Hi All,
A small contribution.
At CRI we routinely measure the performance of the designs we create.
We collect:
• baseline data on the performance of artefacts before we redesigns them
• during design developmen of new prototyps
• during monitoring designs in use after implementation.
A number of observations on this are possible:
All designs measured in this way begin to deteriorate in performance, some within six months of implementation
Mostly the causes of this deterioration could not be foreseen
One of the most interesting reasons for deterioration is that the humanly invented rules for using information—the conventions and genres of document, etc. change in new and unexpected ways. This is akin to the way in which language usage changes over time. These rules are not subject to any known mechanism of causality. They fall into a category, like much of culture, which is none-predictable as opposed to things that fall into the category of unpredictable.
There is a limited role for statistics, beyond simple counting and percentages, in this realm. But counting and percentages are important.
David
--
blog: http://communication.org.au/blo <http://communication.org.au/blo>g/
web: http://communication.org.au <http://communication.org.au/>
Professor David Sless BA MSc FRSA
CEO • Communication Research Institute •
• helping people communicate with people •
Mobile: +61 (0)412 356 795
Phone: +61 (03) 9005 5903
Skype: davidsless
60 Park Street • Fitzroy North • Melbourne • Australia • 3068
-----------------------------------------------------------------
PhD-Design mailing list <[log in to unmask]>
Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design
Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|