Tuesday, February 11, 2014

The benefits of dividing a project into phases


I ran across a SlideShare presentation highlighting the art of storytelling within UI/UX development. Although the presentation was structured on storytelling, it reminded of the importance of dividing our projects into phases in order to better facilitate a workflow. By setting up smaller defined iteration cycles (aka phases), you promote transparency, the opportunity for constructive critiques and an overall environment for everyone to excel.

No matter whether you are building a small webpage for an upcoming event or a complex architectural software redesign, all designs goes through the critical phases of conceptual design, design development, implementation and refinement. Whenever entering a project be mindful your enthusiasm doesn't cause you to skip one of these critical milestones. The distinct differences between each phase allow for constructive critiques and feature sign off.

The precise idiosyncrasy of engineers have a tendency to make exact calculations every time they are faced with a problem. Designers will encourage iterations allowing multiple opportunities for mistakes or flaws in the design to present themselves. Sometimes it is difficult to identify the engineers from the software designers when you work at a software company. By identifying realistic goals and shorter iteration cycles we can provide the framework for everyone to flourish within an Agile environment. We should be looking for ways to create an environment for both dispositions to shine.

Credit to Anna Dahlstrom for the slides:  http://www.slideshare.net/annadahlstrom/designing-around-storytelling-digital-pond-london-06-feb-2014

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