particpating in interface design

Subject: particpating in interface design
From: Sean Hower <hokumhome -at- freehomepage -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2003 09:28:21 -0700 (PDT)




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Geoff Hart wrote:
(I'm fortunate to have acquired enough expertise to earn the respect of my developers, to the point that now they often bring me into the design phase at the start so they can produce a usable interface in only a couple passes rather than tinkering endlessly with it. They even ask me for advice on what would work, or how to fix things they're having trouble with. <insert loud cat purring noise here>)
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Okay, I'm jealous now! :-)

How do you get the developers to listen to your input in the first place?

I make suggestions when I see room for modifications, or if something just doesn't quite fit, logically or otherwise. I am very nice about it too, careful not to step on toes. But the results seem hit and miss. Either they disagreed, or they simply forgot (I know I've done that when people have approached me with ideas to improve the documentation so I understand how that can happen). I've read Cooper's (and other's) stuff on interface design and usability, but how do I get to demonstrate that knowledge so that people will notice?


********************************************
"This is either madness or brilliant."
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Sean Hower - tech writer
http://hokum.freehomepage.com


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