Re: [IxDA Discuss] Dear CEO:
Hi Charles I'm sure other people will have different things to say, but I suspect that a couple of your points sound too good to be true, which could somewhat undermine the message. - On UXD being risk free I'd probably argue that iterative prototyping and research can mitigate risk, reduce the chance of reaching market with an unappealing product, and reduce the chance that you may need to engage in costly redesigns because mistakes are caught at early stages. Though risks are reduced, they are not removed entirely. Everything has a certain degree of risk. For example, in a UXD process, there's a the chance that you spend too much money or time in the design process, and then get to market late. - On UXD being inexpensive In the long run, yes, but only after a increased upfront investment. In the short term, the design process will likely become more heavyweight, involving some form of iterative user research and design. If a company is used to dreaming up some requirements and then just building them, then moving to a UXD process is going to bring more immediate costs. Anyone else care to comment? Harry Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] JOB: Senior UI Designer - 3216, Los Gatos, CA. NETFLIX - Full-Time
Netflix is looking for an outstanding user interface designer to join our small but amazing team. If you are as passionate about designing great experiences as you are about helping a successful business reach even higher heights, then we would love to talk to you. We are a close-knit team, so our ideal candidate is an excellent collaborator and team player who values complete honesty and candor. Although we are an established company, we still act like a start up in many ways. We offer an opportunity to innovate on a large scale, and our compensation, benefits, and culture are hard to beat. About You: You find beauty in conceptual models that can tell a story. You have a passion for solving interactive problems and finding the easiest, simplest way for our members to get from point A to Z. You can shepherd projects from concept to launch and do everything possible to ensure their success. You dont have a thin skin because you know that any feedback you get is given with the intent of making you and your designs even better. Youre smart and competent, but you dont have an ego. You understand that communicating has as much to do with listening as it does with talking. You can articulate the value of your design to Marketing, Product Management, Engineering and your grandmother as well as you can talk about font size and whitespace to other designers. You will be expected to produce quality quickly and be able to take your designs through multiple iterations on an ongoing basis. You can create multiple variations of a design and feel comfortable testing your way to the right solution. You have also read the 7 great reasons to work at Netflix and you understand and embody the characteristics listed in reason #6. You have a user-centric approach to design and you understand the value of being in a data driven environment where extensive testing guides us in improving the experience for our customers expect to engage in an ongoing healthy debate about data vs. design. We hire senior people who are expected to think AND do and as a result, this is a very hands-on, roll your sleeves up and get dirty kind of environment. and of course, you must love movies. The required bulleted list of attributes follows: 5+ years of interactive design (TV interface experience is a plus) A great portfolio Experience across the entire product lifecycle (lived through multiple launches) Expert abilities with the Adobe Creative Suite and Flash (ActionScript experience is a plus) Ability to rapidly prototype BA/BS in fine arts, graphic arts, human factors or related field http://jobs.netflix.com/applyFlix.asp?flix?flix3216?vbarone?7 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] JOB: Senior Visual Designer - 3219, Los Gatos, CA, NETFLIX - Full-Time
Netflix is looking for an outstanding visual designer to join our small but amazing team. If you are as passionate about designing great experiences as you are about helping a successful business reach even higher heights, then we would love to talk to you. We are a close-knit team, so our ideal candidate is an excellent collaborator and team player who values complete honesty and candor. Although we are an established company, we still act like a start up in many ways. We offer an opportunity to innovate on a large scale, and our compensation, benefits, and culture are hard to beat. About You: You have exceptional visual design skills and impeccable sensibility for color, composition, form and story. You can design in a range of styles and have a gifted eye for detail. Your visual sensibility allows you to strike the perfect balance between form and function. Your aesthetic is guided by restraint and simplicity. You dont have a thin skin because you know that any feedback you get is given with the intent of making you and your designs even better. Youre smart and competent, but you dont have an ego. You understand that communicating has as much to do with listening as it does with talking. You can articulate the value of your design to Marketing, Product Management, Engineering and your grandmother as well as you can talk about font size and whitespace to other designers. You will be expected to produce quality quickly and be able to take your designs through multiple iterations on an ongoing basis. You have also read the 7 great reasons to work at Netflix and you understand and embody the characteristics listed in reason #6. You have a user-centric approach to design and you understand the value of being in a data driven environment where extensive testing guides us in improving the experience for our customers expect to engage in an ongoing healthy debate about data vs. design. We hire senior people who are expected to think AND do and as a result, this is a very hands-on, roll your sleeves up and get dirty kind of environment. and of course, you must love movies. The required bulleted list of attributes follows: 5+ years of interactive design (TV interface experience is a plus) A great portfolio Experience across the entire product lifecycle (lived through multiple launches) Expert abilities with the Adobe Creative Suite and Flash (ActionScript experience is a plus) Ability to rapidly produce visual concepts BA/BS in fine arts, graphic arts, human factors or related field http://jobs.netflix.com/applyFlix.asp?flix?flix3219?vbarone?7 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] Identifying Stakeholder Requirements
Heres my take on a key first step in the development of any functional spec the identification of stakeholder requirements. Let's start by defining the term 'stakeholder'. A stakeholder can be anyone who has an interest in the successful completion of a project. This may include the individual(s) authorizing the project as well as the folks who will actually be using the application. Once you have identified the stakeholders, at a minimum, you'll need to get answers to the following questions: 1. Type of application to be developed (e.g., marketing website, self-service portal, etc.) 2. Objective (e.g., increase sales, reduce administrative costs, etc.) 3. Who will use the application (e.g., customers, employees, etc.) 4. Some basic details about the application (e.g., content, interfaces, etc.) 5. How is the application supposed to function (e.g., security, navigation, etc.) 6. Measurements for success (e.g., 10% increase in sales, 20% reduction in administrative costs, etc.) There are several ways to identify stakeholder requirements but I find the most effective approach is to interview each person. Youll want to leave each interview with answers to the 6 questions listed above. When you have completed your initial round of interviews, document your findings and ask the stakeholders to provide feedback. In my experience, it is beneficial to gain consensus from the project stakeholders before you start drafting the spec. Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Why Design Matters
