Complex design involves waves of improvisation. You start with what you know, then try out ideas until you find something that works. As designers succeed or fail at successive designs, they gain experiential knowledge, that allows them to assess new situations quickly and to understand which design elements will work or fail in that situation. But any recipe-for-success fails when we are faced with an unusual situation. The patterns that fit specific circumstances and uses are no use when we encounter novelty. The problem with design is then – as the Princess said – you have to kiss an awful lot of frogs to get a Prince!

We can’t just treat each new design as technology configuration, following the rules and looking for the right algorithm. People will just avoid using your apps. Most design is a social problem: different stakeholders have totally different points of view. What they perceive to be the problem depends on where they are in the organization. We need to investigate what various people want our design to do, why, and for what purpose they need it, before we can define the technology to support their activities.

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