date:20090309



On 9 Mar 2009, at 07:07, dnp607 wrote:



Hi Troy,

I was thinking it would be great to have a palette of images  
including (though just off the top of my head):

[snip]

You might want to lake at these:

http://designcomics.org/

A bunch of trez useful assets for exactly that sort of thing.

Cheers,

Adrian

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[IxDA Discuss] PLUG: Nathan Shedroff's webinar and book on sustainable design

2009-03-09 Thread Louis Rosenfeld

(apologies for duplicate postings)

Hi all, I'm happy to report that *Nathan Shedroff's* *Design Is the
Problem:  The Future of Design Must Be Sustainable *will go on sale
approximately *March 20.*  Much that's been written about the topic pertains
to green construction; in this book, Nathan has taken sustainability to
the world of product design, providing a series of frameworks and lots of
practical advice.  If you attended John Thackara's wonderful opening keynote
on sustainable design at interaction09, Nathan's book provides a practical
follow-up that helps designers incorporate sustainability into their work
and their outlook.
With our partner Smart Experience, we're also offering an *hour-long webinar
* with Nathan, Design is the Problem: Getting to the Point Quickly with
Sustainable Design.  It takes place at 1pm ET on *March 25*.  As part of
the ticket price, we'll include a copy of Nathan's book, as well as the
recorded version of the webinar when it becomes available.

Purchase either and take *20% off* by using code *IXDAWBNR2 *at the
Rosenfeld Media web site (http://rosenfeldmedia.com ).

   - *The book:*  http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/sustainable-design/
   - *Sign up and we'll email you when it's on sale:  *
   http://tinyurl.com/dk8dlh
   - *Purchase the Webinar* (includes QA, the book, and a DRM-free
   recording of the webinar):  http://tinyurl.com/72klgx

Many thanks!


Louis Rosenfeld :: http://louisrosenfeld.com
Rosenfeld Media :: http://rosenfeldmedia.com

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Favorite tool for sitemapping?

2009-03-09 Thread Tom Dell'Aringa

On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 10:06 AM, Catriona Lohan-Conway clohancon...@mac.com
 wrote:

 Mac or pc? I use Omnigraffle on my mac and I much prefer it to Visio!!!
 http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnigraffle/

 Not to mention it's so much cheaper than Visio...

 Axure is nice and $ but you should be able to get a prototype out of it
 too... if you can make it sing ;-)


Sorry, PC. I've done prototypes with Axure, it's good for certain things.
Right now I have wireframes I built in Illustrator and composed as a
document in InDesign. I need to take that and make a sitemap from it.

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[IxDA Discuss] JOB: Mid to Sr-level Information Architect, Comedy Central, New York City

2009-03-09 Thread ComedyCentral IA

The Product Development team at Comedy Central Digital Media is
looking for a mid- to sr-level Information Architect. This position
is full-time freelance, to permanent staff for the right candidate.
As part of the IA group, you will be a strong user advocate and
collaborate closely with a team to produce great interactive
experiences. 

RESPONSIBILITIES:
» Contribute to the development of new product interfaces, feature
sets, and information flows 
» Work with Production, Product Development, Design, and Technology
to optimize existing products and templates 
» Contribute to the design of user testing and analysis of results 
» Create detailed wire frames, story boards, mock-ups, user flows,
and presentations to effectively illustrate interfaces, ideas and
architecture 
» Keep abreast of best-practices for user interaction and design 
» Implementation of the user interface design 

SKILLS: 
» Excellent visual communication skills 
» Proficiency in Microsoft Visio and the Adobe Creative Suite 
» Working knowledge of current web technologies (HTML, CSS, etc) 
» Excellent written and verbal communication skills 
» Excellent analytical ability 
» Familiarity with usability methodologies 

QUALIFICATIONS: 
» Background in graphic design, HCI, interaction design, user
experience or related field 
» B.A. required. 2+ years experience preferred. 
» Must be adaptable, open-minded, thorough and constructive 

INTERESTED?
Please submit resume  sample IA deliverables (e.g. site architecture
maps, wireframes, user interface specifications) to Audrey at
i...@comedycentral.com


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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Persona skeptics



On Mar 9, 2009, at 11:59 AM, Dan Saffer wrote:
The greatest pitfall with personas is that most of them focus on  
the wrong things. Differences between personas are often chosen  
based on demographics and preferences, not the things that really  
matter, like goals, motivations, and behaviors.



I'll agree with much of what Dan has cited in his article, but have to  
comment that most of these issues are the result of poor craftmanship  
and lack of rigor in crafting personas, not in the method themselves.


We still lack good methodology and educational practice when it comes  
to creating personas. And no, the Personas Lifecycle book didn't  
really help. See more info http://www.slideshare.net/toddwarfel/data-driven-design-research-personas


Personas should be based on behaviors and activities, not  
demographics. And they need to be data-driven, not based on  
assumptions and pulled out of thin air.



Cheers!

Todd Zaki Warfel
Principal Design Researcher
Messagefirst | Designing Information. Beautifully.
--
Contact Info
Voice:  (215) 825-7423
Email:  t...@messagefirst.com
AIM:twar...@mac.com
Blog:   http://toddwarfel.com
Twitter:zakiwarfel
--
In theory, theory and practice are the same.
In practice, they are not.





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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Persona skeptics

2009-03-09 Thread Joel Eden

It seems like every time this topic comes up, weird logic is used to
conclude that personas have little value, e.g.:

1. Personas done with little to none or poor research (i.e. marketing
demographics and segments) result in bad personas.

2. Many people create personas this way.

Therefore...based on 1 + 2, personas have little value (because most
of them are created this way).

It seems simple to me...just because some people don't do them well
and their personas don't end up helping their organization's design
process, this doesn't really map to personas done well having little
value.

I have personally found lots of value in the process of focusing on
exactly what Dan said below, i.e. the Cooper version (goals,
motivations, and behaviors).

The last time I used personas, it turned out really well; I started
with the three market segments the client thought represented their
customers...I interviewed 24 people in and around the context of use
(8 people for each segment)...and I ended up with 4 personas that
better represented the people and their needs, motivations, behaviors,
etc than the starting 3 segments. The four personas gave a completely
different view than the three segments, and the clients agreed. These
personas then were very valuable for making design decisions. Done
well, they just feel right, as long as they're based on real people in
real contexts.

Joel




On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 11:59 AM, Dan Saffer d...@odannyboy.com wrote:
 On Mar 9, 2009, at 6:25 AM, Megan Grocki wrote:

 What do you think, has an inherent gap been revealed in the
 usefulness of personas as we know them? Has anyone else gotten this
 sense, and if so, can personas be redeemed?

 I'm skeptical myself. Which is why I wrote this a few years ago:

 http://www.adaptivepath.com/ideas/essays/archives/000524.php

 The gist of the article:

 Half of the personas out there are entirely made up, with no user research
 to back them. In most cases, no one on the design team has talked directly
 to users to find out who they are, so designers come up with an idea of a
 user type. The resulting personas are like the designer’s imaginary
 friends.

 The greatest pitfall with personas is that most of them focus on the wrong
 things. Differences between personas are often chosen based on demographics
 and preferences, not the things that really matter, like goals, motivations,
 and behaviors.

