Ballad of ignorance
In the years of distant youth, I, like all of you, adored all these jokes about a stupid customer from the series: "... play with fonts, make the color more beautiful ...". Well, you know, this whole standard set of jokes for smoothies for entertainment in any successful webstudio. I repent, a sinner, I chuckled about it too.
But one day a wise person (and in my life I’m very lucky with really smart people) explained everything to me and instantly opened his eyes to this world: “The fact is that almost any design customer (who has already paid the prepayment) saw the presented final the result is sincerely unable to understand how this here is all this ugliness will increase its sales, improve the status of the company or arouse interest among customers (and envy of competitors). Simply put, all that he sees in front of him is that this picture will not add anything to him. But the innate modesty and upbringing by no means allows all customers to gain courage and kick their hapless design designers out of the office with kicks and ask for their money back through the court. Therefore, a poor customer, by virtue of his limited knowledge and skills in the field of glamorous visual, is trying to help, correct the work, find a slightly less dreadful solution. It was not his fault that, apart from playing with fonts and color, he could not think of anything - he hadn’t finished British women and hadn’t read Taffets. But he, from the top of his personal experience, clearly realizes that the current version will not help him at all, never and never. Allow him to help you, let me inform you that a frankly non-working surface solution was created, which is not worth even a tenth of the amount requested for the work and does not take into account millions of professional trifles. Come down from the top of your designer Olympus and let him help you work out the prepayment. ” The end of the quote.
')
Let's look at this article as an experienced businessman-customer looks like all our ridiculous attempts of designers, designers who do not have a decade of experience in the customer's industry and do not know the whole set of subtleties and nuances, but try to create a quality product with a hitch. To visualize my narrative as illustrative illustrations, I will cite, as an example, the film “Atlas Shrugged” based on the best-selling book of the American writer Ayn Rand.
I stopped my choice on this work, because it is a blatant example of illiteracy, militant dilentantism and the most unprofessional approach of both the author of the described topic and its projection - the main character of the work. I, as an engineer of railway transport, were deeply perturbed by all those attempts to describe in the work the railway structure and the principles of operation of a large transport company from a female author who has only pedagogical education. As any humanist should, the author does not even know the thousandth part of all existing principles, requirements and technologies for organizing the transportation process, however, he boldly and broadly describes them on a thousand pages of his work. In my opinion, this is as close as possible to what is happening now in the world of web development. The result was a perfect anthem of incompetence and complete ignorance of the situation.
So, America is 2016, some pseudo-socialists came to power, who immediately brought an economic crisis to the superpower. Almost all production in the country was destroyed, the fuel crisis destroyed the entire transport system in the country and only the railways remained the last sign of the civilization of society and tie together all US states together. What are the trains according to education teacher Ayn Reid? Apparently on hydrogen fuel, since a priori it is clear that there is no diesel fuel for ordinary diesel locomotives in the country at all. And for electric locomotives, after all, it is necessary to produce electricity from somewhere on an industrial scale, and in the country there is a “scoop” and ruin. The author’s consciousness inflamed by total ignorance unfolds such a dystopian picture:
Situation 1 : a meeting of the tankers due to breakdowns of the tracks.
Reality : during the day, tens of units of equipment and personnel are put forward on the object to ensure instant replacement of the railway grid, the reserves of which in the amount of over9000 km are stored in each nearby PMS. To ensure continuity of movement, trains from the nearest station alternately travel along a neighboring track, since almost all significant railway lines, even in the most impoverished and socialist country of the USSR, were double-track. Single tracks link only the most deserted villages, but not regions and regions.
In the cinema: in this very America, destroyed by damned socialism, it turns out that there was only one single-track railway line and any damage on it blocked the entire connection between the eastern and western states for a couple of months. For in the book and in the dilettante’s brain, there are no other possibilities to deliver a batch of oil from state to state - pipelines in the USA in 2016 apparently have not yet been invented, there are not enough gasoline for cars, for oil tankers (through the Panama Canal) there are not enough rowers on galley, and all US aviation is engaged only in carrying the main character from city to city for regular intercourse with her lover.
