Great chart. This is freelance work in one diagram.

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I’m involved in something called the Product Design Guild in San Francisco. It’s pretty cool. We talk about ideas and do guerrilla usability testing of concepts. There’s a really smart group of people there, and they know great products only come out of testing an idea over and over again.

At one of the events, I’m “training” developers and product types in usability testing for a number of startups. The document I wrote I think is good enough to share and explains the basics of conducting usability tests. I’m convinced anyone can be trained to do it or at least write the test. Usability tests don’t have to be really fancy — only digital agencies looking to bill or drain the retainer would do eye-tracking on a half-baked idea — and the feedback you get is incredible.

Here’s the document for download in Word format.

Step 1: Write The Usability Test (With Tasks that Actually Work)

• Create five tasks you want the user to perform.
  The task should require at least six to nine clicks to complete the task. The tasks could be signing into the system or uploading photos and setting permissions.
• Write scenarios for each task.
  You should explain the task without telling the user what to do. An example would be, "You were at a family picnic where you took photos of your nephews and nieces. You want to share those photos with your family on the Internet on Flickr. Where would you go to sign in, upload those photos, and set the preferences so only your family can view them?"
• List follow-up questions you might want to add.
  The magic of usability tests are the answers you get outside of the scenarios. So you might want to come up with additional questions within the screens you are testing.

Step 2: Find Participants of All Sizes (Sort of)

• Find people that fit your target audience.
  Very few sites have a target audience of "everyone.” Ideally, you would test people that would use your site. In the example above, you want to use people that liked sharing photos with their family and friends.
• Find people with a range of experience.
  If you find five professional photographers that share photos constantly, you'll get a narrow view of how your site is performing. It's best to find users that could be both expert users (a professional photographer) and users than might not have as much experience (an uncle that just bought a camera and uses Facebook sporadically).
• Find people that will HATE your product.
  There’s nothing worse that running a usability test and the user (read: idiot) using the mouse gushes about what they like, and they still can’t figure out where the login button is. The best suggestions I’ve gotten have been from users that provide more negative feedback (“You know, this is done better on this other site”) than constantly good feedback.

Step 3: Perform the Usability Test (In 60 Minutes or Less)

• Do a dry run.
  There's nothing worse than finding out on the first test that your script doesn't work. Before you jump into the testing, you should run through the test before performing it in front of test subjects. Be sure to work out any software or site issues before doing it in front of users.
• Vary the tasks and keep the tests in the 15-30 minute range.
  For the purposes of most applications, you'll be testing three of five tasks with each user. The longer the test, the more often the user will get bored with doing the test. Keep the tests short and snappy.
• Do not guide the user.
  Use words that explain what they need to do, but are not contained within the site. Say "sign in" instead of "login.” Use "find files" on the hard drive instead of "browse.” Remember that you are testing the terminology the site uses as much as the design of the site.
• Ask questions.
  The beauty of usability testing is that you can ask questions that are also outside of the test. You don't necessarily know where the user is going to go. Instead of simple yes/no questions, ask open-ended questions, like "What do you think this would do?"
• Let them talk.
  People are amazing – once they start talking. They'll tell you all sorts of things. I've had participants tell me their complete business process, including profit margins, during tests. The best feedback is sometimes outside of the what I was asking.
• Record the sessions with some kind of screen recorder and take notes.
  I've used everything from Camstudio to WebEx to record results, but sometimes the best way to take notes is simply pen and paper. Don't get hung up on the tools. Eye tracking software is ideal but also expensive. You can get close to the same results just by recording what the users do with screen capture software.
• Record the results on a range of pass/fail.
  In the past, I've used the pass/fail method on a task but found on a scale of 0 (they passed) to 3 (they couldn't find anything) was a better approach to grading tasks on a step by step basis and in aggregate.

