Designers in the dark
Sacha Greif recently introduced me to the idea of “fog of war”.
Strategy video games often use this mechanic: when a player starts the game, they are immersed in an overhead map that is shrouded by darkness. The only way to reveal your surroundings is to explore. As you make moves, more and more of the map becomes visible.
This puts the player at a strategic disadvantage: they can’t see nearby dangers, obstacles or opportunities. Each successful move requires a bit of luck.
Does this scenario sound familiar?
The “fog of war” provides a perfect metaphor for how designers are often asked to work. They’re assigned a task, but are kept in the dark about everything surrounding that task.
For designers, seeing “the whole game map” is important. Having a clear view of the entire scope helps them make good decisions. Here are some questions they might ask:
- Who is the client?
- Who is the intended audience?
- What is the client’s goal?
- How do we want the audience to react?
- How will we measure the success (or failure) of this project?
Once they can see the entire topography, designers can start working with purpose. They’re no longer cogs in a machine but deliberate actors who can influence the success of the project.
Designers are often kept in the dark about the problems behind the task. This means some of the most creative thinkers in a business are not thinking critically about the issues around a given objective.
This highlights the importance of identifying the vision and mission behind each project:
- Vision: Why are we doing this? How does this change the world?
- Mission: What’s the objective? Where do we need to end up?
When they understand the vision and mission, designers also become valuable partners during the planning process. They can foresee potential land mines in your path and help you avoid costly mistakes.
Really, every team member needs a seat at the table. In this Smashing Magazine article, Paul Boag talks about the benefits of having designers and developers in the same room:
Back in the heyday of Digg, I remember a conversation between Daniel Burka (Digg’s lead designer) and Joe Stump (its lead developer). They told a story of a design change to the Digg button that Daniel wanted to introduce. From Daniel’s perspective, the change was minor. But upon speaking with Joe, he discovered that this minor design change would have a huge impact on website performance, forcing Digg to upgrade its processing power and server architecture.
What you can do
Here at Sprintly we do our quarterly planning meeting with representatives from product, design, support and engineering.
After the meeting’s done, we create a document with a list of spec’d Sprintly stories we’ve decided to work on for the next 3 months. This is sent off to the whole team who get to sign-off before work begins.
Projects with firewalls between client and designers often have more risk, pitfalls, greater disappointment, and higher cost. Increased communication produces much better outcomes. — Rich Grosskettler
Designers aren’t pawns
Sometimes managers act like each project is a clandestine operation, and that information should only be given on a “need to know basis.” This Wikipedia piece articulates why this might happen:
Need-to-know (like other security measures) can be misused by persons who wish to refuse others access to information they hold in an attempt to increase their personal power or prevent unwelcome review of their work.
This kind of protectionism doesn’t result in better design, or a better result for clients. Invite designers to become invested in your overall strategy. Don’t keep them in the dark.
Originally published at sprint.ly on January 15, 2015.
