The Creative Catalyst — Part II: Iterative Refinements 1998 - 2003

After ICONOS was sold we continued to work together under new management and our Creative Director Gary Brandenburg continued to develop the Creative Catayst based upon our work of the mid 90s and borrowing from readings on project and software management including the Successive Approximation Model pioneered by Dr. Michael Allen (who would later go on to co-found Macromedia) and from notables in UX such as Jacob Nielsen, Clement Mok and others.

Below is Gary's approach to the iterative design process. In the last year of ICONOS we were primarily designing interactive training for United Airlines and interactive identity standards for 3M. Of course, since then many tools covering design thinking, the agile process, and iterative design have been developed but I believe that the detail and depth that this model explores is one of the best early examples of iterative design. 

The general development cycle of a project is visualized in these diagrams. The relationship between workflow and relative workload is shown below. 

There are four key phases, each with a series of local phases: Focus, Plan, Build and Support.

Whereas earlier in our iterative design process development we had identified four phases (define, design, produce, review), now each of those phases are included as sub-phases with the main four phases. Each project is still a progression of creative problem-solving cycling iteratively within each sub-phase. Each sub-phase encounters the cycle steps from left to right as: 

? needs are defined

? solutions are created

? results are reviewed

At the end of each review cycle you may drop down to the next sub-phase. Or, depending upon any new information that may come to light, you may go back up to previous phases. This cycle is active from the start of the project to completion. It is a feedback loop that keeps the project focused on its original goals. 

Web Design Architecture 

After 1995 we began to consider design factors for our earliest Web projects and the architecture for very skinny content.

Knowledge management 

Adapted from: Managing Knowledge: A Practical Web-Based Approach, 
Appehans, Globe, Laugero

The above diagram looks at the technology of a web system from the viewpoint of knowledge management — what key elements need to be in place to implement a knowledge management solution. With this new distribution channel the focus was always on the user who is focused on finding, understanding and using the content they need, when they need it. The entire system is directed toward that goal. 

Design Principles

Our design model also established sets of principles to follow for each discipline. The disciplines covered here are Interface Design, Content Design and Instructional Design.

Interface principles are those addressing the human factors of usability, attending to a user’s actions, behaviors, expectations and the mistakes that any user might make. 

Content principles focus upon perceptual guidelines, making information accessible by organizing and formatting consistent with how users cognitively receive information by scanning, searching, remembering or visualizing the content.

Instructional design strives to communicate by being meaningful, memorable and motivational. Give the learner a compelling and challenging approach to learning, an activity to engage in and feedback on their performance to create a learning experience that is transformative.

Design ElementsAs with principles, there are also visual elements that a designer can manipulate to give the user a set of useful tools for navigating the software.

Information architecture elements are not just the discrete visual representations of buttons, lists and tabs, but are the rules for how the user models how the software works. It sets the ground rules for interactions and determines if the outcome will be successful.

Online elements also follow basic usability principles that may be different from offline elements. Are search functions always available? Is the URL short yet descriptive? Is the documentation clear and scannable? These elements for online usability help determine the complete browser experience.

?2018 Gregory Daigle