Built in 2 weeks – the Pendulum swings

Q: How long should it take to develop a new digital product?

A: As long as it takes to get it right – within the limits of time, scope and budget (oh, and don’t forget the needs of the user… and the organisation)

I am a long-time believer in the User-Centred Design process. For me (and to most people in the business) this means (to a greater or lessor degree):

• Gathering and understanding both user and business requirements
• Developing personas, site maps, wireframes, content strategies and taxonomies
• Creating and refining rapid prototypes for iterative testing with real people
• Developing functional and technical specifications
• Creative design and user feedback on design
• Development and UAT
• Launch – with the proviso there will be post-launch testing to ensure how you thought people would use your tools or transactions is in fact how they are using them in a live environment.

Of course it’s not just me who feels this way. Many commercial organisations, for whom web represents a significant means of generating revenue or reputation, follow these practices.

They know that there is value to be gained through increased revenue, decreased costs and customer satisfaction and retention when a digital product works well.

When it comes to developing digital products in government, there is a growing perception in some quarters that government isn’t capable of developing them in a cost effective, easily modifiable, user-centred way.

To counterbalance this issue, the development community holds hack days (i.e. Rewired State: National Hack the Government Day held at the Guardian) where they get together developers and data and spend a day hacking together solutions to address user needs.

Now, let me first say that I am a firm believer in open crowd-sourcing of ideas and solutions, allowing for innovation to occur by supplying people with data, inspiration and space, and looking for truly inspired ideas to float to the surface.

Where my optimism changes to concern is when the proverbial pendulum swings the other way.

To their advantage, the external developers have decreased development time (in most cases with simple services that do 1 or 2 simple things) and cost. Do they have durable, usable, sustainable services? Quite probably not. They have somewhat working prototypes. But this is not to say they couldn’t be developed into something sustainable.

It’s not the speed or cost that concern me.

It’s the quality.

In many cases, both the government and developer community approaches fail to utilise a proper UCD process. Neither will readily admit this.

Rushing the process and slashing the budget won’t provide a better service…

…just a more easily disposable one.

I would like to see more digital product development in government take into account the sometimes quite disparate needs of the organisation and the users – and the potential size of the audience.

This will allow for the scaling of robustness and a focus on quality – after all, if a site has 15 million users but only 2% of that audience are potential users of a specific digital product then the scale of product development should take this into account and a level of quality should be ascertained at the outset.

Ideally, I would like to see more collaboration and less mud-slinging between government and external developers. It creates division, not collaboration.

I think there are great people on both sides who really do want to develop with the best possible interests of users in mind. And together, I think that the outputs of such collaboration will ultimately lead to better digital products for everyone.

Recommended reading: The Inmates are Running the Asylum by Alan Cooper.

Filed under: Professional , digital, Government, innovation, product design, UCD

Upcoming speaking engagements

5th Communia Workshop: Accessing, Using, Reusing Public Sector Content and Data

On 26 March 2009 I will be speaking at the 5th Communia Workshop: Accessing, Using, Reusing Public Sector Content and Data held at the New Academic Building at London School of Economics.

I’ll be speaking during the 14:30-16:00 session titled “Getting the right tools for the job: technology and communities”. I will be talking about innovation and data use in government. Be sure to register early for this event.

OpenGov

On 22 April 2009 I will be speaking and participating in OpenGov taking place at Boston Computer Society. This is a 1-day conference to discuss and debate the challenges and opportunities in using digital technology to enable transparency, engagement and collaboration in government.

I will be speaking and participating throughout the day. Be sure to register early for this event.

Filed under: Uncategorized , Communia, digital, LSE, OpenGov, speaking

Inspiration, collaboration, innovation

I considered the possibility of tackling recession, joined up public and private sector initiatives, transformational government or a whole host of other issues in my initial post, in this, my third and most recent iteration in the blogosphere.

Instead, having chosen to expose myself as a digital optimist I thought a quick definition of what this blog is about might be in order.

The digital optimist

To understand a digital optimist, you need to understand its history.

I have used computers since the age of 16 (a Commodore 64 in 1982) to communicate with people. My experience rapidly expanded from early Bulletin Board Systems (BBS), to email and IRC, and eventually, the World-Wide Web (WWW).

In those days we didn’t have Yahoo, MSN or Google, Internet Explorer, Firefox or Safari. I used Lynx and Mosaic, and the WWW Virtual Library.

I went on to study engineering in the communications field, write, design and develop websites, work for and manage digital agencies, and eventually develop and run my own digital agencies.

I’ve seen how digital – through the internet and WWW – has transformed how (many) people communicate and interact with one another. I’ve watched as entire industries formed around these communication technologies and how traditional industries have transformed themselves in the span of a couple decades.

I have an optimism that is born from the transformation and extended communication that I have seen made possible through the embracing of digital technology.

Inspiration, collaboration, innovation

While I have worked for over 16 years specifically in the digital space, I have operated in digital environments since my first Commodore 64 in 1982 – for nearly 27 years. I am continually inspired by new developments in the industry and by the possibilities they create.

Inspiration is a part of my DNA.

Perhaps because I have been around since the inception of the WWW, I see the nurturing of inspiration – wherever it exists – as a fundamental necessity on the road to innovation. It is the idea of nurturing that leads me to collaboration.

The Internet and WWW are themselves collaborations of individuals and institutions around inspired ideas. Whether we are talking about BBN’s development of the underlying technologies of the Internet (or the fact they put the “@” symbol in your email), or the individuals and organisations that came together around Tim Berners-Lee in developing the WWW, collaboration has been a fundamental driver of innovation.

There is always the challenge of “what’s next” ahead of us. While for some this means developing completely new technologies and protocols, for others it means making better use of what already exists today – but even in that there is room for innovation.

Deep breath

So what am I really trying to get at with all of this:

• Inspiration requires you to be open to new ideas and possibilities
• Collaboration helps shape ideas into new products or services
• Innovation takes place when ideas are shaped to create new products or services that fulfill future or latent needs.

Therefore, innovation is only sometimes about the development of new technologies, methodologies or protocols. It can be as simple as applying an existing way of doing things to a new area – uncovering and fulfilling a latent need.

Enough history and lecture. Enjoy.

Filed under: Uncategorized , digital, innovation, optimist