Three signsyou've been briefedon the wrong thing

Every brief is a description of a problem somebody has already solved in their head. Most of the time the description is close enough to work from. Sometimes it isn't, and the project quietly becomes the wrong project — delivered on time, on budget, and unused.

Three things that tell you early, while changing course is still cheap.

  1. The brief names a thing, not a condition

    “We need a dashboard.” “We need to redo onboarding.” A brief written as a noun has skipped the sentence where somebody says what is going wrong. Ask what would be different the week after it ships. If nobody can answer in one sentence, the noun is standing in for a problem that has not been stated yet.

  2. Everybody agrees, immediately

    Early agreement is usually agreement about words. Three people say “simplify the process” and mean three different processes. Real scope produces argument. If the first meeting is smooth, the disagreement has not happened yet — it is waiting in the build, where it costs the most.

  3. Success is defined as delivery

    When done means “it exists”, the brief has no account of what changes. Ask what people are doing today because the thing does not exist — the workaround, the spreadsheet, the phone call at 4pm. That behaviour is the actual subject, and it is usually more specific than anything in the document.

None of this means refusing the brief. It means spending the first week finding out whether it describes the thing. That week is the cheapest part of any project, and the first one cut.

{{ probeSize }}

You’re looking for the seams. So am I.

There is a page for people who do that

You found the seams.

You got here by pulling at the edges of a page instead of reading it. That is the same instinct the rest of this site argues for: not accepting the shape you were handed.

So, in that spirit — the things still wrong with this site, before anyone else points them out:

  • The soundscapes will not start on iOS until you touch something. A browser rule, not a decision.
  • Below 320px the layout gives up. So does every device that exists.
  • Two sections scroll inside themselves. Every other one was built to fit the screen exactly once.

If that is how you work too, I would rather hear from you than from a recruiter.

oussama.benbila@gmail.com

{{ hw.pre }}{{ hw.mid }}{{ hw.tail1 }}{{ hw.l2 }}{{ hw.tail2 }}Before Become Obvious

I design and build digital products, from framing what gets made to the thing that ships. Brand and broadcast came first — they taught me to make things that hold up under a close look.

Nielsen Norman Group UX certified
Worked with
Samsung Philips IKEA Pfizer Volkswagen Renault Capgemini USAID GIZ Sofitel Carana Corporation

{{ tw.s2.head }}{{ tw.s2.tail }}

I've never been handed a clear brief. Teams rarely lack momentum; what's missing is agreement about what they're building, and momentum makes that gap expensive. Clarity is what's left after the research, the arguments, and the three versions I threw away.

{{ tw.s3.head }}{{ tw.s3.tail }}

Craft is attention to the parts nobody names — continuity, rhythm, the detail that makes something feel intuitive instead of explained. Mostly it's invisible until it's missing. I still build things with my own hands, which keeps me honest about what's actually possible.

{{ tw.s4.head }}{{ tw.s4.tail }}

Most of my work is deciding — what to build, what to leave out, what the interface is allowed to imply. In regulated work those decisions get read back to me by legal, privacy, security and the people who have to live with them. So I design them to hold up when they're read.

{{ tw.s5.head }}{{ tw.s5.tail }}

What everyone assumed, and what was actually true.

{{ tw.s6.head }}{{ tw.s6.tail }}

I came to design from electronic engineering — two years in, then out, because the logic underneath things was more interesting than the circuits. Twenty years later that's still the job: frame the problem, refine the interface, write enough code to find out whether it works.

Recognition
  • Juror's Choice Award, Arteast Mosaic 2025, for Attitude portraits
  • 1st prize, UNESCO photography
  • 1st prize, UNESCO logo competition, from 110 entries
  • 1st prize, Golden Web Awards, Architecture category
  • Recognition Prize, International Wildlife and Environment Film Festival
  • Solo exhibition, Ferrouj Attitude, Théâtre National Mohammed V

Before Things Become Obvious

The best time to bring me in is while the problem is still unclear. If that's where you are, write to me.

Three signsyou've been briefedon the wrong thing