Step 4: Evaluating the Results (By Reading the Tea Leaves)

• Look for patterns.
  A focus group of one is not a good thing – too many usability professionals and product managers do this. I tend to discount those as preferences for that particular user. If two or three users say close to the same thing ("The button is hard to find."), there's a usability issue you may want to look at closer.
• Highlight comments that can make your site better.
  The best feedback from testing is something that you didn't expect. Highlight some of the comments that might be outside of the tasks but make great sound bites for describing issues with your site.
• Remember results are subjective, so discuss them with the team.
  Put a team of three usability professionals together, and sometimes they'll come to three different conclusions about the test. Ideally, you could combine qualitative results with quantitive results (i.e. stats from watching the conversion funnel).
• Combine testing with other data collection methods.
  I sometimes use a site called Attention Wizard that calls itself a visual attention prediction tool to see where users might click based on contrast of color values. If you combine testing with other validation methods, you'll get better results.
• Test your assumptions again.
  Testing is not a one-time thing. You should test as much as possible (I've tested as much as every two to three weeks in an engagement), because the more you test, the more you get to refine your product. I’ve had a couple of clients where we tested over 15 users with different tasks, creating a great amount of data that helped in product design.

Extra Credit: Other Resources

Other Blogs

• A List Apart's Guides to Usability Testing
• Discount Usability Testing; 20 Years
• Example Usability Questions
• Budget Usability Testing
• Start A Usability Testing Program In Five Days

Free Software

• Camstudio – PC/Free
• Silverback – Mac/Free for 30 days
• Screencast O Matic

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I posted this as an answer of Quora, but I thought it would be very appropriate here. This could go for any company, but some of us actually enjoy designing large applications.

They have to be solving a real world problem.

Too often, I get the “It’s like Twitter, except we’ll charge people” response. There has to be a very  definite  need for the product that’s fairly obvious. We don’t want to work on products that are going to get killed because there’s no market for them.

Most enterprise apps have that.

I like designing enterprise apps, because a) it’s not a microsite (I don’t know where to start), and b) you get to talk to the users directly, most of the time. Users will same the damnest things, and some of those things make great products, especially if they solve a real world problem.

They have to have great management.

There’s nothing worse than walking into the door and realizing the person that’s going to manage you doesn’t have the slightest idea what user experience is, other than what they read in a book.

User experience types have a jaded view of the world because of the environments we work in, and get frustrated in environments where we want to have an impact. I could go on and on about a friend of mine that hates her environment, but puts up with it. Great UX people want to work in great environments where they can flourish and learn.

Good managers attract good people — as simple as that. If you’re working at a company that develops enterprise applications, and you can’t attract good UX types, you should take a long, hard look at who’s managing them.

They want to let them do their job.

Let them define the process, but hold them to it. Don’t let seagull management (come in, shit on it, leave) creep into User Experience.

Show that it’s a team concept, but that user experience will drive requirements with product management. Let them gather data to back up their assertions. Let them perform usability tests. Let them see how the work translates into better sales.

They want to take pride in their jobs, nothing more.

They want to do things the right way.

That means following some sort of process. That doesn’t mean going all the way to doing a card sort, but if they think user experience is about delivering wireframes and mockups, and that’s all, something’s wrong. We’ve all worked in environments like this, and it gets tiresome.

We want to learn if the process works as much as the company does.

They want to pay a good wage.

Most enterprise apps have multimillion dollar implementations. This means that the developers of these applications should get paid a decent wage, because a good design means saving thousands of dollars for the clients.

There’s nothing more frustrating than having a conversation with a recruiter, and the recruiter says, “well, this is what the budget is.” That’s not something you tell to someone that can help saving thousands and millions of dollars.

The average implementation is over a million dollars, and they don’t want to spend a little extra on someone that can have a great impact only only on implementation, but on potential sales?

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From Zenhabits:

Working too much is likely to decrease your productivity, leave you creatively drained, and negatively effect relationships with friends and family. Don't get me wrong, pursuing your passion is a beautiful gift and there is nothing wrong with working hard on projects you love. However, it's essential to take breaks. Whether you're working from home or in an office environment it's essential to nourish your creative spirit.

