Re: [IxDA Discuss] Sketching before the Wireframes
On Feb 19, 2010, at 9:02 PM, Regnard Raquedan wrote: I think it depends on the situation. Ideally, wireframes should be done, but I recently ahd a client that was really rushing things and had a tight deadline. They prodded me to come up with a mockup that approximated the final version of the website. We go directly from sketches to prototypes. Unless you consider our sketches wireframes..., but then that changes the argument. Cheers! Todd Zaki Warfel Principal Designer, messagefirst Author of Prototyping: a practitioner's guide http://bit.ly/protobk -- Contact Info Voice: (215) 825-7423 Email: t...@zakiwarfel.com Blog: zakiwarfel.com Twitter:@zakiwarfel -- In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not. 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] Personas: how many is too many?
On Feb 17, 2010, at 7:02 AM, Ari Tenhunen wrote: Absolutely too many personas or user groups. It makes management more complicated in many ways. I would hav max 5. Base it on the data. Look at the overlaps and differences in their behaviors, wants, goals and needs. When you find a significant difference in behavior that warrants a unique design case, then and only then do you create another persona. There's no magic number of too many or too few. There's only what the data tells you. Coming in and saying there should never be more than five without being able to back it up with data will get you into trouble and is frankly inaccurate, which equates to bad design. Cheers! Todd Zaki Warfel Principal Designer, messagefirst Author of Prototyping: a practitioner's guide http://bit.ly/protobk -- Contact Info Voice: (215) 825-7423 Email: t...@zakiwarfel.com Blog: zakiwarfel.com Twitter:@zakiwarfel -- In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not. 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] Monopoly board gets redesigned - IxD rationale?
On Feb 7, 2010, at 10:50 PM, David Cortright wrote: And to Charles' point, yes Monopoly was groundbreaking, and important historically. But that shouldn't (and doesn't) give it any advantage when compared to today's offerings. But it does. And that is all part of design. Ignoring the business and marketing side of the design equation is naive. Design is and should be a holistic approach. Ignoring that fact is a mistake. Cheers! Todd Zaki Warfel Principal Designer, messagefirst Author of Prototyping: a practitioner's guide http://bit.ly/protobk -- Contact Info Voice: (215) 825-7423 Email: t...@zakiwarfel.com Blog: zakiwarfel.com Twitter:@zakiwarfel -- In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not. 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] Monopoly board gets redesigned - IxD rationale?
On Feb 7, 2010, at 8:14 PM, Charles Boyung wrote: Todd, that's not entirely fair. You can't deny that there are many board games out there that are much better than Monopoly. First of all, life, business, and design aren't fair. They never were and never will be. The sooner we understand and accept that as part of the design problem the better off we'll all be. Second, I never said there aren't many board games out there that are better than Monopoly. I'd love for you to show where I said or even implied that. Monopoly obviously isn't designed for or targeted to the game geeks. It's targeted at the millions and millions of people who purchase it, play it, give it away to friends, etc. It's incredibly successful at that. And all of that is part of Design. Cheers! Todd Zaki Warfel Principal Designer, messagefirst Author of Prototyping: a practitioner's guide http://bit.ly/protobk -- Contact Info Voice: (215) 825-7423 Email: t...@zakiwarfel.com Blog: zakiwarfel.com Twitter:@zakiwarfel -- In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not. 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] Monopoly board gets redesigned - IxD rationale?
On Feb 7, 2010, at 5:08 PM, David Cortright wrote: It's worth noting that Monopoly is ranked #5924 on that list, with an average rating of 4.5/10. The crowd has spoken. Guess that just shows how clueless the crowd is. Monopoly has been a mainstay game for decades and continues to sell year after year. So much for what the experts know. Must be the same group that churns out social media gurus. Cheers! Todd Zaki Warfel Principal Designer, messagefirst Author of Prototyping: a practitioner's guide http://bit.ly/protobk -- Contact Info Voice: (215) 825-7423 Email: t...@zakiwarfel.com Blog: zakiwarfel.com Twitter:@zakiwarfel -- In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not. 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] Sketching before the Wireframes
pssst... he was being sarcastic. On Feb 3, 2010, at 9:36 AM, Anjali Arora wrote: I agree with Jared about cutting straight to the chase, focusing on just building things. However, it is rarely an either-or situation, but rather one of degree; while trying to build something, I find it useful to make quick paper doodles/sketches of the various states, for example. Helps to clear one's mind before starting to code. -Anjali Cheers! Todd Zaki Warfel Principal Designer, messagefirst Author of Prototyping: a practitioner's guide http://bit.ly/protobk -- Contact Info Voice: (215) 825-7423 Email: t...@zakiwarfel.com Blog: zakiwarfel.com Twitter:@zakiwarfel -- In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not. 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] Sketching before the Wireframes
paper. fireworks. html/css/javascript. On Feb 3, 2010, at 5:23 PM, Michael Caskey wrote: What are you guys using for rapid web prototyping right now? Cheers! Todd Zaki Warfel Principal Designer, messagefirst Author of Prototyping: a practitioner's guide http://bit.ly/protobk -- Contact Info Voice: (215) 825-7423 Email: t...@zakiwarfel.com Blog: zakiwarfel.com Twitter:@zakiwarfel -- In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not. 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] Sketching before the Wireframes
In fact, I think there might be an entire book on this http://bit.ly/protobk On Feb 3, 2010, at 5:23 PM, Michael Caskey wrote: What are you guys using for rapid web prototyping right now? Cheers! Todd Zaki Warfel Principal Designer, messagefirst Author of Prototyping: a practitioner's guide http://bit.ly/protobk -- Contact Info Voice: (215) 825-7423 Email: t...@zakiwarfel.com Blog: zakiwarfel.com Twitter:@zakiwarfel -- In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not. 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] [anthrodesign] Norman replies to Nussbaum
On Dec 31, 2009, at 2:22 PM, Dan Saffer wrote: But more often in practice, existing technologies are applied to new problems (which may spring from human needs), or new technologies are applied to existing problems (which may spring from human needs). Even if that means bending existing technologies into new forms to tackle newly found problems. Cheers! Todd Zaki Warfel Principal Designer, Messagefirst Author of Prototyping: a practitioner's guide http://bit.ly/protobk -- Contact Info Voice: (215) 825-7423 Email: t...@zakiwarfel.com Blog: zakiwarfel.com Twitter:@zakiwarfel -- In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not. 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] Mint (ok now Intuit) CEO gets it
Going into any Design project we talk about not just improving profits and customer loyalty, but about reducing costs for the client. It all adds up to their profits and bottom line at the end of the year, which is how business people measure ROI. On Dec 6, 2009, at 11:38 AM, j. eric townsend wrote: If you can figure out a way to lower the cost of customer support using better design, you will get attention from execs. Find out what customer support is costing them across the board -- returned products, customer retention, phone bank and web site costs -- and show how you can lower those costs with better design. Cheers! Todd Zaki Warfel Principal Designer, Messagefirst Author of Prototyping: a practitioner's guide http://bit.ly/protobk -- Contact Info Voice: (215) 825-7423 Email: t...@zakiwarfel.com Blog: zakiwarfel.com Twitter:@zakiwarfel -- In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not. 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] Commenting prototype?
