The development of the Local / Maps section of the Yahoo! website gives a snap-shot of how a structured design process helps Yahoo! manage different projects. After every project is completed, the company agrees evaluation is key to ensuring the process keeps running smoothly.
Tom Wailes, Design Director in Yahoo! Local / Maps & Travel, gave us an example of the design process within Local / Maps. He said the key points in the process are:
- Customer insights – once the target audiences are identified, ethnography and other user research methods are used to uncover needs, issues and opportunities. Key tools used as part of this stage include video cameras
- Brainstorming – designers generate a wide variety of ideas that could address the needs raised during the research. This engages the entire team early on in the process
- Concept visualisation – loosely called the 'show me' process, at this stage core concepts from the brainstorming sessions are developed and communicated through cartoon storyboards, concept simulations and video. This involves discussions and decision-making, and early customer reactions are sought. Tools used at this stage include Flash, Photoshop/Illustrator, paper and pencil, digital camera and video
- Prototyping – interactive prototypes and simulations are completed around the key ideas from the concept visualisation stage. Again, initial customer feedback is sought, and rapid iteration ensues. Flash, AJAX and sketching are commonly used
- Design documentation – depending on project needs, formal wireframes, flow diagrams and other documentation is generated to ensure that the interactions and information architecture is clear. According to Wailes, this is the more typical “tell me” process of detailed, textual requirements, documents and static design specifications. In some cases the requirements of Concept visualisation and Prototyping have already fulfilled the project documentation needs.
Visual project management tools are used extensively to support the development process, with wall charts demonstrating project schedules, progress to date and examples of current design iterations. These areas provide an opportunity for team members to comment and feedback on each others’ work in between project meetings and allow outsiders to gain a rapid understanding of the project status.
For the future, O’Sullivan sees embedding the use of the case study library and planned methods library more firmly into corporate culture as a key challenge. Just as the Agile development process has now become well-liked by all that use it, so he expects the adoption of best practices in the design environment to become well accepted too.
Project evaluation is quite complex at Yahoo!. While every project begins with a business case against which it is measured, the company also carries out extensive user satisfaction research. Also, they make use of the information gathering possibilities offered by the Internet to collect data on a wider range of parameters, such as the duration of visits to particular sites, spend in certain areas and the likelihood of customers recommending services to friends and colleagues.