Failure, it’s part of the process
Getting iterative in your approach to design
Credit: Flickr user ‘ucumari’

Dear Digg,
Go fuck yourself.
Your pal,
— J.G.

Failure is a good thing? Sort of.
Take chances and release. Listen and iterate
Failure != Mistake

Who am I? What do I do?
Creative Dir. Digg, Co-founder Pownce, Co-founder Silverorange

Your website sucks
Trust me, it could be a lot better
Photo Credit: Flickr user d-a-n-i-e-l

Digg c. 2005

Digg c. 2009

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

Point Reyes Station, California, April 2009
Not a failure... a perfect opportunity

Credit: kimballhoman
Realign, don’t redesign
Cameron Moll is awfully clever... read it on A List Apart

Subtraction is iteration too
Try to remove as much as you add – don’t be afraid to prune
Credit: Rev Dan Catt

Credit: Flickr user ‘law_keven’
Really listen to your users
Both explicit and implicit feedback are crucial
to identifying successes and failures

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

Establish 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

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

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

Launch it!
It works? It works!

Achieved goals?
Make things feel simpler & improve interactions
Improve performance
Add most requested functionality

Still weak for casual visitors
Scales technically, but not socially
Pseudo-pagination is cool, but not great
Hard to keep up-to-date with your conversations
Onerous registration to comment
Done? Nope
Start on next iterations

Stay fit: Adapt to survive and thrive
If iterative design isn’t instinctual, be convincing

Thanks! I’m dburka
digg twitter flickr dopplr clustershot last.fm
daniel@digg.com
slides will be on slideshare.net/dburka