 The differences between personas must be based on these deeper issues —
 what people do (actions or projected actions), and why they do them (goals
 and motivations) — and not as much on who people are.


 Dan

 Dan Saffer
 Principal, Kicker Studio
 http://www.kickerstudio.com
 http://www.odannyboy.com



 
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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Persona skeptics

2009-03-09 Thread Marc Rettig

Hello,
Long-time persona skeptic here. IMHO, understanding the people whose lives
you are going to affect with your decisions is non-negotiable. If you're not
doing that, you can't say you're designing. But any particular method IS
negotiable and probably expendable or at least flexible. Which leads to my
issue with at least some of the practice related to personas: the method
sometimes seems to substitute for the goal. Personas are sometimes made
without real understanding and empathy making it into the heads and hearts
of the team. As others have pointed out on this thread and others in the
past, one can achieve that goal with or without persona. 

I'm grateful to have persona as one item in the Big Bag of Tricks for
communicating insights and facilitating understanding. But as soon as they
become part of the process, I start to worry that the desire for a
standard, easily-teachable and repeatable approach has suppressed the more
critical need to wisely choose methods to suit the situation. 

If clients are questioning the value of persona, I'd say they're asking good
questions. In answer to that questioning, I would want to engage in a
conversation about Who needs to understand What in order to design well,
what stands in the way of the team's unity of vision and intention, and what
methods could be brought to bear on the situation. 

Cheers,
Marc

. . . 
Marc Rettig
Fit Associates, LLC

 



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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Post-graduate degree advice (London, UK)

2009-03-09 Thread Tim Minor

Hello and thanks to everyone has taken a moment to reply.

Thanks to David for the link to the past discussion [1]. If anyone
else is following this thread and thinking about a further degree
I'd recommend reading that. It's certainly stoked my interest.

From my (web)site visits so far, Kingston Uni is most visually
appealing [2] and I think has benefited from the most recent update.
I haven't taken the time to deconstruct it, but it also seemed the
easiest to use. They are also the only uni holding a virtual open
evening which I think is an interesting experiment. 

UCL, being the university with (I think) the best rating, has the
least welcoming website IMO.

@James, I studied Psychology at undergraduate level, and although it
was some  13  years ago... I'm hoping I will have retained a fair
amount of it. ;) Clearly many areas will need to be revisited...

Following some preliminary research, none of the lecturers at the
institutions listed above are known to me, so I guess it's a
question of Googling them.

I'm quite interested in the inclusion of Ergonomics at UCL [3]. I
think being able to study human interaction away from the screen
would be fascinating. Nothing at all to do with the fact I wanted to
study it as an under-graduate but didn't get the grades... ;)

Cheers,
Tim
1. http://www.ixda.org/discuss.php?post=39584
2. http://cism.kingston.ac.uk/
3. http://www.uclic.ucl.ac.uk/courses/


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Fun with comics (or storyboards!)

2009-03-09 Thread pbarford

Here's one I use for creating scenarios. Designed for schools,
they're also working on a business version. 

www.pixton.com

cheers,
pat


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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[IxDA Discuss] alternate to Basecamp?

2009-03-09 Thread Hope Turner

My company is looking for an alternate solution for posting files to
share with our clients.

Currently we're using Basecamp and it is good, but has it’s
limitations. We like the ‘forum’ nature of it but it good do with some
tweaks. I think the biggest downfall (forgive me if I’m wrong, I have
only the most basic understanding of it) is the presentation layer. We
should be trying to display as much work on screen as we possibly can,
rather than the continual “download and open” process. What would be
great is a way to keep comments and the the work being commented on in
close proximity. And an iterative way to display the most recent work.

Any input on a new tool is welcomed. Thanks!

Hope

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Favorite tool for sitemapping?

2009-03-09 Thread gbosque

I personally use MindJet Mindmanager (http://www.mindjet.com/) for
handling sitemaps. This software runs on both PC's and Mac's (I am
using the Mac version) and allows the creation organizational
structures in a mind map style. 

I prefer this style over linear based site maps due to the fact that
it is easier to visually express the relationships between areas and
content then traditional site maps. Also this tool makes it very easy
to edit quickly.

I use it to brainstorm organizational concepts and to demonstrate
these ideas to clients and then when we have finalized our decisions
I tend to move back to Omnigraffle or illustrator to make a more
formal version as the final deliverable. This last step isn't
necessarily needed, its just the way I have been doing it for our
clients. This gives me more control over the final look and feel of
the deliverable.


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Design/UX goals in your company

2009-03-09 Thread Alan Cox

Thanks all.  That's given me a good bit to think about.  I'll update
this thread when I've drafted the goals for my group.


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Favorite tool for sitemapping?

2009-03-09 Thread Jason Young

I have to agree that Omnigraffle is much preferable to Visio, though I
spend a fair bit of time going between platforms and end up using
Visio about as much as I am using Omnigraffle at the moment. Just
depends on what the clients want. Omnigraffle is, in my opinion,
easier and has a slicker final product, but Visio can get the job
done as well.





. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Persona skeptics

2009-03-09 Thread mark schraad

This is quite an excellent point. Good marketers segment by desired
attributes... the hacks use demo, socio and psycho graphics. Those later
things are useful in determining how to reach, speak and market  to the
segments once they have been identified. Its exactly the same with design
research.

On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 11:59 AM, Dan Saffer d...@odannyboy.com wrote:



 The greatest pitfall with personas is that most of them focus on the wrong
 things. Differences between personas are often chosen based on demographics
 and preferences, not the things that really matter, like goals, motivations,
 and behaviors.



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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Fun with comics (or storyboards!)

2009-03-09 Thread Candy

Check out bitstrips.com (http://bitstrips.com/)! 

It has robust facial features, ability to 3d rotate and pose the
person, background scenes, props, etc. I had suggested to our
internal team to use it for storyboards and it got some good internal
reviews. 

Also, heard great things about Comic Life by plasq. It is mainly for
mac, but there is a windows version here:
http://plasq.com/comiclife-win In addition to balloon thoughts, it
has a great tool you can use with real images that applies a filter
to make it look comic like if you wish.

Hope this helps!

Candy B




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[IxDA Discuss] Inaugural IxDA Phoenix Meet Up

2009-03-09 Thread Tonia M . Bartz

I am pleased to announce that Phoenix's local IxDA group will hold
it's inaugural meet up this Tuesday, March 10th at 6pm. Gangplank
(http://www.gangplankhq.com) in Chandler has graciously allowed us to
use their space for this event.  Gangplank is a collaborative
workspace so laptops, cameras, and other gadgets are encouraged. 

If you're planning on stopping by, be ready to get your hands dirty.
IxDA Phoenix is focused on not only bringing the community in Phoenix
together but bringing the community together for a purpose. We plan
on using ideation, brainstorming and projects to help enhance our
skills and help the community.

If you have a career in the field or simply are curious, please stop
by and check us out. Everyone is welcome! 

Hope to see you all there!

Tonia M. Bartz

twitter: @IxDAPhoenix
email: phoenix-lo...@ixda.org
web: http://ixdaphoenix.ning.com
tag: #ixdphx

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[IxDA Discuss] Inaugural IxDA Phoenix Meet Up

2009-03-09 Thread Tonia M . Bartz

I am pleased to announce that Phoenix's local IxDA group will hold
it's inaugural meet up this Tuesday, March 10th at 6pm. Gangplank
(http://www.gangplankhq.com) in Chandler has graciously allowed us to
use their space for this event.  Gangplank is a collaborative
workspace so laptops, cameras, and other gadgets are encouraged. 

