A nightmare...
So I have officially been working as an Interaction Designer for just over a year. And the night before last it showed, as I had a terrible nightmare about my profession.
I dreamed that I was tasked with designing an interface for some DJ mixing software. I was so excited, as I had several opportunities to DJ dances when I was younger (two turntables and a microphone, baby!) and have a tremendous passion for music.
I jumped at the chance. I spent time talking with users, the stakeholders, my dev team, and together we turned out an incredible product. It was beautiful and (so I thought) highly usable for something so complicated. We were invited to the launch party; a huge dance for about 500 young adults. I was so psyched to see my baby in action. A prominent local DJ was hired to emcee and run the board.
As he started up the computers, the crowd waited with anticipation to see how he would kick off the event. Suddenly, he put his headphones down and began to walk over to me. My heart jumped…what was wrong? He sidled up to me and said casually, “I can’t use the software. There is no ‘Cancel Track’ button.”
“Cancel Track?” I said to him. He explained to me what the button did, and it was so obvious* that I almost threw up. How could we have missed that? The event was cancelled on the spot and I had to hang my head in shame as the party attendees jeered at me on the way out. All of them. It was humiliating.
Then I woke up.
I spent today thinking about the situation, realizing that I am working on a project right now that is just as complicated. Something very similar could happen, as we are constantly learning about the process and requirements of the business and the application. I hope that I have covered my bases and we can ship something that is usable out of the gate. I know that we will have opportunites to improve it over the next couple of years, but the dream left an indellible impression on me to always pay attention to every detail.
* I have no idea what the “Cancel Track” button was supposed to do, but in my dream it made perfect sense.