The how instead of what syndrome
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1) Stakeholders often propose solutions without fully understanding the problem, saying things like "I want it in red" rather than explaining why a problem exists. 2) Problems should be defined by specific facts before solutions are proposed, such as "some customers don't know how to enroll for mobile services". 3) The concepts of "why" and "what" should come before "how" when addressing a problem or request. Defining the problem ensures the appropriate solution is reached.
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The how instead of what syndrome
- 1. on usability The "how instead of what syndrome. One of the most nasty problem you my face when working on the usability of web pages is the fact that it is a very common attitude of all the stakeholders of the process to come at the table with clear solutions in mind, but without a clear view of the problem the solution should solve. We want the enroll in mobile service option as an item in the main menu or The account balance should be red and blinking are NOT correct way to expose a desire, would be much better ask for having a mechanism to get more customer enrolled in the mobile service and we need to give more visibility to the account balance in that specific page. Each requests should come from specific facts: some customer do not know they need to enrol on the web site to get the mobile services and some customer make errors because in the page XYZ the indication of balance is not enough visible. A very interesting poetry written by Rudyard Kipling says1 : This rule has been applied to journalism: a news without all this elements, they call them Five Ws and one H, is not considered complete. In reality the concept is much older and theorized by different thinkers. Among them Ermagora di Temno, 200 years before Christ, Cicero, Tomaso dAquino: Quis,油quid,油ubi,油per油quos,油quoties,油cur, quomodo,油quando. 1 油December油6,油2013油油足油page油1油of油2
- 2. on usability The concept applies very well to the topic we are discussing: WHY and WHAT comes before HOW and after the HOW is defined a working program may be set up putting together WHEN, WHERE and WHO. THIS is the correct way to proceed. This syndrome may be considered as a corollary of a much more general and diffused syndrome, the "problem solving before problem setting" one. When we do face a problem we have the desire of solving it as soon as possible and so there is a tendency to begin solving it immediately: sometimes we start before having a good knowledge of the problem and of constraints and situation. This approach is a very good method to build up a disaster! So next time you are in a meeting and somebody, let say from the marketing department, comes up with a I want it red go to the whiteboard and write the world RED, circle it and side of the circle write WHY:.... and WHAT:.... After you have got that basilar informations apply all your usability design skills and expertise to fulfil the the request for a red element taking in account also the standardization rules of the whole system. Most probably, at the end, the answer to the desiderata will not be red, will be something else! 油December油6,油2013油油足油page油2油of油2