If you're planning on stopping by, be ready to get your hands dirty.
IxDA Phoenix is focused on not only bringing the community in Phoenix
together but bringing the community together for a purpose. We plan
on using ideation, brainstorming and projects to help enhance our
skills and help the community.

If you have a career in the field or simply are curious, please stop
by and check us out. Everyone is welcome! 

Hope to see you all there!

Tonia M. Bartz

twitter: @IxDAPhoenix
email: phoenix-lo...@ixda.org
web: http://ixdaphoenix.ning.com
tag: #ixdphx

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Persona skeptics

2009-03-09 Thread Robert Hoekman Jr


 It seems like every time this topic comes up, weird logic is used to
 conclude that personas have little value, e.g.:

 1. Personas done with little to none or poor research (i.e. marketing
 demographics and segments) result in bad personas.

 2. Many people create personas this way.

 Therefore...based on 1 + 2, personas have little value (because most
 of them are created this way).


The key word is in your first sentence. *Have*. If most personas focus on
the wrong things and are created without any research to back them up, then
yes, they *have* little value. The conclusion (Therefore ...) is perfectly
accurate. If, however, the research was done and they focused on the right
things, they *could have* more value.

-r-

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Persona skeptics

2009-03-09 Thread Peter Merholz


I just wrote about field research and personas for HarvardBusiness.org

http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/merholz/2009/03/the-best-way-to-understand-you.html

The heart of my message there is that the best way to understand your  
customers is to Go To Them.


The follow on is that not everyone in a company can Go To Them, and we  
need means by which field research findings and insights can be  
shared. Video highlight reels are very powerful, but, I think,  
insufficient.


In my experience, a well-crafted persona, and placing that persona in  
some strong scenarios, is the single best tool we have to spread  
empathy throughout an organization. It probably shouldn't be the only  
tool, but if you have time for just one, and you want to help your  
colleagues achieve a visceral understanding of your customers, I don't  
know of a better tool than personas.


--peter

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Design/UX goals in your company

2009-03-09 Thread Peter Merholz



On Mar 6, 2009, at 1:24 PM, Alan Cox wrote:


I'm curious: what type of goals and metrics exist in your company
that are related to good user experience and good design?  Do you
have goals  metrics that are company-wide, team-wide and
individual?


I actually think this is really, startlingly, shockingly easy.

Whatever goals and metrics exist for your larger company, those are  
what you use for user experience and design. If UX is not contributing  
to an organization's goals and metrics, than what good is it?


This often means that design/UX has to do stuff that's not sexy, but  
that's ok. At our recent MX conference, Prof Sara Beckman related the  
story of Sam Lucente, VP of Design at HP. Sam was brought in by Carly  
Fiorina, but then had to figure out a way to succeed when she was  
replaced by Mark Hurd. Mark is a cost-cutter and efficiency guy.


So, Sam pointed out that through a design program to standardize and  
make consistent the use of HP's jewel logo, he could save  
$50,000,000. And that got Mark's attention. It wasn't sexy (it's  
essentially an operational project) but it helped Mark understand that  
design could deliver the kind of value he sought. And when it proved  
successful, it opened the doors to additional value that design can  
bring.


So, align your group's goals with the company's larger goals. Simple  
as that.


--peter

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Persona skeptics

From Dan's article...

The best personas are really conceptual models, which help you to
digest the user research in a coherent way. They put a name and face
to an observed pattern of behavior.

I'm working with a few startups, and the hardest question for them
to answer other than how they are going to make money is who is their
target audience. Some of the have money, most of them, not a lot, so
they don't have a lot of resources to do proper research. Or their
product doesn't have quite a match in the marketplace, or they are
doing something relatively new.

Even if they are made up, I do think they have some value, because 1)
they represent a person instead of an abstract concept, and 2) you can
attach features to a person, and ask, would this person really use
this feature in this way? Is this feature that important? The truth
is they are used more by UX people for clarity than the clients, so
that's why they are looked as unnecessary.

The marketplace eventually determines who the target market is (the
Honda Element comes to mind -- Honda thought it would be hipsters,
and now older demographics buy it in larger numbers), so even well
researched personas can be wrong.


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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[IxDA Discuss] [JOB] UI Design Position at iContact

2009-03-09 Thread Alan Cox

Hello All,

iContact has an immediate opening for a User Interface Design
position.   Please visit http://www.icontact.com/about/careers#job4
for the full job description.


Responsibilities
 
 - Work collaboratively in an interdisciplinary team, including
Designers, Product Management, Engineering, Marketing, Support, and
QA.
 - Understand the business use of our applications and the associated
process flow in order to provide efficient designs.
 - Deliver prototypes, mock-ups, and design specifications for your
designs.
 - Maintain UI specifications such as online style guides and
standards documents.
 - Perform design reviews and organize usability testing during
various phases of product development to evaluate and iterate the
designs.
 - Keep informed of new technologies, accepted practices in web
development and design, and new tools for website creation.
 - Work with other UI and visual designers towards an effective and
consistent visual look and feel.
 
Experience
 
 - You have a BA/BS degree in Computer Science, Visual Arts, Human
Factors, Human-Computer Interaction, Industrial Design, Cognitive
Psychology or related field, or equivalent experience.
 - You are a strong, clean visual design sense.  In this context,
names such as Tufte and Luke W. should resonate with you.
 - A portfolio of your work is strongly recommended.
 - You have 3-5 years experience in user interface design for
software
 - You handcraft standards compliant xHTML, CSS.
 - You are proficient with design tools such as PhotoShop, Fireworks,
OmniGraffle, Dreamweaver, Flash, PowerPoint, Axure, paper prototyping,
story boarding, contextual inquiry.
 - You are a practitioner of User Centered Design principles.
 - Your written and verbal communication skills are excellent.
 
Please contact cdeo...@icontact.com with your resume and portfolio.

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Anybody going to SXSWi?

2009-03-09 Thread Todd Moy

Hi all,
I'll throw my hat into the ring too. I'll be a SXSWi too; my twitter handle
is @oombrella.
And now for the shameless plug:

I'm presenting a core conversation on 3/16 @ 11:30am titled Love in the
Cloud: online-only marriages. My coworker, John Romano, is presenting one
on 3/17 @ 5:00pm titled Who will check my email after I die?  If anyone is
interested, check out http://lovediesubmit.com or follow @lovediesubmit.

/plug

Cheers,
Todd Moy



On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 11:23 AM, Mary Specht mary.spe...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hey Michael, I'm going and would love to meet up. I'm @maryspecht on
 Twitter.

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Post-graduate degree advice (London, UK)



On 9 Mar 2009, at 15:48, James Page wrote:

If they don't there is an issue. Academic research is about finding  
evidence
for or against a theory. I would hope that somebody teaching  
interaction
design would have enough evidence to convince the powers that be  
that the

departments website should be usable.



Having dealt with some UK university web folk I can say with  
confidence that they'll sometimes ignore you no matter what the  
evidence you give :-)


Sometimes for valid reasons - available budget / skill sets for  
example.


