Comments on: We Need That Tomorrow http://www.rubberbandwound.com/2007/03/30/we-need-that-tomorrow/ Christopher Warren on Ruby on Rails, Programming, Photography, and Life Fri, 30 Jul 2010 18:36:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.3 By: brandonschauer http://www.rubberbandwound.com/2007/03/30/we-need-that-tomorrow/#comment-136 brandonschauer Fri, 30 Mar 2007 16:29:53 +0000 http://www.rubberbandwound.com/2007/03/30/we-need-that-tomorrow/#comment-136 Interesting to hear that this topic got so stuck in your head. And you're right that the gut reaction to not even listen to the request gets more intense the closer you get to project completion. Your post brought another thought to mind about the truly unreasonable request, e.g., "... and my daughter said we have to have a weather widget!" These certainly do happen, and sometimes there's no "best solution" for them. I think that's why I really like to develop design criteria that evolve throughout a project. Just simple statements about what you <i>are</i> doing so you can also be clear about what you <i>aren't</i> doing. Flickr is nice enough to <a href="http://flickr.com/about/" rel="nofollow">post some of their design criteria</a> right on the site. Simple statements like these can help deflect the truly dumb ideas. Interesting to hear that this topic got so stuck in your head. And you’re right that the gut reaction to not even listen to the request gets more intense the closer you get to project completion.

Your post brought another thought to mind about the truly unreasonable request, e.g., “… and my daughter said we have to have a weather widget!” These certainly do happen, and sometimes there’s no “best solution” for them. I think that’s why I really like to develop design criteria that evolve throughout a project. Just simple statements about what you are doing so you can also be clear about what you aren’t doing. Flickr is nice enough to post some of their design criteria right on the site. Simple statements like these can help deflect the truly dumb ideas.

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