The Unplugged

Recently, I ran across this book, "The Unplugged" by Ruven Meulenberg, which was listed on Amazon.com and promoted by GuiMags.com. I was intrigued by the tag line "join a new breed of developers that don't use computer. Much." The acknowledgements page thanks a couple of well known usability experts like Seth Godin and Jakob Nielsen for putting their ideas into writing.

After reading the first chapter entitled "Timing Change" and 5 additional pages regarding "Insights from the 'Planning Principle,'" the author appears to promote more upfront flexible planning much like design sprints and sprint zero in Agile. The author advises not to eliminate change and force a "lock down" agreement (i.e. contract) which is typical for those who oppose the "contractual" nature found in waterfall development processes. At the same time, the author notes that there is a need to do more planning and emphasizes that it is cheaper to make change earlier in the creative process rather than jump headlong into development too early when all of the angles have not been properly considered. One would surmise that the author may ultimately propose the use of iterative prototyping using tools like GUI Mags and GUI boards.

Moreover, in some other selected pages, the author goes on to endorse the use of storyboarding. In the early creative phases, one should avoid the use of technology which may bound the designer to widgets and styles defined by the tool. Tools like VISIO or Illustrator may bound your thinking into a narrow concept of an idea. Hence, one should be unplugged from the computer which may enforce some unwanted constraints on the creative process.

Overall, the small snippets that I have been able to read appear to point to good guidance in the design process. I hope to obtain access and read the book in its entirety to assess the quality of the methodologies proposed.