The people who understand the value are often three or four layers of  
management away from the folk who make the decisions about the web  
site. In one instance I'm aware of the UX folk weren't even aware that  
a redesign was happening until it had been released.


At that point, of course, the budget has been spent on that oh-so- 
wonderful design company...


Cheers,

Adrian
--
delicious.com/adrianh - twitter.com/adrianh - adri...@quietstars.com




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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Favorite tool for sitemapping?

2009-03-09 Thread Mike Padgett

Hi Tom,

I'm an Information Designer and I use Cmap Tools for sitemapping and all my
other ontology/taxonomy tasks.

Plus:
- It's very easy to use
- Ontology version boasts OWL/XML export
- Cross-platform, 17 languages
- Free for commercial and non-commercial use
- Great documentation

Minus:
- Fairly low-tech output
- Hefty Java back-end (included, just a bit big!)

I've used Cmap Tools extensively in the last 18 months for sitemapping, content
migration and even card sorting exercises (albeit with pretty tech-aware users).

And it's free for personal use!

My overview:

http://www.mikepadgett.com/technology/technical/cmaptools-for-concept-mapping-and-owl-authoring/

All the links are in there. If you're interested in zooming over there right
away:

http://cmap.ihmc.us/conceptmap.html

Don't be put off by the evil homepage, these are not UX people! The homepage
was actually made with the software, though, just out of interest.

Good luck!

Mike
---
www.mikepadgett.com
---

Morning,

It's been quite awhile since I've had to actually do any sitemaps. I'm
wondering what your tool of choice is these days. I've got one to create
myself and I'm faced with a myriad of tools at my disposal: Axure,
Illustrator, InDesign and even Visio (ugh) to name four.

I like Axure, but I don't have the wireframes in that tool. Sitemaps have
always been such a manual labor type thing and hard to update. Templates
make it easier but I'm wondering if I've missed any new techniques or tools
in the last year or so.

Thanks!

Tom

--
Marooned - A Space Opera in the Wrong Key!
http://www.maroonedcomic.com

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] alternate to Basecamp?

2009-03-09 Thread Brian Hoadley

Have you tried Huddle? You can find it at http://www.huddle.net.

I'm trialing it now. Can't vouch just yet, but it came highly
recommended and I like it so far.


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=39672



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Re: [IxDA Discuss] alternate to Basecamp?

2009-03-09 Thread Keith Kmett

We have been evaluating Redmine, http://www.redmine.org/

It can integrate with e-mail and SVN and has a similar interface as
Basecamp.

So far it is a good project management tool and issue tracker.


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Fun with comics (or storyboards!)



On 9 Mar 2009, at 09:31, Candy wrote:


Also, heard great things about Comic Life by plasq. It is mainly for
mac, but there is a windows version here:
http://plasq.com/comiclife-win In addition to balloon thoughts, it
has a great tool you can use with real images that applies a filter
to make it look comic like if you wish.



A second recommendation for Comic Life - really handy for making  
something that looks like a comic very quickly and easily.


(this is from using the Mac version - never used the PC one)

Adrian
--
delicious.com/adrianh - twitter.com/adrianh - adri...@quietstars.com




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Re: [IxDA Discuss] alternate to Basecamp?



On 9 Mar 2009, at 15:20, Hope Turner wrote:


My company is looking for an alternate solution for posting files to
share with our clients.

Currently we're using Basecamp and it is good, but has it’s
limitations. We like the ‘forum’ nature of it but it good do with some
tweaks. I think the biggest downfall (forgive me if I’m wrong, I have
only the most basic understanding of it) is the presentation layer. We
should be trying to display as much work on screen as we possibly can,
rather than the continual “download and open” process. What would be
great is a way to keep comments and the the work being commented on in
close proximity. And an iterative way to display the most recent work.

Any input on a new tool is welcomed. Thanks!


You might want to take a look at http://www.getsignoff.com/ - allows  
you to annotate and comment on images. Not used it myself for anything  
serious - but I might the next time I need to do something distributed.


Adrian

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Your First UX / ID Job -- Q from the HCI Class of \'09.

2009-03-09 Thread Jen Randolph

Class of '08 here, so while I don't have loads of experience to draw
from, I can speak about some of the things I've noticed going on in
the field right now, in terms of finding work.

I second Scott's suggestion to Pick the company, not the
project. My first job (actually an internship) was at a really
great company that is very well-respected in the interaction design
field. It was only for a few months, but it's since brought me many
great job opportunities because it looks great on my resume.

I'm currently working at another high-profile agency where, just as
Scott said, projects get killed all the time. But the company and
client list looks great on my resume. My most exciting projects are
outside of the office - in this economy, many people now need more
for their web strategy than just a website, so I've been doing my
most creative work on the side for friends and family. The
benefit to this is I get to dictate what I do for them and how to do
it, and I often get to experiment with new types of interaction and
engagement. So I'm using the company I work for to build a good list
of companies and clients on my resume, while using my side
projects to demonstrate my abilities.

My other piece of advice to you and to anyone else out there who just
starts working: don't let anyone pay you dirt just because you're a
recent grad. My reasoning is that, since I just spent 4 years and
about a quarter of a million dollars obtaining a professional degree,
I deserve a fair salary commensurate with the experience of a
mid-level designer.

My 2¢ :)

--
Jen Randolph, Interaction Designer
http://www.jenrandolph.com


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Persona skeptics

2009-03-09 Thread Joel Eden

Right. That whole argument (the 1, 2, and therefore...) I put below is
the weird logic that I see people using many times when personas are
being questioned.

A persona and its related process is just a vehicle for user research,
and the communication of its (ongoing) results. Just like Powerpoint
isn't bad, but there are many bad slide presentations.

I don't know why the idea of personas gets a bad rap if the research
that goes into a specific set of personas is bad...the term user
research doesn't seem to get a bad rap whenever someone that doesn't
do it well conducts research poorly.

As with most of these UX/design activities we use, the outcome and
usefulness of any given method is only going to be as good as your
commitment to wanting to understand...I think humility and wanting to
make visible what you don't know is key. Others who don't feel this
way probably won't feel the need to conduct good research (for
personas or otherwise)...personas may just be another item on the
checklist of doing UX.

Joel


On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 12:42 PM, Robert Hoekman Jr rob...@rhjr.net wrote:
 It seems like every time this topic comes up, weird logic is used to
 conclude that personas have little value, e.g.:

 1. Personas done with little to none or poor research (i.e. marketing
 demographics and segments) result in bad personas.

 2. Many people create personas this way.

 Therefore...based on 1 + 2, personas have little value (because most
 of them are created this way).

 The key word is in your first sentence. Have. If most personas focus on the
 wrong things and are created without any research to back them up, then yes,
 they have little value. The conclusion (Therefore ...) is perfectly
 accurate. If, however, the research was done and they focused on the right
 things, they could have more value.
 -r-

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] alternate to Basecamp?

2009-03-09 Thread Heather Anderson

www.actionmethod.com is similar to basecamp, but with more designer
feel to it and greater functionality.

The other one, which I think might suit you best, is Google Sites: 
http://sites.google.com/  Here you can insert docs, presentations,
spreadsheets, images, photo slide shows, forms, etc... and it's
FREE!!  


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Is social networking doomed to frivolity?

