Feature Requirements and Other Big Decisions
February 2nd, 2006 Rachel
I could make this post really short and just sum it up in one sentence.
"Feature requirements are haaaaaaaard…."
But, instead, I’d like to delve a little deeper than that and go through why the process of outlining and writing down what you want is not as easy as it may seem.
Any really good website looks seem less. I’m not a web designer, I don’t play one on t.v. and I would never pretend to have the knowledge or skills to put a proper web page together (emphasis on the word "proper", which could also say "use-able"). But I do know what I like. Well, sorta. I know that some websites make me say "ooooooh", others can insight a gag reflex, and still others could make me want to throw my computer out the window, or at least click away.
So, after many years of "yes, no, I like it, ew, that’s awesome!, why’d they do that?, etc, etc" one of the first things Court and I had to accomplish before we can really get the ball rolling is figuring out *what we want*. That sounds so simple…but it’s kind of like asking a person what they look for in a significant other. It’s easy to write down everything you want/don’t want/could live it/can’t stand, but in the end it really comes down to this: "I’ll know it when I see it."
But that’s a pretty frustrating place for anyone to try to build a website from, so our list was indeed necessary. So, we took the bare bones list Adam so kindly provided based on our brief discussions, and we expanded. We drew lines out, made sub lists, doodled, played with how the page might look, scribbled random notes (and a couple of inside jokes) and in the end had quite a long list of things we were looking for. But that won’t be it. This list, which I later carefully typed up and submitted to our development team will not be the final product - and that’s probably the best mindset we could have taken. By writing in pencil, scribbling outside the lines and jotting down notes at all different angles, this was a much more fun exercise than it could have been.
The most important thing to keep in mind was that we were not in charge of coming up with the solution. In order for Slava and Adam to be able to do their job right, they need the request (or problem) to which they then respond with a solution. It’s not as easy as saying "I want *that*, make it like *that*", but at the same time there’s no need to know all the technical jargon of what we’re asking for because that is what the Dev guys are responsible for. We’ll pick some of it up along the way, but pondering over fried bananas and chocolate ice cream (mmmmmmm) what the correct term is for an email that is sent to a person when they register for the site will hinder the process of just free flowing the ideas/desires onto paper.
Next week we’ll have a few examples of possible logos to look at. Should be fun!
