Want radical change? Communicate the evidence; help them feel the pain 30 September, 2005
I phoned an old colleague recently to ask his advice about introducing a starkly different design for the website of a fairly conservative organisation. His advice? Redesign based on customer data and communicate the evidence for your choices. The interesting part here is communicating the evidence. It resonated with something I read recently on Austin Govella’s thoughtful blog and an old post by Elizabeth Bacon on the Interaction Design Group list.
Austin points to an interview with Geoff Thull that talks about communicating the value of design:
But if the client doesn’t comprehend the nature of the problem, which is often the case, your elegant explanation of solutions just flies over the client’s head …
whilst Elizabeth draws on her own experiences learnt on an extension course:
Rather than putting forth your value proposition up-front, a powerful way to approach your situation is to make your supes FEEL THE PAIN of their current way of doing things *first*. It’s only when people recognize the *cost* of their behaviors that they tend to embrace change, accept risk, and otherwise look for new solutions.
As designers we often don’t realise the privileged position we’re in. We understand the problem intimately because we’ve built the solution. Take a step back and bring others into that position. Help them to feel the pain so that we’re more likely to succeed in making it better.