Advanced technological and 3D-graphical solutions

This list is a guide with some general advice on design and development whether it concerns products, services or systems. These advices spring from experience rather than just theoretical reasoning. They come from experiences developed in a diversity of environments and projects and are based on real-world results rather than academic surveys. The list is made in no special order, and some advice may exist in several places with just some varying formulations.  And remember – they are advices, not absolute rules. Enjoy.

/Jan Danielsson, Dynatech-2

• Look at real-world functions and mimic.
• Flexibility / ease of use – make everything you can customizable, but provide pre-made templates.
• Complex tools get admired, simple tools get used.
• A good tool is one that gets used – period.
• Conventions, traditions and rules
  • To constructively break a rule, you need to know it.
  • If you know a rule too well, you’ll have trouble breaking it.
  • Humans are creatures of habits.
  • Just because you’ve come up with a new way of doing something – don’t think your users will change their ways.
  • Don’t expect your users to be innovators just because you are one.
  • Everybody can learn and re-learn – but most don’t want to.
  • Users are conservative.
  • If there are conventions – use them – don’t work against the users’ habits.
  • Don’t always follow conventions.

• Don’t just think outside the box – don’t think about boxes at all.
• The best judge of a solution is the everyday user – not the designer or the technician.
• Technology and design are not combatants, they are co-workers – so why are technicians and designers not?
• Don’t let a framework limit you.
• Design – function
  • If a design feature reduces function – don’t use it.
  • If a design feature doesn’t influence function – use it if overall cost is ok.
  • If a design feature adds to function – it really is a design feature.

• “It can’t be done” – that is a really good motivator.
• “Nature always finds a way” – and you’re a part of nature, aren’t you?
• Three parts to every solution – Function, Design, Business.
• Don´t start the design of a race car with making the brakes – but don’t forget to put them in there at some point.
• The optimist makes the engine, the pessimist makes the brakes. The realist makes pedals for gas and brakes, and also puts in a steering wheel.
• Don’t expect your users to appreciate your design before they fully understand it.
• Before you try to solve a problem, make sure you fully understand it, preferably by firsthand experience.
• End users are not always right – but most of the time they do have a point.
• Don’t try to fix things that are working – find solutions to problems instead of looking for problems in working solutions.
• Everybody will tell you not to re-invent the wheel – just think if that advice had been taken seriously by those behind the skateboard or the Rollerblades. Just because there exists a solution to a problem doesn’t mean it is the best one.
• Simple solutions are hard to design – complex solutions are easy.
• If everybody around you say “no” – go look for someone saying “yes”
• If everybody around you say “yes” – go look for someone saying “no”.
• Try not to compromise.
• Sometimes you have to compromise.
• Don’t primarily learn a tool – learn to solve problems (learn methods).
• Don’t chase too long after the perfect tool – the best tools are those you know.
• When developing a product, consider the 4 degrees of use. These are often gradually overlapping.
  • Primary use – the main use the product is made for
  • Secondary use – things necessary to do regularly for primary use to be possible. Things like charging the mobile phone, cleaning a shaving machine, filling gas in the car – regular maintenance etc.
  • Tertiary use – non-regular processes like reparations, customizations, upgrades etc.
  • Indirect use – storage, transportation etc. Processes in which the product takes part, but for which the product is not necessary.

• Standardization should be an aid – not something forced upon all parts of a system
• Automation often increases data (and possibly information) but decreases flexibility
• Humans are one of the most generally adaptable systems there is – don’t forget to utilize them in design, delivery and production processes.
• Specialists and experts usually have a limited view on problems – so when you are asking for advice on a solution don’t forget to ask the “wrong” kind of people, i.e. non-experts and laymen since they often point out things that sometimes get overlooked by others.