Just signed up for this. Looks interesting. On Dec 1, 2009, at 6:19 PM, Michele Marut wrote: Notable may be another application to consider. http://www.notableapp.com/ Cheers! Todd Zaki Warfel Principal Designer, Messagefirst Author of Prototyping: a practitioner's guide http://bit.ly/protobk -- Contact Info Voice: (215) 825-7423 Email: t...@zakiwarfel.com Blog: zakiwarfel.com Twitter:@zakiwarfel -- In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not. 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] Validating personas
On Nov 27, 2009, at 3:25 AM, live wrote: Regardless of how many times you use the word 'stupid' Jared, this is still standard procedure for all university social science programs. :) Oh, well then that must mean that it works ;). Cheers! Todd Zaki Warfel Principal Designer, Messagefirst Author of Prototyping: a practitioner's guide http://bit.ly/protobk -- Contact Info Voice: (215) 825-7423 Email: t...@zakiwarfel.com Blog: zakiwarfel.com Twitter:@zakiwarfel -- In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not. 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] Validating personas
On Nov 25, 2009, at 1:12 PM, Elizabeth Kell wrote: Does anyone have lessons learned they are willing to share from their own attempts at Mulder-style quant work, in particular in crafting and deploying surveys? :) Good surveys are pretty difficult to design. In a case like this, you'll want to focus the questions on behaviors, not demographics information. You can use something like Survs.com to create a survey using some logic to split people into different paths based on some initial qualifying questions. Without seeing the actual personas, it's a bit difficult to give you specific information and guidance. But in general, if you're going to take a quant approach to validation, then focus your questions on the behaviors you think apply to each given persona. Cheers! Todd Zaki Warfel Principal Designer, Messagefirst Author of Prototyping: a practitioner's guide http://bit.ly/protobk -- Contact Info Voice: (215) 825-7423 Email: t...@zakiwarfel.com Blog: zakiwarfel.com Twitter:@zakiwarfel -- In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not. 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] Dustin Curtis, UX Design, and American Airlines
You can the boy out of the lawyer, but you can't take the... oh, nevermind. On Nov 25, 2009, at 9:51 AM, Jared Spool wrote: It's hard to get lawyer-think out of one's system. Cheers! Todd Zaki Warfel Principal Designer, Messagefirst Author of Prototyping: a practitioner's guide http://bit.ly/protobk -- Contact Info Voice: (215) 825-7423 Email: t...@zakiwarfel.com Blog: zakiwarfel.com Twitter:@zakiwarfel -- In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not. 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] Dustin Curtis, UX Design, and American Airlines
On Nov 24, 2009, at 9:25 AM, Alan Wexelblat wrote: Your opinion is phrased in a haughty and dismissive manner. If you don't care to participate in the discussion, there's the 'd' key on your keyboard, OK? Oh, the irony in that comment. Cheers! Todd Zaki Warfel Principal Designer, Messagefirst Author of Prototyping: a practitioner's guide http://bit.ly/protobk -- Contact Info Voice: (215) 825-7423 Email: t...@zakiwarfel.com Blog: zakiwarfel.com Twitter:@zakiwarfel -- In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not. 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] Dustin Curtis, UX Design, and American Airlines
There's so much irony and contradiction in this email that, well, I'll just address them below... On Nov 24, 2009, at 9:25 AM, Alan Wexelblat wrote: It's my opinion, as I said in the original message, that it's a story about how UX fits into large corporate culture. And, yes, it's also the case that Curtis doesn't understand how the external face of the company (the AA site) is produced.[..] That's just it. Part of UX is about understanding the business. Why, why, why don't UX people get this? A great UX designer, and I use the term designer loosely, understands the importance that the business model has in the grand scheme of UX. If you don't get that, then you fail right out of the gate. This guy didn't get that. I think it's a shame that AA fired someone who cared so much about the customer experience on their site. However, that's where my sympathy stops. As an employee of the company and a designer, this guy needs to understand that there are things much bigger than his personal feelings and attitudes at stake here and should've considered the recoil of posting to a public forum from his company computer. Not too bright. Redesigning a Web site is easy.[...] Screech (sound of brakes coming on). Clearly it's not. Your comment above even blatantly communicates that. Redesigning a website of a global business is not easy. There are a lot of factors that come into play: business goals, customer goals, legacy issues, technology platform, available resources, time, budget, impact of the change, etc. We're not talking about redesigning the website of a local bakery here, we're talking about redesigning the website of a global ebusiness. Downplaying that is dangerous to say the least. Redesigning the user experience for a big complex company is hard, even leaving aside the problems of AA's particular corporate culture. But it's an important problem for UX professionals to understand. And part of that UX is the website. You're totally contradicting yourself here. Or at least, some of us. If it's not important for you, and you already know it all, great. Mazal tov. But please don't piss on others' conversations. Hey kettle, you're black. Cheers! Todd Zaki Warfel Principal Designer, Messagefirst Author of Prototyping: a practitioner's guide http://bit.ly/protobk -- Contact Info Voice: (215) 825-7423 Email: t...@zakiwarfel.com Blog: zakiwarfel.com Twitter:@zakiwarfel -- In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not. 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] Dustin Curtis, UX Design, and American Airlines
On Nov 24, 2009, at 12:32 PM, Alan Wexelblat wrote: I don't understand what you're ranting about. If you're saying that Curtis doesn't get it then we're in vehement agreement. I'm saying that the majority of the UX community doesn't get this, which is just a shame. It's one of the things holding back this community. Sorry, I used the word redesigning too loosely. I was referring to the proposed surface and IA improvements that an outsider like Curtis suggested - I should have said coming up with redesign concepts. Now that is more accurate and true. A redesign is a redesign, which is not what a few visual comps are. Cheers! Todd Zaki Warfel Principal Designer, Messagefirst Author of Prototyping: a practitioner's guide http://bit.ly/protobk -- Contact Info Voice: (215) 825-7423 Email: t...@zakiwarfel.com Blog: zakiwarfel.com Twitter:@zakiwarfel -- In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not. 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] Dustin Curtis, UX Design, and American Airlines
On Nov 24, 2009, at 9:57 AM, Nick Gould wrote: Todd: The AA employee didn't post to a public forum, he sent an email to Dustin and then foolishly allowed it to be published anonymously. AA then searched its Exchange logs for the text in order to identify and fire him. Splitting hairs, Nick. He allowed his email to be posted to a public forum, Dustin's blog. That's a public forum (not in the usergroup forum sense, but in the use of forum as a public space). According to Dustin, Mr. X said he could post the email to Dustin's blog. You're splitting hairs here, but if you really want to quibble over a hair, then fine. I'll retract my statement of Mr X. posted to a public forum to Mr X. foolishly authorized Dustin to post his email to a very public forum. There. We good? Cheers! Todd Zaki Warfel Principal Designer, Messagefirst Author of Prototyping: a practitioner's guide http://bit.ly/protobk -- Contact Info Voice: (215) 825-7423 Email: t...@zakiwarfel.com Blog: zakiwarfel.com Twitter:@zakiwarfel -- In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not. 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] Validating personas
On Nov 24, 2009, at 8:25 AM, Angela Colter wrote: The personas were developed based on field research with about two dozen customers. I think the goal is to survey a much larger proportion of our users to make sure the team got it right. When crafting personas, we use no less than three separate data points: * Stakeholders—interviews to determine who they think the audience is and what their behaviors are * Actual customers—using ethnographic-based field research * Someone we know—this helps keep us grounded, allows for validation and provides a direct line of access if any questions ever come up In leu of actual customers, we'll conduct contextual interviews with customer support reps and sales people who have customer touch points. We have used surveys in the past to provide some additional input but not to validate personas. Surveys don't work as well as interviews for extracting actual behavior data. With fully fleshed out personas, you might be able to construct a survey to evaluate personas, but I'd trust actual interviews of people I know more. Cheers! Todd Zaki Warfel Principal Designer, Messagefirst Author of Prototyping: a practitioner's guide http://bit.ly/protobk -- Contact Info Voice: (215) 825-7423 Email: t...@zakiwarfel.com Blog: zakiwarfel.com Twitter:@zakiwarfel -- In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not. 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] Kickstarter for a book about interaction design - only 2 weeks left
Who's the publisher? On Nov 21, 2009, at 1:39 PM, Nick Disabato wrote: Hey all - I'm part of Chicago's IxDA chapter, and I'm in the process of writing a book about interaction design. It's called Cadence Slang, and it should be out by the end of next year. Cheers! Todd Zaki Warfel Principal Designer Messagefirst | Designing Information. Beautifully. -- Contact Info Voice: (215) 825-7423 Email: t...@zakiwarfel.com Blog: zakiwarfel.com Twitter:@zakiwarfel -- In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not. 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] Kickstarter for a book about interaction design - only 2 weeks left
Good luck with your book. It's a lot more work than you'll ever be able to imagine, but also a huge sense of accomplishment once it's all over. On Nov 22, 2009, at 8:36 AM, Nick Disabato wrote: I'm printing and shipping it myself, though with the funding of dozens of others on Kickstarter. They're the publishers. Cheers! Todd Zaki Warfel Principal Designer, Messagefirst Author of Prototyping: a practitioner's guide http://bit.ly/protobk -- Contact Info Voice: (215) 825-7423 Email: t...@zakiwarfel.com Blog: zakiwarfel.com Twitter:@zakiwarfel -- In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not. 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] Prototyping Tool Recommendations
On Nov 16, 2009, at 2:58 PM, Chris Rink wrote: Hello, i have recently been given the task of identifying prototyping tools to test high fidelity and high functionality. Our goal is to have prototypes that will be high enough quality to work as design specs. Actually, you can do high fidelity in PPT (MS used it to prototype much of Windows XP and the ribbon), Axure, Fireworks, HTML, Flash... there are a number of tools. I cover a few of them in my book, Prototyping: a practitioner's guide, which just went on sale this past week http://bit.ly/19Hiir if you use discount code PRPUBNOT you can get 15% off. Cheers! Todd Zaki Warfel Principal Designer Messagefirst | Designing Information. Beautifully. -- Contact Info Voice: (215) 825-7423 Email: t...@zakiwarfel.com Blog: zakiwarfel.com Twitter:@zakiwarfel -- In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not. 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] Prototyping Tool Recommendations
On Nov 17, 2009, at 11:05 AM, Charles B. Kreitzberg wrote: It would be great to learn about techniques that can make PowerPoint more usable as a prototyping tool. As Fred Beecher points out in his recent UIE virtual seminar, fidelity comes in two flavors: functionality and visual aesthetics. I really like the way Fred illustrates these two levels of fidelity using an X/Y plot. Keeping that in mind, PowerPoint won't get you high fidelity visual aesthetics on its own. Typically, it's combined with Photoshop, Illustrator, or something similar to create the visual assets and pull them into PowerPoint for prototyping. PowerPoint can get you a fairly moderate to high level of fidelity on the functional axis. I've even done things like fake javascript fade techniques (a pretty standard Ajax-style transition) in PPT. While it's not as robust as HTML or Flash, it's a tool with a fairly low learning curve and it's on nearly every business machine on the planet, making it readily accessible. Oh, and if you're interested in finding out how to prototype with PPT, why not pick up the book Prototyping: a practitioner's guide. I cover PPT and 5 other tools in there, each with it's own hands on tutorial, as well as a number of general best practices and guidelines for prototyping regardless of the tool or method. Pick up a copy of the book http://bit.ly/19Hiir and save 15% with PRPUBNOT. You'll even get sample files and templates for prototyping in Fireworks, PPT, and other programs. Cheers! Todd Zaki Warfel Principal Designer Messagefirst | Designing Information. Beautifully. -- Contact Info Voice: (215) 825-7423 Email: t...@zakiwarfel.com Blog: zakiwarfel.com Twitter:@zakiwarfel -- In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not. 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] Fluid 960 Grid System: Rapid Prototyping. Tried it?
