Electronic Ink Process 08

Process

What if you were having a house built … by handing the contractor a written description of a building and a list of building materials. Maybe their team could build a structure, but they couldn’t build a home that meets your very specific needs — like a fenced-in yard for your dog, or a ramp for wheelchair access.

Raw materials and basic instructions are not enough. To create a home that suits your lifestyle, a contractor needs to be inspired and guided by learning about you. Only then can data become insight.

The typical software development life cycle is a lot like that uninspired construction project. Rigid —created by engineers, not designers— who hand specs to technicians with instructions to "just build it."

That software might get tested before release. But by then it’s too late — and too costly — to make changes that could improve usability. At release, the product falls short. The maker knows it, yet expects users to conform to it anyway— with a hefty training budget attached.

An engineering-driven approach all but ignores the user. Engineers are great — but they think differently than designers.

Designers solve problems by creating useful, beautiful and purposeful solutions that elicit response.

At Electronic Ink, our multidisciplinary designers put users first in everything they do. They explore human behavior scientifically. They are experts in how users interpret the subtlest of visual cues. They know what elicits a response and what inspires trust in the technology and products people need every day.

Electronic Ink teams are trained to observe, interview, iterate. They are experts in work methods, information flow, and building consensus.

The Electronic Ink design process allows for effective, efficient exploration of form by examining the details, relationships, outcomes, and challenges throughout an iterative development cycle.

Our process includes:

Definition

Identifying the challenges and determining courses of action.

Exploration

Using our Insight Lab and Site Visits to make discoveries about human perception and behavior.

Refinement

Insight becomes the foundation for designs that take shape through well-articulated concepts, diagrams, prototypes and systems.

Implementation

Managing deployment to smoothly "go live" with designs that become elegant, usable systems.