Creating successful results is the goal of every designer, however it is just a fraction of all interactive sites and solutions that get ahead and get profitable many hardly even getting noticed at all. As a designer I avoid just designing and focusing instead on designing for effect! Effect management, invented by the Swedish usability company inUse AB, is the perfect method for designers focus in effect in their design. This method has proven to be so effective that it has becomme underlying philosophy for all my design work.
First I have to admit that i have done my fair share of unsuccessful sites and services in the past. Especially in my younger years when IT was all new and exciting and I so wanted to stuff everything I designed full with all the cool new stuff. In retrospect was this way of designing not very smart. Imagine putting you mind to something. Putting in a tremendous ammout of thinking and designing and in the end the product is a failure. When the thing you created are not leaving more lasting result than a couple of words written in the sand, I can tell you that it is highly discouraging.
What I had to realize was that I had all to often made the mistake of falling in love with my own solutions instead of clearly understanding the challenge. I understand that this fixation with the wrong solutions is very common amongst designers, and until they wake up cool but unsuccessful designs will a natural consiquence.
The effect management method is based on the fact that a site or system can only generate value when it is used in an intended manner. It also evolves around the concept of the business goals and the users goals have to overlap in order for the solution to succeed in the log run.
The effect map is a unique method for connecting business goals to the actual features in an interactive system.
The main tool in the model is the effect map. Being basically a mind map it can, when used right, give an easy overview of an entire system ensuring that the features in a site or application is the right ones for the defined user group. In the lean production method also famous as the Toyota model it is stated that any idea must not take more space to explain than an A3 in landscape orientation. You might say that the effect map is version of this frame of mind.
An effect map is prepared by placing the business goals of the system owner in the center of the mind map. This is the source. The idea is to center the whole process according to what goals the business has. If the inteactive system does not contribute to the business goals it should probably not be produced at all.
The first step in the effect mapping is then to place place the target groups around the business goals. The big question is this. Who, out there, is responsibility for, by their behavior, to ensure that the business goals are met. When the groups are defined they are prioritized. In order to do this it is often nececary to dig up some facts by some user research. In order to detail each user group the practice with personas may very well be used even though i personally have a few objections to this model in general.
The second step is to step into each user groups shoes and define, from their perspective, what goals they have when using the system. This is the key to the whole method. Getting the usage goals right can be the difference between success or failure and shows exactly how well you know your users. The usage goals are also prioritized but this time from the users perspective.
The interesting part of working with the effect map is that up to this point in the work no mention of a solution is necessary. By delaying the discussion of the solution until you have a clear picture of the actual needs of the users. In the effect map each function, feature or possible solution needs to be connected to one or more usage goals. If an feature is not helping a user to fulfill a goal it is not going to add any value, no matter how cool and brilliant it may appear. Each goal is also sorted. This time it is the importance for the fulfillment of the underlying usage goal that sets the priority.
The greatest advantage with the effect management model is that the end results of the effect map is a feature and activity list sorted after importance and possible return on investment.
Any features that are not adding to a usage goal should be removed. This because all unused features will only be an expense and a burden on the system itself and the people running it. I would say that it is the things you are willing to remove from your solution that often times marks the success of the solution as a whole. Removing the things you want from the solution in favor of the things the users actually need is the great challenge.
The effect map usually is created during one or two effect workshop sessions.
Working with the effect map had made me far more confident as a designer. Being able to work with a structured method that not holding the creative process back is a true blessing.
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Thanks Mikael! How cool to get the approval from you black belt effect management guru om my view on the effect map!
As you know I love the method and tell about it and you the founding fathers at inUse almost every day! I guess I must be your biggest fan :-)
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