On Nov 12, 2009, at 8:09 AM, Andy Howard wrote: And Todd - your prototyping book looks very cool. Will be buying it. Thanks, Andy. BTW, if you use http://bit.ly/19Hiir Discount code PRPUBNOT you can get 15% the purchase price. Cheers! Todd Zaki Warfel Principal Designer Messagefirst | Designing Information. Beautifully. -- Contact Info Voice: (215) 825-7423 Email: t...@zakiwarfel.com Blog: zakiwarfel.com Twitter:@zakiwarfel -- In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not. 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] Fluid 960 Grid System: Rapid Prototyping. Tried it?
On Nov 12, 2009, at 9:43 AM, Richard Rutter wrote: We avoid using CSS frameworks in production, but if they speed up wireframing that'sa good thing. So, do you recode everything then? Or do you strike some balance between some of the framework stuff and a more optimized version for production? Or something else. We've done a bit of both, but are attempting to pull together a framework that will be optimized for both prototype development and production w/o having to rewrite anything, or at least keep it to a minimum. Cheers! Todd Zaki Warfel Principal Designer Messagefirst | Designing Information. Beautifully. -- Contact Info Voice: (215) 825-7423 Email: t...@zakiwarfel.com Blog: zakiwarfel.com Twitter:@zakiwarfel -- In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not. 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] Fluid 960 Grid System: Rapid Prototyping. Tried it?
On Nov 12, 2009, at 3:07 AM, Nicolas Leroy wrote: I found it a practical way to skip the mock-up stage, not the wireframe stage. Couldn't you just wireframe in HTML? Cheers! Todd Zaki Warfel Principal Designer Messagefirst | Designing Information. Beautifully. -- Contact Info Voice: (215) 825-7423 Email: t...@zakiwarfel.com Blog: zakiwarfel.com Twitter:@zakiwarfel -- In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not. 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] Fluid 960 Grid System: Rapid Prototyping. Tried it?
On Nov 12, 2009, at 2:37 AM, Andy Howard wrote: Has anyone used a fluid 960 grid framework for rapid prototyping?e.g. http://www.designinfluences.com/fluid960gs/ I'm particularly interested in how usable it is for a UX person like me with *some* (i.e. junior level) CSS/XHTML knowledge. I've had a quick play with it, but wondering how practical and efficient it is for 'mock ups' and client work. Frameworks like 960.gs (the original), Fluid960gs, Blueprint, and YUI! are a great way to prototype. It's almost like getting a prefab house kit—most of the pieces are there, but some assembly is required. I'm not sure I would use 960 or Blueprint for production. You could, but it really depends on what you're building. If you're building brochureware sites, then it should be fine. If you're building complex sites (e.g. several templates, thousands of pages) or webapps, then you're probably better off either using YUI! or building your own. These frameworks are a great way to sharpen your skills, make your own bridge between design and frontend development, and prototyping. You might notice I didn't include YUI! in the I'm not sure I would use for production statement. Well, that's because YUI! is used across the Yahoo! platform. It's tested, flexible, has tons of documentation, and is really extensible. YUI! is obviously one you could use for production. Or of course, learn from one of these and then roll your own (that's what we did). Cheers! Todd Zaki Warfel Principal Designer Messagefirst | Designing Information. Beautifully. -- Contact Info Voice: (215) 825-7423 Email: t...@zakiwarfel.com Blog: zakiwarfel.com Twitter:@zakiwarfel -- In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not. 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] Working with more than one project at a time?
On Nov 3, 2009, at 7:45 AM, Karin Bryant Nova wrote: If anyone has any more suggestions for how to juggle so many different projects, I would very much like to hear them. Don't. As a small design firm we only work on 2-3 projects at one time. Working on 5 projects at once won't allow you to give it your full attention and do your best work. Both you and the client will suffer and your work will show it. Cheers! Todd Zaki Warfel Principal Designer Messagefirst | Designing Information. Beautifully. -- Contact Info Voice: (215) 825-7423 Email: t...@zakiwarfel.com Blog: zakiwarfel.com Twitter:@zakiwarfel -- In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not. 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
On Oct 13, 2009, at 5:03 AM, Thomas Petersen wrote: My problem with the current state of usability testing is that it most often test in pseudo environments that tell you more about the quality of your mock-up than of any finished product/service. This is a methodology issue, not an issue with usability testing. If that's how your testing is done then change it. If you don't like the way it's conducted, then change it. It's up to you. What happens often is that those responsible for the usability tests provides their findings to the designers but that there is no actual transcendence from the usability testing phase into the actual design and development phase. Again, this sounds more like a failure of a design process than usability testing. If your process is broken (and by your, I mean collectively, not you specifically Thomas) then fix it. What you're talking about is a design problem. There is a problem with the design process that doesn't incorporate research findings into the designs. This is a design problem—the design of the process. It's really an opportunity to fix it. 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. 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
On Oct 13, 2009, at 9:05 AM, Bryan Minihan wrote: Case in point is Remedy, the incident management tool. I've seen a half-dozen practitioners tackle Remedy with scathing criticisms and very useful recommendations for improvement. However, Remedy has always been one of the worst-designed applications in the market (well, until last I saw it 3 years ago). It does no good to redesign the front-end of an application which provides no straightforward facility to improve same, except via field arrangement on the page. Sounds like somebody picked the wrong UCD/consulting company to do the work. If the team doing the research doesn't involve the design and dev team then you have a problem. When we, we being my company Messagefirst, do research work, we start by understanding the business objectives, goals, support problems, technology behind it, etc. We do our research. We meet with the core team to do an initial review of the findings and work them to figure out which research findings are more critical to their business for the coming 3-9 months. Those are the ones we'll focus on for the research report/readout. The other items don't get left out, but are added in as additional findings. Our recommendations, or considerations as they are sometimes called, do involve the design and development team to provide some guidance and direction w/o locking them into a solution. We like to give the designers and developers some flexibility to pick the most appropriate design/development solution based on the stated problem and consideration/recommendation. And we typically help provide guidance and feedback once they come up with the solution. Now, as to Remedy, couldn't agree more. We're working with a client right now to redesign their help desk/incident management tool. It's not Remedy, but a competitor to Remedy. Most of these tools are horrible from a UX perspective. They were designed by engineers, focused on the technology first and slapped some lipstick on it to make it look tolerable. But once again, Bryan, you are citing a problem with a design process, not usability testing itself. 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. 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
All good points, Bryan, regarding an internal UCD team having 8-9 apps thrown at them and asked to test them. This still gets back to a poor design process internally. It's a tough situation to be in and typically less than ideal, which is why I started my own firm—more control over my destiny, the type of work I select, etc. Point is that most of the flaws with usability aren't really a flaw w/usability so much as a flaw with the implementation of the process itself. It's kind of like focus groups or Six Sigma. I'm not a fan of either one, not because focus groups are a bad method, or SS is a bad process, but rather that their typical implementation/execution are screwed up. 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. 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
Beautiful. On Oct 13, 2009, at 11:19 AM, Harry wrote: In other words - You can fix it now on the drafting board with an eraser or you can fix it later on the construction site with a sledge hammer - Frank Loyd Wright 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. 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
On Oct 10, 2009, at 5:38 PM, David Mulder wrote: The Userfly recordings I watched showed practically everyone, after they would reach the page, scrolling past the conversion point and not going back to it. Here's the problem with using this kind of product, the issue you describe doesn't mean they necessarily missed the conversion point and that it failed, it could very well be that they simply weren't interested in the product. You won't know this without speaking to them. It's really amazing what you can find when you just talk to people. We had a client a couple of years ago who was having a similar problem. They're a financial investment company who offers products that help you pick better investments. They noticed through web traffic analysis that the potential customers weren't trying their trial product. They thought they were missing the call to action button to convert customers to the free trial. We did some formative A/ B testing to see if we could figure out a better position for the call to action. What we found was that it wasn't that participants were missing the call to action, they simply didn't like the free product offers that the client was offering. If you don't talk to your customers/users/participants, then you're really missing 99% of your data. 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. 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
