Designing is a problem solving process. But how do we identify the right problem and how do we judge the quality of the decisions we make? I believe design is a purposeful, creative practice and it is often a part of a larger more complex process. Improving the quality of your decisions can impact the effectiveness of your solution.”
Improving the quality of your decisions can impact the effectiveness of your solution.
What I want to share with you, is a simple thought process that I follow to help me make sense of the decision I make. It’s a concept I developed early on in my design career, however it’s something I apply even to this day and still find it to be useful.
The Static WHILE Snake
When I first start any design project, I’m often struck with the problem of facing the WHILE snake. The while snake is a static, endless string that appears when you verbally unfold the design thought process and lay it out flat in two-dimensions.
Design a new page on our website for developers WHILE fitting the brand image, WHILE improving the developer engagement, WHILE making it quick to find documentation, WHILE making it simple to get started, WHILE having search engine optimized content, WHILE having a colored code snippet, WHILE having a rotating background image that gives page context.
Visualizing the project scope in this way gives you the full list of requirements, but it can quickly become a problem as this list can rapidly grow in length. It’s easy to throw in all the things we ‘wish’ to accomplish, but as always we are restricted by factors such as time, knowledge and resources.
The problem with the WHILE snake is that each item in the list above all appear to have an equal weight of importance. Each WHILE is listed out of context making it overwhelming and difficult for the designer to prioritize each requirement.
In the next chapter I’ll show you how to organize this list into three categories to help you better prioritize your goals and gain clarity.
The Concept
The ‘Realistic, Theoretical, Emotional Filter’ model, or RTE for short, is a simple mental excercise that I use to analyze the quality of my decisions and help filter out the important problems from the rest. A typical design process is rarely linear as there are many factors to simultaneously consider; every design solution is not singular, but a collection of conscious and unconscious micro decisions.
There are 3 bubbles that make up this model, let’s take a look at what each one represents:
Realistic Bubble
With any project there are realistic and necessary expectations that must be met based on the current time and resource available. Realistic goals are the absolute baseline of what users can see and expect, how high or low you set this baseline is up to you.
Theoretical Bubble
The theoretical bubble represents anything that is not yet proven or executed, but is ‘theoretically true’ based on knowledge or research about the subject. Feedback gained from usability analysis or user testing all belong in this bubble.
Emotional Bubble
When we witness great design we naturally get the sense of the people behind the design. The emotional bubble represents the deep and personal qualities of what the designer believes to be true. We design because we care and the personal qualities the designer brings to the table is what turns good into amazing.
Now that we’ve covered what each bubble represents let’s talk about how we can combine these together to improve our decision making process.
Combining All 3 Bubbles
Every idea, choice, and decision we make has an impact on one or more of these bubbles, with some impacting more than others. This is what it looks like when you combine all 3 bubbles.
With every decision, consider the realistic constraints, the theoretical possibilities, and the emotional qualities that it contributes. Where and how much they overlap is the key to identifying the right solution.
With every decision, consider the realistic constraints, the theoretical possibilities and the emotional qualities that it contributes.
The central core of this model is called VS or Value for Solution. How much value can you get out of the solution that you are proposing? If you take the endless WHILE snake and run it through this model you will be able to visualize each WHILE segment’s VS score. This allows you to easily prioritize them in the order of importance.
That’s basically it! By simply considering the realistic, theoretical, and emotional attributes we can better assess our decisions and rid the endless string of uncertainties. Nice!
Until next time.