We are fighting for design education in K-12 schools. These comments have been very helpful. Perhaps if students learn more about the importance of design in schools they will be more receptive as adults. http://andDESIGNmagazine.blogspot.com From: new-boun...@ixda.org [new-boun...@ixda.org] On Behalf Of Arthur Fink [art...@arthurfink.com] Sent: Sunday, October 04, 2009 7:12 AM To: disc...@ixda.org Subject: [IxDA Discuss] Why Design Matters Sorry for a second post in one day. I find that I often have to fight for design -- not for me as the designer, but just for spending time and money on design. Some clients don't know what it is, but believe it has something to do with making things prettier after they are almost built. So ... in preparation for writing a blog piece on this subject, I queried some friends. One wrote a paragraph that's almost a poem, and says just about all I wanted to put in my mini-essay. It's on my blog: http://arthurfink.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/why-design-matters/ Arthur Fink - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - A r t h u r F i n k Listening, Consulting, Coaching Common Sense Business Advice arthur at arthurfink.com 207.615.5722 Blogwww.arthurfink.wordpress.com Consulting www.arthurfink.com Coachingwww.insightandclarity.com Reply to this thread at ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=46371 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] [plug] In-progress book about interaction design on Kickstarter
Adler, Thanks for the comments! I actually have Goodwin's book on my nightstand now, I'm about 4/5 of the way through. I read About Face a couple of years ago, right when 3 came out. Both are great references, and About Face - especially the key points that it summarizes towards the end - remains a tremendous inspiration of mine. Some of my book talks about how to push design as a priority in organizations, which could be pertinent to designers, product managers, even executives. But the vast majority of it focuses on /how to design something well/. It's more about the craft than the business process; it focuses more on the final product than the research. Goodwin, Cooper, and Indi Young have already written very well about research. I talk about the fundamentals in ten pages, suggest those books as more comprehensive references, and move on. (It's also worth noting that my book will be about 1/3 the length of Designing for the Digital Age.) It's been a couple of weeks since you replied here; since then, I've posted a lot more explaining the book. Some chapter summaries are available on the book's site (http://cadence.cc). I've replaced the old crappy video on my Kickstarter project (http://nickd.org/x/cadence) with one that explains the book's concepts better. And I've been writing periodic reviews of products' usability at I see what you did there (http://isee.whatyoudidthere.com). Maybe the book won't be for everybody - few are - but it does advance new ideas and should be valuable for many people. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=45531 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] Mobile web: problems with search interfaces
Hi All, I am currently undertaking a research project which is to investigate the problems with mobile web search interfaces (input, results, impatient users etc.), and explore solutions to these issues. The challenge obviously comes from small screen space of PDAs/Smartphones, restricted text-input i.e. vague, ambiguous user queries and limited user interactivity etc. I was wondering if anyone on here could point me in the direction of any research done on this topic or towards anything on the web that could help, could even be a innovative design for PC web search interfaces that you think could work in the constrained mobile web enviroment. Thanks in advance. Paul Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] Forms, Contact and Customer Support Best Practices
Hi there Does anyone have examples or industry research re: best practices on online forms, Contact and/or Customer Support pages? Thanks much. Best, Linda Rubright Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Article on Number of Usability Test Participants
Jared, loved your post about getting the team to observe users, instead of doing traditional usability tests. (Loved the way you presented the same thoughts at IA Summit in Miami last year, too, btw!) Let's say we're developing a new version of an existing service. Based on the insights from your research - what do you think would be the best strategy? To stick with letting the team watch users use the existing version - and thus, over the project, collect richer and richer real experience, and trust that the teams design skills will provide us with good solutions for the new version? Or should we make the users try our gradually developed prototypes of the new product, in session after session? BTW, do the successfull teams require their team members to document their observations of users? Or is it more efficient to let them use this input and the insights in an informal way? Jonas Söderström senior information architect Sweden For the lesson lies in learning and by teaching I'll be taught for there's nothing hidden anywhere, it's all there to be sought - Keith Reid - At 15.01 -0400 09-10-04, Jared Spool wrote: On Oct 4, 2009, at 5:40 AM, James Page wrote: The issue I have with testing with just a few users is that it can exclude a significant issue. James, I think that's the major flaw in your thinking. You're trying to use usability testing primarily for issue detection and it's a very inefficient tool for that. Nielsen makes a claim that his useit site might look awful, but that it is readable, which is is not the case for me. I am Dyslexic, and I find Nielsen's useit website hard going, because he uses very wide column widths. I too am dyslexic, but the column widths aren't the big issue I have with Jakob's site. The big issue issue I have is his content. By only using a few people for user research in one location, are you not excluding a significant number of your site's audience? Yes. Which is why using usability testing as a sole source for issue detection will inevitably fail. There's no way you could put together a cost-effective study (even with super-duper remote testing applications) that would participants at chance for every possible variance found in humans. By trying to use usability testing in this way, you're creating a final inspection mentality, which Demming and the world of statistical quality control has taught us (since the 40s) is the most expensive and least reliable way of ensuring high quality. Issues will be missed and users will be less satisfied using this approach. Instead, a better approach is to prevent the usability problems from being built into the design in the first place. Jakob shouldn't need to conduct usability tests to discover that longer column widths could be a problem with people with reading disabilities. In fact, those of us who've paid attention to the research on effective publishing practices have known for a long time that shorter columns are better. Larger sample sizes, even when the testing is dirt cheap, is too expensive for finding problems like this. We need to shift away from the mentality that usability testing is a quality control technique. Because of this, we've found in our research that teams get the most value from usability testing (along the other user research techniques) when they use it to inform their design process. By getting exposure to the users, the teams can make informed decisions about their design. The more exposure, the better the outcomes of the designs. To research this, we studied teams building a variety of online experiences. We looked for correlations between those teams' user research practices and how effective the team was at producing great designs. We looked at the range of techniques they employed, whether they hired experienced researchers, how many studies they ran, how frequently the studies were, and about 15 other related variables. We found that many of the variables, including the nature of the studies (lab versus field, for example) or number of study participants did not correlate to better designs. More importantly, we found that 2 key variables did correlate substantially to better designs: the % of hours of exposure each team member had to primary observation and the frequency of primary observation. This led us to start recommending that teams try to get every team member exposed to as many hours of observing users throughout the design process. The minimum we're recommending is 2 hours of observation every 6 weeks. The best teams have their team members observing users for several hours every week or so. Based on our research, we can confidently predict that having each team member watch two users for two hours every 3 weeks will result in a substantially better design