Such a “deep” understanding of the state-controlled economy of a female writer comes to our attention. All this was very similar to the real situation in my life, when in 2007 a third-party company of girls-programmers tried to outsource the creation of the most complicated program “Workstation for the repair of wagons”, in which it was necessary to take account of all the spare parts, schedules of all work processes , a list of all necessary operations with all types of cars, etc. etc. It turned out they have (of course) less than nothing, as it turns out today, and all other third-party developers who are trying to comprehend the whole depth of unfamiliar technologies in a couple of days without specialized education and real work experience inside the studied area.
Situation 2 Consider regular repairs and maintenance paths.
Reality: in the disgusting impoverished scoop, against which the author is so struggling, the maintenance and scheduled repairs of all the tracks are carried out annually - the condition of the sleepers and crutches is checked, experienced engineers measure the correct slope of the track and general wear and tear. People here with such carts with the untalented Yakunin year after year on foot (what, here right on foot? Yes, and nothing else) pass all the railway lines, collecting all the information about each vycherbin or deformation of each rail.
Cinema: But in the former capitalist United States, which the author loves so much, it turns out that the roads have not been repaired since the grandfather of the current president of the company, that is, long before the damn socialists came to power. The entire megacut transport company does not have one kilometer of rail in stock, since the last order for the supply of a canvas, as the main characters find out, was made 13 months ago.
That is how deeply the writer comprehended the essence of my favorite industry and the whole truth of life. What is the decision made by these cardboard characters, or why the hell is not understanding the railway transport? Of course, the decision comes to order new rails from an unverified company, the quality of steel of which is criticized by all research institutes. This action, according to the idea of ​​the writer, supposedly should become a symbolic slogan: "who does not risk, he does not drink champagne." Friends, once again imagine all the craziness described: to abandon a trusted supplier and order smelting of rails on a strategically important route from scratch from an unknown company, the quality of which has not been confirmed by any research and contradicts all state standards. Just because innovation is the same.
It was for such risks that the “creature” was shot in 1937 by Comrade Stalin. And I did absolutely the right thing, for it is better to hang one with the “design thinking” now, than tomorrow thousands of passengers will die because of him. The state in this novel, it must be said, is not sitting still, but by the efforts of “corrupt ghouls-senators” trying to somehow resist this madness from the amateur heroine. But their blocking laws and socialist forbidden acts are too soft, liberal, and allow the author of the novel time and time to find loopholes in order to continue his dirty work.
Why does she believe in her success? Why does she not trust the opinion of experts and specialists? Why the owner of the company, without reading throws out any regulatory documents and letters of experts? Probably, she has her own research laboratory, which provided her with the results of semi-annual material tests? - the voice of reason sounds in my head.
Of course, the heroine doesn’t have anything of the kind, because the author and the heroine, none of the devoted admirers of the work, studied the high school at the university, so here, in this fictional world, everyone believes everything. For citizens without structural engineering thinking, the logic works something like this: “The aunt in beautiful shoes said that this is good steel - hurray, so it is, because wearing expensive shoes are not mistaken. An aunt in a beautiful hairstyle promised the business to the camera that “everything is on the ointment” - and they pushed to make orders for transportation without checking the existence of the entire servicing infrastructure or at least the standards for repair and inspection. The aunt in a diamond necklace had sex with her lover - and the same drivers and linemen, mechanics and VET masters, flaw detectors and station attendants happily went to work in the morning, although the union tearfully implored them not to participate in this madness and not to provoke new catastrophes ” .
“Duc, this one, tovo, how can you not get out, because an aunt with a neckline said she could fire her,” real professionals in this crazy movie are whispering and happily getting involved in an adventure. “I suppose, they’ll pick up amateurs from the street instead of us, and then thousands of people will surely die,” - this is their sacrificial mood.
Of course, no one will perish in the film conceived by a woman, and the new fusion magically turns out to be the strongest, lightest and coolest in the world, although all the institutes and laboratories obscurely rejected this entire film, thus inserting sticks into the wheels of progress. However, the main character, apparently subconsciously feeling that the music will not play long, and without the normal organization of all the work on maintaining, monitoring and repairing even the new super-cool path, the music will not be playing for long, and very soon it will roll back into the funeral march. That is why, instead of setting up normal management processes and controlling the movement along a new highway (as in the damned Scoop), the heroine quickly changes her profile, stating that the railways are no longer interested in her and now she already has a new project - vacuum engines.
