I’ve been re-reading the great book The Checklist Manifesto, and I’m thinking about how some of the ideas in the book can be applied to UX design. I think the primary reasons to apply a checklist-based process is to ensure quality, reduce confusion, and have consistency. Is that something that we designers can benefit from? Absolutely.
There’s other benefits to such and approach, and here’s some of them:
It forces focus. Instead of a hundred things you have to do on a project, when you work from and off a checklist… You do one thing at a time. A checklist forces your focus.
It’s modal. Not only does a checklist make you focus, it supports modal work well. Too often we over think things, and worry get preoccupied by the next step. That’s robbing attention away from what you should be doing right now. Like a very famous Jedi once said, focus on where you are and what you are doing…
It’s direct, not passive. One of my arch villains when it comes to writing is the dreaded passive voice. It creeps in to my writing way too often and I have to fight it every time I put my thoughts down in words. The great thing about a checklist is it is by nature action-oriented. A checklist item can’t be passive… And so using a checklist promotes a direct, action-oriented process.
It’s clear when Done happens. On too many design projects time slips away, and people spend way too much time naval-gazing and cogitating. Whereas, if you have an action-oriented checklist… Well, you can have a lot more clarity around when that activity/task is “done.” In combination with a reasonable timeframe, a design checklist can produce solid results and reduce useless iteration and cogitation.
When it comes to formalizing a checklist to reflect a design process, one key thing to keep in mind is any good process needs to be executed by (and is reliant on) people. If you craft a process that is heavily focused on writing user stories, and no one on your team is good at writing such stories… Well, you need to rethink your process. Make sure all the steps in your checklist are pragmatic, practical and can be done with the people you have on your team… Otherwise you may be biting off more than you can chew.
The main thing is, if you haven’t read The Checklist Manifesto, do it. It’s a great read, with lots of applicable lessons in any domain, not just UX.