[IxDA Discuss] [Event] Design for Conversion conference 11th of December 2009 - Amsterdam, NL
Friday the 11th of December DfC will take place in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. For the third time Chi Nederland (and IxDA Nederland) organize an international conference on the integration of persuasive design and advanced analytics. The event, by the name of 'Design for Conversion ~ The Mobile Edition', offers an engaging experience for interaction designers, marketing managers and conversion professionals. THIS YEAR'S PROGRAM The 2009 program is shaping up nicely. We are very pleased with the speakers who confirmed so far: Jerome Nadel (SVP User Experience Sagem Wireless) will talk about effective user experience design that not only supports efficient usage but also elicits desired behaviours; UX designers orchestrate interactions with expected outcomes. Mobile devices present unique design challenges in form factor, usage models, and online access. Optimized mobile UI design must embrace an interdisciplinary approach, thinking not only about interaction design but also psychology and intelligence from analytics and predictive modelling. Scott Weis (UI Technology Manager Symbian Foundation) focuses on how user interfaces can drive persuasion, from encouraging users to exercise or stop smoking, to spending more money on gambling. Its up to the designer to put in the key drivers, and to make the right moral choices. Eric Siegel (President Prediction Impact, Inc. Chair, Predictive Analytics World) thinks there's no greater potential opportunity than mobile marketing - but there's no greater challenge either. Customers on the run are short on time, and short on user interface capacity. An enterprise has got to learn fast which content, offer, creative and product to push to each customer in order to most reliably affect conversion. Enter predictive analytics, who's very purpose is to find the rules, patterns and models that best match content-to-customer. With Design for Conversion we bring you one of the most engaging conference formats you will ever experience. All attendees become part of a team. So don't be fooled by the schedule, you will have to work, stand, move and interact the whole day. This 3rd edition of Design for Conversion will be all about mobile persuasion. Guided by senior conversion professionals teams will work on real life cases. Keynote speakers Scott Weiss, Jerome Nadel and Eric Siegel will provide insights that take the teams' ideas on a higher level. At the end of the day, a panel of judges will decide which team is the winner. Who will attend: mobile professionals, marketers and marketing managers, interaction designers and analytics experts. 150 attendees, 15 teams, 15 team captains, 5 cases, 5 sponsors, 3 keynotes, 2 MCs, 1 inspiring day and 1 winning team! Be sure to take part in this years Design for Conversion on December 11th, 2009 hosted in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Visit http://www.designforconversion.nl or follow us at http://twitter.com/dfc09 for program updates. JOIN US! Design for Conversion ~ The Mobile Edition will take place on Friday 11th of December in Amsterdam. We would love to meet you there. Early birds are rewarded with a 50 euro discount, but bear in mind: seats are limited, so save your spot today. http://designforconversion.nl/registration/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Forms, Contact and Customer Support Best Practices
Hi, Luke Wroblewski wrote a good book on that subject : Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks http://www.lukew.com/resources/web_form_design.asp Ciao . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=46417 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Mobile web: problems with search interfaces
I'd say the Taptu white papers are worth a look... http://taptu.com/whitepapers/ ...as is this presentation... http://www.slideshare.net/createwithcontext/how-people-really-use-the-iphone -presentation ...and Mac Funamizu's work is great for inspiration... http://petitinvention.wordpress.com/2008/02/10/future-of-internet-search-mob ile-version/ Peter Morville President, Semantic Studios http://semanticstudios.com/ http://findability.org/ -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Paul Mason Sent: Monday, October 05, 2009 11:21 AM To: disc...@ixda.org Subject: [IxDA Discuss] Mobile web: problems with search interfaces Hi All, I am currently undertaking a research project which is to investigate the problems with mobile web search interfaces (input, results, impatient users etc.), and explore solutions to these issues. The challenge obviously comes from small screen space of PDAs/Smartphones, restricted text-input i.e. vague, ambiguous user queries and limited user interactivity etc. I was wondering if anyone on here could point me in the direction of any research done on this topic or towards anything on the web that could help, could even be a innovative design for PC web search interfaces that you think could work in the constrained mobile web enviroment. Thanks in advance. Paul Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Dear CEO:
Hi Charles, The approach of consolidating your pitch into one easy presentation is a good start, but of course executives at large and small companies are rarely swayed by one presentation or conversation or meeting. As executive presentations go (having been through the gauntlet both as a presenter and executive wy too many times), you probably want to: * Write it backwards - put what you need at the top, and proof of its value, move the supporting copy to the bottom or remove it * Replace every sentence with an active phrase or brief talking point - presentations should augment the discussion, not *be* the discussion. * As Harry mentioned, seasoned executives have a finely honed sense of smell for...er...hyperbole. Best not to claim any value proposition without facts, case studies or hard numbers to back them up (more effective isn't necessarily something UX delivers, in the broad sense - see the thread re: usability testing as quality control) I'm pretty sure you had one kind of CEO or executive in mind, so the pitch would of course be quite different to a director at a Pharma company, whose least worry is the competitive advantage of in-house apps for back-office work. For example, I sell development cycle efficiency by assigning nebulous UI work to a seasoned UX designer and focusing heavy-lifting Model/Controller work to offshore groups - we gain about 50% more velocity when my offshore folks don't have to wait a day for the color/position of a button on XYZ page. I like your thinking, and appreciate seeing how others would view this difficult proposal for our industry. Bryan Minihan -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Charles B. Kreitzberg Sent: Monday, October 05, 2009 9:27 PM To: disc...@ixda.org Subject: [IxDA Discuss] Dear CEO: Hi: Recently there have been a number of threads about how to present the argument for UX design to a company. In response I have put together the following outline for a presentation. What improvements can you add? snip Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Mobile web: problems with search interfaces
