← Blog from Guindo Design, Strategic Digital Product Design
Check-in
About a year ago, I was waiting for someone in Plaza Cataluña in Barcelona on a weekday afternoon.
While I was killing time browsing through a book, a tourist with a “backpacker” look and eyes sunken in dark circles under my eyes, he shouted at me in English with a thick accent. Yankee:
- “Excuse me. Where is the Roamblasss(asking me about the Ramblas).
- “It's right there”. I replied more or less (he just had to turn around to find the street).
The guy was apparently just coming out of the train station, and was totally disoriented.
- “Oh cool. Ah! one more thing: (while kindly offering me a cigarette) How far is it to Andorra?”
- “Excuse me?”
- “Yes, Andorra, mountains, Piranios...”.” (Pyrenees). “I want to take the train tomorrow morning to see Andorra.”
- “Ah! you want to go hiking”And who the hell is asking about Andorra in the centre of Barcelona?)
- “No, no... I want to visit Andorra. Today Barcelona, tomorrow Andorra, the day after Paris, then London... I'll be back in 4 days in Colorado.”
That's when it completely dismantled me.
- “But then... You're not going to get to know the city at all? You're going to spend your holidays on the road?”
- “I don't mind, I have a 7-day holiday in Europe and I want to be in as many places as possible”.”
After I said goodbye to him, I watched him as he disappeared into the crowd of tourists at the “Roamblass”. Another tourist Foursquare.
Personally, it's a kind of experience that I don't understand. When I visit a place on holiday, I like to establish a “base camp” and plan visits around the area, trying to discover all its nooks and crannies. The experience Foursquare, I find it totally dominated by anxiety, to be everywhere but to be nowhere, to take a nice world map with me with me, to be everywhere but to be nowhere, to take a nice world map with me, to be everywhere but to be nowhere, to take a nice world map with me with me. check-ins to the grave.
Similarly, a widespread practice in our community is to make design proposals based on screen volume, which seems to me to be a rather superficial approach to projects.
How far does the screen go? I have no fucking idea, it depends on the screen... If we really do user experience, If it is a complex project where existing interaction design patterns cannot be applied “out of the box”, and where it is necessary to involve someone to help define the user experience (not just paint the wireframes or designs that the client has thought of in detail) I am more in favour of long-term collaborations, of a minimum of 2 to 3 months.
That much? Considering the iterations for each screen, variations according to the volume of information, status changes, specifications, functional documents, testing, post-implementation changes... I would say, so little.
It is for this reason that the model boutique based on the final deliverable I think it is meaningless if we do what we do.
With an occasional input from a UX or design studio or company, you will have a nice stylisation of your project that you can possibly only use as inspiration. My recommendation, if you're thinking of hiring a UX expert, is that you really put them in the kitchen of your project for a good period of time, not just to do check-in.
Very good about the Foursquare tourist.
I would add that post-development review is necessary. It is not enough to deliver the work, you have to make sure that the experience with the product/system is as defined.
I mean: no matter how well the interaction is defined beforehand, the work is worthless if it is poorly implemented. Or is it that I always come across developers who are not very committed?
Yes, we also have to do QA...
On the subject of developers, there is a bit of everything. I have come across many very committed engineers, who even propose alternatives and improvements to my proposals. It's all a matter of dialogue.
Thank you Ruy!