program selection system

Program Guide Description:

At Salesforce.com a waterfall-based process bogged down our first attempt at generating a traditional pattern library. In keeping with our development team’s agile transformation we revisited the process and invented Postcard Patterns – a highly visual, easy to maintain, and easy to produce communication tool.

Attendees will learn how to:
Identify Their Audience:
Who needs the patterns?
De-construct Their Application:
What are the unique building blocks?
Organize The Building Blocks: Identify groupings, themes, hierarchies and variations
Author A Postcard Pattern: Choose one building block and create a postcard pattern

End Description (85 words)

Full Description

What it is:
Traditionally, creating and maintaining a pattern library has been a daunting task requiring extensive resources and, sometimes, dedicated full-time employees. At Salesforce.com our first attempt at producing a comprehensive library was bogged down by a waterfall-based creation and review process that yielded only two patterns in a six-month period. At this rate we would never approach completion.

In keeping with our development team’s agile transformation we revisited the process and invented Postcard Patterns – highly visual, single-page documents that allow design teams to efficiently and effectively drive consensus across teams with a lean, easy to maintain, and easy to produce communication tool. In contrast to our previous pace, we have recently produced 40+ patterns in less than three months.

Attendees will learn how to:
Identify Their Audience
Who needs these patterns? Designers, developers, product owners, product managers, customers, and quality assurance, or all of the above?

De-construct Their Application
What are the unique building blocks in your current application? You will focus on one page (or screen) and work with your team to break it down into meaningful chunks.

Organize The Building Blocks
Identify groupings, themes, hierarchies and variations

Author A Postcard Pattern
You’ll choose one of the building blocks and create a postcard pattern that outlines the most important features.

Why it’s important:
Software is complicated, development teams are complicated and, increasingly, development teams are geographically dispersed.

Communication, consistency and efficiency are of paramount importance. Without stifling innovation or “wasting” resources, Postcard Patterns aid the integration of diverse development teams of developers, designers, quality assurance engineers, usability engineers, documentation specialists, product managers, and their respective roles on scrum teams.

Who it’s for:
- Product Owners, Product Designers, User Experience Professionals (UI Designers, Researchers, Analysts, Information Architects), and Developers with an interest in design and creating UI frameworks
- Design professionals working on all forms of application development – from large-scale enterprise applications to consumer-oriented mobile applications.

Why it’s Agile:
Adaptive – Works for projects big and small
Lean and Simple – Finish with single-page deliverables
Collaborative – Get team members involved in the design early and keep them involved
Motivating – Get yourself, your team, and your customers energized for success
Customer Satisfaction – Workable patterns appear rapidly and continuously

What it’s not:
- A detailed exploration of information architecture techniques for creating a comprehensive taxonomy.
- A detailed analysis of user research methodologies for kick-starting a pattern initiative.
- A business-centered discussion for getting executive support for a pattern initiative.
- A comprehensive overview of all user-centered design practices.