There are also some examples/links in our search pattern library... http://www.flickr.com/photos/morville/collections/72157603789352245/ ...including a paper on faceted search for mobile... http://research.microsoft.com/apps/pubs/default.aspx?id=64303 Peter Morville President, Semantic Studios http://semanticstudios.com/ http://findability.org/ -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Paul Mason Sent: Monday, October 05, 2009 11:21 AM To: disc...@ixda.org Subject: [IxDA Discuss] Mobile web: problems with search interfaces Hi All, I am currently undertaking a research project which is to investigate the problems with mobile web search interfaces (input, results, impatient users etc.), and explore solutions to these issues. The challenge obviously comes from small screen space of PDAs/Smartphones, restricted text-input i.e. vague, ambiguous user queries and limited user interactivity etc. I was wondering if anyone on here could point me in the direction of any research done on this topic or towards anything on the web that could help, could even be a innovative design for PC web search interfaces that you think could work in the constrained mobile web enviroment. Thanks in advance. Paul Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Forms, Contact and Customer Support Best Practices
Linda Rubright Does anyone have examples or industry research re: best practices on online forms, Contact and/or Customer Support pages? Hi Linda May I recommend my own book: Forms that work: Designing web forms for usability. On the associated web site, I've put a selection of materials including various articles and papers: www.formsthatwork.com thanks Caroline Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] Google Wave - Very first impressions
Hi Got my invite for Google Wave today, and played around with it a little. It's hard to judge it that early, and I only participated in public discussions, no private ones. Right now Google Wave feels somewhat messy to me, the combination of wiki-like features, chat and forum (threaded conversations) is somewhat confusing. Maybe this is just at first. The way the conversations are presented in the inbox seem to focus a lot on the topics, less on the people. People are only presented by their picture, this could become very confusing, if someone changes his/her picture. Also I think the direct combination of wiki and conversation doesn't work too well. Some content is wiki like, should be updated, should be somewhat permanent, like a packing list for a camping trip, other content is pure conversation. The more permanent content has the same weight as conversational content and has no extra indicator that it's there to stay. I think the paradigm stackoverflow.com uses, works better for the combination of information conversation. What do you think? This is as said a very early impression, as I haven't done too much with google wave yet, and also don't forget how young this product is, it will still evolve. That said, I see huge potential in the plugin structure, for example think of tools to fix a date (like doodle.com) embeded direclty into the conversation. Looking forward to hear your thoughts! Roland Studer Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Dear CEO:
I think Jared Spool's comments a few weeks ago summed up my thoughts on how UX/UCD contributes to strategy (or doesn't!), so I'll just refer you there: http://www.ixda.org/discuss.php?post=45062#45062 But I'll also highlight this great quote from yesterday's Financial Times, in which Robbie Bach, head of Microsoft's entertainment and devices division, admitted that Windows Mobile isn't losing market share because of sales or marketing or distribution or feature set, but that, Our experiences aren't as rich as they need to be. http://bit.ly/8jbod Victor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=46405 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Dear CEO:
Victor - Interesting comment from Microsoft. Having been a Microsoft Mobile user since the very early days (anyone remember Windows CE?), I would have to say that the user experience still isn't great. 'Richness' for me would be icing on the cake! In fact, on my latest phone (an HTC Touch Pro 2), HTC have actually engineered around some of the Windows Mobile clunkiness with their TouchFlow3D interface. It's adequate, but not much more. Regards, William Hudson Syntagm Ltd Design for Usability UK 01235-522859 World +44-1235-522859 US Toll Free 1-866-SYNTAGM mailto:william.hud...@syntagm.co.uk http://www.syntagm.co.uk skype:williamhudsonskype Syntagm is a limited company registered in England and Wales (1985). Registered number: 1895345. Registered office: 10 Oxford Road, Abingdon OX14 2DS. Confused about dates in interaction design? See our new study (free): http://www.syntagm.co.uk/design/datesstudy.htm 12 UK mobile phone e-commerce sites compared! Buy the report: http://www.syntagm.co.uk/design/uxbench.shtml Courses in card sorting and Ajax interaction design - Las Vegas and Berlin: http://www.nngroup.com/events/ -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss- boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Victor Lombardi Sent: 06 October 2009 7:18 AM To: disc...@ixda.org Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Dear CEO: ... admitted that Windows Mobile isn't losing market share because of sales or marketing or distribution or feature set, but that, Our experiences aren't as rich as they need to be. http://bit.ly/8jbod Victor Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Defining a UX vision
Henning Fischer, design strategist at Adaptive Path, was interviewed about developing a mission statement and discusses a tool we use frequently at Adaptive Path, the mad-lib like elevator pitch. It's a place I begin when crafting a vision statement. http://www.redesign.creativecomponent.com/podcast-interview-with-henning-fischer-developing-a-mission-statement/ I'm also partial to experience principles as a way of articulating a UX vision. We posted a detailed explanation of our work with http://smart.fm/ , including experience design principles we developed for them: http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2009/07/22/smartfm-goals/ When defining a UX vision, take to heart the suggestions in the book MADE TO STICK, about how ideas are made sticky. Too often UX visions are abstract and formless. As part of making the vision concrete, it's important to get away from words and towards pictures and other more concrete means of expression. We typically create a vision prototype to embody the vision and principles, to make tangible the strategy. --peter On Oct 3, 2009, at 3:40 PM, Jim Leftwich wrote: Here's a link to a .pdf of Design Vision: A Conversation About The Role Of Design Leadership, which is the dialog between Luke Wroblewski (http://www.lukew.com), Bob Baxely (http://www.baxleydesign.com/), Dirk Knemeyer (http://knemeyer.com/), and myself (http://www.orbitnet.com), all veteran Interaction Designers with experience spanning a wide variety of software, products, and systems. We discuss many aspects of how vision and design leadership have played out in our careers, some of which have been more than 25 years long. http://www.lukew.com/resources/articles/DesignVision.pdf Our dialog is practiioner informed and aimed. It reflects the many issues we've encountered, llessons we've earned, and insights we've come to understand over our lengthy and varied practitioner, management, and business careers in the field of Interaction Design. The dialog doesn't particularly boil the complexity of Design, Design Vision, and Design Leadership down to simple statements, but provides a comprehensive overview from our experiences and perspectives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=46323 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Leaving Las Vegas...I mean the website site.
