Shaping creation

The world I work in is about creating a vision, and about doing absolutely everything to make that vision shine through.

Some call that world simply website design - but how boring and unpretentious! (would you want to work there?) I prefer to call it: the passion and art of creating interaction.

"Art" has something hard to define - something in the creation process that lays outside your normal perception. Something ordinary people cannot understand, let alone conceive.

But wait, isn't the building of a website based on clearly defined business goals, measurable user research and best practices in design and programming?

This is all true. But the reality is that good interaction only results from synthesis. That is where art comes into play. Synthesis - weaving threads into something new and meaningful - is a lot more difficult than analysis.

Strangely enough most teams are not set up to develop synthesis.

Having a team of specialists is not enough. Having T-Shaped people to bridge the disciplines isn't either. Having team members talk Scrum doesn't cut it either: again too much analysis.

To generate synthesis you will have to introduce the glue right into the working process. Have people really work together on a problem. Stop letting people work alone on a task. Leverage their differences. Make them see your vision. Let them define their shared goal and make them responsible, together.