Pentacle started and works excellently as a methodology. But it should equally be a tool, a complete system for design work. What would that tool look like? This is our first look into what Pentacle may look and be like as a digital visual product design tool — the design of the design.
Full contents of the entry: Methodology or Tool?
Pentacle answers the question, “if you were handed a piece of idea to build, where would you start (as far as designing this thing is concerned)?”
The four core actual design work arms of the methodology have been so put to the test, we couldn’t be more positive of their delivery.
Namely, brainstorm, map, wireflow, and prototype, these four prongs always address every activity of design that produces something of value — with a great starting point (brainstorm) and the best place for design to begin dialing back its direct involvement (prototype).
And when “engineering” kicks in, design then plays a fringe but no less important supervisory guidance role to ensure that what is built matches what was conceived and the experience expected (or defined) of the thing to deliver on its good.
The Essence of Pentacle
As a practice, the foregoing already captures Pentacle. And in our application thus far (and for who knows how long until the idea of this note is viable), we have had to gather a number of tools suitable for the jobs defined at each stage of the pentagonal.
And, yes, it does get the job done.
But what if Pentacle was a complete system, as in one tool that allows for the practice of the methodology and the design of the process (or processes)? This would be like an assembly line (in any manufacturing setup, the automobile being a classic example).
The goal of this note is to establish that desire — Pentacle started and works excellently as a methodology. But it should equally be a tool, a complete system for design work. What would that tool look like?
Kanban for Visual Product Design
At a very high-level, Pentacle as the tool looks like a board (really an interface) of five “tabs” — brainstorm, map, wireflow, prototype, and engineer — that on tap moves you or the current idea being developed from one stage to the next, each tab giving you access to all the tools needed to complete the activities for each stage.
As conceived, this would be like a Kanban board for visual product design, with a tracker of overall progress working behind the scenes and keeping everyone abreast of progress. At every stage of work, within each prong and in the overall pentacle (yep, like that) you should get “real-time, at-a-glance insight” into progress.
Where are we on brainstorm(ing)? Where are we on mapping the product? How’s our wireflowing coming? Hey, here’s how far we’ve come overall, damn, it looks awesome!
It should be easy to get feedback like above at every point in the process.
Designing the Design Methodology
The potential of Pentacle becoming a tool sure does excite me! If I have the privilege of working first-hand on this one… I sure want to celebrate designing the design methodology and see how it becomes that platform where it all comes together — as far as product design goes.
In the past, when I’d read something like this quote:
In Basecamp, each project lives on a single page. With everything in reach, and every piece of information tracked and organized, everyone knows where to find what they need, and say what they need to say.
~ from Basecamp.com
and been so darned impressed with how the Basecamp tool had been built and evolved over the years, I’d love so much to model Pentacle after it. As a “high-level concept” how does “Basecamp but for product design” sound? Haha…
More to come.
References
- “Six Sigma”, Wikipedia. Accessed Mar. 17, 2024.
- “What is Kanban? Free Kanban template, with examples”, Asana. Accessed Mar. 17, 2024.
- “Basecamp”, Basecamp. Accessed Mar. 17, 2024.
- Research Repositories 101, Maria Rosala, Nielsen Norman Group. Accessed Jul. 08, 2024