Eric E. Ellis | Web Design | Project Management | ProjectEric.com | Charlotte, North Carolina

Key Web Design Milestones

I have to admit.  In the last few years, I’ve grown to loathe, despise, hate, the word ‘process.’

Process: deal with in a routine way; a particular course of action intended to achieve a result; programmed instructions in order to obtain the required information.

Process, by its very definition, breeds controlled routine.  Repeatability for consistency’s sake.  It aims for efficiency.  But are prescribed processes inherently efficient ways to work?  It’s an interesting premise, especially in web design where work must remain nimble, creative, and non-conformist.

As someone who sits on the fence - I manage a standards team, and at the same time, am a web designer in my own right – the battle in my head is constant: I can re-use some existing design process from a previously successful project in the hopes that I’ll score a home run, or I can look at the task at hand and simply just do what comes naturally.  No rules, no boundaries.  Just execution for the sake of execution.

Methodology: A system of principles, practices, and procedures applied to a specific branch of knowledge.

Note the missing evil word, process.  I’ve found that methodological principles are a much better way to attack a web design challenge.

Every projects’ scope is different.  Time, cost, and resources are rarely the same from initiative to initiative.  So why treat your design plan in a one-size-fits-all format?  Why create the same design process for projects you know will be variable?

In contrast, a methodology promotes ideas like frameworks and principles.  Think of them as higher level ideas on how to approach a design challenge.  They’re looser, more forgiving, more flexible.  Easier to tailor to the challenge at hand.

Examples

• A standard UCD process, specifically the Implementation or Deploy phase.  Seriously.  Will I ever follow this process the exact same way, over and over again?  Not likely.  Is this a good example of executing a project?  Sure.  Is it useful to follow this line-by-line, in a literal interpretation, for every project I deploy?  Certainly not.
• A UCD methodology.  Broad, persona-based, flexible to handle all kinds of projects.  I like starting with this kind of documentation to build my plan, rather than utilizing a prescriptive process like the one above.  I know the who, what, and generally speaking, the when.
• An agile methodology (video).  I like SCRUM because it hones in on common threads that most projects live by: time, scope, resources, and communication.  And in this particular methodology, it shows how you can break up the scope in fast-paced sprints.  Rules of thumb, yes.  Prescriptive process, no.