Rapid loss of interest in their work and instantaneous jump from one to another - the first sign of professional illiteracy. A real expert, as a person who thinks and observes, will never get bored with his main work, as new subtleties, subtle details of the process constantly appear in the field of view, new technologies emerge - and you can improve and improve your favorite business endlessly. But no, the author practically calls for everything in the world to be done as it is now happening in the development of websites and mobile applications:
1. I do not know anything, but let's go like this! First, it is beautiful ...
2. Phew, it seems to work out - run away!
3. Hey guys, and who will serve? - Sorry, and we already have a new project.
4. Damn, so nothing works the way you need for technology. - Ok, so order us a redesign from scratch for the Sixthillion rubles. Rebranding and brandbook - as a gift, as a regular customer.
5. Eternal profit!
What simple idea do I try to convey with the help of this article and all the verbose allegories? I just assert that the existing technologies and processes in any business today have become so complex that it became impossible to comprehend in a couple of hours the people who are far from this business could meet, no matter what they call themselves: business analysts, project managers, designers or art directors. The world is a million times more complicated than it seems, if you look at it through the bottom of a glass for a smoothie.
I urge that all the initial design and writing of a complete TK for any information system, as well as creating all the content and drawing sketches, prototypes, sketches, mockups (whatever you like), would be created entirely on the side of the customer, only his staff specialists with decades of experience in the industry . And only in this case, the information structure and logic of the processes will be built correctly and correctly. Only the cultivation of UX-experts in your team of the most experienced and respected professionals, yet your Axure and Balsamic are not so difficult to master.
Well, as an alternative, you can also consider hiring a studio designer for six months, with the entire working cycle from the girl operator at the station to the head of the logistics department. Only such an immersion can give hope that the output will be a truly “smart system”, and not a dribble-hand-made article that no font game will save.
I can guarantee little in my life with the same gigantic degree of confidence as the statement that if you put your art director for a month at the “last mile” workplace, be it a mechanic, a sales assistant, an operator, a courier, a loader - with staging on their standard salary of 15-20 thousand rubles ($ 200 per month), there are a lot of illusions about how it will be easy, convenient and pleasant for all these people to work in the new beautiful interface, how they will be happy to fill in completely all data and read all reports and alerts systems What a pleasure to navigate through information products - scatter like smoke. Yes, yes, just give them a month to skip all this through themselves, to feel the pleasure with which the most ordinary people will evaluate their work - and all the mockery of the “play with fonts” requests will end by themselves. And moral morale will begin. And in a couple of months, the long-awaited understanding will come that it is here that you can automate and algorithmize. It is then that it is worthwhile to launch the graphic editor for the first time and make initial sketches.
In general, in my opinion, it is very easy to train or find a good designer - you just need to see how much time he spends on his MacBook. If your potential project disappears for days (months) in the “field conditions” - at the customer’s facilities, it constantly makes appointments with the pros in the area under study, constantly takes over the negotiations and armed with piles of papers with the headings “Technical Process ...”, “Organization Chart”, “ The structure of the company ... "arranges brainstorming with a development team with arguments and fights - this is the best designer. At least he is trying to understand what he has to do and how it will work. Well, if a person just sits on a chair and draws buttons smoothly and intently - everything, wait for the imminent disaster of the entire project in the very near future and try, while you have time, take off maximum responsibility for what is happening. And yes, it is imperative to insist on a large prepayment, because according to the results of the work, when the customer finally sees your illustrations and understands everything, the remaining money will most likely not be received anymore.
As you know, the requirements for modern information systems have increased significantly. Now she is obliged to automate the process, process data, algorithmically sort information flows, and even make some independent conclusions about everything that happens. And for this you need to plunge into the topic as deeply as possible, you need to follow the rule of “10 thousand hours”, which was spent not on drawing buttons on the screen, but on understanding the subtleties and hidden logic of all processes in the customer’s company. If this is not done, then the final situations will turn out exactly as in the above-described comedy film, with the only difference that real life is not at all like the erotic fantasies of a lonely middle-aged female teacher or illustrator who has abandoned a technical university.