On Oct 2, 2009, at 12:42 PM, Thomas Petersen wrote: I really don't in general see the usage of testing during the design process. Whoa! Red flag alert! Usability testing helps evaluate a design concept that tries to address a design problem. That testing can be a baseline test, something you do on production system or it can be used as a validation mechanism on a newly proposed design/prototype. To think that usability testing is only useful to find problems or holes with a current production system, but not your proposed design solution is short sighted. Any given problem has multiple design solutions. How do you know you've selected the right one? I see great benefit in testing before starting on the actual design process in order to figure out what kind of problems, issues and tasks users want. But testing usability in an environment that is not final is IMO a waste of both time and money. Only if we are dealing with entire new paradigms do I see any reason to test. It's not April fools and this isn't the Onion, but... ;) It can be an exploration technique, this one of the ways we use it, to find out what users/consumers want, but that's really more exploratory research than usability. Usability is more about identifying whether or not the product/service meets the needs of the user/consumer, enables them or impedes them, and gives them a satisfying experience. Those measures apply to any system, production, or prototype. Most people who call them selves either information architects or UX'ers or designers should be able to deliver their part without needing to involve the users once the problems, tasks and purpose have been established. Big mistake in doing this. That's how we got into the problem in the first place. Someone designed the system w/o inviting users to kick it around for a test drive. How do you know it wasn't a designer who did it in the first place? We do usability testing as part of our design process and as a separate service offering to our clients. I can say that in both cases, when we've designed something or our clients have designed something, we find opportunities for improvement through testing. Thinking that because you're a designer you know the right design, you have the right decision, and it doesn't need validation is arrogant, short-sighted, and ignorant. The best designers and the best systems use a validation and feedback loop. Usability testing is one of those feedback loops that's really important. It is my claim that you can't really test usability before you launch the final product and that you should factor this in instead. I find the current state of UCD troubling to say the least. The current state of UCD is troubling, I'll agree with that, but it's because so many people in charge of designing systems are leaving out validation. The attitude that it's only good for finding problems on existing production systems and not validating your proposed solution is only going to make that worse. I'm a bit shocked, frankly, that you don't see the flaw in the claim that you can't really test usability before you launch the final product. Perhaps your definition of usability testing needs to be tested? 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. 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] Incentives for UI testing
Depending on the audience, we've used: * $50 Amex gift cards for remote attendees * $100-150 Amex gift cards/cash for in-person attendees * iPod nanos * Free copies of software 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. 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] UX'ers on Twitter?
Out of curiosity, how did you compile the list? I didn't see a single person on that list who would probably be considered the most prominent faces/names in the UX community. On Sep 26, 2009, at 2:08 PM, Ewa Liszcz wrote: For those of you who want to follow each other on Twitter I've created tweepml list based on contacts from some ux group on linkedin.com 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. 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] iPhone Persona Examples?
Yup, it's something on our list of to-dos. There are some definite lessons learned from shipping an app using an agile/ux method in 3 days or less. On Sep 7, 2009, at 5:05 PM, Adrian Howard wrote: On 5 Sep 2009, at 00:46, Todd Zaki Warfel wrote: Now, that's funny you should ask. We just designed and built an iPhone webapp for a non-profit in just 3 days at the recent Agile09 conference (you can see the app by visiting http:// www.manoamano.org/ from an iPhone. Have to use the www. to get the redirect from your iPhone—long story there). [snip] BTW - are you going to get the chance to write up your experiences on the Live Aid stage at some point (for those who couldn't make it :-) Sounds like it was a blast! 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 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. 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] iPhone Persona Examples?
Now, that's funny you should ask. We just designed and built an iPhone webapp for a non-profit in just 3 days at the recent Agile09 conference (you can see the app by visiting http://www.manoamano.org/ from an iPhone. Have to use the www. to get the redirect from your iPhone—long story there). Anyway, one of the workshops we ran for the first day was creating personas and task analysis grids from field research for this app. I'll have to dig up the personas we did. They were pretty high-level, as we created them in a workshop in 1.5 hrs. But they've got all the main characteristics. On Sep 4, 2009, at 6:22 PM, Suzanne Ginsburg wrote: Hello IXDA folks, As I've mentioned in previous posts, I'm working on a book about user-centered iPhone design. I'm currently writing about personas and would like to include examples from designers/researchers other than myself. Do you have any personas specifically created for iPhone apps? Or personas that include the iPhone as part of the description? Would you like to include them in book that will get worldwide distribution? If yes, please email: suza...@ginsburg-design.com 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. 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] UCD vs Design Again? Really?!? [was: We don't blah blah blah]
On Sep 1, 2009, at 11:32 PM, Jared Spool wrote: No, I wouldn't. Dozens of interviews I've conducted with self- proclaimed UCD professionals shows there is very little overlap in what UCD means or what a UCD professional does. Precisely why we use a data-driven goal oriented design approach and not user-centered design approach. With a data-driven goal oriented design approach we can make room for things like user goals, business goals, etc. 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. 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] iPhone turnover (was Re: We don't make consumer products, hence no need for a User Centered Design development process.)
On Aug 29, 2009, at 8:35 PM, Ali Naqvi a...@amroha.dk wrote: With regards to iPhone I would say that many users are now complaining about the phone. I'm calling BS here. I'd like to see some real numbers on this rather than these claims of many users are complaining and tons of my friends went back to Nokia. What did the Iphone have apart from its touchscreen and finger moving interaction? Pleasure. Seriously, it's the first phone that's actually a pleasure to use. Apple took the pain out of mobile phone use (and then introduced a few pains of their own). I remember walking through Home Depot the first week I had my iPhone and a 20 something was trying to explain YouTube to a 60 something. I just pulled up YouTube on my iPhone and handed it to him. You should have seen that conversation evolve. And the App store. Oh, sure you can claim that Nokia has an app store, but really, what kind of penetration does that have? Insignificant to almost non-existent. Seriously, if it's been out for several years and people still don't know about it outside of the Netherlands is it really a success? If it fell to the ground it was done over with. My colleague accidentally dropped it to the ground and the phone was dead. I've seen several iPhones that have been dropped, screens shattered, and guess what... the touchscreen still works. Your friend must have run it over with a tractor. I've dropped mine dozens of times and it still works. Of course I didn't toss it off a 10 story building, but... 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. 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] UCD vs Design Again? Really?!? [was: We don't blah blah blah]
On Aug 29, 2009, at 11:03 PM, J. Ambrose Little wrote: These two principles underly what is broadly known as Agile. And if you want an amorphous term, man, Agile beats UCD any day! This made me chuckle. Having just come from the Agile09 conference w/ some 1500-1600 attendees, I can say first hand that the agile movements injection of the user into the process is more theory at the moment than practice. Yes, they have user stories, but just because you put the term user into your process doesn't mean you're actually involving them. They write user stories that about a nebulous user. These stories are typically written by someone who isn't connected to a user at all. This is one of the reasons they started a UX stage at the agile conference. This is one of the reasons why I gathered a team of 4 UX people to run a full day of UX workshops on Monday that fed into a joint venture with some agile developers to ship a product in just 3 days. Yeah, we did an AgileUX project. We ran a full UX design process, from field research, to persona creation, to task analysis, to prototyping, to design and implementation and shipped in 3 days. If you want to see the webapp, just visit http://www.manoamano.org/ with an iPhone. It works with Android too, but there's a minor bug. My point? Agile is a amorphous term if you don't tie it to the current Agile movement. For my money, I'd just use the amorphous term Design. Hell, that's actually the amorphous term I've been using for over a decade and will continue to use going forward. Let me know when you guys get this argument worked out. In the mean time, I'm going to be Designing stuff. 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. 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] We don\'t make consumer products, hence no need for a User Centered Design development process.
On Aug 30, 2009, at 7:50 AM, Andrew Boyd wrote: In agreement, I would like to restate the obvious: - Good design is good design - be it user centered or otherwise. - Good designers may or may not use UCD methodologies/techniques/ processes. - Bad application of any methodology or group thereof is bad for that methodology. Well put, Andrew. And I would further add that: * A process is merely a means to an end. Don't forget it. 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. 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] UCD vs Design Again? Really?!? [was: We don't blah blah blah]
On Aug 30, 2009, at 11:34 AM, Andrei Herasimchuk wrote: When they build their iPhones or iPods without an ability to replace the battery, thereby forcing customers to buy new models year over year, they are customer focused? Or they were just designing for behavior, knowing that it's common for iPhone/iPod customers to upgrade every 16-24 months, relying on that, and designing for it. In Asia, it's common for people to upgrade their phones every 9-12 months. So, if you're a smart consumer electronics company there, you're going to design for that. I don't think it's so much UCD, but rather keeping the user's behavior at the center of their design, knowing what they can get away with, and designing for that behavior. 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. 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] We don\'t make consumer products, hence no need for a User Centered Design development process.
