http://www.vuidesign.net/making-documentation-useful.htm Interface Design Lessons From The World Around Us Wed, 04 Aug 2010 12:30:22 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://www.vuidesign.net/making-documentation-useful.htm/comment-page-1#comment-47480 Voice User Interface Design VUI » Blog Archive » More on documentation and creativity Sat, 23 May 2009 03:23:12 +0000 http://www.vuidesign.net/?p=102#comment-47480 [...] « Making Documentation actually useful May 22 [...] [...] « Making Documentation actually useful May 22 [...]

]]> http://www.vuidesign.net/making-documentation-useful.htm/comment-page-1#comment-46884 eolvera Mon, 18 May 2009 18:40:57 +0000 http://www.vuidesign.net/?p=102#comment-46884 I think that's a great subject. Personally, I think agile methodologies are extremely valuable in the sense that the earlier you can identify issues with a product/service, the faster you can correct and avoid costly changes during later phases. With that in mind, I think documentation will need to evolve in a similar way. Going back to some of the points made on that article of adapting documentation to the user/business needs and the specific requirements at each phase, I think the days of a "single specification/design document" are counted. One indication of that is the fact that more and more projects nowadays require developers/designers to go back and update their documentation to match their application/design. I truly believe that good design documents can help businesses understand/validate requirements, can help teams be on the same page at every step, and can help users understand how things work. Personally, I think visual thinking and visual representations (which by their nature are more universal than any written form) will start playing a bigger role in how things are documented. One example is how Google "documented" their new Chrome browser using comics: http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/ I think that’s a great subject. Personally, I think agile methodologies are extremely valuable in the sense that the earlier you can identify issues with a product/service, the faster you can correct and avoid costly changes during later phases. With that in mind, I think documentation will need to evolve in a similar way. Going back to some of the points made on that article of adapting documentation to the user/business needs and the specific requirements at each phase, I think the days of a “single specification/design document” are counted. One indication of that is the fact that more and more projects nowadays require developers/designers to go back and update their documentation to match their application/design. I truly believe that good design documents can help businesses understand/validate requirements, can help teams be on the same page at every step, and can help users understand how things work. Personally, I think visual thinking and visual representations (which by their nature are more universal than any written form) will start playing a bigger role in how things are documented. One example is how Google “documented” their new Chrome browser using comics: http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/

]]> http://www.vuidesign.net/making-documentation-useful.htm/comment-page-1#comment-45639 Isaac Pinnock Tue, 12 May 2009 08:47:40 +0000 http://www.vuidesign.net/?p=102#comment-45639 I'd be very interested to know how you feel that current documentation practices fit in with agile rather than waterfall projects? Especially when the focus is on getting working software in the hands of users (and the team) as soon as possible. I certainly think that this is a place where the layered approach definitely helps. I’d be very interested to know how you feel that current documentation practices fit in with agile rather than waterfall projects? Especially when the focus is on getting working software in the hands of users (and the team) as soon as possible. I certainly think that this is a place where the layered approach definitely helps.

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