Start with Needs*
Digital service design starts with identifying user needs. If you are unsure what your audience requires, you will be unable to produce the correct product.
-
Don't make assumptions – do research, analyse data and talk to your audience.
-
Have empathy for users.
-
Remember what users ask for, may not always be what they actually need.
*User needs not the Museum's needs.
Understand Context
As part of our user design, we need to think about how and where our audience is receiving this information.
Are they in a gallery? Are they on a mobile device? Are they only familiar with Facebook? Are they in an area with limited connectivity?
These factors influence the way our audience interprets information.
By considering this, we are able to produce the most suitable service to deliver information to our intended audience.
This is for Everyone
Accessible design is good design.
We are providing a resource for all Western Australians. This includes people who may have digital disadvantages, such as physical and contextual limitations.
We need to create services that allows our audiences to access, understand, and use the information we are delivering.
This means considering our audience during development and meeting AAA accessibility standards in our delivery.
Build Digital Services, Not Websites
A service is something that helps someone do something.
While a lot of our work will create web pages, this is a byproduct of our core job – to uncover what our audience needs and to build a service that meets those needs.
Design with Data
By looking at external examples of existing services, we can learn social behaviours and trends define digital use.
Let research and data influence decision making.
This process should continue after the service is made live through user-testing. Analytics should be built-in to the service and easy to comprehend.
Do the Hard Work to Make it Simple
Making something look simple is easy. Making something simple to use is much harder — especially when the underlying systems are complex.
Don’t take “It’s always been that way” as an answer. It’s usually more and harder work to make things simple, but it’s the right thing to do.
Iterate. Then Iterate Again.
The best way to build a good service is to start small and iterate wildly. Iteration reduces risk. It makes big failures unlikely and turns small failures into lessons.
-
Release a minimum viable product early so it can be tested with actual users.
-
Move from Alpha to Beta to Live adding features, deleting things that don’t work, and making refinements based on feedback.
-
If a prototype isn’t working, don’t be afraid to start again.
Be Consistent, not Uniform
We want people to recognise and become familiar with our services. Using similar language and design patterns helps to achieve this.
When this isn’t possible we will still ensure that our approach is consistent and representative of the Museum.
However, every circumstance is different. We should change when we find better ways of doing things, if our audience needs change, or if it inhibits the content's delivery.
Focus on the Core
The WA Museum should only do what the WA Museum can do.
If we have found a way of doing something that works, we should make it reusable.
This means:
-
Building platforms and collection datasets that can be built upon.
-
Providing resources (like APIs) that others can use.
-
Linking to and making appropriate use of the work of others.
Make Things Open: It Makes Things Better
We should share what we’re doing whenever we can. With colleagues, with our audience, and with the world.
Share code, share designs, share ideas, share intentions, share failures.
The more eyes there are on a service, the better it gets. Mistakes are spotted and better alternatives are discussed.
Much of what we’re doing is only possible because of open source code and the generosity of the web design community. We should pay that back.