Utilizing boundary objects for better collaboration.

Designers should use boundary objects like flow diagrams to foster collaboration between designers and data scientists, aiding in shared understanding and addressing data dependencies.

About this paper

The author examined how experienced designers on cross-functional AI teams innovate and face challenges in enterprise applications, particularly regarding the return on investment for AI features.

The study highlights the implications of these findings for future research to further empower designers in their collaboration with data scientists and AI development.

Here are some methods used in this study:

Design Workshops Thematic Analysis

Which part of the paper did the design guideline come from?

“Boundary objects, information or resources used by collaborative teams to foster shared understanding, can scafold cross-disciplinary collaboration among AI practitioners and stakeholders [12,14,41,70,91]. Relatively little work has explored the use of boundary objects between design and data science practitioners on industry AI teams. One study reported that abstractions of AI capabilities and data visualizations served as boundary objects to facilitate conversations between UX and AI (...)” (Section 4.3: Collaboration in AI Teams)

Yildirim, N., Kass, A., Tung, T., Upton, C., Costello, D., Giusti, R., Lacin, S., Lovic, S., O’Neill, J. M., Meehan, R. O., Ó Loideáin, E., Pini, A., Corcoran, M., Hayes, J., Cahalane, D. J., Shivhare, G., Castoro, L., Caruso, G., Oh, C., … Zimmerman, J. (2022). How Experienced Designers of Enterprise Applications Engage AI as a Design Material. CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.

Inspiration and scope

The authors focused on designers and data scientists' roles in facilitating effective AI team collaboration.

You are designing for emerging entrepreneurs seeking funding. Your context differs from the paper's focus on AI team collaboration. At the same time, both aim to empower users. For instance, the paper enhances AI team collaboration, while you assist entrepreneurs in navigating funding through user feedback and iterative design. Both prioritize user-centric success metrics.

They differ as AI collaboration design needs technical tools, while your dashboard focuses on financial tools and user-friendly interfaces. At the same time, both need adaptability and customization. AI teams need customizable environments, while entrepreneurs require dashboards with adaptable UI and scenario-driven design.

Leveraging similarities, consider designing customizable, interactive modules for the entrepreneurial dashboard. This will facilitate effective communication and detailed business plans, making it easier for entrepreneurs to present ideas convincingly to investors.

Your input

  • What: all in one platform dashboard system
  • Who: emerging entrepreneurs trying to navigate getting funding not in AI
  • Design stage: Research, Ideation, Evaluation

Understanding users

The following user needs and pain points may apply to your design target as well:

Enhanced User Feedback Mechanisms

Implementing enhanced user feedback mechanisms can help designers gather actionable insights directly from users, allowing them to iteratively improve the system. This could involve integrating real-time feedback loops or regular user surveys within the dashboard.

Customizable UI Components

Providing a highly customizable interface allows users to tailor the dashboard to their specific needs, improving usability and satisfaction. This can include customizable data visualizations and modular widgets that users can arrange based on their workflow.

Design ideas

Consider the following components for your design:

1

Incorporate customizable templates for financial projection and cash flow analysis within the modules.

2

Develop an interactive pitch framework module that allows real-time feedback from various stakeholders.

3

Implement a milestone tracking system that entrepreneurs can dynamically update to reflect their progress and pivot strategies.

Methods for you

Consider the following method(s) used in this paper for your design work:

Design Workshops

Using design workshops can help involve multiple stakeholders to collectively reflect on their work and articulate their current practices. Designers should ensure they bring in diverse participants and prepare prework activities to scaffold the workshop discussions.

Thematic Analysis

Thematic analysis is useful to systematically identify patterns and themes within collected data from user research. Designers should ensure rigor in open coding, iterative review, and synthesis to produce meaningful insights.

Metrics for you

Consider the following metric(s) used in this paper to evaluate your design work:

Usability

Assessing usability helps gauge how easily entrepreneurs can navigate the dashboard system to find funding resources. It is essential to consider the target user's technical expertise and the complexity of the tasks they perform to ensure the platform remains user-friendly and intuitive.

Value Proposition

Evaluating the value proposition ensures that the dashboard system effectively addresses the needs of emerging entrepreneurs by providing tangible benefits in navigating funding opportunities. Designers should balance the cost of implementing new features with the prospective benefits to ensure sustainable development.

[Figure 3] From this figure, you can grasp methods for scaffolding ideas and breaking down complex features into manageable pieces, which is critical for ideating and evaluating a comprehensive dashboard for emerging entrepreneurs.