Not to downplay the seriousness of the situation, but in looking at your description of the scenario, it seems like the recollection of every other phone compared to the iPhone is a bit misrepresented. It's kind of like my wife saying how amazing NYC is and only recalling the best parts of it and ignoring the smell of urine in the streets and stench of trash in the mornings. For instance, you highlighted that the iPhone needs to be woken up after you've performed the initial action and it falls asleep, but neglect to mention that every other phone you've had also needs to be woken up after a particular time has expired. Even your flip phone will fall asleep at some point and needed to be woken up. The locking issue has nothing to do with the iPhone, but rather a setting that you've enabled on the iPhone, which is something you could have enabled on any previous phone you've owned as well. Just seems a bit overplayed in that respect. Now, the criticisms of the other interactions, having to push the Home button to get out of the last app you were in is a good criticism. It's pretty easy to argue either way on the 911 app—the fact the iPhone can have one is an advantage, while the perception/possibility that it needs one is a disadvantage. 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. 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] Is the iPhone hard to use? (was We don't make consumer products, hence no need for a UCD development process.)
On Aug 27, 2009, at 4:05 PM, Joan Vermette wrote: I think the iPhone is hard to learn, and therefore will remain for me hard to use until I get up to speed with it. After one week? 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. 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] Eye-Tracker software/hardware recommendations
On Aug 21, 2009, at 6:22 PM, Nick Gould wrote: Seems that, given your professional impermeability relating to this issue, you could just leave well enough alone; give your opinion when asked but otherwise respect the right of others to run their businesses as they see fit. Anyway... Nick, I don't have a problem with someone running their business as they see fit as long as it doesn't impact the field I work in. And herein lies the crux of the problem with your statement. You see, as a designer and UX professional, I'm part consultant and part educator to my clients and this field. As a consultant, my role is to provide services to my client that have a measurable impact on their business. As an educator, my duty is to educate them ethically about what our field provides. Why is honesty, integrity, and ethics so hard to come by? Perhaps the shiny color of that gold coin is more inviting that the value of doing real and meaningful work. I take pride in my field, my work, the service this field can provide to the world, what we can contribute, and the legacy we can leave behind. This is why I personally take issue with things like this. Eyetracking doesn't really provide any value other than to show some fancy visualization heat maps on screen. That's all it does. Yeah, it's impressive to see those heat maps. I love looking at them. But that's the only true value—visual aesthetics. It doesn't really tell you anything about why anyone does anything. Making that inference is a HUGE unsubstantiated leap. The claims I typically see made through ET in my view are unethical and unsupportable. Instead of trying to find a solution that ET solves, which to date and in 15 years in this field, I've not seen one, we should be focusing our efforts on existing research methods, or developing new ones, that actually do provide value, provide quality data, and from which we can make reliable inferences with integrity. When I've pressed ET advocates on the reliability of the data they produce and the reliability of the inferences they're making based solely on ET data, they buckle like a house of cards. Call a spade a spade. It's about as scientifically valid as snake oil. 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. 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] Eye-Tracker software/hardware recommendations
On Aug 22, 2009, at 9:51 AM, Guy wrote: At the last eye tracking conference in Frankfurt we discussed the issues with what poor research was doing to the reputation of the eye tracking industry. Perhaps you should've been discussing the harm that eye tracking does to real research. 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. 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] Eye-Tracker software/hardware recommendations
Oh, I'd love to know this. On Aug 21, 2009, at 9:40 AM, Jared Spool wrote: I'd be interested in hearing the disclaimers you give your clients before presenting inferences from eye tracking data. 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. 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] Eye-Tracker software/hardware recommendations
On Aug 21, 2009, at 12:14 PM, Kate Caldwell wrote: I ALWAYS explain to clients that[...] Well, based on these disclaimers, I really don't see any value in ET at all. Instead, it leaves me wondering why I should use ET at all. I won't claim to be an ET expert, but I have used it in the past. I've never really been a big fan, as I think the leap from what is gathered to inferences that are made leaves a pretty large gap. Okay, HUGE gap, actually. It's one of those solutions looking for a problem in my book. Yeah, it looks cool, but as a researcher, I just don't see good quality research data coming out of it. 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. 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] Contractor Rates
Funniest, most relevant video ever. On Aug 21, 2009, at 2:48 PM, Jared Spool wrote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2a8TRSgzZY 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. 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] Designers, Build your iPhone Apps with Corona
On Aug 21, 2009, at 10:22 AM, Brandon E. B. Ward wrote: Am I totally off-base here? I'm just really, really shocked at a response like that. Please - enlighten me! It's called perception. And in fact, I see this quite often. That initial form is the first contact a potential customer will have with the company and speaks to what it's going to be like to work with their product. Think of it this way: if the initial form is this complicated, complex, and inefficient, then what is the platform like? Most likely, it's complex, complicated, and not a pleasure to use either. Now, perhaps the software is easier to use than an API, but if that initial point of contact, the form, doesn't clearly show that, then they've lost the sale before the customer even walks in the door. 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. 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] Latimes.com Redesign - No Link Colors
On Aug 16, 2009, at 10:33 PM, Diana Wynne wrote: A side note that I recently discovered the learn more ? balloon on the NYTimes website. Here's the thing that so many people don't understand about usability - it's a sliding scale. Interactions can be intuitive or immediately obvious, predictable, discoverable, learnable, etc. all the way down to none of these, which results in unusable. In the case of LAT, well, perhaps we have evolved, or started to evolve to the point where we don't need to underline links anymore. If they are put in a predictable location, then perhaps that's good enough. Only time will tell and I can tell you having worked with LAT in the past, I'm sure they're tracking this stuff. As a side note, let's not forget that our brains can evolve and map to new interactions. We've gone from hammering out letters on stones, to typewriters, to desktops, to laptops, to pocket Macs. Anyone remember the 3.5 disk drives? 5.25 floppies? The no link colors is a gamble, but perhaps that's what we need for the web to evolve. After all, the Internet was a bit of a gamble to begin with. 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. 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] Eye-Tracker software/hardware recommendations
On Aug 15, 2009, at 2:52 PM, Jared Spool wrote: User research, when done well, isn't a science at all. It's an engineering tool. If you have to demonstrate its scientific validity (and deal with the fact that the people you're working with perceive it as a soft science), then you've already lost the game, in my opinion. This is more a sign of an internally broken corporate culture than anything else. 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. 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] Eye-Tracker software/hardware recommendations
On Aug 15, 2009, at 9:28 PM, Jared Spool wrote: When a consultant looks at eye tracking results and says, The user clearly sees X but they don't see Y, they are making shit up. What eye tracking doesn't tell you is why they were focusing on X. Okay, so, yeah, their eyes were gazing at this object in the center left of the page of .08 microns of a second more than the object 40 pixels to the right of it. Uh, huh... and so what? This is the Web. It's about moving, interacting, finding, exploring. Fixation doesn't really measure anything other than how long they looked at what. As a designer, I don't care about fixation, I care about discovery, interaction, transactions. Fixation doesn't tell me that, it doesn't show me that. Watching someone use a system and watching what they interact with does. Inferring anything from fixation is sketchy at best. FYI, I've used eye-tracking systems in the past and even the people who are ET advocates will tell you that by itself, it's pretty much just a good marketing tool. Personally, any study that only uses ET, I wouldn't put an ounce of faith in. Just give me a person I can watch and talk to. 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. 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] Visio and InDesign compatibility?
Seems like a lot of extra work just to get designs into InDesign. Why not just create them there in the first place if your final tool is going to be InDesign? On Aug 12, 2009, at 8:58 AM, Renee Rosen-Wakeford wrote: You can also export each page as a PDF in Visio using whatever PDF export tool you want - I use the one that you can download from Microsoft. Then you put each PDF in InDesign. 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. 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] Visio and InDesign compatibility?
On Aug 11, 2009, at 5:26 PM, Kim McGalliard wrote: It's not difficult, and besides the flexibilty that masters give you in InDesign, you can do pretty much the same stuff as with InDesign. Visio doesn't even come close to what you can do w/ID for wireframing and documentation. ID's typography control, integration w/other Adobe products, and use of Bridge far exceed what you can do w/Visio. You can use either one, but I'd stick w/ID if that's where you're comfortable. 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. 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] Visio and InDesign compatibility?
