The Productologist

The Inmates are Running the Asylum by Alan Cooper

I have been meaning to read this seminal text on application development and usability for some time (read: years), but somehow it always ended up on my reading list just below something else. After seeing some others reference the book and discuss conference talks where the author expanded on his theorems, I decided to bump The Inmates are Running the Asylum to the top of the list. After finishing it up, I was surprised, to say the least.

I just got back from a trip to New York for a trade show. For those of you who have had the pleasure of staying in Manhattan on a restricted budget ($400+ for a room that in most places would qualify as a moderately-sized closet), my hotel was actually not too bad (it was still minuscule, but tastefully appointed and comfortable). As with most hotels, mine was stocked with a couple of local interest magazines that tell patrons what’s going on that month or what restaurants/shows/museums/stores to see while they are in town. While perusing one of them, I stumbled upon an advertisement at the back of the magazine for a gym. Most ads for gyms focus on the form and physique of some beef cake (male or female), but this one highlighted the equipment (although the ad does contain a rather lithe female figure).

On my way back from a trade show, I spied an article in the airline magazine about how companies are starting to use the “novel” technique of Ethnography to understand how customers really use their products or to test out prototypes in real-world situations (this seems to be a hot topic, because after seeing the article in the airline mag, I also found a recent post about it at Requirements Defined, a blog from the folks at Seilevel and Experientia).

I’m a big fan of addressing human factors in product design. Since I primarily deal with software products, my focus is on usability and simplicity (two similar, but not identical concepts).

In a recent edition of Business 2.0, I came across an article entitled, “Design that Captures the Buzz,” which highlights how cellphone headset makers are hiring product designers to improve the “fashion factor” of bluetooth headsets. While I don’t think that fashion, per se, is that important to software design, I applaud the use of designers to improve both the appeal and functionality of a product.

When was the last time you included User Interface (UI) requirements in an MRD? If you are like most Product Managers, you may have included a reference like these in your MRD (I’ll admit to using at least one of them)–

• Need to make the UI easier to use
• The new screens must follow the existing screen design
• Replace old icons with new ones
• Change the colors to match our new logo

Unfortunately, not only are these not easily actionable, but they don’t get to the root requirement, which is how to make the product more clearly understood and easier to use so that the user has a positive experience.