I work in an industry where most of what we create doesn’t last very long. Businesses change, technology changes, needs change, products change, and people change. Before you know it, the website/intranet/application I once helped build is eventually replaced, overhauled and the countless hours, effort and time of many individuals is erased in minutes from a server somewhere.
Sometimes I get to do the tweaking/replacing of my past work, and it’s often educational to go back and see what you thought a earlier or how something has changed since you first created it.
On other occasions I get to see what another firm/agency does with a client I once worked with and I learn where I could have done better or watch good work be replaced by bad work.
Seldom does anything last forever. The sustainability of our craft is short.
At best, I’m often able to capture screenshots of past work, copies of deliverables (site maps, wireframes, sketches, mockups). At worst what I’ve created in the past ends indexed in the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to haunt me forever.
So I’m going to toss this question out there. How do we as user experience folks create sustainable work?