To fail is to succeed. When we are in school we are taught lessons. We are tested on these lessons and expected to retain the information through our studies, and then as a result, score high on tests. The expectation is to succeed, not to fail. The opposite is true of design. Failure is desired, because failure sheds light on where improvements can be made.
“Failures are to be encouraged — actually, they shouldn’t be called failures: they should be thought of as learning experiences. If everything works perfectly little is learned. Learning occurs when there are difficulties,” according to Don Norman in The Design of Everyday Things (229).
Let’s take a deeper look at the school example, the same theory can hold true if you examine the process. When studying, we study all of the material, but what do we focus on? We spend more time on the things we don’t know. If we do this, we will obtain more of an understanding of the weaknesses. Through refinement of our knowledge, the weakness becomes our strength. We perform when tested and excel.
The concept of refinement is applied to design through iterations.
According to Norman, “The role of iteration in human-centered design is to enable continual refinement and enhancement. The goal is rapid prototyping and testing,” (Norman, 229).
This week, one of my Pinterest pins focused on the new credit card format: chip cards. Wall Street Journal ran an article, Chip Card Nightmares? Help is on the Way, by Joanna Stern. It highlighted the failures of the chip cards, noting that it takes double the time of “The Swipe” and “The Phone.” This can be seen as a failure, and the recommendation is to move toward paying by phone. However, if you were the developer of the chip cards, you would see this as an area of refinement. It is an identified issue and is therefore an opportunity to improve and enhance the product. The advancement in technology and security satisfies part of the consumer goal, but the speed component, clearly needs to be accelerated.
So whether we are doing the testing or being tested ourselves, one thing is certain if the result is failure — the glass is half full. The failure is a teachable moment, exposing weaknesses to build strengths.
According to David Kelley, a Stanford professor and cofounder of the design firm IDEO, we should all plan to, “Fail frequently, fail fast,” (Norman, 229).