killin me
Nothing kills me more than to watch people I know struggle with an application that I know is not right for what they are doing. Like someone using word to edit video, not possible you say, i'm sure someone has done it, it was painful but thru enough backend loophole connectors and macros and what not its possible. Ok thats an extreme example. But researchers on the whole don't really, well let me say, pure researchers are about analyzing data and coming up with ideas, they aren't folks who obsess on what tools could be used to help them visualize it. Those freaks are me.
I love new applications, new softare, new ways to do things. I love anything new. Ok I'm a new junkie. Maybe I'm short attention span theater boy but I also like things that work well consistantly. So while I love the new, the what works is just as desirable. But the just works also needs to be right.
What is the right application? To me you don't need Quark or InDesign to make a proceedure map. Heck its a mind map right? Yer goal is to get yer ideas down and think about what yer seeing now fiddle with 400 little widgets to draw a line. That drives me nuts. It should be:
realize >> synthetize >> translate >> produce
Realize whats happening, sythetize the gist of it, translate it into your chart, produce the chart.
Typically to realize means you had a big meeting, a brainstorm, a bunch of folks talkin, OR, you observed, you denoted, you watched and took notes. Then you sythetize, you compile your findings, you make an affinity diagram, you get it all out, ya break it all down and look for patterns, the big buckets, the nuggets of goodness. Next up you translate it, you build your map of whats happening, you sketch it out, yes SKETCH it out as to whats occuring, you conceptually create based on the evidence at hand. THEN, once you got narrowed down, sketched out, finalized as it to be, THEN you produce. Create it. Finalize it.
Too many steps you say? Well researchers need steps. Gotta have steps. Can't quite tell the client the gusto unless you have evidence to prove it. I think what happens is researchers skip the translate part and go right to produce. So now in my managers eye, (which i use alot), I have this researcher, a brilliant peep diving into the world of photoshop and indesign to create their masterpiece.. and struggle. Wait you say they're brilliant, sure but rather intolerant when it comes to tech, they are stubbron folk I say. So they get fustrated, sigh and waste time trying to create the perfect diagram when they should be merely translating it.
I say let the designers, the hardcore kids of art and mayhem bang out yer piece. They are the producers. They are the folks that zip thru inDesign in 7 seconds. To me its a waste of time to struggle with an application and when I see a researcher doing it, I wish I was the manager.
Sure I respect those that want to learn, thats a given yep, but every project has hours alloted to it. Your time is based on that, and not learning now to draw.
Another thing that gets me is that they dont know so they forge ahead in the snow. They're researchers damnit, they should question everything, shouldn't they be saying "damn this blows and this is gonna kill my zeeal on the project attempting to learn this damn app all i want to do is build a mind map.. geeze" but... perhaps they are like diehard programmers we find in usability studies often. Its like the badge of honor when it comes to unix folks. You could hand them a broken toaster that burns plastic and gives them massive headaches and they'd still give it a high rating of "ya its good, i can deal". As consumers and researchers we tend to pile up alot of "ok's" in this "we'll deal" pot.
Deal with it Dan.