It is perhaps fitting that, as we scrambled to the finish line of Playful 11, the last thing we had to do was stack the chairs in Conway Hall so that the ballroom dancing could start on time. Last time I stacked chairs to make way for dancing was at school, at a time when I thought the future was bright, shiny and full of opportunities.
It is easy for designers to jump to conclusions prematurely. After seeing one usability testing session and identifying a flaw in the user interface, it’s tempting to design a solution that seems to fix it. But problems arise if one does not take the time to uncover the underlying issues: are you fixing the problem, or a symptom of the problem?
When creating user experiences, you need to understand the problem you’re designing a solution for. You’d better engage the users, the customers and stakeholders. You’d better evolve those insights into concepts, journeys, information architectures and design frameworks. You’d better work with the best build and delivery partners.