Favorites…

Unplug from the internet. Getting work done doesn't require an internet connection. It's amazing what can happen when you step out from behind the computer screen or your mobile device. Most of my killer ideas come to me when I'm taking a shower, on a walk, cooking a meal, and "not working."

Everyone is creative and ideas can come to you at odd moments. Just because you have an idea doesn't mean you have to implement it right away. Keep a journal with you at all times so that you can capture your idea and enjoy your down time.

And…

Constantly question your goals and life purpose. It's important to continually reevaluate your goals, life purpose and behaviors. For example if you constantly stay late at the office, sacrifice personal relationships because of work, or check your email obsessively, ask yourself:

• Why am I doing this?
• What is the end goal?
• Are my behaviors healthy?

Read on…

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I have a background as both a web and print designer (something I revisit occasionally to remember how much I don’t enjoy it). I have hired them and have managed them. A friend of mine complains about the lack of good designers in San Francisco, and I find the same things in other places.

I have a stack of about 2,000 resumes, and many of them fail at the basics — typography, composition, use of color. It’s even more frustrating, because I depend on good designers to get the results I want and am frequently disappointed in the outcome.

Anyone can open Photoshop, Illustrator or Dreamweaver, but it takes a good designer than can communicate and grow with clients. The reality is the most valuable designers are the one’s that understand the needs of the project first and are creative second.

Follow Instructions and Apply the Right Amount of Effort

The hardest part about working with clients is  communicating  with them.

Words don’t adequately describe what we need to be designed, so designers and lay folk meet in this awkward common ground where the results are not so common.

When a designer meets someone that understands the craft, there is an importance to following instructions that is much higher than working with a normal client. Also, knowing what’s appropriate for a task (a ten hour logo versus a full branding exercise) is something that should be asked. Many clients are looking for the right amount of effort on a task and will pay for it.

So here’s a tip: sit down and draw out what the client or manager wants by sketching it on a piece of paper — even if it means getting a user experience designer involved. Then ask, “How much time should I spend on this? Is this a one hour task? One day task? One year task?”

You’ll be surprised at the clarifications you’ll get.

Learn to Adapt to Other Styles

The vast majority of work on the web is not designing new sites: it’s maintaining existing sites and designs. This means that if you are a designer, you’re going to be picking up the designs of someone who’s the art director or a previous designer on the project.

This is hard.

Unless you have a distinct design style that resonates (Saul Bass and Andy Warhol come to mind), you’re going to work in situations where there’s going to be either an Art Director or Creative Director that’s going to lay down the line before you.

This means that you have to copy other artists work, which is not necessarily a bad thing. You learn how to deconstruct other styles and, in the process, will probably improve your design skills. I think colleges and art institutes spend too much time on teaching students how to develop new designs and should spend more time teaching how to copy current designs to illustrate what makes them effective.

And seriously, do you think your own designs are all that original?

Copyists in the art world get paid well, and there’s a whole career called conservator that involves preserving and restoring artwork in its original form and intent, even if that form is missing. Learn how to replicate other styles. Not only will you learn, but it will keep you employed.

Don’t Be a Stay at Home Defenseman

This is the hardest one, because creative folks are creative folks. This is the way I explain it: the NHL stay at home defensemen are slow, lumbering bruisers that work best on their end of the ice, disrupting and doing one thing: stopping the puck. However, when required to score, they don’t get much further than the blue line at the offensive end, because they are always trying to get back.

They also don’t take a lot of initiative — doing only what they know how to do. Designers are the same way.

In big corporate environments, having one skill can work, but when you’re in the real world, clients are going to ask for CSS skills or if you know a bit of Flash or can do some data entry into a content management system.

I don’t think designers have to know everything, but each skill that a designer has over “I can use Photoshop” is another skill to use when billing out to clients.

Learn Great Typography

No matter what someone says, typography is more important than ever on the web. Yet I see portfolio after portfolio where typography is average at best and poor at work. Love for typography goes well beyond knowing the difference between Tahoma and Arial or watching the movie Helvetica. Designers should know how to use type both to communicate and as an interface tool.

