Design

I really enjoyed this interview with Tony Fadell on the unique nature of Apple's design process. The discussion about project abandonment percentages is incredibly important, and often overlooked in large companies. In many cases abandonment is a financial decision related to either real or opportunity costs associated with launching a product. People who have never worked for a large consumer products company likely have no idea how many products are cancelled just before launch because of the incredible cost in launching a product into the market. [Read More]

I have been using Omnigraffle to create activity diagrams associated with user stories. Some people may find this overkill but I find doing these diagrams makes transitions clear that might otherwise be missed until later when they lead to costly re-architecting of the screens and flows. I use Omnigraffle for UI wireframes, so it seemed natural to use it for activity diagrams, which is what I have been doing. The issue is keeping the diagrams up to date. [Read More]