshare.net/dburka/slideshows