And Design Shall Start With Observation

The project I’ve been working on for the last ten months is now winding down for me, so I’m getting involved with some new stuff. One of these couldn’t be more different from the rather rigorous approaches I’ve been taking since last year. Having attended a “workshop” for this project recently, I can’t help feeling I’ll be firing off shots in the war against intelligence.

But perhaps that’s the rule, and not the exception. Certainly, looking at the vast majority of sites right now and their seemingly total disregard for considered design, it seems to be the case. I found a rather typical example of this today when I bought some SkypeOut minutes. It wasn’t until I’d chosen Visa credit card and submitted the payment for processing that I was told the method of payment also determines how long it takes for the minutes to be allocated to my account. Not only that, but they only gave me times for debit cards (about 15mins) and bank transfers (about 3 days). No mention of credit cards or PayPal. Don’t worry, I’ve mailed them my thoughts on this.

All this makes me even more impressed with Nokia. This article about Jan Chipchase’s world of contextual research is interesting. I know that mobile devices are a bit of a different kettle of fish to web sites, but it’s good to know that at least one company (the only company?) out there recognises the value of such research. I like the last observation “The question is how can we do our job as a large corporation and show people we interact with sufficient respect.”