Indi Young ran a workshop in Brighton on Monday 2nd June 2008. I went along…

I had seen Jeff Veen (of Google and Adaptive Path) at dconstruct in 2006 talking on “Designing the Complete User Experience” (listen to the podcast), and he talks about a top-down and bottom-up approach - and using “Mental Models”. Being passionate about user-centred design, I have been thinking about the practicalities of building mental models for some time, so jumped at the chance for Indi Young to explain her experiences to me.

In her own words…

“First, reach out to actual users and have a conversation with them, collecting their perspective and vocabulary. Analyze all of those conversations and compose them into a diagram called ‘the mental model diagram.’ Then compare all of the things your solution is supposed to do with the different parts of that mental model diagram. Align them with the concepts that they support. You can do this with functionality just as it exists, or functionality being planned, or you can play around with brainstorming new ideas. When you step back and look at the whole picture with teammates and stakeholders in the organisation, you can develop a design strategy - a vision - to follow over the next decade. Then you can start devising tactical solutions for high priority areas of the mental model” .

Apart from all the really practical tips I picked up, what was really interesting to me was the models are so useful in so many ways. They don’t stifle creativity - in fact they help by getting you to understand and empathise with users - this is clear. They help identify area of highest priority, strength and weakness, and by doing so reduce the risk in designing services - vital for the executive with stuff to deliver. And because they involve users and stakeholders in their manufacture they become a neutral artefact - they are powerful tools for joining up the vision - de-”ego-ing” the vision - for communicating, thus allowing everyone to visualise and share the mission.

What I’m wondering is how to accelerate the process - I don’t yet know if shortcuts are a good idea, but in the third sector - time and cost matters!