FEATURED ARTICLE

Creating A Compelling Design:
The Craft and Science of Improving Performance
An Interview with Nancy Daves, Founder Daves + Associates

“Part of what we do is science,” Nancy Daves explains as she begins to describe the process Daves + Associates (D+A) uses to design compelling, customized, instructional materials for its clients, “but part of what we do is craft.” And it is the integration of these that produces powerful and effective results. “Comments from participants like, ‘Best training program I have ever received,’ bear testament to your efforts,” one client writes. Another adds, “Clearly this workshop has had a great impact on the field and is spot on. Your commitment to a quality work product that has real meaning for the field is outstanding.”

“We start with what we know to be true and tested,” Daves continues. “Our work is grounded in the research and tenets of psychology, instructional design, communication, and educational measurement and evaluation. Then we apply our experience on ‘what works.’”

“What works” are conclusions Daves and her associates draw from a simultaneously deep and broad understanding of the target audience, organizational processes, business infrastructure, and culture. The result of basing their work on a broad perspective and working within a highly refined process is, “flexibility in solving the problems,” Daves explains.

But this is not the only thing that sets D+A apart from other firms. What distinguishes D+ A is that in addition to drawing on a substantive depth of experience and academic credentials, they also apply visual design and user interface principles to all their projects. And these design elements, the true craft of their work, strengthen the adoption, retention, and use of the knowledge and skills as defined by the performance objectives.

Daves herself has an interesting background. As an undergraduate, she studied art history and was fascinated by the way people look at works of art – in particular the processing that takes place between the eye and the brain – and what they take from that experience and how it alters their perspective. For Daves, instructional design was “a natural progression from art history.”

It is because of her background, that Daves has attracted and assembled a group of affiliates who believe strongly in the value of blending the science and the craft of instructional design.

In her work, Daves routinely consults innovations and discoveries across a wide range of fields – including but not limited to – studies of the brain, art and graphic design, and human interface design. “What has always interested me is the connections that exist across disciplines,” Daves says. A sampling of fields from which Daves and her colleagues draw inspiration include:

	Neuro-science: This includes Steven Pinker’s studies of the brain (How the Mind Works) and how it absorbs, filters and processes information as well as how it creates and inherently understands language (The Language Instinct).
	Business: The dynamics of companies and how people are motivated to work within them. This field contains a plethora of good resources for Daves. One of the most recent books that she cites as a “must read” is The Art of Possibility by Zander and Zander.
	Anthropology: The way groups of individuals have come together throughout the ages to share and learn from one another; the importance and impact of storytelling across cultures and time. These ideas are explored in The Social Life of Information by John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid.
	User Interface and Information Design: A field that continues to develop as it pulls from a multitude of disciplines (computer science, communications and architecture, to name a few). There are a number of books that stand out, including the works of Ben Schneiderman and the collection of essays in Information Design (edited by Robert Jacobson) devoted to this evolving field.
	Graphic Design/Visual Interpretation: Art History provides wonderful insights into the “way people see.” Other interesting texts are Edward Tufte’s books Visual Display of Quantitative Information and Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative that have catalogued both principles and examples of great visual design.

One last area of great interest to Daves, as she formulates new directions for her company, is the integration of work and learning. “I’d like to look at alternative ways to impact an individual’s performance right on the job,” she explains, “to integrate training seamlessly into everyday work.” This is not at all to imply the end of traditional, large-scale, off-site training, but rather to explore ways in which increasingly mobile technologies might enable training to happen at the point of need and/or place of need.

“The themes of integration and connections are in many ways indigenous to instructional design,” Daves explains. “When you look at the history of the field, it is apparent that instructional design is an ever-evolving field that benefits from the cross-over, blending, and the richness of many disciplines.” And it is precisely this craft that keeps the work exciting and fresh.