Being an east coaster, well, I've been up since 5AM. Clearly I was not out late enough. And after a cup of Joe with Mr. Hopkins, here I sit, reading a post from Henning and Brandon... tick-tock, tick-tock... wondering just who's coming today, and what the day holds. So, listen to me kill some time...

I had the pleasure of sitting in on Kim's UXI block in Vancouver, and remember clearly the concept of fidelity in design. The art of presenting something that is an effective collaboration and refinement mechanism. And not intimidating. Not final "ta-da" designs - at first - of course they come. But an invitation to refine design thinking as a team - not just inside the business, but outside team, with the client team. Together we create, iterate and refine.

The lesson I got from Kim was was that we often over-design things too early in the process. It's true. We've all done it. And by over develop I mean (and she) - we should be selective in how "polished" we are in a given stage of design. Especially early. Late requires polish. But early - almost never. An evolving model of fidelity gets back to pure design thinking. Quick, open, collaborative.

You know the story - big meeting, you get ready - and you go in and pitch these "great designs". They're so "polished", and your audience is so not Photoshop folks, their business leaders. So you're in a sort of like it or not moment; which is why you go in with 3 or 4 ideas... in case "the one" isn't. And you Mr. Potato Head the thing because they're picking this from that and those from here - but not drawing, not on the board, not iterating - but liking or not, picking or not. Why???

Well, because as a designer - I designed. Designers don't (usually) show half-baked bubble diagrams, wireframes, or models - to clients, do we? I did internally - thought about fidelity that is - anything from a whiteboard to dirty napkins, Visio to Illustrator or Axure... many many times.

Well, now we've turned that energy outward - to "client teams". It's required, that they participate, at every step. Shouldered up, iterating with us... designing together. Our medium expertise, their subject expertise... beautious.

To think deeply about how (and what) we present as a visual concept or idea - and to do it with an ability that invokes a contributory action from the "audience" we're with. For a client to grab a marker or pen and bring you through their thinking... To arrive together, vs. the historical method of picking a direction... thanks Kim.

And that is how you kill 30 minutes.