2009-03-09 Thread Angel Anderson

Thanks for the thoughtful responses. I'm happy to see that so many of
you chimed in. For the record, I don't believe frivolity is an
entirely negative thing. It has a natural place in our lives and is a
useful component of our social structure.

Mike Myles, I certainly never said that the entire history of written
word is frivolous. That would have been ridiculous. If you read my
post, you'll see that I am talking specifically about online social
interaction a la Facebook and Twitter.

Erika Hall, I loved what you wrote about how online connections can
help keep relationships going: Knowing with varying degrees of
synchronicity about all little things my friends are doing all over
the world is a really lightweight way to keep the relationship going,
so that when something hard or weighty comes up, the bonds are in
place.  Great point! I agree and find this very useful.

Fred Beecher wrote that he's seen tweets from people who've gone
through very serious things and that he appreciates the online
openness [Twitter] has allowed me to make friends out of contacts and
encouraged to me to interact with people as a whole person, not just
as a fellow UX designer.

Andy Polaine wrote: Most of our face to face conversation is gossip
and gossip nurtures social bonds and structures.  BTW, Andy, your are
100% right that there's a problem with 'doomed to frivolity' in the
framing of the question. (I confess, I worded it precisely that way
to provoke strong responses.)  I agree with your assertion that
frivolity doesn't necessarily mean lack of meaningfulness or social
usefulness.

Joshua Porter, the fact that Stephen Heywood was NOT  announcing his
worst days on Twitter is precisely the point I was trying to make.
Rather than broadcasting across his existing social networks, he used
a separate space (http://www.patientslikeme.com) where he shared the
difficult, personal details of with a small set of other folks like
himself.

This is similar to the sad story that Grandin Donovan shared. While a
childhood friend languished in a coma for a month and then died, there
was a Facebook group (a smaller subset of the person's friends) but
also a semi-private group on Carepages.com. Grandin, I'm sorry that
you lost a friend and I'm glad to hear that online interactions helped
you through the active grieving.

Ethan Smith, I think you hit the nail on the head with this sentence;
Broader social nets will
perhaps lean toward lighter topics - and more closed ones will tend to
allow people to open up. This rings true because it mirrors
interaction in real life. Both of the stories Joshua and Grandin
shared seemed to support this as well.

The theme in most of the posts on this topic is that knowing what a
far off friend had for lunch may, at first blush sound trivial, but
the fact that the person is sharing what's on her radar with me helps
us both feel connected. The connection is not trivial therefore the
bits of info that help us maintain a link are important as well, even
if they are usually more light-hearted or playful than serious.
Playfulness is wonderful part of human nature.

Thank you all for such insightful posts!

Kind regards,
Angel Anderson

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[IxDA Discuss] IA Available: Seattle-based

2009-03-09 Thread Mary Deaton

I am unexpectedly available immediately for contract information
architecting or usability research work. If you are Seattle-based, I can
work on-site. If you are not, I am comfortable with telecommuting and have
all the necessary equipment to conduct both remote- and lab-based usability
research.

You can view my resume at http://www.mmdeaton.com or look for my profile at
LinkedIn,
http://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=key=4230739trk=tab_pro

-- 
Mary Deaton
Manager, STC Usability and User Experience Community,
http://www.stcsig.org.com/usability
Principal, Deaton Interactive Design
http://www.mmdeaton.com

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Persona skeptics

2009-03-09 Thread Mitchell Gass


At 09:18 AM 3/9/2009, Todd Zaki Warfel wrote:
We still lack good methodology and educational practice when it 
comes to creating personas. And no, the Personas Lifecycle book 
didn't really help...Personas should be based on behaviors and 
activities, not demographics. And they need to be data-driven, not 
based on assumptions and pulled out of thin air.


Kim Goodwin's new book Designing for the Digital Age

  
http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Digital-Age-Human-Centered-Products/dp/0470229101/

has a detailed chapter on what personas are for and how to create them.

Mitchell Gass
uLab | PDA: Learning from Users | Designing with Users
Berkeley, CA 94707 USA
+1 510 525-6864 office
+1 415 637-6552 mobile
+1 510 525-4246 fax
http://www.participatorydesign.com/



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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Persona skeptics

2009-03-09 Thread Chauncey Wilson

Following up on Peter's note, I think that part of the persona
planning process is to develop a Public Relations or Advertising
Plan for your personas.  That should be an explicit part of the
persona process.  This could mean that:

1.  Personas are displayed in the work area
2.  Personas are required in deliverables
3.  The persona team is expected to promote the user of personas by
actually referring to them in all meetings.
4.  The data behind personas is highlighted occassionally in senior
management messages
5.  Methods used to evaluate products used persona-based methods.

There are many ways to publicize personas and I've seen really good
work, based on solid data, that is wasted because there was not a
solid plan to make people aware of the personas and kept them in mind
throughout design and development.

Chauncey


On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 12:44 PM, Peter Merholz pete...@peterme.com wrote:
 I just wrote about field research and personas for HarvardBusiness.org

 http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/merholz/2009/03/the-best-way-to-understand-you.html

 The heart of my message there is that the best way to understand your
 customers is to Go To Them.

 The follow on is that not everyone in a company can Go To Them, and we need
 means by which field research findings and insights can be shared. Video
 highlight reels are very powerful, but, I think, insufficient.

 In my experience, a well-crafted persona, and placing that persona in some
 strong scenarios, is the single best tool we have to spread empathy
 throughout an organization. It probably shouldn't be the only tool, but if
 you have time for just one, and you want to help your colleagues achieve a
 visceral understanding of your customers, I don't know of a better tool than
 personas.

 --peter
 
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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Your First UX / ID Job -- Q from the HCI Class of \'09.

2009-03-09 Thread Katie Albers


Jen --

Just FYI: Entry level is generally understood to be immediately  
post-degree and a couple years after that and your education is  
understood to include applicable experience. Asking for the  
compensation of a mid-level designer is a bit pushy and unlikely,  
generally, to meet with success. That you have internships and so  
forth in the field will usually push you to the high-end of that  
range, but isn't generally something to rely on.


That being said -- if you've managed to pull it off, Good For You! But  
it isn't something most new graduates are going to be able to do.  
Bargaining hard for the best possible salary is a good thing.  
Bargaining from a false understanding of your own position is  
generally dangerous.


kt

Katie Albers
Founder  Principal Consultant
FirstThought
User Experience Strategy  Project Management
310 356 7550
ka...@firstthought.com





On Mar 9, 2009, at 10:54 AM, Jen Randolph wrote:


Class of '08 here, so while I don't have loads of experience to draw
from, I can speak about some of the things I've noticed going on in
the field right now, in terms of finding work.

I second Scott's suggestion to Pick the company, not the
project. My first job (actually an internship) was at a really
great company that is very well-respected in the interaction design
field. It was only for a few months, but it's since brought me many
great job opportunities because it looks great on my resume.

I'm currently working at another high-profile agency where, just as
Scott said, projects get killed all the time. But the company and
client list looks great on my resume. My most exciting projects are
outside of the office - in this economy, many people now need more
for their web strategy than just a website, so I've been doing my
most creative work on the side for friends and family. The
benefit to this is I get to dictate what I do for them and how to do
it, and I often get to experiment with new types of interaction and
engagement. So I'm using the company I work for to build a good list
of companies and clients on my resume, while using my side
projects to demonstrate my abilities.