On Aug 11, 2009, at 7:15 PM, Kim McGalliard wrote: This isn't an argument about which is better because I think they both have their strengths and weaknesses (you can do tons of stuff with Visio, and Excel, xml and macros that you can't do with InDesign). Not meant to be an argument. Just a statement of fact that if you're comfortable using InDesign for wireframing then there's really no need to switch. Biggest advantage of InDesign is that it's cross platform, whereas Visio isn't. Neither Visio nor InDesign were originally designed for wireframing, but InDesign was originally designed for documentation, which is what wireframes are, or should be. Personally, I don't have an allegiance to either one as we don't really do wireframe documentation—we just go right to prototypes. Our paper sketches are the closest thing to a wireframe that we have. While Visio has some powerful scripting capabilities, so does InDesign. In fact, you might want to check out 8shapes Unify system http://unify.eightshapes.com/ to see what you can really do w/InDesign. 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. 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] Research methods when you only have 2-3 hours or 2-3 days
So, yesterday I asked what your favorite methods for rapid research were. Nobody responded. Does that mean that no one here is using research to inform your designs? Are you guys all just winging it? Do you just skip the research phase if your client tells you we don't have time.? I realize this group is geared more towards design or organizing information, but how do you inform your decisions? Have we gotten so complacent that we just go with our gut or based on our past knowledge? Come on people. If you only have a few hours or a few days to produce some research, what method(s) do you use? 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. 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] Research methods when you only have 2-3 hours or 2-3 days
So, you create a questionnaire and hit local venues.? On Jul 8, 2009, at 8:54 AM, Fabian A wrote: Depending what is the product the client is trying to communicate... it could be getting information from a local retail store and just do a questionnaire about their customers and questions about the product. Questions can range from expectations what they see important on the website, or what would help them in getting their task done on a website. that would take about a few hours... that would build up at least persona(s) of their customers. thats one.. Fabian 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. 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] Where is the Sign In on Amazon.com?
On Jul 7, 2009, at 3:18 AM, Jim Drew wrote: [...] by walking in the door, you are assumed to be a customer, someone who is going to buy something, even if that's just a candy bar. They don't have a guard at the door saying What's your name? Show me your credit card!, but instead they have someone saying Welcome to the store! Enjoy shopping! Perfect example. 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. 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] Favorite Discount/Rapid Research Methods
This past week I was having a discussion with another UX colleague and he mentioned using a research method I'd never thought of. It's kind of a mashup between a focus group and heuristic evaluation. While the method might not be as thorough as proper usability testing or a full fledged ethnography, it does provide some value for rapidly gaining some insight into user needs and how a particular product/service supports those needs. That got me thinking about other rapid research methods (sometimes called guerilla research methods). What are your favorite rapid/discount/guerilla research methods and why? 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. 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] Shaun Inman's Fever
On Jun 18, 2009, at 3:42 AM, Andrei Herasimchuk wrote: It would be wonderful to actually discuss the product's design rather than the business model. This is the last I'll bother discussing the business model instead of the design of the product. Business model IS part of Design. 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. 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] Shaun Inman's Fever
On Jun 18, 2009, at 8:19 AM, Vishal Iyer wrote: Business model is most definitely *not* a part of design (...) If you think business model isn't part of the Design, you're kidding yourself. Great design considers the business model, how you make money, how you lose money. Without it, your design will ultimately fail. Design decisions should always consider the business model. It's fundamental. Design is more than just making things look pretty, people. Design is a holistic process. 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. 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] The Business of Design [was: Shaun Inman's Fever]
On Jun 18, 2009, at 12:20 PM, Vishal Iyer wrote: That does not make business models a part of design. On the contrary, design is a part of the business model. I fail to see how design can be a part of the business model w/o the business model being part of Design. Not taking into account the business model is a Design failure. I think Jared Spool's talk on the Amazon is a perfect example. The fact that Amazon is able to turn inventory 25 days faster than it's credit line, floating cash, making interest instead of paying interest is by Design. It's not an accident. It's by Design. They've designed their business model that way. In the case of Fever, the decision to make it $30 and whether or not to offer a demo is by design. Shaun designed the business model for Fever that way. He may have very good reason to do so, but it's still by design. So, exactly how is the business model not part of Design? 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. 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] Flash Catalyst Beta (aka Thermo) is out
On Jun 3, 2009, at 11:49 AM, Andrew Schechterman wrote: Stewart, Axure, iRise, FlairBuilder + Graffle/Visio, etc. etc. . . . all potential options, though much agreed, no single 360-degree tool for UX folks yet. My colleagues in classical architecture and urban planning, both industries older than ours, tell me that, in their opinion, there is no such tool (or suite) for their work, either. Hmm. - Andrew I'm going to go out on a limb and say there never will be a one-size fits all tool. I do look forward to a more proper prototyping tool. All of our prototyping is hand-coded XHTML/CSS/JavaScript (relying on a JS library like Prototype, jQuery, or YUI). But I don't expect that to be typical, as it does require a decent level of technical prowess. However, tools that make it easier are a welcome addition in my book. 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. 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] The PocketMod
We're already well on our way to something like this. Thanks for the link :). On May 9, 2009, at 11:59 AM, Angel Anderson wrote: This would be great for the Interaction '10 schedule and program instead of the bulky menu from last year. 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. 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] Announcing our new IxDA Board Member
w00t! Congrats, Steve. On May 6, 2009, at 5:45 PM, IxDA Board of Directors wrote: We are very happy to announce that Steve Baty will be joining the IxDA Boardof Directors, effective immediately, filling our Communications vacancy. We look forward to his contributions to IxDA, the Board and our entire community. Please see his bio below: 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. 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] Who codes your production HTML/CSS/JS?
On Apr 24, 2009, at 5:03 PM, Adrian Howard wrote: The flip side argument to that is if you start outside the box and compromise you end up with something that's... well... a compromise. We start all of our designs sketching w/pencil or pen and paper. This allows us to be uninhibited and explore new models, allows us to push past what the environment might allow for. Then, because the stuff we typically come up with is beyond what's possible, we try and figure out how in the hell we're going to make it happen. Most of the time, we figure out. We have to push whatever coding environment we're working in to new areas of exploration, or bend things, or possibly break them, but most of the time we can get it done. Now, most of the time the engineering team only implements part of it, but that was even the case when we didn't push designs. So, we're still better off than before. And yes, if we can't figure it out, then we compromise. 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. 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] Who codes your production HTML/CSS/JS?
Absolutely agree. On Apr 24, 2009, at 8:42 PM, Adrian Howard wrote: I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's the pushing that's needed. Whether you're pushing against the constraints of the medium from the outside or the inside - you need to push. 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. 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] Concept Project: Touchscreen Conference Phone
Great work on this, Dan and fellow Kickers. Really appreciate you guys sharing the design process you went through and how you arrived at your decisions. So, when/where can I buy one of these? :). On Apr 14, 2009, at 11:04 PM, Dan Saffer wrote: Conference phones suck. That's why we designed our own: the Kicker Touchscreen Conference Phone. It's a VoIP phone for small businesses. We're proud of this design, and I thought I'd share the case study here with IxDA. You can read it at http://www.kickerstudio.com/blog/2009/04/product-concept-touchscreen-conference-phone/ . High-res photos of the phone can be found on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/28596...@n04/sets/72157616636746579/ . 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. 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] How we share work
Is there also a site out there where you can claim the work you've done one websites? I don't recall the name of it, but I thought you could post screen shots of sites you've worked on, like say GM.com and take credit for whatever involvement you had. I came across it a few weeks ago. Anyone know what site I'm talking about? BTW, Jackson, great list of resources. 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. 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] the alignment of the practices and outcomes of IA and IxD
Saying IA is about content structuring is limiting and inaccurate. IA is about structure, sure, but not limited to content. Is the structuring of the navigation of a system not IA? The navigation system could be contentless, only having a Red, Blue, or Green button w/o any label or content. But organizing those buttons is still IA in it's purest sense. I really don't see it being as complicated as you guys are making this out to be. IA at its core is about structure and foundation principles. IxD at its core is about the way that system behaves. It's pretty simple, actually. 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. 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] Edge Case Scenarios (was: the alignment of the practices and outcomes of IA and IxD)
Riddle me this: Great designers design systems for the majority (85%, 80/20, 90/10, etc.). So, why are the great designers of the fields of practice of IA and IxD arguing over edge cases? All this bickering about the difference of IA/IxD, or why people aren't UX Designers, but are IAs or IxDs is an argument for 0.001%. The case where any of us are working on a system that won't have both IA and IxD is statistically non-existent. So, why are we arguing over 0.001%? Yup, I'm still Designing (big D intentional). 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. 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] the alignment of the practices and outcomes of IA and IxD