On 5 Oct 2009, at 21:17, Kim Burgess wrote: The target=_blank debate is an interesting one. Initially I stopped using it as it wasn't included in the core XHTML 1.1 (although it can be added as module). Recently I've considered the appropriateness of its use a lot more and settled on utilizing unobtrusive JavaScript (JS) to give anchors which posses a rel attribute with a value of external a behaviour which causes them to open up in a fresh window. I'll also utilize JS append a small graphic to the link that signifies it will open a new window and append (opens in a new window) to the title attribute to give the user some extra info in their tool-tip. [snip] I've never done a usability test where having external links open in new windows has had a positive effect (outside of small informational popups and comparisons where separate windows help.). At best it seems to have no negative effect. At worst it causes annoyance and/or confusion. I've never looked at any web site logs where switching links to/from opening in new windows has made any difference to the users length of time on site, number of conversions, etc. So - while doing this is obviously an improvement on surprising the user with a new window - does it make it better than leaving them in the same window? If not, why do we do it? Just to avoid the discussion with the client on why it's not a good idea? :-) Have other peoples experiences been different? Cheers, Adrian -- http://quietstars.com - twitter.com/adrianh - delicious.com/adrianh Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Product ratings
Try Buzzillions... http://www.buzzillions.com Eva Kaniasty http://www.linkedin.com/in/kaniasty On Sun, Oct 4, 2009 at 8:48 PM, Nathaniel Flick natoba...@gmail.com wrote: http://www.netflix.com http://www.welie.com/patterns/showPattern.php?patternID=rating (discusses download.com rating pattern) http://www.amazon.com http://www.ebay.com iTunes - song/track rating (circles become stars when you click and drag across) Almost any site that sells stuff also has ratings. Tons out there! What's your specific question related to ratings? Are you trying to create a different way than the 5 star system? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=46376 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Article on Number of Usability Test Participants
Hi Jonas, On 6 Oct 2009, at 08:09, Jonas Söderström wrote: Jared, loved your post about getting the team to observe users, instead of doing traditional usability tests. (Loved the way you presented the same thoughts at IA Summit in Miami last year, too, btw!) Let's say we're developing a new version of an existing service. Based on the insights from your research - what do you think would be the best strategy? I'm not Jared - but my personal experience would be to avoid this: To stick with letting the team watch users use the existing version - and thus, over the project, collect richer and richer real experience, and trust that the teams design skills will provide us with good solutions for the new version? and do this: Or should we make the users try our gradually developed prototypes of the new product, in session after session? There's only so much information you can get from the product as it stands. Once you start changing the design some of that information becomes invalid. Maybe v2.0 does make doing Foo much easier, but has it made doing Bar much harder? You need to validate the new design decisions that you're making - and learn from the feedback. Discovering more information about the old product is going to become less and less useful as the old and new products diverge. BTW, do the successfull teams require their team members to document their observations of users? Or is it more efficient to let them use this input and the insights in an informal way? I personally find informal mechanisms to be much more effective. However - unless you can spent significant amounts of time with the team you may need to fall back to more formal communication mechanisms. That said - I find informal techniques so much more effective I'd fight quite hard to change the environment so I can use them :-) Cheers, Adrian -- http://quietstars.com - twitter.com/adrianh - delicious.com/adrianh Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Dear CEO:
I think that is Victor's point, William. That MS isn't cuttin' it in the UX arena and thus can't compete. But if you want to get a glimpse of where mobile windows is going, check out the UI for the latest Zune. i got to play w/ it recently and really loved it. If I wasn't so invested into DRMed AAC (upwards of $500 according to Apple if I wanted to convert it to DRM-free), I'd really consider it for my next MP3 player. But regardless of that. A few thoughts. I appreciate the let's start the conversation presentation that Charlie presented. Very proactive post that gives people a tangible tool. So kudos and thanx. I think that I might make some changes though: 1) do what victor was doing. Case studies, quotes, etc. and try to be as non-Apple as possible. Look at Zip Car, Salesforce.com, BBC, Amazon, etc. Be sure to choose examples that are relevant to your business and quantify their story in some way. 2) Fess up! as one person noted it WILL cost you money up front. It is a new task which means new hours and probably new bodies. Create a PLAN, not just a speech. 3) Demonstrate that you know your boss' business explicitly (not that charlie wouldn't do this, but there wasn't a place holder slide for this) 4) Don't go in alone. Be sure you've already created allies in the other departments just by word of mouth. 5) Prep through blitzkrieg. When I was hit with this issue a few jobs ago, I would hit almost weekly if not multiple times a week my entire office with posts from BusinessWeek and FastCompany highlighting design's direct effect on business. Again, stay away from Apple examples. 6) Don't talk about user experience or even design. Talk about measurable and tangible articulations of design in the context of YOUR product. 7) Demonstrate that you have expertise by just being above your boss' head, but not too much that they blow you off. 8) Here's the kicker ... JUST DO IT! Sketch out examples just based on heuristics how you envision your company's products changing over time. Be the visionary and show the sweat equity to your ideas. Enjoy! -- dave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=46405 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Dear CEO:
Hi: Thanks for your responses to the Dear CEO post. To avoid cluttering up the list, I will wait until this evening and then post a consolidated reply that integrates your ideas into the original. Of course, as some of you have pointed out, any presentation will require substantiation and customization. My goal for this effort is to create a generic approach that speaks to the way that senior managers think. What I want to achieve is a tool that you can adapt for your own situation. Some of you (for example Dave Malouf) have also contributed suggestions that are not directly about the logic of the argument but are ideas about how to conduct the session. I will assemble these into a companion document which we can review later. I believe that the collective wisdom of the group will lead to a truly useful document. Thanks and keep those cards and letters coming. Best, Charlie Charles B. Kreitzberg, Ph.D. CEO, Cognetics Corporation -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of dave malouf Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2009 9:15 AM To: disc...