My other piece of advice to you and to anyone else out there who just
starts working: don't let anyone pay you dirt just because you're a
recent grad. My reasoning is that, since I just spent 4 years and
about a quarter of a million dollars obtaining a professional degree,
I deserve a fair salary commensurate with the experience of a
mid-level designer.

My 2¢ :)

--
Jen Randolph, Interaction Designer
http://www.jenrandolph.com


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=39620



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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Fun with comics (or storyboards!)

2009-03-09 Thread dnp607



Very useful, thanks Adrian. I love that they have Vector versions  
available too - these will prove quite useful. Pixton looks to be  
quite interesting too, thank you Pat - checking it out this afternoon.


Candy: Bitstrips is interesting. The interface is a bit more daunting  
for the first timer, but I'm going to see if my group likes it.


Best,
-Dan

On Mar 9, 2009, at 9:04 AM, Adrian Howard wrote:



On 9 Mar 2009, at 07:07, dnp607 wrote:



Hi Troy,

I was thinking it would be great to have a palette of images  
including (though just off the top of my head):

[snip]

You might want to lake at these:

http://designcomics.org/

A bunch of trez useful assets for exactly that sort of thing.



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Re: [IxDA Discuss] alternate to Basecamp?

2009-03-09 Thread eva kaniasty

Try google sites.  Also, Backpack, which is also made by 37signals, is more
along the lines of what you're looking for.

-eva


On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 1:55 PM, Heather Anderson 
heather.ander...@disney.com wrote:

 www.actionmethod.com is similar to basecamp, but with more designer
 feel to it and greater functionality.

 The other one, which I think might suit you best, is Google Sites:
 http://sites.google.com/  Here you can insert docs, presentations,
 spreadsheets, images, photo slide shows, forms, etc... and it's
 FREE!!


 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 Posted from the new ixda.org
 http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=39672


 
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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Joel Spolsky claims the Program Manager role does UI design... ????

2009-03-09 Thread dave malouf

Russell, Joel was trained in teh land of Redmond. In Redmond this was
totally true. the Program Manager was the UI designer, like in NYC
the Producer often has the role of UI Design or at least IA. I don't
think you should or can interpret Joel's words as saying that the PM
replaces the IxD or more traditional UI Designer role in the least.
Though I can see how today it can be seen like that.

- -dave


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Re: [IxDA Discuss] alternate to Basecamp?

2009-03-09 Thread Andrea Lewis

I second 'votes for Google Sites my only warning, there is a file
storage limit for individual accounts of 100MB (if you have Gmail/Google
Enterprise, I think you get a bit more space).

I have used Basecamp many times and it usually became a gloried file-storage
system, not much information sharing.


On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 1:55 PM, Heather Anderson 
heather.ander...@disney.com wrote:

 www.actionmethod.com is similar to basecamp, but with more designer
 feel to it and greater functionality.

 The other one, which I think might suit you best, is Google Sites:
 http://sites.google.com/  Here you can insert docs, presentations,
 spreadsheets, images, photo slide shows, forms, etc... and it's
 FREE!!


 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Joel Spolsky claims the Program Manager role does UI design... ????

2009-03-09 Thread Jackson Fox

First, I agree with Dave that you have to take Joel's lingo with a
pinch of MS salt from the 90s.

However, I have to say his comment that PMs (read designers) must
keep the developers happy lest they go off and do WTF they feel like
made me shudder. I've spent a lot of my career trying to help devs
and designers get along (I admit, having a CS degree helps), and part
of that effort was in helping each side recognize that both had
something to add to the conversation, and that both could be wrong.

Now here's Joel telling us that those gods in mortal flesh,
programmers, must be appeased, lest the design be cast aside. And
he's saying this is the RIGHT WAY for things to be. 


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Knowledge and Skill Requirements of the Industry



On 8 Mar 2009, at 17:15, Michael Micheletti wrote:
[snip]
A few months ago, when the IxDA meetup happened at the UW, I was  
impressed
that students from the Technical Communications/UX path, students in  
the

Industrial Design curriculum, and Computer Science students were all
present. And they were working together on projects.

[snip]

This makes me happy :-)

Adrian

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Prototyping tools resources



On 6 Mar 2009, at 06:41, David Malouf wrote:


I really feel you folks are confusing mock-up with prototype.
IMHO, if I can't use it, it ain't a prototype. Maybe, human as
computer paper-prototypes fit the bill, but otherwise, a series of
screens, are mock-ups and an interactive click-through is a
prototype.


I'm certainly thinking of a human in the loop when we're talking about  
paper prototypes. Otherwise there isn't any behaviour to observe.



The distinction is important b/c the line lets us know what level of
data we can achieve from each. Otherwise, if everything is a
prototype there is no means of discerning when to use what tool when
in what part of the process.


Except by talking about the advantages and disadvantages of different  
tools in different contexts?


Calling something a prototype, or a mock up, or a wireframe, or  
whatever doesn't help much. I think this thread shows that different  
folk have very different definitions.


Saying something works badly or well without giving enough information  
about the context where that something works badly or well seems  
fairly pointless to me.


There are situations where paper prototype works really, really badly.  
There are situations where putting together a quick HTML/Javascript  
click-through is a huge over-commitment that will only slow  
development down. There are situations where a hi-fidelity functional  
prototype is the only thing that will answer our questions.


I'm probably as guilt as this as anybody, but we need to be talking  
more about _where_ paper prototypes, hi-fi prototypes, man-behind-the- 
curtain demos, etc., etc. work (or not as the case may be).


And less time arguing definitions :-)


Ya know there is a reason why there are 20 words for snow in
Intuit/Eskimo.

[snip]

And just to prove what an annoying pendant I can be there aren't  
20 words for snow in Eskimo. Or at least it has nothing to do with  
them living in a snowy environment and having to make finer  
definitions that an English speaker :-)


The Eskimo languages are polysynthetic - where words and word- 
boundaries are not as clear cut as a they are in English and European  
languages. So the Eskimo for - say thick snow (not real example)  
can look like a separate word - when it's actually a regularly formed  
construct of several smaller morphemes (snow modified by thick).


I seem to recall being told that if you juggle your definitions  
appropriately you can get English having more snow related words -  
because we have lots of different words for snow concepts (avalanche,  
sleet, powder, etc.) that would be expressed by a single common snow  
morpheme in the Eskimo languages with appropriate modifications.


I'm sure googling around will get you more detail than my hazy memory  
from the year of linguistics I did back at uni :-)


Cheers,

Adrian


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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Knowledge and Skill Requirements of the Industry



On 8 Mar 2009, at 17:15, Michael Micheletti wrote:
[snip]
A few months ago, when the IxDA meetup happened at the UW, I was  
impressed
that students from the Technical Communications/UX path, students in  
the

Industrial Design curriculum, and Computer Science students were all
present. And they were working together on projects.

[snip]

This makes me happy :-)

Adrian


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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Is social networking doomed to frivolity?

2009-03-09 Thread Jackson Fox

I agree with many of the posts in this thread, particularly Joshua's,
that interaction in social media can be far from frivolous. 

