My+Approach

=My approach=


 * Spiral with Artifacts**

My approach to the process of design and implementation of technology products is similar to ADDIE and Agile. I like to picture my approach as a spiral: I start by casting as wide a sweep as possible: I looking at similar products on the market, if they exist; talk to the future users of the system and eliciting their vision of what the product should look like; sketch out designs on paper; jot down notes; go off on tangents in my research that may or may not lead to ideas I hadn’t previously considered; and, perhaps above all else, keep an open mind and try to be as initially inclusive as possible. To complement this process, I create artifacts. The artifacts of the wide, outer sweep of the spiral are a mad jumble of notes, drawings, bookmarks and the like, unorganized, unstructured and eclectic, by design.

As my process spirals inward I am still on the lookout for new ideas and features, but I am increasingly focused on the goal. Nice-to-haves give way to must-haves, sketches give way to diagrams and wireframes, and components get re-imagined, re-arranged, re-prioritized. All the while, I am eliciting feedback, testing my assumptions against the harsh light of day (that is, the critical eyes of bosses, subject matter experts (SMEs) and co-workers). The artifact of this phase is a design document with visual components in the form of diagrams, wireframes, and mock-ups.

The latter stages of the spiral are increasingly disciplined, and focus is sharpened and tightened on the goals. Daydreaming gives way to planning, prototypes give way to production-ready builds, and the product is readied for deployment. Testing, demo-ing, and trial runs are the activities of this phase. The artifact of these last stages is the ‘finished’ product, but in reality the product is never finished.

Subsequent phases may follow similar spirals, but will probably start off at a tighter focus than the initial blue sky sweep of the first approach. The trajectory of the project always remains a spiral, revisiting each stage (analysis, design, prototype, build, test, deploy).