@ixda.org Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Dear CEO: I think that is Victor's point, William. That MS isn't cuttin' it in the UX arena and thus can't compete. But if you want to get a glimpse of where mobile windows is going, check out the UI for the latest Zune. i got to play w/ it recently and really loved it. If I wasn't so invested into DRMed AAC (upwards of $500 according to Apple if I wanted to convert it to DRM-free), I'd really consider it for my next MP3 player. But regardless of that. A few thoughts. I appreciate the let's start the conversation presentation that Charlie presented. Very proactive post that gives people a tangible tool. So kudos and thanx. I think that I might make some changes though: 1) do what victor was doing. Case studies, quotes, etc. and try to be as non-Apple as possible. Look at Zip Car, Salesforce.com, BBC, Amazon, etc. Be sure to choose examples that are relevant to your business and quantify their story in some way. 2) Fess up! as one person noted it WILL cost you money up front. It is a new task which means new hours and probably new bodies. Create a PLAN, not just a speech. 3) Demonstrate that you know your boss' business explicitly (not that charlie wouldn't do this, but there wasn't a place holder slide for this) 4) Don't go in alone. Be sure you've already created allies in the other departments just by word of mouth. 5) Prep through blitzkrieg. When I was hit with this issue a few jobs ago, I would hit almost weekly if not multiple times a week my entire office with posts from BusinessWeek and FastCompany highlighting design's direct effect on business. Again, stay away from Apple examples. 6) Don't talk about user experience or even design. Talk about measurable and tangible articulations of design in the context of YOUR product. 7) Demonstrate that you have expertise by just being above your boss' head, but not too much that they blow you off. 8) Here's the kicker ... JUST DO IT! Sketch out examples just based on heuristics how you envision your company's products changing over time. Be the visionary and show the sweat equity to your ideas. Enjoy! -- dave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=46405 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Dear CEO:
Hi Charles, The goal of your consolidated presentation is a great idea, and would make for an awesome template. I've done similar presentation a few times, luckily for me most of the time a large part of the audience had already drunk the cool aide ;) Things I think you're absolutely correct on: UX design starts at the top: UX design needs to be integrated into projects at the earliest possible stages. Things I find a little dubious, as others have noted - UX is easy to design or build, cheap, risk free, (or a panacea for stopping projects from failing). Some comments to your text: With the right strategy it's straightforward to implement, inexpensive and risk-free. - Never happened for me. Complexity of project makes straightforwardness, price and risk go up exponentially when including UX in design VS just building the simplest instantiation. UX design will increase profits by: o Reducing product development cost - I have never experienced this o Reducing support costs - Can happen, also Support costs can spike until users understand new UI o Reduce training costs - See “support costs” above o Making our customers happier and increasing market share - UX can aide in this, but sometimes customers just like what they’re used to, good bad or indifferent. UX design processes improve the communications and alignment between the development engineers and the business side. - There are lots of methodologies that improve this communication which have nothing to do with UX, (see virtually all Agile Development processes). -- Joseph Rich Rogan President UX/UI Inc. http://www.jrrogan.com Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Defining a UX vision
The Harvard Business Review has a couple of excellent papers on building elevator pitches. Or you could use this if you are in a hurry: http://www.alumni.hbs.edu/careers/pitch/ Mark On Tue, Oct 6, 2009 at 10:26 AM, Peter Merholz pete...@peterme.com wrote: Henning Fischer, design strategist at Adaptive Path, was interviewed about developing a mission statement and discusses a tool we use frequently at Adaptive Path, the mad-lib like elevator pitch. It's a place I begin when crafting a vision statement. http://www.redesign.creativecomponent.com/podcast-interview-with-henning-fischer-developing-a-mission-statement/ I'm also partial to experience principles as a way of articulating a UX vision. We posted a detailed explanation of our work with http://smart.fm/, including experience design principles we developed for them: http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2009/07/22/smartfm-goals/ When defining a UX vision, take to heart the suggestions in the book MADE TO STICK, about how ideas are made sticky. Too often UX visions are abstract and formless. As part of making the vision concrete, it's important to get away from words and towards pictures and other more concrete means of expression. We typically create a vision prototype to embody the vision and principles, to make tangible the strategy. --peter On Oct 3, 2009, at 3:40 PM, Jim Leftwich wrote: Here's a link to a .pdf of Design Vision: A Conversation About The Role Of Design Leadership, which is the dialog between Luke Wroblewski (http://www.lukew.com), Bob Baxely (http://www.baxleydesign.com/), Dirk Knemeyer (http://knemeyer.com/), and myself (http://www.orbitnet.com), all veteran Interaction Designers with experience spanning a wide variety of software, products, and systems. We discuss many aspects of how vision and design leadership have played out in our careers, some of which have been more than 25 years long. http://www.lukew.com/resources/articles/DesignVision.pdf Our dialog is practiioner informed and aimed. It reflects the many issues we've encountered, llessons we've earned, and insights we've come to understand over our lengthy and varied practitioner, management, and business careers in the field of Interaction Design. The dialog doesn't particularly boil the complexity of Design, Design Vision, and Design Leadership down to simple statements, but provides a comprehensive overview from our experiences and perspectives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=46323 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Dear CEO:
David - Thanks for your note, but that is not how I read the MS quote from Victor. MS appears to think they are not cuttin' it because their experience is not rich enough. I disagree - I think their experience is just plain not good enough. I keep meaning to do a blog on Maslow's hierarchy of needs - my feeling is you need to satisfy the basic user experience requirements before adding gloss (although gloss does make up for *some* deficiencies). If MS concentrates on making their experience *richer* before fixing some fundamental problems (like simple profiles for comms and sound), they will just be applying lipstick to the pig. Regards, William -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of dave malouf Sent: 06 October 2009 10:15 AM To: disc...@ixda.org Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Dear CEO: I think that is Victor's point, William. That MS isn't cuttin' it in the UX arena and thus can't compete. ... Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] A follow-up on gritting my teeth and bearing it
