by Dwayne Phillips<\/p>\n
We often state that we can\u2019t do something. We rarely finish that statement with a reason. The reason usually leads to a solution.<\/strong><\/p>\n Several years ago I was working on a project where we were building a small gadget. The user was to take the gadget outdoors (backyard) and attach it to their grill. We created a design for the gadget, but the response was:<\/p>\n We can\u2019t use that.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Disappointed that the user couldn\u2019t use our wonderful design, we pressed the issue. The response was:<\/p>\n It is too small.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n We were very disappointed as we felt a small gadget was quite an elegant design. We pressed the issue. The response was:<\/p>\n We can\u2019t install it with our hands.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Aha! was the response of one colleague. We\u2019ll do it this way. He quickly drew a tool that would hold the gadget and allow a person to install the gadget easily. The user was happy.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s review the conversation. The user statement went from:<\/p>\n We can\u2019t use that<\/p><\/blockquote>\n to<\/p>\n We can\u2019t use that because it is too small to install with our hands.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The user had finished the \u201cwe can\u2019t\u201d statement. The designers were then able to design something that worked around the user\u2019s situation.<\/p>\n Here are a few more examples:<\/p>\n We can\u2019t use that (because it is too expensive (it won\u2019t fit in this year\u2019s budget))<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Solution<\/strong>: We can spread the cost over the budgets for several years.<\/p>\n We can\u2019t use that (because it is too complex (our current workforce doesn\u2019t understand the controls))<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Solution<\/strong>: We can change the controls and include a video tutorial with it.<\/p>\n The extra statements from the user are not easy to obtain. We have to ask for them; we have to ask for more information. People don\u2019t often like to provide more information, especially if that information explains one of their shortcomings (we can\u2019t install it with our hands, it won\u2019t fit in this year\u2019s budget, our current workforce doesn\u2019t understand the controls, etc.).<\/p>\n Patience and tact are usually required and may not be present.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Dwayne Phillips We often state that we can\u2019t do something. We rarely finish that statement with a reason. The reason usually leads to a solution. Several years ago I was working on a project where we were building a small gadget. The user was to take the gadget outdoors (backyard) and attach it to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,12,53],"tags":[154,135,174],"class_list":["post-1779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-communication","category-design","category-problems","tag-communication","tag-design","tag-problems"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1779"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1780,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1779\/revisions\/1780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}