Analytic Paralytic… A self help guide Updated

PART I

(read all 4 parts to be cured)

It’s true, I can be rather mechanical…but I’m not a machine, no more so than my toaster waking up wishing to be human. The toaster is just a heartless piece of shiny machinery…(until the Autobots decide to kill me). Don’t dwell on that, let’s discuss what happens when we ignore the human element in our campaigns.

Do you believe perfection makes everything better? Sociologist Jacques Ellul did not. A rather dystopian fellow, he argued that technique takes the fun out of everything. In the book The Technological Society, (1954) he described in detail how a machine’s efficiency drives out every other human value. That technologies come into play because they are so efficient, machines are really the standard of our world, not humans. Everything is compared to a machine, Everything.

Ellul’s argument is depressing, but what happens when we create our things with heart? Think about every successful campaign, artifact, product, system, database, education, life, world, toaster,… They all exist because they were designed with the user in mind and/or they evolved slowly into an ecosystem. Steve Jobs knew about user experience when he designed the Apple computer, but Bill Gates missed the point when he led Zune into the consumer business.

PART II

Information Ecologies

Another book, Information Ecologies, by Nardi and O’Day (1999), takes a more utopian view of technology. They say our creations can coexist if we design them with heart. When we build diverse teams, with common goals, we create these Information Ecologies that attempt to live in, understand their environment, and to create new opportunities. By asking the right questions, with these diverse teams, then we can reflect our core values and create a more successful campaign.

To solve problems, first we must be able to see the problem. Ever go to the grocery store to get one thing? You walk to the aisle, get cheerios, self-checkout, go home. Laser focus. On your trip, you managed to ignore everything and everyone in the store. Researchers call this “inattentional blindness” —it’s when we are not ready to pay attention to something in our field of view. However, if we live in the moment and ask the right questions, then we see the spaces between what we think is true —we view things differently. Often, between these spaces lies our answer.

PART III

Blowing it up

What happens to the information ecology when you randomly introduce something new or drastic? Generally the entire ecosystem fails. Cultural elements that contribute to the natural success of the system (or team) become lost and the system becomes something unintended (TK’s cane toad story at Chipotle, 2/13).

Things are never easy. Blowing things up, often leads to many more questions than we intended to answer. But don’t go there, don’t become analytic paralytic. Over analyzing only leads to inaction and failure. Use heuristics to solve your design problems and for heaven’s sake, ask the right questions.

PART IV

Describe the Issue… Ask the Questions!

For your reading pleasure, enjoy the list of questions below before starting a new project. Ask these questions with a diverse group of people. By designing with heart, we coexist with our inventions, because nobody likes burnt toast (unless its a Star Wars toaster)!

Star Wars Toaster! Burnt toast Image courtesy Amazon.com

1. Analysis Questions:
What is the real goal? What do we hope to accomplish?
Who should participate?
Does the project affect everyone the same?

2. Observation Questions:
How do users say they’ll use the new system?

3. Focus Questions:
What resources do we need?
What resources do we already have available?

4. Feeling:
What successful and unsuccessful user experiences do we have with the current system?

DIG DEEPER…MORE QUESTIONS!

5. Visioning:

If we could do anything what would be great?
Where would we like to be in 10 years?
What do we value most in our current process?

6. Change:
How do we want to change the current behavior?
How do we fund it?
How do we fund maintenance, troubleshooting, or consultation?
Are we willing to depart from our current plan to take advantage of unexpected consequences or opportunities?

7. Consequences:
If we do this, what are we giving up? Do we have time, energy, space, money?
How will users change their behavior, good or bad?

8. Obstacles:
What kind of training must be provided?
What about people with no interest in participating?

9. Personal Inventory:
What different kinds of expertise is needed for the plan?
What resources can we draw upon, free or paid?
Who can we partner with? What kinds of mentoring relationships are in place or needed?

10. Specifics (what do we do, and how do we do it?):
How will we plan to share experiences—both failures and successes—regularly, so we can learn from the plan implemented? What forums do we need?
How will we evaluate the process? How and when will we know if we are successful?
How will we communicate our findings to the broader community?

Remember, when asking these questions, local knowledge is required to formulate and respond.

Success! You are cured.