Here’s a challenge that will help any designer learn great typography: start with only Arial or Helvetica. Learn how to use contrasting weights and sizes to direct the users eye without using any other type styles.

I Love Typography has a great guide on how to use type on the web. They have the following quote:

First, it's worth noting that Typography is not just about choosing a font, or even distinguishing one typeface from another. In recent experiments, trained monkeys were able to correctly identify Helvetica 90% of the time.

Learn How to Design on a Grid and How to Use White Space

From The Web Style Guide

Grids are equally as important on the web as in any medium. The truth is that most designs are closer to  mathematical  equations than something overly creative and have to use white space and composition to: a) fit in a lot of content, b) be engaging with a call of action and c) look good. Not as easy as it looks.

Designing on a grid helps solve a lot of these issues without a lot of thought, and grids can also be used to establish design styles and visual structures.

Do Stuff No One Wants to Do

There’s nothing worse for a client or a manager to hear than having someone who says, “That’s something I don’t do,” especially when it falls right in the middle of their skill set and when they are junior to other designers and workers in that group.

Data entry. Sure.

Picking up work someone else is doing, but too busy to complete? Sure.

Doing production work to resize 70 logos to the right size? When do you need it?

Web design isn’t all glamour and glitz (how glamourous can a home page be?), and it isn’t all redesigning websites for the clients. Sometimes we have to remember it’s a job. Sometimes you’re just going to be changing the oil, but you’re still getting paid for it.

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1. There's an unbalanced focus on the "shiny" and not the finished product

Let's face it, the days of hordes of web professionals walking in with black turtlenecks talking about how we are creating "immersible experiences" that don't relate to a return on investment are over.

Many user experience consultants, however, are still focusing on shiny presentations with pretty wireframes without the knowledge to back up their reasoning. They drive up in the fast cars and present fast wireframes in slick presentation folders. They wave their hands around, doing their best impression of Steve Jobs.

There's only one Steve Jobs, and even his opinion on products changes as he sees them evolve. Software and web projects should do the same over time. Companies are expecting well-reasoned solutions that will translate to their bottom line,  improve their brand and will evolve over time.

The Bottom Line:
Great looking wireframes are just that, if there's no depth.

I would almost say never trust a user experience consultant that delivers perfect wireframes. During the process of many projects, wireframes are used as communication tools and should never match the finished product. The real judge of a user experience consultant is the final result: how did the client benefit. If the consultant can't answer this, shiny is useless.

2. The consultant user experience process starts with wireframes.

The ad is posted, the user experience consultant is hired, and there is no discovery process. Within one day, there's a set of wireframes that describes a home page, inside pages, and a few other random pages that are a loose collection of detail and sketches. While it's enough to get the developers started, it becomes clear that the initial wireframes assume a target that does not exist.

It's like designing a house without asking the key questions like how many rooms the house is going to have, how many stories to design for, or even where the house is going to built.

Or – would you build a car without knowing who you're building a car for?

The Bottom Line:
Establish the business and user goals.

It doesn't have to be a very exhaustive process (and shouldn't be in some agile environments), but there should be a target with which to start. One project I worked on, we had a single set of two personas, and from the very outset, it helped the developers identify with the target users. We may have been wrong to begin with, but any project is a journey, not a destination.

3. When asked why something is designed a certain way, many answers are “because.”

The wireframes are being developed, handed over to the developers and turned into something real. Yet, nothing makes sense. After a few sprints, it becomes evident that design decisions made do not make sense; yet when the user experience consultant is asked about why they made those decisions or designed the functionality in a certain way, there is very little critical thought or data to back them up.

A lot of poor design decisions by user experience professionals begin with the usual: "Well, we've always done it this way" or "The last project I did was designed this way." While using patterns from previous project or two is a good place to start…

The Bottom Line:
"Because" isn't good enough.

