Made by Many: On Collaborative Design

Memi Beltrame Made by Many On Collaborative Design phpday, may 15th 2009 Verona Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

Who I am: Memi Beltrame • Developping websites since 1997 • Using php since 2000 • 2003-2007 Study of cinematography • 2007 to present: specialising in frontend and interaction design • Since 2008 for Liip Agile Web Development • Movie enthusiast • 1st feature ﬁlm in preparation... some day... Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

Why am I here? To raise awareness and to show the dynamics of collaborative design Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

Argh! Design! Go away, I am a Developer! Design is not only pushing pixels Designing means arranging stuff: Pixels, Databases, Code, Processes Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

Collaborative Design takes place whenever an artefact is planned and/or implemented by two or more participants. Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

Typical Collaborative Design Areas Architecture Software Movies! Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

The Internet is (probably) the biggest single instance of Collaborative Design Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

Collaborative Design is a reality. It is the inevitable process that emerges when you build something as a team. Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

Unlike UCD or TDD it is nothing you choose, it just happens, nolens volens. UCD: User centered design TDD: Test driven development Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

It just happens, ok. Understand it. Control it. Embrace it. Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

Even the simplest Customer < > Contractor Relationship involves Collaborative Design Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

It involves is a network of participants Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

The goal is a common product with a high overall utility Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

Every participant can propose solutions for design issues Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

In theory a Design should move towards an optimum of utility Utility Time Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

In theory. Not in reality. Utility Time Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

Why does collaboration not automatically mean improvement? Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

Participants are inter-dependent. Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

Participants are inter-dependent. Inter-dependency means „I need something“ Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

Every participant has a self-interest Customer: Affordable yet magic Developer: solid, stable and performing Designer: beautiful and usable Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

Fulﬁlling self-interest means Reaching a local optimum of utility Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

Are participants willing to compromise their self interest for the sake of a global optimum? Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

A B C D global Utility Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

The system can become very complex php-Developer Grafics Webserver admin Management Proxy guy Usability guy Mobile Services admin DB Specialist DB Admin Project Lead Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

It's hard to keep track of the interactions and design decisions Grafics Webserver admin Management php-Developer Proxy guy Usability guy Mobile Services admin DB Specialist DB Admin Project Lead Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

Subsytems can emerge Grafics Webserver admin Management php-Developer Proxy guy Usability guy Mobile Services admin DB Specialist DB Admin Project Lead Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

Subsytems also have a local optimum utility plus they are loyal! Grafics Webserver admin Management php-Developer Proxy guy Usability guy Mobile Services admin DB Specialist DB Admin Project Lead Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

Every new participant brings a shift in the oveall utility. Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

Every old participant must be aware of this and accept it. Otherwise the team is possibly ripped apart. Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

Successful Collaborative Design is based on the commitment of each participants to achieve an optimum of overall utility. Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

How is that achieved? Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

● Raising awareness ● Remove barriers between you and the customer to form a team ● High iteration in the workﬂow ● Elaboration of interdisciplinary patterns ● Talk, talk, talk, talk! Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

An example of interdisciplinary patterns: The Undo Dilemma Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

A list of users to be administered Edit Delete Edit Delete Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

The Undo dilemma Edit Delete Edit Delete Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

What happens if you hit Delete? Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

What happens if you hit Delete? Usually: a pop up! Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

Pop ups are Bad! Avoid them! Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

Use Undo! Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

Because: UNDO • is the rescuer of users in distress. • encourages exploration. • eliminates sensless conﬁrmation-dialogs ! Don‘t ask, do and UNDO ! Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

Pop Ups are easy to implement, Undo is not. It requires a well planned process Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

Frontend and backend people must decide on a pattern of implementation. This is a collaborative design decision. Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

Possible patterns of implementation of undo in the database: 1) Through a Flag 2) Through a history table Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

Implementation of Undo 1) Through a FLAG TABLE users VIEW view_users ------------------------------------- ------------------------ | ID | name | surname | is_deleted | | ID | name | surname | ------------------------------------- ------------------------ | 1 | Pio | Polli | 0 | | 1 | Pio | Polli | ------------------------------------- ------------------------ | 2 | Enzo | Enzi | 1 | | 3 | Toni | Marroni | ------------------------------------- ------------------------ | 3 | Toni | Marroni | 0 | ------------------------------------- SELECT * From `users` WHERE is_deleted = 0 • simple • Ideal to undo deletions • Downside: data may be materialized twice Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

Implementations of undo 2) Through a history table TABLE users TABLE users_history ------------------------ ---------------------------------- | ID | name | surname | | ID | ID_users | name | surname | ------------------------ ---------------------------------- | 1 | Pio | Polli | | 1 | 1 | Pio | Polli | ------------------------ ---------------------------------- | 2 | Enio | Enzi | | 2 | 2 | Enzo | Enzi | ------------------------ ---------------------------------- | 3 | Toni | Marroni | | 3 | 3 | Toni | Marroni | ------------------------ ---------------------------------- | 4 | 2 | Enio | Enzi | ---------------------------------- Table users: every change is Table users_history: every change an UPDATE also executes an INSERT Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

Implementations of undo 2) Through a history table Pros • Allows endless undo • Works as a history • Is not limited to a single data entry • allows „edit in place“ on a high level Cons • Needs a more complex system • Executes more SQL queries and creates more trafﬁc and data Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

Thank you! Slides: http://slides.liip.ch Memi Beltrame: Made by Many – On Collaborative Design 6th phpDay – May 15th/16th 2009 Verona - Italy

Made by Many: On Collaborative Design

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