On Mar 31, 2009, at 9:37 AM, Dan Saffer wrote: [...] most analog games don't call under this definition. Everything from chess to football to poker. But there is a lot of interactivity. Try teaching Chess, Football, or Poker to a child and then tell me there is no IA. Maybe my perspective of IA is warped, but I see IA in Chess, Football and Poker. Chess has a board that requires navigation through that system. The layout of a board is architecture. Football has yardlines, which are IA. Poker has cards, each with information on them that was designed. Texas Hold'em has 5 cards, the Flop, 4th Street, and the River. Each laid out on a table, or in an orderly fashion that is IA. For me, IA is purely about organized structure. Maybe my vision of IA is warped, but that's how I've always approached it. Not that complicated. Do these games have taxonomies? Not really. But a taxonomy is only one small piece of IA. If you take a digital game like Simon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_(game) and interactive displays like Rosen's wooden mirror http://www.smoothware.com/danny/woodenmirror.html there is no information architecture involved at all because there is no content to find or navigate through. Simon has IA, just look at the structure of the four buttons, red, blue, yellow, and green, along with the arrangement of the buttons and labels in the middle. The interface itself has IA. Does playing the game have IA? Theoretically, you could argue that each sequence is IA, it's just random IA. There is no such thing as computer generated randomness, only theoretical randomness. If it's run by a computer program, then it isn't random—anyone who's taken a research, theory, or computer science class knows this. I'm really surprised at these arguments. They seem like a grasp to try and find examples that don't have IA just for the sake of arguing rather than finding truth. 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. 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] the alignment of the practices and outcomes of IA and IxD
On Mar 31, 2009, at 9:51 AM, Dan Saffer wrote: Actually, I think it's pretty accurate. Here's the definition of information architecture from the polar bear book (the bible of IA): 1. The combination of organization, labeling, and navigation schemes within an information system. 2. The structural design of an information space to facilitate task completion and intuitive access to content. 3. The art and science of structuring and classifying web sites and intranets to help people find and manage information. Nowhere in that definition is IA restricted to content. And if we want to play that argument, then one could easily argue that just about everything is content. A button label is content. Information on a deck of cards is content. The navigation elements themselves are content. Finding something non-content is a stretch. Possible, sure. But a stretch. And why are we debating over stretches of the imagination and edge cases? It's limiting because, frankly, IA is limited in its application to mostly content-rich applications. If you don't have an information space to navigate through, you don't have much information architecture. And information spaces are typically made up of content. Only typically, because that's where we were in the past. There was a time when the web didn't exist. IA can evolve. I believe it is a combination of IA (the labels and categorization) and IxD (the controls to move). Completely agree. That's what I've been saying. IA provides the underlying structure, while IxD is the behavior of the system and/or how the person interacts with the system. I don't think we see this any different. Here we disagree. They laying out of controls to manipulate or engage with the system is the task of an interaction designer, with input and adjustment from visual and industrial designers. Pushing a button to trigger a behavior has nothing to do with IA. Labeling the button perhaps I'll give you, but even that is a stretch. But according to the definition of IA that you're using, cited above, the layout of controls to manipulate the system is IA, maybe it's done by an interaction designer or whatever the person wants to be called, but it's IA according to the very definition that you cite above. Obviously, we agree that the pushing of a button to trigger the behavior has nothing or little to do w/IA. But, Dan, seriously, the labeling is a stretch? Come on. Even the definition you cite above states that labeling is IA. What are we really debating here? 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. 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] Edge Case Design of IA vs. IxD
So, once again, I'll propose all this bickering about the difference of IA/IxD, or why people aren't UX Designers, but are IAs or IxDs is an argument for 0.001%. The case where any of us are working on a system that won't have both IA and IxD is statistically non-existent. So, why are we arguing over 0.001%? Incidentally, whether intentional or not, the appearance here is that IxD is trying to become the dominant field in UX and not acknowledge that the IA field can or has evolved. Dan, I have the utmost respect for you, your work, and your contributions to the community, but some of your most recent claims, like games don't have IA, are simply bogus (as I've clearly shown by illustrating they do have IA). Is IxD purely Interface design? Is IA purely about content for the web? It's pathetic that this even has to be asked. This is like watching a bunch of kindergartners argue over which MM is better. 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. 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] Edge Case Design of IA vs. IxD
On Mar 31, 2009, at 2:38 PM, Todd Zaki Warfel wrote: Incidentally, whether intentional or not, the appearance here is that IxD is trying to become the dominant field in UX and not acknowledge that the IA field can or has evolved. Just to be clear, I'm not attempting to state that Dan is crafting this argument, or that he's the one behind this appearance, but it is a common perception that comes up during discussions I've had with practitioners in the field who do both IA and IxD among other things. 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. 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] Edge Case Design of IA vs. IxD
My sister won't eat the blue ones. It's her way of protesting them since they weren't originally there when she was a kid. On Mar 31, 2009, at 9:28 PM, Jared Spool wrote: I don't know which one is better, but I'm pretty sure that Blue has no real reason to exist. 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. 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] Designing (for) Experiences
On Mar 29, 2009, at 10:44 PM, Peter Merholz wrote: Or, look at the field of industrial design. Does that mean those people design industries? Ah, but isn't this a great example of a title that could be misinterpreted, but a great many understand what it means? If people understand that industrial designers don't design industries, but rather work on designing physical devices, then why do we think they won't bridge the gap with a descriptive title like Designer or UX Designer? I'm only aware of two distinct architectural titles: Architect and Landscape Architect. They don't bother distinguishing between an Architect who designs train stations vs. small houses. Only between those who design physical buildings and spaces and those who design landscapes. My point? A title only has to be good enough to start the conversation. Look, we all have to describe what we do no matter what out title is or what the field is called. We're going to have to continue to do so. So, can you people just pick something good enough and be done with it already? Still calling my self simply Designer. 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. 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] The People's Front of Design (was Re: JJG's IA Summit 2009 Keynote)
Brilliant. On Mar 30, 2009, at 3:50 AM, i...@scottberkun.com wrote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb_qHP7VaZE (Yes, it's pleasurably NSFW) It's no wonder we're ignored by all the people we dream of persuading. It'd be nice to see a design leader in any of this, but all I read is ego. 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. 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] Designing (for) Experiences
On Mar 30, 2009, at 8:47 AM, j. eric townsend wrote: For example, I've heard archis use the title interior design when talking down about someone else's work or dismissing concerns about textiles or furnishings. But you won't find an architect who uses the title interior designer. 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. 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] JJG's IA Summit 2009 Keynote
TEI? On Mar 30, 2009, at 8:54 AM, j. eric townsend wrote: TEI 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. 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] Its Just UX
yup, I'll agree w/that. On Mar 28, 2009, at 9:15 PM, Jon Kolko wrote: I think we both agree that design is about purpose and process – about doing something systematically, and attending to the craft and detail of the result. 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. 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] JJG's IA Summit 2009 Keynote
Is that list still around. On Mar 29, 2009, at 3:48 PM, Dan Saffer wrote: It would be interesting to do the same tally with a month of SIG-IA. 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. 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] Combined Conferences (was Its Just UX)
The first one was ground breaking. The second one was an absurd waste of time. I haven't been back sense. On Mar 28, 2009, at 3:48 PM, Christopher Fahey wrote: I've yet to meet a person who didn't think DUX was one of the most absurd conferences on the docket. To be a speaker at DUX, you must submit a 16-page draft of your presentation. It's ludicrous. 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. 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] Its Just UX
On Mar 28, 2009, at 7:01 PM, Austin Govella wrote: On Mar 28, 2009, at 1:04 PM, Jon [GMAIL] wrote: 1. The language of user experience designer is demeaning, as it implies that a designer first _makes_ an experience and then someone _consumes_ it that consumers are, on their own, unable to experience things, and that an experience can be mass produced like a hammer or a toaster. Implicit in this language is the sense of control, power and ownership, and the idea that a consumer is helpless to bring anything on their own to a moment in time. I don't see that at all. Designing an experience doesn't mean a consumer isn't able to experience things on their own. Consumers experience things all day long at Disney, experiences, which have been designed. There might be a shared experience among those who consume it, but each still consumes it on their own in their own way. 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. 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] When to use icons and when to use text
On Mar 26, 2009, at 6:46 PM, Jared Spool wrote: Based on what data? I have studies that say that, in most apps, most experts can't tell you what the icons they look at, day-in and day- out, do or represent. I'm with Jared on this one, as my experience and research shows the same. Additionally, there was a study done in europe several years back that looked at over 100 icons tested globally. Universally, participants could only identify/predict 6-8 of them. The point of the study was that icons w/labels work best. The only way an expert or non-novice user would perform better is one that's expert with that specific system, but not an expert in general. And that would only occur with trial and error to discover what the icon does or leads to. 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. 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] Its Just UX
On Mar 27, 2009, at 10:14 AM, Nasir Barday wrote: I had a million problems with JJG's talk[...] When you have more time, I'd love to hear about a few of those million. To Jeremy's point (woot), User Experience is waay generic. Or it's waay simple. When two or more solutions are available, more often than not, the simplest solution is the right one. I think this is one of those cases. It's also a professional umbrella that works for the here and now. Further, it is severely limiting to both IA and IxD to say that UX Design is the only field to which these practices can and will ever be applied. Or if it really is that simple and not as complex as some of you are making it out to be, then it will apply to here, now, and the future. If you guys ever get this figured out, let me know know. Meanwhile, I'm gonna go design some stuff. Signed, Designer (with a big D) 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. 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] Its Just UX