A few months ago I wrote to this list, sort of complaining and sort of asking for advice on whether I should stand my ground on asking for a feature that our test users wanted and the absence of which I felt would seriously degrade the user experience. This week the product is in beta test... with the feature (view screens that are actual designed renderings of data rather than edit screens with every control disabled) in place. I thought I'd write back to the list first to thank everyone who responded, and second to toss out this little bullet-point list of things I learned/was reminded of during this exercise. 1. Be patient. Development cycles are long and developer whims are transitory. 2. Design the product you want to see produced. Gather data to support your design choices, and design to those data. If the data are behind you, your life is easier. 3. Involve people early and often, preferably in the same room as the developers. (Probably the oldest lesson in the UX book, and one I teach my students. Turned out to be highly relevant here.) When the developers get an earful from people who are not you, it makes you look like the most reasonable person in the conversation. 4. Be that most reasonable person. In this design process I've compromised on dozens of points that the developers wanted changed, while gently advocating for things I felt would have significant negative impact on the user experience. 5. Reasonable people keep lists. When we deviate from the product I want (see point 2) I keep a record of it. I make sure QA has a copy of the original design doc and we design test cases for the application based on that doc. When there are variances we can file them as defects, as design changes, or as features for the next release. Just because I didn't get everything I wanted in this first release doesn't mean I've compromised away my design vision. 6. Development never goes as fast as everyone wants, and idle developers are often willing to do things they thought they didn't have time to do. In this particular case, the view screens were largely implemented during a cycle that had the UI developer waiting on the back-end developer to catch up. He had a couple free days, and a doc that described the feature. And he had heard the intended users asking for the feature (see point 3). So he implemented things. And once they were implemented they were much easier to integrate into the app during the next down cycle. Best regards, --Alan Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Dear CEO:
oh!!! I see what you mean. Ok. I agree w/ you! I interpreted richness to just mean good. ;-) -- dave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=46405 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Product ratings
See also: http://www.goodguide.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=46376 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] Critique: Ranker.com
Hi All, I was wondering if you'd take a second to provide some honest feedback on a website I worked on briefly. The site is http://ranker.com and it's for creating lists for anything from shopping lists to top-10 lists. It's been months since I was last employed there, but I really wanted to get your impressions since they've recently launched their beta. Technically, I think there are a lot of cool things about the site (drag/drop, same page state changes, etc.) but I always felt like it was the technology that really drove the design. It feels somewhat disjointed to me. I feel the main goals are to be able to create lists, comment on lists, and share them with others and I'm not sure how easily those are accomplished. Anyway, I'd appreciate your help. Thanks in advance! Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] EVENT: PhillyCHI Social - Tech Design Quizzo!, Thursday, October 8, 2009
PhillyCHI Social - Tech Design Quizzo!, Thursday, October 8, 2009 In celebration of DesignPhiladelphia, PhillyCHI is pleased to host a technology and design-themed Quizzo night. Trivia questions will be based on technology, design, architecture, and other related topics. Prizes will be awarded to the first and second place teams. So come socialize with design and user experience professionals, try your hand at trivia, and (hopefully) learn a thing or two, all over tasty food and drinks. Date: Thursday, October 8, 2009 Time: 8:00PM - 10:00PM (Play starts at 8PM, so come early to get a table) Location: National Mechanics Address: 22 S. 3rd Street Philadelphia, PA 19106 Web: http://www.nationalmechanics.com/ Map Directions: http://nationalmechanics.com/philadelphia-hours-directions RSVP: Not necessary but nice: philly...@gmail.com About DesignPhiladelphia Moving into its fifth year, DesignPhiladelphia is the largest national celebration of its kind. This city-wide cultural event spotlights all things design from architecture to interior design, fashion to product design, textile to graphic design. It's a journey exploring exhibitions, workshops, studio tours, lectures, special events and product roll-outs that inspire, engage, excite and delight. Check the website regularly as the calendar continues to evolve, calls for entry are posted, and news items are shared: http://designphiladelphia.org/ . About PhillyCHI PhillyCHI is the Philadelphia region’s chapter of the ACM SIGCHI, an interdisciplinary academic and professional group interested in Human- Computer Interaction, User Experience, Usability, and other related disciplines. PhillyCHI holds monthly meetings and socials to network and discuss current topics in HCI. Learn more at http://phillychi.acm.org . .. Dave Cooksey Founder Principal saturdave information architecture, taxonomy, user research, usability 713 Pine Street 1R Philadelphia, PA 19106 email: d...@saturdave.com phone: +1.215.219.8960 web: http://saturdave.com Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] IAI $1000 Progress Grants Deadline Oct 31
Hey folks. I could've sworn I sent this to the IxDA list when we first started announcing it about a month ago, but I can't see where the email actually made it to IxDA. Here's another shot. The official announcement is below, but I wanted to add a few things to keep in mind: - The grants are open to work being done in Interaction Design or any other field related to IA. - If an idea crossed your mind and you thought it was too crazy to get a grant, grab that idea and give it a shot. You never know! - This does not have to be strictly academic work -- anything that will result in new knowledge or tools is game. - Already working on something? Maybe you already have funding for it as well? Fine! The work doesn't have to be exclusive to IAI; we could co-support the work, as long as we can publish results (as specified in the grant description). If you'd like to ask any questions, please email me at inkbl...@gmail.com. CALL FOR ENTRIES: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE INSTITUTE PROGRESS GRANTS == The IA Institute will award two USD $1,000 progress grants for 2009. The purpose of the program is twofold: * to encourage researchers and practitioners to investigate IA-specific issues * to publicize useful work that furthers the information architecture body of knowledge. Applications should propose work that will forward the theory and practice of information architecture. This can include original research, a synthesis of important existing research, or the development of an innovative new technique. MORE INFORMATION is available online ... Overview Info on Previous Recipients: * http://www.iainstitute.org/en/members/grants/grant_program.php Details about Eligibility Submission: http://iainstitute.org/en/members/grants/progress_grant_details.php IMPORTANT DATES * Oct. 31, 2009: Application deadline * Nov. 15, 2009: Grant recipients announced and first half of grant awarded * Dec. 30, 2009: Grant recipients submit brief progress report to grant committee * May 1, 2010: Completed work submitted to grant committee, published on iainstitute.org, and second half of grant awarded This is the third year the Institute has funded the progress grants. Previous grants have been awarded to students, academic researchers, and practitioners. Topics have included IA in higher education, a new card sorting technique, the use of internet cafes in developing contexts, and an intranet review toolkit. -- andrew hinton / inkblurt.com Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Leaving Las Vegas...I mean the website site.