For those interested in learning about the very real communication
that happens in SNS sites, I would encourage you to read some of the
following super smart people:

* Fred Stutzman (http://fstutzman.com)
* danah boyd (http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/)
* Joshua's blog (http://bokardo.com)

Academia has been doing some very interesting research into behavior
in social media, and Fred and danah are good people to start with if
you're interested. 


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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[IxDA Discuss] IxDA Education Initiatives - Update

2009-03-09 Thread Jon Kolko

Hi,

I wanted to post a brief update on the status of the IxDA Education
Initiatives, and invite you to get involved with our work. 

We've targeted three main areas for progressive development this year.
Within each area, we have groups investigating a number of sub-initiatives,
with the intention of producing something actionable by May 1st of this
year. The details are listed below; if you would like to get involved,
please send me a message off-list specifying which specific sub-initiative
you are interested in and I would be happy to invite you to our basecamp
projects. 

==

Awareness initiative. The goal of this initiative is to develop awareness
about IxDA as a potential career path among two key groups: a) K-12
teachers, students, parents and guidance councilors, and b) Undergraduate
faculty and students in programs related to interaction design.
Sub-initiatives include:

1. Common person interaction design description. Develop a set of materials
that describe, through words, diagrams, pictures, and other elements, what
interaction design is to the common person - someone who isn't necessarily
trained in design, art, computer science, psychology, or any related
discipline.
2. Education workshop material. Develop a set of exercises and content aimed
at 9th and 10th grade students, in an effort to introduce them to
interaction design fundamentals and generate interest and enthusiasm in this
as a professional direction to pursue.
3. Capability and aptitude assessment. Develop a set of characteristics
(capabilities and aptitudes) that can be used to identify when someone might
make a good interaction designer. Can be used as self assessment, or by
guidance councilors.

*

Curriculum initiative. The goal of this initiative is to create a useful
repository of curricula structure, lecture content, reading material, and
other artifacts that, collectively, illustrate best practices for higher
education of Interaction Designers and encourage the development of new
interaction design programs. Sub-initiatives include:

1. Program audit. Identify and aggregate into a spreadsheet the various
course, program, class, seminar, and other content in existence related to
Interaction Design. A spreadsheet has been started; this will be an
extension of that work, fleshing out the details of the various programs
offered by colleges and universities.
2. Alumni. Locate alumni in the Interaction Design community from the IxD
programs and courses in existence, identifying key point people that can be
contacted for information about their experience at a given program.
3. Program mapping criteria. Identify criteria that will be useful for
developing an ecosystem map of all existing programs. [this initiative is
not actually to produce the map - just to explore criteria that will help
people understand the data].

*

Mentorship initiative. The goal of this initiative is to create an organic
system of mentors who are willing to work with community members, on a
one-on-one basis, to help nurture and develop expertise in a specific area
of Interaction Design. Sub-initiatives include:

1. Mentorship, short-term. Identify a mentorship program format that IxDA
can implement in the next few months with little to no IT infrastructure.
How would it work? What would it be like?
2. Identify Precedents. Document mentorship programs that have worked in
other disciplines (design, art, or other communities). How were they
structured? What made them work?
3. Identify Mentorship Traits. Identify the attributes that can help match a
mentor with a mentee. What questions and answers would show up on a survey
in order to successfully create a strong relationship?
4. Face to Face Mechanism. Create and develop a way to get IxDA people face
to face, in order to best establish a mentorship program in real life. What
are the incentives to get people to volunteer their time? What are the
reasons people will turn to this community for help?

==

Thanks,

JK
--
http://interactions.acm.org
http://www.thoughtsoninteraction.com




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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Joel Spolsky claims the Program Manager role does UI design... ????

2009-03-09 Thread mark schraad

So the theory is to cloak the designer as a program manager? Or did I  
twist that a bit?



On Mar 9, 2009, at 3:42 PM, Russell Wilson wrote:

Lacking a program manager, your garden-variety super-smart  
programmer is

going to come up with a completely baffling user interface that makes
perfect sense IF YOU'RE A VULCAN (cf. git). The best programmers are
notoriously brilliant, and have some trouble imagining what it must  
be like

not to be able to memorize 16 one-letter command line arguments. These
programmers then have a tendency to get attached to their first ideas,
especially when they've already written the code.

  How to be a program manager
  http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2009/03/09.html

What Geoffrey Moore, Donald Norman, Paul Graham, Heidi Roizen,  
Jennifer

Aaker, Michael Lopp, and Ryan Carson all have in common?

  http://www.businessofsoftware.org/

--
Joel Spolsky
j...@joelonsoftware.com

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Joel Spolsky claims the Program Manager role does UI design... ????

2009-03-09 Thread Susan

Perhaps Don Norman will set him straight?

I see Spolsky is based in NYC. It's an attitude I've run into here
more than once during my cultural transition of moving from the
silicon valley 1.5 years ago. Yet our discipline is somehow still
hot here and there are never enough qualified senior people.
Believe me, it's had me stumped. Have been thinking of going into
process consulting/ teaching just to educate the community here.

--
www.light-motif.com


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Joel Spolsky claims the Program Manager role does UI design... ????

I've been a program manager.

Why do you see this as a threat? I see this as another opportunity.

And UX people should know a bit about programming, so they know what
they're designing into.


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Joel Spolsky claims the Program Manager role does UI design... ????

2009-03-09 Thread Russell Wilson


That's what I understood his point to be

Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 9, 2009, at 6:47 PM, mark schraad mschr...@gmail.com wrote:

So the theory is to cloak the designer as a program manager? Or did  
I twist that a bit?



On Mar 9, 2009, at 3:42 PM, Russell Wilson wrote:

Lacking a program manager, your garden-variety super-smart  
programmer is

going to come up with a completely baffling user interface that makes
perfect sense IF YOU'RE A VULCAN (cf. git). The best programmers are
notoriously brilliant, and have some trouble imagining what it must  
be like
not to be able to memorize 16 one-letter command line arguments.  
These
programmers then have a tendency to get attached to their first  
ideas,

especially when they've already written the code.

 How to be a program manager
 http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2009/03/09.html

What Geoffrey Moore, Donald Norman, Paul Graham, Heidi Roizen,  
Jennifer

Aaker, Michael Lopp, and Ryan Carson all have in common?

 http://www.businessofsoftware.org/

--
Joel Spolsky
j...@joelonsoftware.com

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[IxDA Discuss] Seattle: UW HCI Project Fair, Monday 3/16

2009-03-09 Thread Andrew Otwell

For Seattle-area IxDAers:
HCI Project Fair - Student Presentations

Each fall, students in UW CSE's Human-Computer Interaction courses organize
into teams and spend a quarter designing, prototyping, and most importantly
evaluating a user interface. CSE 441 is our second quarter, advanced HCI
course, which allows the top teams to continue to iterate and improve on
their designs.

Come join us on Monday, March 16th, from 10:30 AM - 1:00 PM to see what the
students created this quarter. Lunch is on us. It is a great chance to meet
top graduating students in computer science, informatics, design,  digital
arts who have an interest in user interfaces. This select group of students
includes the designers, programmers, and evaluation specialists of the
future.

The students had an especially challenging design charge the past two
quarters. They were asked to develop technology that either took advantage
of location-enhanced technology or involved ubiquitous computing in our
personal lives. The resulting projects have interesting mobile, visual, or
physical user interfaces .