There should be design patterns, established processes used from other sites or at the very least, guerilla usability studies behind the wireframes that are given to the developers. Design patterns I have used in previous projects are based on established best practices, success of previous projects, or based on real data. Even then, "because of this" may change due to user testing and initial results.

4. Their resume has a list of brands, but they don’t know where the offices are.

One of the oldest tricks in the book: web and graphic designers altering a single graphic or one line of text in the site and claiming credit for the project. It could be even how they presented a single idea to a client, and the resulting claim was how they personally changed the way that company did business. Think of those wonderful Windows 7 commercials in a professional environment.

More examples:
One user experience consultant I know of has never even been to some of the companies she has on her resume, or worked with them whatsoever. Another designer I know took credit for a project where he was one of nine designers.

The Bottom Line:
Ask them to explain what was accomplished for the client.

Whatever documents the user experience consultant has in his portfolio, he should be able to explain in detail what he did, what methodology he followed, and what the result was. The user experience consultant might not have all the pieces, but even if the site was changed he could ascertain why it was changed.

Most large projects should have teams of professionals on them, and I've personally been up front about this on projects I've worked on. Other professionals should do the same when explaining their background.

5. They can't explain the user experience process, other than calling out Cooper or Garrett.

There are a lot of user experience books out there, and many of them make fine reading on cross country flights (I read a Cooper book on a flight I was on recently, and a Tog book before that). However, they are a starting point.

Some user experience consultants follow a certain school or process, bringing up the "this person said this" or "this person said that" approach of reasoning, as if that person is the sole reason why users act a certain way.   Blanket statements like "this technology is bad" don't take into account the context of the application.

The reality is that each project is different and the author isn't the one on the project. User experience professionals have the challenge of adapting to the environment they were working and should act accordingly.

The Bottom Line:
The reason to know the rules is to know when the break them.

The best document I've used with my clients is a modified Gantt chart that shows not only the user experience process but a complete software development lifecycle as a whole. When I sit down with the client, I talk about elements of the process as an example, and then highlight process steps that may not apply.

6. They make the process more complicated than it needs to be.

A friend of mine ran into this when working in her organization. A fellow member of the team said there was this certain tagging process to follow, directly copied from a blog post off a prominent user experience site. The issue: the tagging process would have dramatically lengthened doing work within their environment, requiring much more work to perform the same amount of tasks.

It’s dangerous enough to copy posts from blog entries when there’s no context, but even worse when the post advocates a process that is ill-suited to the group at hand. Most of those processes are designed to be used in academic or enterprise environments, which obviously doesn’t work well for a team of ten.

Before using any method or process, there has to be a careful look at what you’re asking for before you jump into it.

The Bottom Line:
Do just enough user experience gathering to keep the process going.

I’ve done the full-on user experience process, but on one project I worked on, the wireframes consisted of sketches performed on print outs for A/B testing. The tools of user experience are communication tools to an end goal, and nothing else. If the user experience expert does not agree with that, then it’s really time to look for a new one.

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One of my friends runs an online marketing education conference.  Social Media is the new hot thing. I think a couple of years ago, it was search engine optimization, and please don’t ask about my opinion on that. Anyway, his blog network is teeming with posts about Social Media. The top request for education is that newfangled “Twitter thing” and tips about “Facebook.”

I met one of the social characters at one of these events, which I thought was the coolest thing. Nevertheless, the mass market was indifferent, and still doesn’t get the whole CNN call for tweets. Whatever. Nobody cares, right?

I like posting on Facebook as much as the next social media geek. I think last Monday, I talked about my new haircut. But, I recognize that posting about what I’m going to eat on Twitter doesn’t make me some kind of expert. It just means I use it. I don’t charge an arm and a leg for my advice, and I’m still amazed at the impact of Social Media on sites even though some of my friends consider me ahead of the curve. Myself and a few of my friends have been lucky to work in some Social Media environments (MySpace, for example), and even we don’t consider ourselves experts.

