A friend recommended that I read Getting Real by 37signals yesterday.

It was great! Written for small teams building [their own] Web 2.0 apps.  I agreed with much and found some good things to ponder too! Ponder because some of the recommended approaches will be very hard to handle within the traditional client/consultant relationship. The other approaches challenge traditional user-centred design guidelines. Which is just fine with me!

Getting Real:

• p.2 Start with the interface, what the customer experiences and build backwards from there - agreed
• p.2 It’s about iterations, lowering the cost of change - only if it starts from the customers’ point of view
• p.13 Build less features and preferences with a few cooks - don’t waste time
• p.17 Constraints force creativity - and lower expectations!
• p.19 Fix time and budget, flex scope. It’s better to make half a product than a half-assed one! 
• p. 23 Identify the key problem and stay focussed
• p.26 The leaner your are the easier it is to change.

• Less staff
• Fewer long term contracts
• Don’t have meetings about other meetings - oh yes!
• Don’t let the past ruling the future - live in the moment!
• Reduce long-term road maps - don’t live in the future!
• Eliminate office politics

• p.49 Essentials only - customers will make up the rest or ask for it
• p.53 Expose the price of new features. There is always a hidden cost and feature loops, find them - And tell your client!
• p.56 Don’t keep feature request lists from customers. You will never get to the list and if the feature is important they will keep asking - If you have a good feedback mechanism!
• p.58 Ask people what they don’t want - It’s not just about what features they ‘think’ they need.  This is the best idea of this article!
• p70 Test your app via real world usage - People will actually be engaged and if it is built the right way it will be easy to change
• p.72 Shrink your time. Break tasks down into easily manageable chunks - And don’t deliver the whole thing to the client at once!
• p.77 Have alone time at work. Get your right brain activated and don’t get
   distracted - Otherwise you’ll never get anything done or meet deadlines!
• p.94 Epicentre design. Start from the core (or essence) of the page and work out. Forget about building the frames and dropping in content and transactional stuff later.
  
• p.100 Context over consistency. Give people what they need when they need it and get rid of what they don’t need.
  
• p.121 Don’t use lorum ipsum. If you use real words then th copy can be perceived the way it would when it is completed - Then work out how to get clients to focuss on the interactions and design. Instead of the fact that the words are wrong!

Now it’s time to start discussing some of this stuff with my team!