Diving or surfacing?

In my regular questing, one of the phenomena I continue to explore is design. Investigating, for instance, reveals that, contrary to recommendations, designers approach practice more pragmatically. That’s something I’ve been experiencing both in my work with clients and recent endeavors. So, reflecting, are and should folks be diving or surfacing?

The original issue is how designers design. If you look at recommendations, they typically recommend starting at the top level conceptualization and work down, such as Jesse James Garrett’s Information Architecture approach (PDF of the Elements of User Experience; note that he puts the highest level of conceptualization at the bottom and argues to work up). Empirically, however, designers switch between top-down and bottom-up. What do I do?

Well, it of course depends on the project. Many times (and, ideally), I’m brought in early, to help conceptualize the strategy, leveraging learning science, design, organizational context, and more. I tend to lead the project’s top-level description, creating a ‘blueprint’ of where to go. From there, more pragmatic approaches make sense (e.g. bringing in developers). Then, I’m checking on progress, not doing the implementation. I suppose that’s like an architect. That is, my role is to stay at the top-level.

In other instances, I’m doing more. I frequently collaborate with the team to develop a solution. Or, sometimes, I get concrete to help communicate the vision that the blueprint documents. Which,  in working with an unfamiliar team, isn’t unusual. That ‘telepathy’ comes with getting to know folks ;).

In those other instances, I too will find out that pragmatic constraints influence the overarching conceptualization, and work back up to see how the guidelines need to be adapted to account for the particular instance. Or we need to deconnect from the details to remember what our original objective is. This isn’t a problem! In general, we should expect that ongoing development unearths realities that weren’t visible from above, and vice versa. We may have good general principles, (e.g. from learning science), but then we need to adapt them to our circumstances, which are unlikely to exactly match. In general, we need to abstract the best principles, and then de- and re-contextualize.

I find that while it’s harder work to wrestle with the details (more pay for IDs! ;), it’s very worthwhile. What’s developed is better as a result of testing and refining. In fact, this is a good argument about why we should iterate (and build it into our timelines and budgets). It’s hubris to assume that ‘if we build it, it is good’. So, let’s not assume we can either be diving or surfacing, but instead recognize we should cycle between them. Start at the top and work down, but then regularly check back up too!