Social Media and even User Experience experts shouldn’t be able to call themselves that if they’ve been on one or two panels and read a book. They should have some successes and failures behind them and grown to tell the story. The truly great experts not only know how to leverage their personal brand,  but point out the obvious while doing it, for free. Here are some ways to tell if your Social Media Expert is full of crap:

Your Social Media Expert spends more time blogging than working.

Self promotion can be high art on the web. Tila Tequila? Dane Cook? I mean, who really laughs at Dane Cook’s jokes? My friends talk about all the Ringo Starrs out there. You know them; they were with one company as someone inconsequential. The company made it big and found a way to parlay it into selling several books and  evangelizing  ideas. They are their own personal brand.

That said, there’s a really bad sign if your Social Media Expert spends more time blogging than working. Think about this: one post of this length takes about an hour of write.  It’s like the cook with the great cookies; the last thing they are going to do is tell everyone the recipe, right?

If they are spending all their time writing blog posts about how much they know about Social Media, they aren’t helping your company do Social Media.

Your Social Media Expert thinks social media started with Facebook and Twitter.

The reality is that the core foundation of social media has been around since two people talked around the campfire about inventing the wheel. It’s just moved to a different medium, and that medium as we know it, the Internet, started on October 29, 1969. A lot of us older people — you know, the one’s that had jobs before an email address — remember bulletin board systems.

Technically, my first social media message that I sent to a friend of mine on Usenet was in 1987. Seriously, that’s longer ago than the age some of the experts I’ve seen. The message took four days to get there. The distance  traveled  was from Irvine, California to Claremont, California.

Real Social Media Experts understand conversations, and how those conversations interact on whatever medium they are on. That could mean a letter to the editor sent via a mail carrier in the 1950’s or a page established on Facebook in 2009. It’s the conversation that’s important.

Your Social Media Expert thinks that Twitter is the start of your brand.

One of the great aspects of Social Media is that, if you do it right, your customers have the conversation for you, promote your business and make you lots of money all for the cost of good service. One of the biggest mistakes we all make is where brand starts.

What is brand? Is your your name and the experiences tied to your name. It’s not a twitter post or a blog entry or the color you have or the logo you are designing. It’s the name of your company, and how every representative of your company is associated with it.

If a stupid Twitter post goes out about how Memphis sucks or 15,000 people complain on Facebook that your company uses slave labor, that hurts your brand. Social Media conversations shouldn’t be measured in just metrics but also in quality of the conversation, because that relates back to your brand. The linked article is a good example, because it talks about the success of Comcast. Ask any of their customers.

Your Social Media Expert always has a clown in the pocket.

This a famous phrase I’m going to attribute to a friend of mine. Whenever a company was going down the drain, especially during the late 1990’s, there was always a skunk-works project that was shown off in front of the venture capitalists. This was to distract them from the fact that the company was burning $15 million a month, they were surrounded by $1,000 Herman Miller Aeron chairs, the core product still hadn’t launched, and the CEO was doing coke.

Look, online video! We can put that on our Geocities pages!

Real consultants offer some kind of road-map, including what the deliverables are, what they are going to do and what should be the result, hopefully. It doesn’t always have to succeed, and sometimes you can’t always measure it. Even the biggest agencies have a hard time generating good numbers around social media. At the end of the day, if sales go up, it’s a good campaign.

It’s about the strategy, kids. Plan. Plan. Plan, again. It’s not rocket science, and it doesn’t take a 25-year-old to tell you otherwise.

Your Social Media Expert speaks in 140 character sentences.

If the only way they promote themselves is through Twitter, fire them.

Yesterday.

Why?

Twitter is the Apple of the Internet without the cool products. Their market reach is under two percent, which is interesting because MySpace is still in the 30’s and Facebook is way, way over that in the 50’s. I look at it as the “mom test.” If my mom has heard about it, it’s gone mainstream. We had dinner a few weeks ago, and the conversation started something like, “They wanted me to get on Facebook, but I don’t see time for it. I wish they would have called me up.” Twitter never entered the conversation.

