By Nishant Kothary CHAPTER 12- Stakeholders generally want to be upstanding citizens of the design
process even if their behavior may seem to indicate otherwise.
Learn to read between the lines to influence the natural propensity
of humans to want to do good. - The worst goal you can set for yourself is to be the best. The best
goal you can set for yourself is to (always) be better. There’s a subtle,
but profound difference. - Nobody is immune to irrational behavior. And no matter how much
you try, you will never eliminate it in yourself or others. The best
approach to dealing with irrationality is to set checks and balances
in place to detect and manage it (especially for yourself). Learn to
self-monitor and along the way ask yourself questions like, “Am I
unknowingly in my own optical illusion right now?” - People discount the future. That is, we are wired to be short-term
thinkers. This is why promises of the long-term benefits of a design
generally never serve as convincing arguments.
I have many more heuristics that I haven’t listed. And it’s worth
pointing out that my intention for listing the above is certainly not to make
you feel cheated; after all, I haven’t provided relevant experiences and
arguments for over half of these. Rather, my intention is to make a critical
point: while the above heuristics have served me well, they are not hard and fast
rules, and I often need to break them.
In the past few years I’ve become particularly passionate about
spreading what I’ve learned. In my own little way, I’ve written about
certain perspectives on my blog, and presented some of these concepts
at conferences. During this time, I’ve been approached by a number of
people, including a few publishers, urging me to write articles, even books
about the topic. But most of these conversations quickly converge on one
question: what are the best practices that can resolve these problems once
and for all?