So I had a conversation. Sadly, a pretty typical conversation. One that happens on a weekly or at least semi monthly frequency. It went something like this …

*note names have been changed and the overall topic has been changed as well, but hopefully you’ll get the idea.

Here we go

Jeremy Smarterton · Product Manager
We have a new feature! It’s called “The Big Awesome Yellow Button.”

Sam Francisco · Designer
Oh cool! Sounds like fun. One might even say awesome!?

Jeremy Smarterton · Product Manager
Exactly! We dont’ want to hinder your creativity but, we just want a button, and it will do this awesome thing.

Sam Francisco · Designer
What’s the awesome thing?

Jeremy Smarterton · Product Manager
IT WILL STOP A THING FROM DOING WHAT IT DOES!

Sam Francisco · Designer
Oh, nice, so like a big yellow stop button?

Jeremy Smarterton · Product Manager
Kinda, but it also starts that thing back up.

Sam Francisco · Designer
Oh like a big yellow pause button?

Jeremy Smarterton · Product Manager
Kinda, but you can schedule how long it will be stopped, not paused, stopped.

Sam Francisco · Designer
Oh like a big yellow snooze button?

Jeremy Smarterton · Product Manager
NO. It’s not a snooze button! It’s a stop button that let’s you choose how long it’s stopped and then will restart the thing after said amount of time has lapsed, or if you choose you can also restart the thing from where you last stopped it. It’s AWESOME!

Sam Francisco · Designer
Gotcha. A big button that’s yellow in color and performs Stop, Start, and Schedule all at the same time.

2 HOURS LATER

Sam Francisco · Designer
Whaddya think? It’s contextual, it knows what state it’s currently in and provides a smart option. And if you long press on it, you can schedule when it will start back up!

Jeremy Smarterton · Product Manager
That’s great, but I think the user might get confused if it doesn’t have a label, and also if it’s not really like 3 buttons in one. Can we try one big awesome button that’s really three buttons in one?

Sam Francisco · Designer
Well, I guess, but I’d like to try some usability testing and maybe validate your hypothesis.

Jeremy Smarterton · Product Manager
We don’t really have time for that, we want to get it into the next release.

Sam Francisco · Designer
We could do the test in like 2 hours, I can just do a quick prototype and run downstairs. There are like 100 people downstairs right now.

Jeremy Smarterton · Product Manager
I’ve already written the user stories and passed it to dev, we really just need a visual reference.

Sam Francisco · Designer
I see. A big yellow button, that is really 3 buttons in one, but it’s secretly 3 distinct buttons.

Jeremy Smarterton · Product Manager
Perfect! I can’t wait to see what you come up with!

15 MINUTES LATER

Sam Francisco · Designer
What do you think? It’s exactly what you asked for.

Jeremy Smarterton · Product Manager
Where are the labels? I think it needs labels.

Sam Francisco · Designer
I did what you asked. What do you think?

Jeremy Smarterton · Product Manager
That’s great. But do you think they should just be 3 different buttons. It looks kind of odd to have them all as one big button. And can we make them more blueish? I don’t like them as yellow, and what if we removed the icons and just had the labels.

5 MINUTES LATER

Sam Francisco · Designer
Alright, I pulled the buttons apart, removed the labels and gave them a blueish tint.

Sam Francisco · Designer
Oops, I meant icons. :P

Jeremy Smarterton · Product Manager
Oh wow! That’s perfect! I just have to run it by the marketing team and executive teams and make sure they are ok with it.

Sam Francisco · Designer
Great, my afternoon is pretty free, what time do you want to demo?

Jeremy Smarterton · Product Manager
Oh we don’t need to waste your time with this, I’ll let you know if they have any changes.

THE NEXT DAY

Jeremy Smarterton · Product Manager
I just met with marketing and the executive team and a couple other stakeholders. They have a couple of quick changes.

Sam Francisco · Designer
Ok. what needs to be changed?

Jeremy Smarterton · Product ManagerThe labels, Start, Stop, Schedule should be GO, BRAKE, PARKED.

Sam Francisco · Designer
Parked? Hmmm? Are they trying to force a driving theme?

Jeremy Smarterton · Product Manager
Yes, and they would like to have them all follow stoplight themes, so Green, Red and Yellow. Really activate the brand, you know.

Sam Francisco · Designer
So which one is red and which one is yellow?

Jeremy Smarterton · Product Manager
What do you mean?

Sam Francisco · Designer
Well parked is like the ultimate stopped and brake is like stopped or stopping.

Jeremy Smarterton · Product Manager
Brake is red obviously and parked is yellow.

Sam Francisco · Designer
Why not, makes sense. I’m on it.

Jeremy Smarterton · Product Manager
This looks great! I’m sure our users will love it! Thanks!

Sam Francisco · Designer
Happy to be of service.

IS THERE A BETTER WAY?

What does it all mean?

Well, honestly not much. This is a pattern that has been pretty prevalent in many of the companies I’ve worked for and most of the projects I’ve worked on. There have also been the exceptions, where problems or features were presented at a high level, and solutions were explored and tested. This was written from a place of frustration, and really meant to just document some of the silliness that can happen in a day : day designers life.

What would I have done differently? For something like this, I would have tested it. In a perfect world I would have done some usability tests up front, but would also have ideally tested in the real world with actual users. The solution the designer presented at the beginning of this, was not the best solution (relying on discovery), but it was worth testing. The final result was clearly not the correct solution, but somewhere in between, I think there were meritous solutions worth exploring.

I am biased and want to side with the designer in this situation, but honestly, we should be working with and for the user. They are the ones that are impacted. We need to think less about our individual goals and biases, and really strive to work for the good of our users. We are not our users. I don't have an answer for how to fix this, but I think knowing that is at least a start. Thanks for reading!