The HCI Project Fair will take place on the UW campus, in the Gates Commons
(691 Paul Allen Center), University of Washington, Seattle campus.

More information:
http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/courses/441/09wi/projectfair.html#activities

Directions:
http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/courses/441/09wi/projectfair.html#directions

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Persona skeptics



On Mar 9, 2009, at 10:22 AM, James Page wrote:


What we use is real people, not personas.
We jot notes on each person. Collect and cross reference their  
needs, and

wants.


That's how you create personas.

If there is a question that needs answering all we have to do is ask  
the person, on the other hand Personas can't talk. We can come up  
with a hypothesis and test against real people.


That's one of the reasons one of our data inputs for our data-driven  
personas approach is someone we know. So, that if a question comes up  
our persona profiles cannot answer, we can call the someone we know  
and ask them directly.



Cheers!

Todd Zaki Warfel
President, Design Researcher
Messagefirst | Designing Information. Beautifully.
--
Contact Info
Voice:  (215) 825-7423
Email:  t...@messagefirst.com
AIM:twar...@mac.com
Blog:   http://toddwarfel.com
Twitter:zakiwarfel
--
In theory, theory and practice are the same.
In practice, they are not.




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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Persona skeptics


How do you communicate your research findings to your clients?

On Mar 9, 2009, at 11:11 AM, James Page wrote:

We just cut the personas, and the time saved spend it on user  
research.



Cheers!

Todd Zaki Warfel
President, Design Researcher
Messagefirst | Designing Information. Beautifully.
--
Contact Info
Voice:  (215) 825-7423
Email:  t...@messagefirst.com
AIM:twar...@mac.com
Blog:   http://toddwarfel.com
Twitter:zakiwarfel
--
In theory, theory and practice are the same.
In practice, they are not.




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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Joel Spolsky claims the Program Manager role does UI design... ????

Well, if you've seen the UI for FogBugz, then I guess that shows you  
what kind of a UI a Program Manager can design.



Cheers!

Todd Zaki Warfel
President, Design Researcher
Messagefirst | Designing Information. Beautifully.
--
Contact Info
Voice:  (215) 825-7423
Email:  t...@messagefirst.com
AIM:twar...@mac.com
Blog:   http://toddwarfel.com
Twitter:zakiwarfel
--
In theory, theory and practice are the same.
In practice, they are not.




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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Joel Spolsky claims the Program Manager role does UI design... ????

Well, if you've seen the UI for FogBugz, then I guess that shows
you what kind of a UI a Program Manager can design. 

You mean a profitable product?


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Heuristic Evaluations - A Personal Approach

2009-03-09 Thread Dana Chisnell



Liam,

  I think this is an absolutely awesome approach to what you're  
calling a heuristic review. It transforms the Nielsen heuristics from  
a checklist that just looks at the elements of the user interface in a  
sort of localized way to looking at the whole experience of using an  
interface from the point of view of a task-oriented human who has a  
goal to reach. It also reflects something that Jared Spool taught me  
to ask my clients about how to think about designs: If this interface  
were the perfect human helper, what would that person be like?


  One of the issues I've always had with a heuristic evaluation  
methodology is that it often gets treated by evaluators as a  
checklist. Yes, there's help. Yes, the buttons have reasonable labels.  
No, the error messages stink and it's too hard to recover from making  
errors. Etc. But if we put ourselves in the place of real users --  
which you can do if you have personas or user profiles available, or  
if you're designing for yourself -- we can do a much better job of  
applying heuristics as an evaluation technique.


Three things to think about:

1. Using heuristics as a checklist means the evaluator views the user  
interface in a mechanical way that can miss nuances people reveal when  
they're doing real tasks. A lot of what you'll find are cosmetic issues.


2. Performing an evaluation in the way you suggest gives a much closer- 
to-true view of what a user might do. But it is also massively labor  
intensive and it is unlikely that any one person will be able to  
evaluate an *entire* largish web site or application this way. It's  
just too exhausting. But by taking a snapshot through key, high- 
priority tasks, a team can see where they're missing the mark on key,  
high-priority items that should be factors contributing to a primo  
user experience.


3. Performing a heuristic evaluation -- or any evaluation that relies  
on guidelines is definitely no substitute for putting a design in  
front of a real person who has real goals. Humans are just -- happily  
-- unpredictable.



Fabulous work. I  can't wait to try it out.

Dana

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::
Dana Chisnell
desk: 415.392.0776
mobile: 415.519.1148

dana AT usabilityworks DOT net

www.usabilityworks.net
http://usabilitytestinghowto.blogspot.com/

On Mar 6, 2009, at 2:22 AM, Liam Greig wrote:


Hi everyone,

Apologies in advance for the long post. The agency where I work as an
IxD recently started an employee driven lunch and learn series where I
had the opportunity to introduce the idea of Heuristics to the group.
I covered off the basics and background from Nielson on and it was
all very well received. Following the session we opened up the floor
and had some great dialogue on the personification of software and
it's application to Heuristics. As a follow up I have been asked to
present a more 'human friendly' version of Heuristics to the team
using personal traits as a guide for non-expert use. We will most
likely begin to guinea pig this idea into our process next week. I
thought to myself today - 'what a great chance to finally post an
IXDA discussion thread'. I have been reading along for a very long
time...

So I would love any feedback you have to offer. Here is my first pass
at a new take on Heuristics based largely on Nielson's originals as
well as the ISOs ergonomics of human system interactions:

Begin each Heuristic with 'A design should be...'

1. Transparent
At all times a person should understand where they are, what actions
are available and how those actions can be performed. Information and
objects should be made visible so that a person does not have to rely
on memory from one screen to another

Ask Yourself:
•   Where am I?
•   What are my options?

2. Responsive
Whenever appropriate, useful feedback should let a person know what
is going on within a reasonable amount of time. If a person initiates
an action, they should receive a clear response.

Ask Yourself:
•   What is happening right now?
•   Am I getting what I need?

3. Considerate
A person should understand the language, words, terminology and
phrases presented to them. Error messages should be expressed in
plain language, precisely indicate the problem and constructively
suggest a solution. Predictable contextual needs and commonly
accepted conventions should be followed.

Ask Yourself:
•   Does this make sense to me?

4. Supportive
A person should feel supported in the effective and efficient
completion of their task. A person should feel enabled to focus on
the task itself as opposed to the technology chosen to perform that
task.

Ask Yourself:
•   Can I focus on my task?
•   Do I feel frustrated?

5. Consistent
A person should not have to wonder whether different words,
situations, or actions mean the same thing. Additionally a person
should not discover that similar words, situations or actions mean

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Joel Spolsky claims the Program Manager role does UI design... ????

2009-03-09 Thread Russell Wilson

@Dan - I completely agree.  Very frustrating for someone who spends a
lot of time evangelizing the value of good design.

@Patrick - I'm not threatened at all, and I started out as a
programmer (BS and MS) - and still code when I can - just wrote some
javascript as a matter of fact.  But what Joel says is like saying
just have the building contractor or structural engineer due the
architectural renderings... It's complete BS and undermines the
value and need for skilled designers.  And unfortunately his voice is
widely heard.  Btw - how do you see this as an opportunity?




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Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=39701



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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Joel Spolsky claims the Program Manager role does UI design... ????