But one day a wise person (and in my life I’m very lucky with really smart people) explained everything to me and instantly opened his eyes to this world: “The fact is that almost any design customer (who has already paid the prepayment) saw the presented final the result is sincerely unable to understand how this here is all this ugliness will increase its sales, improve the status of the company or arouse interest among customers (and envy of competitors). Simply put, all that he sees in front of him is that this picture will not add anything to him. But the innate modesty and upbringing by no means allows all customers to gain courage and kick their hapless design designers out of the office with kicks and ask for their money back through the court. Therefore, a poor customer, by virtue of his limited knowledge and skills in the field of glamorous visual, is trying to help, correct the work, find a slightly less dreadful solution. It was not his fault that, apart from playing with fonts and color, he could not think of anything - he hadn’t finished British women and hadn’t read Taffets. But he, from the top of his personal experience, clearly realizes that the current version will not help him at all, never and never. Allow him to help you, let me inform you that a frankly non-working surface solution was created, which is not worth even a tenth of the amount requested for the work and does not take into account millions of professional trifles. Come down from the top of your designer Olympus and let him help you work out the prepayment. ” The end of the quote.
')
Let's look at this article as an experienced businessman-customer looks like all our ridiculous attempts of designers, designers who do not have a decade of experience in the customer's industry and do not know the whole set of subtleties and nuances, but try to create a quality product with a hitch. To visualize my narrative as illustrative illustrations, I will cite, as an example, the film “Atlas Shrugged” based on the best-selling book of the American writer Ayn Rand.
I stopped my choice on this work, because it is a blatant example of illiteracy, militant dilentantism and the most unprofessional approach of both the author of the described topic and its projection - the main character of the work. I, as an engineer of railway transport, were deeply perturbed by all those attempts to describe in the work the railway structure and the principles of operation of a large transport company from a female author who has only pedagogical education. As any humanist should, the author does not even know the thousandth part of all existing principles, requirements and technologies for organizing the transportation process, however, he boldly and broadly describes them on a thousand pages of his work. In my opinion, this is as close as possible to what is happening now in the world of web development. The result was a perfect anthem of incompetence and complete ignorance of the situation.
So, America is 2016, some pseudo-socialists came to power, who immediately brought an economic crisis to the superpower. Almost all production in the country was destroyed, the fuel crisis destroyed the entire transport system in the country and only the railways remained the last sign of the civilization of society and tie together all US states together. What are the trains according to education teacher Ayn Reid? Apparently on hydrogen fuel, since a priori it is clear that there is no diesel fuel for ordinary diesel locomotives in the country at all. And for electric locomotives, after all, it is necessary to produce electricity from somewhere on an industrial scale, and in the country there is a “scoop” and ruin. The author’s consciousness inflamed by total ignorance unfolds such a dystopian picture:
Situation 1 : a meeting of the tankers due to breakdowns of the tracks.
Reality : during the day, tens of units of equipment and personnel are put forward on the object to ensure instant replacement of the railway grid, the reserves of which in the amount of over9000 km are stored in each nearby PMS. To ensure continuity of movement, trains from the nearest station alternately travel along a neighboring track, since almost all significant railway lines, even in the most impoverished and socialist country of the USSR, were double-track. Single tracks link only the most deserted villages, but not regions and regions.
In the cinema: in this very America, destroyed by damned socialism, it turns out that there was only one single-track railway line and any damage on it blocked the entire connection between the eastern and western states for a couple of months. For in the book and in the dilettante’s brain, there are no other possibilities to deliver a batch of oil from state to state - pipelines in the USA in 2016 apparently have not yet been invented, there are not enough gasoline for cars, for oil tankers (through the Panama Canal) there are not enough rowers on galley, and all US aviation is engaged only in carrying the main character from city to city for regular intercourse with her lover.