The truth is that Twitter has some great uses, including being the new RSS feed and a great way to watch conversations around specific topics or events.

Your Social Media Expert recommends Delicious and Stumble Upon for an audience of seniors.

It’s all about the audience, right? If your consultant doesn’t know who to talk to, then how can they have a conversation. That’s what blow my mind about some of the people that recommend Twitter for everyone. The first question asked should be, “Where can I have a conversation with this audience?” For example, Email is still relevant. About 46 percent of all embedded links are still through email, yet the Social Media Expert wants you to use hashtags.

Figure out where your audience is, and talk to it. For some, it’s Foursquare. For others, it’s Facebook. For other people, it’s Etsy.

For every audience  there’s a proper venue, and your Social Media Expert should know where to look.

What to do? What to do?

If you really need a Social Media Expert that is one, email me, even if the “expert” doesn’t call himself one.

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I had this on a previous blog, and that blog’s not around anymore. I figured it’s worth keeping around. By the way, I have no idea of who the author is.

Dear Mr. Architect:

Please design and build me a house. I am not quite sure of what I need, so you should use your discretion. My house should have somewhere between two and forty-five bedrooms. Just make sure the plans are such that the bedrooms can be easily added or deleted. When you bring the blueprints to me, I will make the final decision of what I want. Also, bring me the cost breakdown for each configuration so that I can arbitrarily pick one.

Keep in mind that the house I ultimately choose must cost less than the one I am currently living in. Make sure, however, that you correct all the deficiencies that exist in my current house (the floor of my kitchen vibrates when I walk across it, and the walls don’t have nearly enough insulation in them).

As you design, also keep in mind that I want to keep yearly maintenance costs as low as possible. This should mean the incorporation of extra-cost features like aluminum, vinyl, or composite siding. (If you choose not to specify aluminum, be prepared to explain your decision in detail.)

Please take care that modern design practices and the latest materials are used in construction of the house, as I want it to be a showplace for the most up-to-date ideas and methods. Be alerted, however, that kitchen should be designed to accommodate, among other things, my 1952 Gibson refrigerator.

To insure that you are building the correct house for our entire family, make certain that you contact each of our children, and also our in-laws. My mother-in-law will have very strong feelings about how the house should be designed, since she visits us at least once a year. Make sure that you weigh all of these options carefully and come to the right decision. I, however, retain the right to overrule any choices that you make.

Please don’t bother me with small details right now. Your job is to develop the overall plans for the house: get the big picture. At this time, for example, it is not appropriate to be choosing the color of the carpet.

However, keep in mind that my wife likes blue.

Also, do not worry at this time about acquiring the resources to build the house itself. Your first priority is to develop detailed plans and specifications. Once I approve these plans, however, I would expect the house to be under roof within 48 hours.

While you are designing this house specifically for me, keep in mind that sooner or later I will have to sell it to someone else. It therefore should have appeal to a wide variety of potential buyers. Please make sure before you finalize the plans that there is a consensus of the population in my area that they like the features this house has. I advise you to run up and look at my neighbor’s house he constructed last year. We like it a great deal. It has many features that we would also like in our new home, particularly the 75-foot swimming pool. With careful engineering, I believe that you can design this into our new house without impacting the final cost.

Please prepare a complete set of blueprints. It is not necessary at this time to do the real design, since they will be used only for construction bids. Be advised, however, that you will be held accountable for any increase of construction costs as a result of later design changes.

You must be thrilled to be working on as an interesting project as this! To be able to use the latest techniques and materials and to be given such freedom in your designs is something that can’t happen very often. Contact me as soon as possible with your complete ideas and plans.

PS: My wife has just told me that she disagrees with many of the instructions I’ve given you in this letter. As architect, it is your responsibility to resolve these differences. I have tried in the past and have been unable to accomplish this. If you can’t handle this responsibility, I will have to find another architect.

PPS: Perhaps what I need is not a house at all, but a travel trailer. Please advise me as soon as possible if this is the case.

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