Today we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and back taking us from the world of Manhattan to the world of Brooklyn. Though the views are seldom as beautiful we cross and build bridges every day in what we do.
Bridges are there to provide shortcuts. Sometimes to provide a safer alternative but most of the time as a way to get around, reaching somewhere quicker and easier. Much of what we do in our everyday work life is to both build such bridges and cross them, ensuring that we have captured and understood all requirements from users and stakeholders as well as communicated and translated them successfully into the right proposed solution.
The different sides may be the different areas of a the company involved in building the product, or they may be the client and the users. At times a bridge may be built before the two sides are formed but often a bridge comes out of a need to come closer.
One of the things I’ve worked hardest at and know most good IAs and UX people do, is ensuring that IA and UX are seen as part of the process from the beginning to the end rather than an individual element that you can add on at a given time in a project. UX is an integral part from defining the vision and strategy to the detailed definition of the solution, its execution and evaluation. Much of what we do as IAs and UX designers are building bridges that brings the different parties together internally and externally. When I started out the IA department was the one that walked the bridges the most, sometimes building them whilst walking and at the same time explaining the need for the bridge, but it’s great to see that so many companies today see the bridges between the disciplines and the frequent walks across them as a prerequisite for building a great product. There really is no other way around, unless you want to take a longer and most of the time more risky route that also may lead you completely astray. UX isn’t there as an add on. Just as the Brooklyn bridge has developed as a necessary means of bridging the gap between two worlds, so has UX. And as for the users of the products and services that we design, they can easily spot if a different route has been taken and the UX bridges have been skipped. Working together and frequently communicating throughout a project is by far the best way of achieving a great end result. And, as the cherry on the cake you get to experience some views that you otherwise would have missed.
Tomorrow – Day 285 | Creating the perfect opening
Image: Photo of Brooklyn Heights taken from Brooklyn Bridge