Such a “deep” understanding of the state-controlled economy of a female writer comes to our attention. All this was very similar to the real situation in my life, when in 2007 a third-party company of girls-programmers tried to outsource the creation of the most complicated program “Workstation for the repair of wagons”, in which it was necessary to take account of all the spare parts, schedules of all work processes , a list of all necessary operations with all types of cars, etc. etc. It turned out they have (of course) less than nothing, as it turns out today, and all other third-party developers who are trying to comprehend the whole depth of unfamiliar technologies in a couple of days without specialized education and real work experience inside the studied area.
Situation 2 Consider regular repairs and maintenance paths.
Reality: in the disgusting impoverished scoop, against which the author is so struggling, the maintenance and scheduled repairs of all the tracks are carried out annually - the condition of the sleepers and crutches is checked, experienced engineers measure the correct slope of the track and general wear and tear. People here with such carts with the untalented Yakunin year after year on foot (what, here right on foot? Yes, and nothing else) pass all the railway lines, collecting all the information about each vycherbin or deformation of each rail.
Cinema: But in the former capitalist United States, which the author loves so much, it turns out that the roads have not been repaired since the grandfather of the current president of the company, that is, long before the damn socialists came to power. The entire megacut transport company does not have one kilometer of rail in stock, since the last order for the supply of a canvas, as the main characters find out, was made 13 months ago.
That is how deeply the writer comprehended the essence of my favorite industry and the whole truth of life. What is the decision made by these cardboard characters, or why the hell is not understanding the railway transport? Of course, the decision comes to order new rails from an unverified company, the quality of steel of which is criticized by all research institutes. This action, according to the idea of ​​the writer, supposedly should become a symbolic slogan: "who does not risk, he does not drink champagne." Friends, once again imagine all the craziness described: to abandon a trusted supplier and order smelting of rails on a strategically important route from scratch from an unknown company, the quality of which has not been confirmed by any research and contradicts all state standards. Just because innovation is the same.
It was for such risks that the “creature” was shot in 1937 by Comrade Stalin. And I did absolutely the right thing, for it is better to hang one with the “design thinking” now, than tomorrow thousands of passengers will die because of him. The state in this novel, it must be said, is not sitting still, but by the efforts of “corrupt ghouls-senators” trying to somehow resist this madness from the amateur heroine. But their blocking laws and socialist forbidden acts are too soft, liberal, and allow the author of the novel time and time to find loopholes in order to continue his dirty work.
Why does she believe in her success? Why does she not trust the opinion of experts and specialists? Why the owner of the company, without reading throws out any regulatory documents and letters of experts? Probably, she has her own research laboratory, which provided her with the results of semi-annual material tests? - the voice of reason sounds in my head.
Of course, the heroine doesn’t have anything of the kind, because the author and the heroine, none of the devoted admirers of the work, studied the high school at the university, so here, in this fictional world, everyone believes everything. For citizens without structural engineering thinking, the logic works something like this: “The aunt in beautiful shoes said that this is good steel - hurray, so it is, because wearing expensive shoes are not mistaken. An aunt in a beautiful hairstyle promised the business to the camera that “everything is on the ointment” - and they pushed to make orders for transportation without checking the existence of the entire servicing infrastructure or at least the standards for repair and inspection. The aunt in a diamond necklace had sex with her lover - and the same drivers and linemen, mechanics and VET masters, flaw detectors and station attendants happily went to work in the morning, although the union tearfully implored them not to participate in this madness and not to provoke new catastrophes ” .
“Duc, this one, tovo, how can you not get out, because an aunt with a neckline said she could fire her,” real professionals in this crazy movie are whispering and happily getting involved in an adventure. “I suppose, they’ll pick up amateurs from the street instead of us, and then thousands of people will surely die,” - this is their sacrificial mood.
Of course, no one will perish in the film conceived by a woman, and the new fusion magically turns out to be the strongest, lightest and coolest in the world, although all the institutes and laboratories obscurely rejected this entire film, thus inserting sticks into the wheels of progress. However, the main character, apparently subconsciously feeling that the music will not play long, and without the normal organization of all the work on maintaining, monitoring and repairing even the new super-cool path, the music will not be playing for long, and very soon it will roll back into the funeral march. That is why, instead of setting up normal management processes and controlling the movement along a new highway (as in the damned Scoop), the heroine quickly changes her profile, stating that the railways are no longer interested in her and now she already has a new project - vacuum engines.
