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Case Study: Resolving Collaboration Bottlenecks through the Platformization of Digital Textbooks

gpt-4-turbo has translated this article into English.

Transitioning from a Closed Structure Combined with Design and Development to a Skin-Module Separation Strategy and SDK-based Platform Structure,
Eliminating Collaboration Bottlenecks and More Than Doubling Productivity: A Case Study

Problem Recognition

The electronic textbooks were being developed in a Flash-based structure where
design and development were not clearly separated,
leading to high dependency on manual work and repetitive communication between designers and developers,
resulting in slow collaboration speeds and high error rates.

My Design Philosophy

To solve collaboration issues, I believe that
increasing communication between people is not the answer,
rather, defining ‘boundaries’ and designing ‘ways of connection’ is essential.

A structure where roles are distinguished and connected not through communication but through alignment
makes collaboration faster and more flexible.

Design Direction

In this project, my approach was not just to enhance development productivity but
to design the collaboration flow.

• Separation of design (skin) and functionality (module) structure
• Design of an automatic connection system based on interface naming conventions
• Implementation of a bridge structure through an intermediate layer → Minimizing direct consultations
• Improvement of message pool/task structure and internalization of functionality engine
• Packaging the entire engine in SDK form to secure an automated production base

Results

• Secured a structure where designers and developers can work in parallel
• Reduced communication costs with an automatically connecting system without repeated consultations
• Made feature reuse possible, improving production efficiency by more than double
• Transition to a platform structure, establishing a basis for repetitive application across different subjects and courses

In Conclusion

From this case study, I realized that
it’s not the design that speeds up development, but the design that changes the collaboration flow
that truly creates business productivity.

An SDK is not just a bundle of code, but
a product of design philosophy that enables both development and collaboration simultaneously.