Boxes and Arrows continues to publish insightful and relevant articles. And the fact that two of my recent favorites just happen to include the words “Design Success” in their titles isn’t a factor, no siree.
Most recently, Understanding Organizational Stakeholders for Design Success details a method for performing stakeholder analysis , an exceedingly useful technique that helps one see clearly the political forces surrounding a project, and guides thinking about managing the players involved. Quite nice work, and worth a read whether you’re into building websites or not.
Less well written but equally valuable is Building a Vision of Design Success , underscores the oft-forgotten point that even in a redesign project, the definition of success must be thoroughly nailed down; the fact of re-designing is not enough. Management consultants would instruct one to “determine key success factors,” but more than that is required; Christina Wodtke points out that
A shared vision is born of collaborative conversations, articulated in a form that is digestible and memorable, and then internalized and personalized by every member of the team. The power of the shared vision is that it is shared�it is held within every member of the team (or organization) and thus needs no leader to carry it forward; every action of the team helps make the vision real.
I have been involved in several redesign projects of various sizes, and I can say with confidence that in every case there has been a distinct lack of vision, much less shared vision. And it is this lack that I hope to prevent in the future.
