USING DESIGN TO IMPROVE KM
Using
Design to
Improve
KM
by Kate Simpson of Tangledom and Andrea Alliston and
April Brousseau of Stikeman Elliott LLP
Developing software, interfaces and systems that lawyers will use
and engage with requires us to look over the high walls of our
industry and pay attention to what's happening out there on the
Web. It's never been easier to buy books, stream movies, order
groceries, book flights and hotels, and even bank online. Why is it,
then, that finding the right document, the right expert or completing
one's CLE requirements still seems to take an inordinate amount of
effort in our law firms?
The products and services we use and love have undergone
a transformation in the ways they are planned, designed and
developed. Whether you call it user experience (UX), user-centered
design (UCD), interaction design (IxD), information architecture (IA)
or service/business design (for redesigning full business models and
customer experiences), this field has developed into a craft that has
changed the way we experience, interact and engage with websites,
brands and products.
Back in the formative years of the Web (the '90s), we were
completely absorbed by what was possible, by what the
technology could do. Now, however, it's less about how featurerich the technology is, and more about whether it does what we
need it to do. It's about designing tools and services around the
communications and interactions that people really care about.
"When technology precedes requirements and user needs, the UX suffers
— it leads to solutions in search of problems."
— Peter Morville, Semantic Studios