Great reads from May 2019
Can you Adam and Eve it? 6 months into 2019 already.
This month I've mainly been buried in a basement of a Government building, and have kind of forgotten what daylight is.
Thankfully, there's been two excellent episodes of The UX Coach podcast out, you should totally check them out and subscribe. I've also been been meeting some wonderful people through the Hoxby Collective.
Here's what I've been reading this month. It's quite heavily swayed towards some great prototyping tips and a few thoughts on the cumbersome Agile rituals we're all wasting our time with.
Enjoy.
Fake Doors - how to prototype a service without building all of it
This is a lightning talk from Jess Lee, CEO of now acquired Polyvore about how they used the fake doors technique; a way of prototyping a complex service model by faking it. Similar to the idea of a mechanical turk.
https://vimeo.com/24744647
What's wrong with dot-voting exercises?
If there's one thing that drives me to despair it is implied democracy and nothing sucks harder than dot-voting... well on anything... or have it got it wrong? Stephen Anderson has some suggestions.
https://medium.com/@stephenanderson/whats-wrong-with-dot-voting-exercises-9f121e20474a
Build up your leadership toolbox
Mazz Mosley's 2018 article for 24 Ways, still ringing some powerful bells for those of you looking to freshen up, and review your leadership style and practices.
https://24ways.org/2018/build-up-your-leadership-toolbox/
There is no such thing as agile
Oh Agile. Never has a word been so contested in the design industry. In this post Charles Lambdin has a stab and highlighting what's broken and why you shouldn't care.
https://medium.com/columbus-egg/there-is-no-such-thing-as-agile-bc0b7c84847e
Don't make the demo look done
"How 'done' something looks should match how 'done' something is."
This is so old it has dust, and lives on Typepad. Sadly, it still warrants a reminder. Here's the post that started a thousand posts on fidelity for prototyping, or understanding a problem.
https://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2006/12/dont_make_the_d.html
When it doubt Sketch it out
A little short one from Olusegun Aribido explaining why the longer you spend with a pencil the less risk you carry.
https://medium.com/@olusegunaribido/sketch-before-designing-7afbf0ade96f