Most implausible-sounding ideas are in fact bad and could be safely dismissed. But not when they’re proposed by reasonable domain experts. If the person proposing the idea is reasonable, then they know how implausible it sounds. And yet they’re proposing it anyway. That suggests they know something you don’t. And if they have deep domain expertise, that’s probably the source of it.
Crazy New Ideas
So maybe the ultimate lesson is the reminder that not every problem needs to be approached as a blank slate. Humanity has developed some wisdom and insight on a few topics. Before we reinvent the wheel, it’s worth looking back to leverage what we’ve already figured out.
Better Thinking & Incentives: Lessons From Shakespeare
DesignOps refers to the orchestration and optimization of people, processes, and craft in order to amplify design’s value and impact at scale.
The Impact of DesignOps at ServiceNow
Requiring users to click through so many levels to get to specific content usually doesn’t work well. Users easily become lost, distracted, or simply decide it’s too much work and give up.
Flat vs. Deep Website Hierarchies
Not all decisions are binary. Sometimes, reversing the frame leaves out potential ways of considering your options. To understand how people successfully negotiate questions (i.e. figure out what they really want to ask), Taylor studied reference interviews — that’s right, he watched actual reference librarians help people in the library.
From the Canon: Robert Taylor’s Levels of Information Need
Not all decisions are binary. Sometimes, reversing the frame leaves out potential ways of considering your options. In addition to simply reversing the frame, consider additional, more complex alternatives.
The framing effect: how the way information is framed impacts our decisions
To return to my previous silly example, a ketchup bottle in my fridge is evidence that I have ketchup. When seen in sequence with other bottles, it might be evidence that we have too much ketchup and need to stop buying it or that we have plenty of condiments for hot dogs.
Evidence and Antelopes: Buckland’s “Information as Thing”
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