Not sure about making it a better place.. I try. I at least make it a bigger place :). I've had a few people email me asking for a code example so I thought I'd post the response here. If anyone is interested you can see the script in action at http://www.kimburgess.info. The JavaScript that handles the link augmentation is on line 37 of http://www.kimburgess.info/scripts/dev/kimburgess.js. It's commented but if you've got any questions don't be afraid to ask. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=46314 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] JOB: Visual and Interaction Designer (Junior- or Mid-level). Fulltime, San Francisco CA.
Visual and Interaction Designer (Junior- or Mid-level) http://www.choicevendor.com/about/jobs/?job=ux01 As a visual and interaction designer, you will be responsible for producing page- and flow-level interaction and graphic designs for all parts of the ChoiceVendor website. You will be responsible for the layout of pages, type, and other graphical elements. You will own the visual look and feel of the site, subject to the constraints imposed by branding guidelines and usability requirements. Depending on your qualifications and background, you may work on information architecture of the site, proposing and producing overall site navigation and organization. This position is appropriate for a Junior- to Mid-level candidate, and we will adjust responsibilities according to your level of expertise. You will report to the Director of UE, who you will work with to determine pageflows, page elements, graphical elements, and other parts of our UI. Core responsibilities: - Own the visual design: You should be a proficient to excellent graphic designer. We do not have a high-graphics site, but you’ll need to know typography, visual hierarchies, color theory, basic graphic production, etc. - Own the UI of the ChoiceVendor website, admin tools, and helpcenter: You’re in charge of getting the UI needs met, based on product requirements, business goals, usability tests, and guidance from the UE Director. - Produce production-quality interaction and graphic design mockups and specifications using an appropriate medium: HTML, Photoshop / Fireworks, OmniGraffle, Visio, etc. - Produce early and experimental prototypes to explore new feature ideas with the UE director, CEO, and engineering team. - Work with engineering to anticipate corner cases, error cases, etc., and provide designs for those cases. - Watch all usability studies and proactively provide design corrections where needed. Additional responsibilities: - Help maintain or own a style guide and interaction guide. - Provide designs for emails, advertisements, and other marketing materials. Requirements: - A graduate or undergraduate degree in interaction design or HCI, OR a degree in a related field (such as graphic design with interactive coursework, cognitive psychology, etc.). - Passion for creating great user experience. You must be user-centered in your approach to designing interfaces. - Have a deep understanding of how human beings use technologies, and of current best practices for designing usable web applications. - Interest in business software and applications, and a cogent understanding of how business software can be similar to and different from consumer applications. - You have a grip on HTML, CSS, and JavaScript — you know what’s possible and what isn’t, and you generally get how it works. - 1 – 3 years of experience preferred; however, we will accept recent graduates with a directly relevant degree (HCI or interaction design). What we’ll expect to see: - *Your portfolio* of previous design work. This should be in digital format: your website, a PDF, or an email with links to sites you’ve designed. We will request this before scheduling an initial phone interview. We are happy to sign an NDA if some of your portfolio work is not publicly available. Note that we are much more interested in learning about your process and how you work than the ultimate outcome of any particular website or project. - Your current *resume*. - Your solution to a* design problem* we’ll give you. The design problem is intended to take a couple of hours of your time and lets us see how you work through problems. This happens prior to onsite interviews, but after an initial phone interview. - *References* — although we’ll only check these a ways into the process. The position is based at our headquarters in downtown San Francisco, California. Compensation will be commensurate with experience and all other startup goodies apply, including a robust benefits package. *Apply for this position*j...@choicevendor?subject=visual%20and%20interaction%20designer%20[ux01] Software Engineer As a Software Engineer, you’ll create robust, high-quality web applications with a strong emphasis on building scalable, server-side components to meet the needs of our customers. You’re well-rounded and experienced in the full application development lifecycle, and you’re capable of designing, implementing and delivering major functionality. You are also comfortable deploying and maintaining production systems. Above all, you are self-motivated, self-directed and have a keen intuition into what it takes to design and build a successful product. Responsibilities: - Design, build and manage a web application for small business users - Influence product design and featureset of the web application - Implement business-critical internal
[IxDA Discuss] Tool to annotate recorded conversation/dialogue
I'm trying to see if there are any research tools to annotate recorded conversations between two or more people including their actions in a workspace environment. Also if there was a way in which qualitative data could be measured to see if the process of communication works in different scenarios. Thanks, Vaibhav Kodikal The Boeing Company P.O. Box 3707 | MC 6Y-66 Seattle WA 98124-2207 Phone: +1 425.237.1390 Mobile: +1 425.449.2666 E.Mail: vaibhav.v.kodi...@boeing.commailto:vaibhav.v.kodi...@boeing.com Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] A follow-up on gritting my teeth and bearing it
Alan, Thanks for posting such a thoughtful and helpful follow-up. Good thoughts to keep in mind. Phillip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=46439 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] Diagramming for Patents
I've been included in a patent application for a new technology and was also asked (since I am the designer) to diagram the patents. Anyone have any experience with digramming for patent application? Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Diagramming for Patents
Hi Nigel, I've done both product and electronics stuff in the past and I think that perhaps the KISS principle works well here. I tend to draw very basic wireframes with just enough information to explain the concept and absolutely NO hints at what the technology will actually look like when you go to market. In my experience here in Oz, (on world US, European and Japanese submissions) patents have to be described and the diagram must match the description exactly - otherwise you may open yourself to litigation and an annulled patent. I worked on a product once which a competitor said infringed their patent but we proved through our testing and my diagrams that their patent wasn't even valid since what they described didn't actually work the way they described it OR drew it. If you are dealing with task-flows and processes in a software application, be as broad as possible - don't describe any measurements or suggest any proportions unless they are a factor in how the product/system will work. Finally, keep illustration to a minimum - a lot of diagrams will often give the competition too much information. A Patent Attorney I've used always says that the arguments will be in words, not images, so make sure you cover yourself there first and only use illustrations if necessary to aid the description. Good luck Stephen // Stephen Holmes IA/UX Designer Canberra, ACT, Australia // The recognition and understanding of the need was the primary condition of the creative act. When people feel they had to express themselves for originality for its own sake, that tends not to be creativity. Only when you get into the problem and the problem becomes clear, can creativity take over. CHARLES EAMES (US Industrial Designer, 1907-1978) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=46450 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
