[文章摘录] Strategies for Early-Stage Collaborative Design (IEEE Software, 2012)

Ania Dilmaghani, Jim Dibble, "Strategies for Early-Stage Collaborative Design," IEEE Software, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 39-45, Jan./Feb. 2012, doi:10.1109/MS.2011.124

    作者Dilmaghani是Oracle公司的development manager, 负责UI设计开发方面工作；Dibble是Cooper公司的交互设计师。

    本文首先介绍了"Early-stage design"的范围："the set of design decisions that occur at product inception, when the software design team has a rough understanding of the problem and a vague set of requirements." 在这个阶段，增进团队各成员对问题域的理解是一个重要的任务。在这个阶段“协同(collaboration)"有助于发现问题域和初步设计方案中存在的问题。

    要想举行成功的"Collaborative design session"是有技巧的，作者基于25年的软件设计经验、15家公司工作经验，提出了10条基本规则，可显著帮助设计早期阶段进行"Collaborative design session"取得成功。基本规则如下：

#1 Aggee on Agenda and Goals

设置时间限制和讨论要达到的目标,避免时间过长、没有明确产出的会议。

#2 Determine the Target Users

“work from a shared understanding of target users”
“identify target users as the first step toward agreeing on the problem scope”

#3 Reframe Requirements around Users

“converting feature lists into an integrated product vision, structured around user goals and usage context”

#4 Sketch the Problem Domain

早期设计阶段，画草图，不要使自己限制在特定的"design notation"

#5 Drive to a Solution

"one designer drives by sketching and explaining ideas, while others help to navigate to an optimal solution"

#6 Foster Communication

"avoiding interruptions, using open body language, and summarizing what they think they’ve heard"

"the ultimate goal of collaboration is to understand the problem and arrive at a suitable solution"

#7 Evaluate as You Go

有多个方案难以取舍时，可以使用"user scenarios"对潜在的方案进行评估。

#8 Mine Disagreements

"Effective collaborators turn disagreements into opptunities – they mine disagreements for important insights about the problem domain or the ways in which different users might react to a proposed solution."

#9 Don’t  Sweat the Details

"The best designers stay at the right level of detail for the problem at hand. Designers should focus on foundational issues during early design sessions."

#10 Capture Decisions

会议开始前要确认记录员，记录会议过程中未解决的问题、需要进一步研究的领域等，对重要的图表和白板上的笔记要拍照；在会议结束时，项目组需要口头总结达成的决定和有分歧的意见。使用wiki来分享这些记录是比较好的方式。