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Here’s an inventory of my assumptions
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If you’ve ever tried to miscommunicate, you’ve probably used assumptions. Of course, you’ve probably never tried to intentionally miscommunicate with someone — but that’s my making an assumption. Assumptions are these ideas that are expected to be true without evidence supporting them, and they keep weaseling their way into my design work.
They’re quick. They’re easy. They narrow the possibility space in such a way that lets me get to work on the more interesting parts of my garden of a design. But since they weasel their way in, undermining the foundations of what I’m designing, they end up corrupting the garden. With the weasel tunnels underneath, it becomes all too easy for the garden to collapse.
Over the past year in my current position, I’ve found myself making quite a few assumptions about the users I’m working for. And most of those assumptions, unsurprisingly, were wrong. They set up the design to collapse in on itself, just like underground weasel tunnels.
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Here’s an inventory of assumptions I’ve made and discovered to be wrong over the past twelve months: