Defying the itch to stitch
Stephanie Troeth
@ BAM Strategy
July 14 2009

Quite often, when we talk about
building a site ...

We speak in terms of features.

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Building a site = stitching
features together?

It’s natural to think in terms of
what you should be able to do.

We study our competitor’s
sites ... and think:
we gotta do one up on them.

Features determine:
• How complex a project/product is
• What technologies we use
• How much it would cost to build
• Who would work on it
• How long it would take to build

The real question is: how do we
determine this all fits?

What makes sense for our users,
and what doesn’t?

Many ways to slice the pie:
• who’s our target audience?
• what goals would they have?
• what do we want them to do?
• what determines when we’ve met
their needs?

The meta-hard questions:
• when do we need to revisit our
concept?
• what do we need to evaluate?
• how do we know when to stop?

Features don’t tell us how to
answer these questions.

Some design polarities
?
your users’
goals goals
?
design for design to
efficiency delight

Some design polarities
?
browse search
?
active passive
(comment, vote) (read)

Quality challenges:
• carrying a vision throughout the life
of the project
• everyone on the team has to “get it”

Treat your design like an
ongoing experiment.

Create clear, testable
hypotheses for design goals ...

... and ensure your team
shares them.

Test, measure &
evaluate ...

... but be wary of built-
in biases.

Design for real people.

Design an experience,
defy the itch to stitch.

Thank you!
http://stephanietroeth.com/
hello@stephanietroeth.com
http://bookoven.com/