Revisions

I was in a multidisciplinary group a few weeks ago discussing what were the biggest drags on our time. The underlying theme of the meeting was "what can AI do for us" but that's not the point here. Most of the answers made perfect sense – help with meeting notes or organizing information or help scoping/budgeting. These can be tedious tasks that most people would happily give over to someone or something else. And most in the group were probably expecting me to say something like help doing the "mundane aspects of design." But I didn't, because the most unpredictable and potentially time consuming aspect of design is revisions.

It reminded me of a concept I heard on Tim Harford's podcast – "work as imagined" as compared to "work as done." Which means that what I imagine a diesel mechanic's workday to be like isn't necessarily how it goes. And it would be hard for me to assume I know how to save them time. It's one reason that observational research is the most important kind of research in product development. We think we know because it sounds logical, but really we don't.

What everyone else imagined about the design process seemed to be that designing itself is annoying somehow. It isn't. And therefore they missed what is actually the biggest time suck. And there are several reasons for this:

1. Revisions can be unclear
   This happened recently as I got two pages of revisions for a one page piece. Many of the revisions were content questions that I did not have the answers to. Some of them contradicted the other page of revisions I received from someone else. It took a few days to get this sorted out. Tips for giving feedback here and here and here.
   
2. Revisions are unpredictable
   It may seem like a simple request, but in reality your edit might take a couple hours. Is it cosmetic or structural? Remember designers are playing chess, and sometimes your move leads to three more moves. You might decide you want an odd size invitation, but now you need a custom envelope, and I guarantee you're not going to want to pay for that. And this unpredictability leads to #3.
   
3. The time management of revisions can be tricky
   You might get two small copy edits. Or you might get two pages worth of design notes. You might get five edits at one time or one edit each day for five days. Everyone likes to say things like "this should be simple" or "I have a quick edit" or "this will be fast" but see #2 above. You also have other jobs on your schedule and suddenly a hot project stops in for a visit.

There are tons of companies right now promising to "make design easier." They're not. Under the guise of "collaboration" they have made giving feedback easier for the giver, but without anything to check the clarity or quality of all those revisions, this system only creates quantity for designers. They are a necessary part of the process, and not all revisions are bad. Remember to ask yourself, is this note strategic or personal? Are you following the One Rule? Totally normal to correct or update information. But revisions can quite easily take over your day or week.