Media: Cooper looks at Offshore Outsourcing and Design

"Designing products for offshore development" by Dave Cronin is the right thing at the right time: a consideration of the impact of outsourcing in its most extreme form.

It looks at the topic broadly, but the implications for usability and UCD shine through. For example, Cronin says: 'Further complicating the need for clear and complete product design and documentation is the fact that the use of offshore development changes the whole collaboration dynamic. Just about every design and development methodology I've ever heard of agrees on the fact that the most efficient and effective way to convey information and drive decisions is through face-to-face conversation.

'As a designer, I never feel particularly confident about a solution until I've shared it with the person responsible for building it and he has poked it and kicked it around…which is next to impossible when the person responsible for building it is in Bangalore and I'm in California.'

Plenty to think about here...

Associated Link: Cooper: Designing products for offshore development

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