IxDA09 - Postcard Patterns

Ian Swinson Lead User Interface Designer [email_address] Postcard Patterns An Agile UI Pattern Creation Process

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Agenda
Salesforce.com – A Brief History
Patternforce 1.0 – A Cautionary Tale
Patternforce 2.0 – A New Beginning
May the force be with us!
Patternforce 3.0 – The Future
Q & A

Our Applications & Platform

51,800+ Customers

1,200,000+ Subscribers

200 Million Transactions Each Day

UE in 2004

UE in 2004 Me

UE in 2009 Almost here…

R&D in 2009

“ Houston, we have a problem…” Quality Assurance Documentation User Experience Product Management Development Customers & Partners Friends, Family & Ex’s

We need to retain consistency
We already have multiple versions
Can we choose one and move on?
Comments added to the “bad” code
New employees need to get up to speed quickly
We need insight into other teams’ solutions
A consistent, universally available location
We don’t have designers for every feature
Developers, Designers and PM’s are always asking questions
We need to minimize distractions for the Designers
Consistency Efficiency We Need a Pattern Library?

So, how do you build a Pattern Library? Apple Tidwell Yahoo! Welie Oracle

Structure of a Single Pattern
This can get complicated

Scale of a Single Pattern How to make a Printable View…

Scale of a Single Pattern How to make a Printable View… This bit

Our valiant attempt…

We worked

We slept

We worked some more

We carefully rehydrated

We worked some more

We ate, we traveled, we had babies

And after a little more work we asked…

How did we do?

Oh, that’s not good
2 * patterns in
6 months
< 5 percent
*Note: They weren’t even done

Clearly, this is not going to work

What did we do wrong?
External Research Only – We looked at examples but didn’t validate them internally
Detail & Scale – We went way too deep, way too early
Scope Creep – “Oooh, and wouldn’t it be cool?!”
Incomplete Taxonomy – We didn’t have a complete idea of what we needed to document
No Prioritization – Printable View? The number one pattern in our app? Um, no.
Deaf Ears – We didn’t listen to our designers

Back to work…but with agility

The Agile Manifesto Individuals and interactions Working software Customer collaboration Responding to change over over over over processes and tools comprehensive documentation contract negotiation following a plan * Excerpted from “Subject to Change” by Adaptive Path

Agile Pattern Creation Individuals and interactions Working software Customer collaboration Responding to change We need to talk to each other, the developers, PM’s, etc. We need to work together (Pattern Blitzes)

Agile Pattern Creation Start small Go wide, get coverage across all patterns Add detail when necessary

Agile Pattern Creation Check progress regularly Share with our intended audience and make changes Listen to suggestions

Agile Pattern Creation Create something nimble – easy to create and easy to update Software changes all the time Designs change all the time

The High-Level Taxonomy Flows Pages Page Modules Pop-ups & Overlays Messages & Dialogs Widgets & Controls

Patternforce Taxonomy
We ended up with a large, but relatively flat, list.

Enter “Postcard Patterns” Dear Mom & Dad, Having a great time. Miss you both. Met a girl, getting married. Love, John The Smiths 1 Main Street Springfield, ID 64006

What Makes a Good Postcard Pattern?
Use the “Goldilocks” Principle
If the pattern doesn’t fit on a single page, consider breaking it apart or reducing the amount of detail
You can always add detail later
If the pattern doesn’t fill a single page, consider grouping it with other similar elements – e.g. common web form elements
You can always break it apart later
Rule #1: Must fit on a single 8.5” x 11” page

Pattern - Anatomy of A Pattern Title Summary Category Author & Modification Date Variations (optional) Candidacy: Redesign? Componentize? Graphics Screenshots Illustrations

Enter “Blitzes” Intense, face-to-face collaboration

The Web Site

How did we do this time?

Hey, that’s more like it!
Before
After
2 43 6 3 < 5 95 # Mo %

What did we do right?
Research First – Talk to your audience, show them examples
Complete Taxonomy – Sure, it’ll grow but we knew the scale
Time-Box – Blitzes & weekly deadlines
Validation – Weekly meetings to review progress and sign-of
Centrally Located – Everyone loved a single starting point
Ownership – You’re the author. Have a question, contact the author

Patternforce 3.0 – Ongoing Challenges
Flexibility for customers
Taxonomy – multi-faceted, multi-layered & tagged
Integrate visual design & code specs & examples
Convert from PDF to Google Docs
Show screenshots of Patternforce
Internal marketing – emails, updates, detail
Component model

Links
Pattern Libraries
Apple
Yahoo!
Oracle
Jenifer Tidwell
Martijn Welie
Tools
FreeMind
Google Spreadsheets
Omnigraffle (OSX)
O’Reilly: Designing Interfaces Browser Look and Feel Guidelines Apple Human Interface Guidelines Welie.com Yahoo! Design Pattern Library freemind/sourceforge.net Google Docs The Omni Group - OmniGraffle

Links
Resources
The GUI Bloopers series Johnson, Jeff
10 Commandments of Design Rams, Dieter
Eight Golden Rules of Interface Design Shneiderman, Ben
The 10 Commandments of Information Design Buchholz, Garth A.
Eight Golden Rules (link) 10 Commandments of Design (link) http://www.gui-bloopers.com/ 10 Commandments of Info Design (link)

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IxDA09 - Postcard Patterns

by Ian Swinson

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