The other day our friend Whitney Hess innocently tweeted:
“I find mental models really trying. Does that make me a less skilled UXer?”
I know how she feels. I have dozens of books on my shelves describing different processes for doing design, from mental models to personas to content audits to user testing to you-name-it, and I follow almost none of them. I use bits and pieces, of course, but cannot follow any one of them faithfully. In fact, it would be impossible to follow all of them, even if you allowed yourself a different process for each project you work on.
Part of the doubt that Whitney displayed is the result of that unseen enemy called the “Process Police”, or people who go around espousing their preferred process as the right way to design…as if those who aren’t doing the process are designing complete rubbish. Even worse are the police who say “Oh yeah you think you’re following the process but you’re doing it all wrong”…that their version of personas is the One True Way and by implication you’re a less-skilled UXer.
The Process Police do their rounds on email lists, where they give out subtle digs that you’re doing it wrong. Unfortunately, these attacks serve to make curious people go elsewhere and shut down conversation between people who might otherwise learn from each other. This has happened on all the email lists I’ve ever been on.
Read full article via the link http://52weeksofux.com/post/531355908/the-process-police#“I find mental models really trying. Does that make me a less skilled UXer?”
I know how she feels. I have dozens of books on my shelves describing different processes for doing design, from mental models to personas to content audits to user testing to you-name-it, and I follow almost none of them. I use bits and pieces, of course, but cannot follow any one of them faithfully. In fact, it would be impossible to follow all of them, even if you allowed yourself a different process for each project you work on.
Part of the doubt that Whitney displayed is the result of that unseen enemy called the “Process Police”, or people who go around espousing their preferred process as the right way to design…as if those who aren’t doing the process are designing complete rubbish. Even worse are the police who say “Oh yeah you think you’re following the process but you’re doing it all wrong”…that their version of personas is the One True Way and by implication you’re a less-skilled UXer.
The Process Police do their rounds on email lists, where they give out subtle digs that you’re doing it wrong. Unfortunately, these attacks serve to make curious people go elsewhere and shut down conversation between people who might otherwise learn from each other. This has happened on all the email lists I’ve ever been on.
- Leave your comment • Category: Design Process, On Life, User Experience, UX
- Share on Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, Digg, Reddit
