(or why waterfall process doesn’t really work for design)
C
oming back from the Euro IA Conference, where I had perfect conditions to reflect on what is really designing for the web, a lasting intuition I had for several months could really manifest itself. As I was listening to my Information Architects colleagues talking about their experiences on designing interfaces, it became clear to me: we are trained to think in a linear way, but it’s not natural. Our natural way of thinking is cyclic.
As I was preparing my talk before the EuroIA Conference on the benefits of integrating the Natural Planning Model (from David Allen’s GTD productivity method) into Information Architecture and User Interface design, it became obvious that we must often remind ourselves that Design is a practice, not a process. The work life is sometimes so dense and complicated (multiple projects, multiple contacts, multiple cultures…) that companies and experts had to come up with some normalized procedures in order to give a bit of order to the chaos. The problem is that we often think that our work consists in mastering the procedures more than the practice itself. We even think that our work IS the procedure. And since most of procedures are linear, most of the time we think in a linear way.
Power Point is probably one of the worst contributions to the modern human mind of the last fifty years.
About PPT, you can also read LeMonde.fr "PowerPoint, c'est du cinéma"
Let me give you an example. In marketing agencies, the national sport is to generate presentations using Microsoft Power Point. Marketers and account managers make Power Point presentations all the time to explain strategies and tactics to their clients. Power Point is based on a linear system: one slide after the other, you have to drive other people minds into a step-by-step thinking process. In result, it creates a very narrow view of the subject, with an introduction, a development and a conclusion. But strategies are never linear (or it’s not a strategy). Why presenting a strategy should be linear though? In this matter, the linear approach of Power Point is one of the worst contributions to the modern human mind.
As we all have experienced it in building projects, during the phase designers call brainstorming (or as one prefers, Ideating) nothing is linear. It’s chaos — hopefully driven chaos. Ideas are generated in an almost random way. They come and go quickly, resonate in multiple directions, bumping on each others, creating movement and turbulence. This apparent chaos generates large and small cyclic waves of thinking: by iterating multiples times on concepts, organization can progressively be generated. Ideas are cyclically reviewed multiple times until they finally make sense. This chaos seems to be accepted as an exception in the over-regulated context of projects.
We’re just not linear beings. We are cyclic beings.
But if we look around for a moment, everything is the nature is cyclic, not even mentioning the movement of the Earth itself… everything we do is also cyclic: building, sleeping, procreating, eating (should I also mention bowel movements…?) When we have a discussion with friends, the flow of the ideas is never linear, it’s always something way more complex than a line. There is no introduction, no development and rarely a conclusion. The perception that things are linear is an illusion that leads us to aberrations, like good or bad, right or wrong, past or future, mind vs. body, here or there… Even in quantum physics, the notion of “here and now” is not linear. We’re just not linear beings. We are cyclic beings.
At work, linear procedures seem heavy, rigid. They are complicated to managed and often boring. They are never adaptative, and in consequence they feel often outdated.
On the other hand, cyclic practices are exciting, inspiring. They are of course subject to change, and create unexpected solutions. They are flexible and evolutive. In the practice of design, as we progress in a project, we should consider that what we have done before is subject to change. This is one of the great things the “Getting Things Done” practice can bring: a fluid approach to things, a flexible way to design, a place where things are not right or wrong, but simply subject to change.
Original sketch by Katiekills on Flickr: Flickr.com/photos/katiekills
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Great site. Linear as opposed to cyclic thinking. Devoted my PhD research to that subject (www.researchinarchitecture.com). Our world would look much better if designers, and especially architects would start to think more cyclical
Thanks. I wish I could read Deutch so I could explore your research. Looks very interresting.
My PhD research research is available in English as well: www.researchinarchitecture.com (please spread the word…)
Very true - PowerPoint has taken much of the joy out of presenting ideas, because it's hard work to linearise a UX project idea and sell it. You can do small changes that way, but a radical overhaul also needs an interactive model, which PPT can only do if you are very well versed in it.
I notice in passing that this is yet another UX/design blog written by a Frenchman in English.
Recently I made two texts that follow the same path of thought, I would like to share it with you:
Design as the Creation and Manipulation of Models and Ontologies::
http://luiscarli.com/research/design,-models-and-ontologies/
Custom Coded Design tools:
http://luiscarli.com/research/custom-coded-design-tools/
I like the way you call "Linear Thinking" and "Cyclic Thinking".
Sometimes we feel a bit confused about our way to manage, think, create, but even when we try, we can not understand exactly what's happening, why we'r thinking in this specific way, because thinking is an ASAP action, its automatic, come directly from some place on our brain that we cant control. So you just think, and a lot of times you even dont know what made you reach to some idea, but you know you is thinking.
In my vision, "giving name" for this concepts is the best way i know to address some question accurately. Otherwise, how could you change your way to think if you even know what is YOUR way?
While I am an adept of iteratiive workflows and Agile methodologies, the arguments you use in your essay are somehow not convincing — for an audience that would need convincing.
You say that everything can be seen as cyclical, but one could posit everything as linear… A story, a movie, a book, or even life itself have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Powerpoint is just a tool, how it is used depends on the speaker.
I guess what I am trying to say is that this is a sophist point of view. One could declare one statement, and its reverse.
While I agree that we could say that we are not linear in our thinking, I believe going from that to saying Powepoint is one of the worst contributions is a bit far-fetched in my humble opinion.
Having said that, a lot of times there is a need for linear presentations. While our minds may be shooting ideas in all directions in a clearly NOT linear way, our speech is linear and so we must organize the ideas in such way to communicate them.
Otherwise we would simply spit random concepts and thoughts as they come into our heads and while that might make a lot of sense to us, it would be impossible for our audience to understand it.
I also believe that categorizing one way or another of thinking in terms of inspiring, boring, rigid, fluid has nothing to do with whether the process is linear or not. You could have a boring and uninspired brainstorming session and at the same time have a fluid linear presentation or the other way around, so this association to each thinking model is in my opinion not true.
Still, this article certainly gave me a kick to rethink a few ideas of my own, so I thank you for that.
Well I do agree with you on the linear vs cyclical thinking, the PPT example you used is not the best. Power Point Presentation is a just a means to an end.
For example, when writing the article: Cyclic and Linear Thinking. You must have jotted down some ideas/brainstorm as to what the argument or case is. This brainstorming necessarily should not be linear but random or cyclic (more of chaos).
But because Humans are rational beings, presenting such a chaos of ideas to them may not breed proper appreciation and understanding of the presentation. So you'll have to organize the ideas in a logical manner capable of being understood. And usually this is often done in a linear way(sets of points on slides/pages) to help build idea upon idea and at the end, there's order or rationale. As you rightfully put it in another context your article http://design.activeside.net/why-designers-should-seek-complexity.
Regardless of PPT, your point is well made, Design is a practice, not a process.
I tend to agree with the last few post.
Great article though and you had me completely captivated until the 2nd paragraph when you got into PowerPoint. As some of the others expressed when dealing with a presentation of any kind there must be balance and order. PPT is just a tool that helps an audience digest little tidbits of information at a time. If we were to try and present in the same manner as we had received the original ideas then it would be utter chaos. A presentation is the culmination of all your ideas condensed down into its simplest form. It needs to be simple, neat and easy to grasp. PPT accomplishes that and that's why it has been so successful for so long.