Mental models for designers (2019)
dropbox.design
dropbox.design
However, I think the Diamond model can be over-used. It’s often the right model when you need to explore a topic or persuade a group to your vision or line of thinking. It’s perhaps not the best model for effective decision-making though. When the time comes to make a crisp decision, I want to see the recommendation framed up in the first section. If I’m reading a recommendation that we implement policy X, I want to know in the first paragraph (or two, max) that’s what this document is about, what the author’s recommendation is, and then see why and what alternatives where explored. I specifically do not want to read any story about the history, the existential problem, or why we need this policy before I know the recommendation. All that material that may have been important at kickoff is now relegated to supporting points in the middle, to an appendix, or removed entirely.
I read way too many “we need a decision here” documents that flow like murder mysteries.
Bottom Line Up Front for some topics, please.
- show (the customer) how to solve the problem (he/or she has)
- create a clear decision framework (and get the customer on board)
- craft a narrative around our solution
to succeed. There you also need your problem solving skills, a model for decision making and a way to communicate in a way that reaches and convinces your audience.
A mental model is something you use to make predictions so that you don't have to store all the nuances of a system in memory. It's a reduced-entropy representation of a phenomena of the universe that you have to interact with. It's a simple oracle. Newtonian gravity is a mental model.
These are recipes and formalized guidance, i.e., wisdom, for dissecting problems and presenting solutions. These are algorithms.
If you believe these will work, you have a mental model of the world that you have checked to verify these steps. The model that the author has of readers is that they will enjoy this post.
A mental model is an internal construct the mind uses to represent parts of the world. You have a mental model of your body. You have a mental model of how physics works. You have a mental model of how your friends would react to certain situations. etc. A model says "If the world is in this state, then the next state is this one."
Wisdom, or aphorisms, are things that are taught to people which are shorthand for solutions to complicated situations. They are algorithms. They say "These are the answers to problems that you might encounter". Sometimes, they provide guidance. They are heuristics. This article should be "Polya-like heuristics for designers"
You would teach someone a mental model like this: "Think of a person as a robot programmed to reproduce and eat". This allows you to draw conclusions by querying your model of a robot and applying that to the person. You could predict how the person would make decisions. It might be wise to do that or not.
You would teach someone wisdom or an aphorism like this: "If you encounter a hard problem, break it down into sub problems". True, there is potentially a model there: All problems are just collections of subproblems, but that's something you have to build up by following the guidance. It doesn't actually give you a model, it prods you to build one ... if necessary.
The article does not provide any models, it only suggests steps to break down problems or communicate solutions. You, the reader, are using your internal mental models of the world to see if the stuff you are being suggested actually makes sense. If you start crafting new models, it is not because this article contains any of them.
I find these very helpful as a manager. Highly advised read even if you're not a designer for this Dropbox one. The Untools ones as an engineer, manager, or almost anything really. The focus is decision making, problem solving, and big picture thinking.