Rapid loss of interest in their work and instantaneous jump from one to another - the first sign of professional illiteracy. A real expert, as a person who thinks and observes, will never get bored with his main work, as new subtleties, subtle details of the process constantly appear in the field of view, new technologies emerge - and you can improve and improve your favorite business endlessly. But no, the author practically calls for everything in the world to be done as it is now happening in the development of websites and mobile applications:
1. I do not know anything, but let's go like this! First, it is beautiful ...
2. Phew, it seems to work out - run away!
3. Hey guys, and who will serve? - Sorry, and we already have a new project.
4. Damn, so nothing works the way you need for technology. - Ok, so order us a redesign from scratch for the Sixthillion rubles. Rebranding and brandbook - as a gift, as a regular customer.
5. Eternal profit!
What simple idea do I try to convey with the help of this article and all the verbose allegories? I just assert that the existing technologies and processes in any business today have become so complex that it became impossible to comprehend in a couple of hours the people who are far from this business could meet, no matter what they call themselves: business analysts, project managers, designers or art directors. The world is a million times more complicated than it seems, if you look at it through the bottom of a glass for a smoothie.
I urge that all the initial design and writing of a complete TK for any information system, as well as creating all the content and drawing sketches, prototypes, sketches, mockups (whatever you like), would be created entirely on the side of the customer, only his staff specialists with decades of experience in the industry . And only in this case, the information structure and logic of the processes will be built correctly and correctly. Only the cultivation of UX-experts in your team of the most experienced and respected professionals, yet your Axure and Balsamic are not so difficult to master.
Well, as an alternative, you can also consider hiring a studio designer for six months, with the entire working cycle from the girl operator at the station to the head of the logistics department. Only such an immersion can give hope that the output will be a truly “smart system”, and not a dribble-hand-made article that no font game will save.
I can guarantee little in my life with the same gigantic degree of confidence as the statement that if you put your art director for a month at the “last mile” workplace, be it a mechanic, a sales assistant, an operator, a courier, a loader - with staging on their standard salary of 15-20 thousand rubles ($ 200 per month), there are a lot of illusions about how it will be easy, convenient and pleasant for all these people to work in the new beautiful interface, how they will be happy to fill in completely all data and read all reports and alerts systems What a pleasure to navigate through information products - scatter like smoke. Yes, yes, just give them a month to skip all this through themselves, to feel the pleasure with which the most ordinary people will evaluate their work - and all the mockery of the “play with fonts” requests will end by themselves. And moral morale will begin. And in a couple of months, the long-awaited understanding will come that it is here that you can automate and algorithmize. It is then that it is worthwhile to launch the graphic editor for the first time and make initial sketches.
In general, in my opinion, it is very easy to train or find a good designer - you just need to see how much time he spends on his MacBook. If your potential project disappears for days (months) in the “field conditions” - at the customer’s facilities, it constantly makes appointments with the pros in the area under study, constantly takes over the negotiations and armed with piles of papers with the headings “Technical Process ...”, “Organization Chart”, “ The structure of the company ... "arranges brainstorming with a development team with arguments and fights - this is the best designer. At least he is trying to understand what he has to do and how it will work. Well, if a person just sits on a chair and draws buttons smoothly and intently - everything, wait for the imminent disaster of the entire project in the very near future and try, while you have time, take off maximum responsibility for what is happening. And yes, it is imperative to insist on a large prepayment, because according to the results of the work, when the customer finally sees your illustrations and understands everything, the remaining money will most likely not be received anymore.
As you know, the requirements for modern information systems have increased significantly. Now she is obliged to automate the process, process data, algorithmically sort information flows, and even make some independent conclusions about everything that happens. And for this you need to plunge into the topic as deeply as possible, you need to follow the rule of “10 thousand hours”, which was spent not on drawing buttons on the screen, but on understanding the subtleties and hidden logic of all processes in the customer’s company. If this is not done, then the final situations will turn out exactly as in the above-described comedy film, with the only difference that real life is not at all like the erotic fantasies of a lonely middle-aged female teacher or illustrator who has abandoned a technical university.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/293900/
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