The HiPPO in the emperor’s new clothes is one of the biggest threats to web standards and usability on the web today (now that IE seems to have got it’s act together). This threat is perpetuated by both web designers and developers with help from their clients. In this post I hope to warn other designers/developers of the potential pitfalls that can arise when taking on a web project.
Lets explain the analogy
The emperor’s new clothes
The emperor’s new clothes is a famous Danish proverb by Hans Christian Andersen about two tailors who promise an Emperor a new suit of clothes that is invisible to those unfit for their positions, stupid, or incompetent (see wiki). The story is an example of what happens because of pluralistic ignorance and illustrates some designer’s relationship with their clients. It demonstrates how easily lead some people can be by people they trust and also how others don’t like to point out their betters mistakes.
Designers have a duty to provide their knowledge of the web the best they can to their clients. It is their responsibility to guide their clients to make educated decisions. Clients like to say I like this, I don’t like that. This is fine but the trick is to find out why they like or don’t like something. Clients know a good designers value and trust their judgment. This does not mean that they blindly accept their decisions, nor should they. When dealing with SEM’s in particular you are usually dealing with someone that knows their business inside and out, they often expect to know the same about their website, not the code but how it works and how their customers will use it. Also you are also given a unique opportunity to guide clients and educate them on users experience, often the client will be focused on the business this where the designer has to champion the user perspective.
HiPPO = Highest Paid Person’s Opinion
The HiPPO is a dangerous beast and can flatten a good idea in one fell swoop. The HiPPO is usually born from one of two things; a lack of confidence in one’s team, or a lack of harmony within the team, sometimes it is both. In these cases the decisions fall on the boss.
It is inevitable that in any organisation that there are decision makers (thank God). However, too often these decision makers make all the decisions, and don’t have enough time to deliberate fully. As designer/developers we are there to make decisions easier and to play the role of the user in most cases. The user is often over looked in favor of business goals which then leads on to bad decisions being made. Designers/developers are not there to hinder decisions they are there to enhance them.
To tame the HiPPO the best tools to use are facts, figures and understanding. The facts and figures (Google analytics is good for this) must show the reason for doing something. While the understanding comes in when trying to explain how a design/development will be implemented. Demonstrating an understanding of the company, their customers and technical knowledge is invaluable. Remember make sure that the markers are clear for everyone to understand and try not to use jargon.
What’s the solution?
The Modernising government team at South Lanarkshire Council (SLC) tackles these issues very well by out lining the decision making process that has been introduced in the SLC web team:
‘To solve this issue we introduced three things –
- A small document on the Core goals of our website.
- We Graded content.
- A small document called “The Great decision maker”‘
This has helped to form a better understanding of the content for all members of the team on all sides while helping to keep the focus on the user. Another great source is the book by Mike Monteiro, Design is a job. In the book Mike explains how designers can be their own worst enemies when dealing with clients by compromising their design to keep the client happy. This is a failure on the designer’s part as they are expected to guide and instruct the client:’Stop trying to get your clients to “understand design” and instead show them that you understand what they hired you to do. Explain how the choices you’ve made lead to a successful project. This isn’t magic, its math. Show your work. Don’t hope someone “gets it” and don’t blame them if they don’t – convince them.’
This is easier said than done, I know, but it is a principle that we at Design Scientific try to keep to on every project. We invite our clients to challenge us and always try to make sure that clients understand our working if not design/development. It’s about doing what is right for the customer and more importantly their users. When you start designing/developing for one person (the HiPPO in the emperor’s new clothes) it is bound to be problematic for others.
So…
- Keep the user first,
- remember decision makers always want to make informed decisions,
- remember to see things from a users perspective,
- always be able to explain a decision you have made.
About Timothy McGraw
I am a UX designer, front-end developer and owner of Design Scientifc. With a keen eye for detail I care not only how products look but also how they work. User experience has become a passion, and users are at center of each of the projects I am part of. I am obsessed with web standards and accessibility, so much so that I love clean semantic code. I write about anything web related but mostly UX.