Well said. On Mar 27, 2009, at 3:09 PM, Christopher Fahey wrote: In short: No need to throw down any walls here. Just open some gates. 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. 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] Its Just UX
On Mar 27, 2009, at 3:38 PM, Nasir Barday wrote: Are we really on opposite ends of the universe? If you truly believe that, then I don't understand how you could have a million problems with JJG's closing keynote. I'm still interested to know a few. 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. 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] JJG's IA Summit 2009 Keynote
Thanks for adding some clarification. I can't speak for JJG, only what I took away from his talk. More below... On Mar 27, 2009, at 4:17 PM, Nasir Barday wrote: -) He alluded to some sort of war between the IA and IxD communities, and that interaction designers were eating IA's lunch. Is this really a zero-sum game? Talk like this only serves to drive our peeps further apart. I expected better from a respected thought leader and someone that's been around a while. I think that was his point: it's not a zero sum game. What I took away from what JJG said was that all this bickering is non-sense. That rather than trying to divide the groups into IAs and IxDs, really, we're all UXDs. Each of us does both, just in different percentages. -) Instead of defining User Experience Design as a term to umbrella our *practices*, he focused on umbrella-ing the *people*. A step backard if we're trying to get away from defining job titles! I didn't take it that way. I took it first and foremost, as a call for unification and to move forward. I took it as a call to leave all the old baggage behind and band together in the practice of UX. Incidentally, if you're practicing IA or IxD, then I don't see it as a stretch to call yourself one of those. Personally, I refer to myself as a Designer. But many of the people in our field refer to themselves as IAs or IxDs. I don't see how referring to yourself as a UX Designer is a bad thing. I do think that trying to get away from defining job titles is a meaningless and never ending cycle. People will always have titles. That's just life. -) Even further, he proposed that UX is and always will be the only umbrella for what each of us does, when in fact there are other ways IA and IxD intersect with the rest of the design world; we're more than web, desktop, and mobile designers. It's what we do now, but there are so many non-computing problems coming down the pike that we'll be involved with that won't fit the UX mold. I didn't see this at all. I never once heard him say that UX is and always will be the ONLY umbrella for what each of us does. And UX stretches far greater than web, mobile and desktop. It reaches into physical spaces, theme parks (just ask Disney), motor vehicles. It really is all encompassing. How is that a negative? -) I LOVED the fact that he said that our practices will make the next leap when a someone creates a truly design-led company that makes stuff, that kicks everyone's asses and leaves them playing catch up. By the way, that person will not wear ANY of our titles, which made his focus on the User Experience Designer title even more disappointing to me. You're right. They'll probably be the Chief of UX. Incidentally, I asked a few people who were first timers at the conference what they thought of JJGs talk. They didn't have a clue what 90% of what he was saying meant, which was refreshing to me, because the part they didn't get nor understand what all the bad blooded history he was referring to early on. I applaud his candor and frankness with that. Thanks again for sharing your perspectives, Nasir. While you and I may have taken different things away from JJGs message, at the end of the day I know we're on the same path: designing great stuff! 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. 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] Five things Interaction Design probably isn't
On Mar 24, 2009, at 10:26 AM, Dan Saffer wrote: I went to Interaction09 in Vancouver with an intense personal mission to nail down a clear definition of Interaction Designer, and what abilities are needed in order to be one. Ah, they define complex dialogues. Got it. About time someone started doing that. So, it seems that the expectation is that a definition would/should include what abilities are needed to be considered an Interaction Designer. I think that makes perfect sense. Solving complex problems is really nothing new and doesn't do anything to distinguish IxD from Physics, Biochemical Engineering, or a Mechanic. Personally, I don't really care about defining IxD as a discipline, at least in the sense that is being done today. I'm really more interested in doing interaction design. I do think it's important to understand the skills necessary, but in real speak, not PR speak. And yes, I'll be bold enough to say that I don't really see that much of a difference between IA and IxD. And frankly, I'm not that interested in spending time creating a divide between the two. I've been doing them in tandem for over a decade. They have the same goal in mind—making products easier and more enjoyable to use. The only real important distinction I see is that IA provides the foundation, which IxD builds on top of. In theory, they're different. But in reality, if you're doing one, you're doing the other. Yeah, I said it. 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. 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] Five things Interaction Design probably isn't
On Mar 24, 2009, at 11:28 AM, Dan Saffer wrote: This really bothers me because it is so untrue and we've spent countless hours as a group outlining the differences between the two. The methodologies, history, and focus are all different. How is it untrue that while in theory they are different, or technically, while they are different, if you're doing one, you're doing the other? IA provides underlying structure and IxD provides the model to move through those structures. This applies to web and non- web systems. Yes, most of my work is web-centric, but in the non-web-centric environments I've worked on (e.g. handhelds, iPhone apps, kiosks, ATMs, desktop apps) the underlying structure is still technically IA work and the model of moving through that structure is IxD. Again, technically, they are different, but if you're doing one, you're doing the other. 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. 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] Five things Interaction Design probably isn't
(moving to the right) On Mar 24, 2009, at 12:20 PM, Peter Van Dijck wrote: Can everyone who doesn't care about the specific title stand on the right, and everyone who wants to define Interaction design stand on the left? 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. 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] Five things Interaction Design probably isn't
On Mar 24, 2009, at 2:26 PM, Dan Saffer wrote: We don't need mission statements; we need a communications strategy. Agree 1001%. 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. 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] Bowman leaves Google
How is Google not a design success story? Design goes much deeper than the interface. 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. 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] UPA Website Usability Study Seeking Paid Participants
If they don't have members over 65, then using them in research would end up leading to false data, or untruth. If they have people over 65 and it's significant enough to warrant including them, then include them. For example, if they have 5 members out of 1000 who are 65, then what's the benefit of including someone over 65 over someone who is 62? On Mar 12, 2009, at 12:04 AM, Jared Spool wrote: So? Why limit the age range? How does that benefit the research? 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. 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] The future of Wireframes (was: Joel Spolsky claims the Program Manager role does UI design... ????)
On Mar 12, 2009, at 6:20 AM, David Malouf wrote: If I never see wireframe as a deliverable again, I will be a happy man. The age of visio, omniograffle, axure, iRise, etc. I hope come crashing down (now offense to all the coders who worked hard on these tools), in favor of Fireworks, Catalyst, Flash, Blend and Illustrator, Coda, etc. I sure hope this isn't what you're teaching your students at SCAD. I would hope that as practitioners and educators we can realize the value for various methods and when they are appropriate. Animators and game developers use storyboards and wireframes in their process. If there's any question, watch a documentation on how Pixar makes films or speak to people working at EA. Axure and iRise are not wireframing tools. They are documentation and simulation tools, which are used much more for creating prototypes than static wireframes. For the time being and foreseeable future, there is and will be a great deal of fantastic design work done incorporating wireframes in the design delivery process. We haven't done a wireframe in 2 years. We only prototype these days. However, I still realize the value of wireframes and how they can help in the design process. Would I rather see more prototyping and less wireframing? Sure. But at the same time, I realize that there are companies who are much more documentation driven and prototyping might not be right for them (yet). 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. 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] The future of Wireframes (was: Joel Spolsky claims the Program Manager role does UI design... ????)
On Mar 12, 2009, at 8:00 AM, Dave Malouf wrote: Todd? If a best in class designer as yourself isn't using wireframes and hasn't for ages (2 yrs in our biz = ages) it seems to me that you are just being open to be nice. I'm a realistic dreamer. A paradox of balance. Actually, I'm not being nice, I'm being honest. I realize that OUR situation isn't the norm. Not only do we not wireframe, but we also produce production level prototypes. What WE do at Messagefirst isn't typical and I'm realistic in knowing that. I don't expect others to do what we do. It would be nice and I do hope the field gets there one day, but I don't see it coming anytime soon. That's not to say I don't think more people should be doing more prototyping and less wireframing, because I do. However, I realize that there are a number of environments that require heavy documentation (e.g. government, corporate) and so in those contexts I see wireframes w/behavior notes as being valuable. Additionally, I realize that IA/IxD is getting done by people who aren't IAs and IxDs. It's getting done by project managers, product managers, business analysts, developers, etc. And for several of those people, wireframes are the best way they can communicate. I do look forward to the day when our field and those related to us are doing a lot more prototyping and less wireframing, however, I feel that day is a long way off. In the mean time, I'll keep doing what I do, looking for ways to continually improve our process and hope to leave behind a game changing legacy. 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. 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] UPA Website Usability Study Seeking Paid Participants
On Mar 12, 2009, at 9:52 AM, Jared Spool wrote: The key question is: How do you know that people older than 65 will behave differently than people younger than 65? My thoughts exactly. I don't see how you would know this until you've actually done some research and testing on it. If you know that your audience doesn't really have people over 65, then there's no reason to recruit them. If you know you do, then you should recruit them, even if it's a small number somewhat proportionate to the percentage that 65 and over make up in your group. I say somewhat, because if you recruit 20 participants and 65 and over only represent 2% of your population, you'd recruit less than 1 participant. In a case like this, we'd typically recruit 2-3 so we'd have enough to see if there's a significant difference that would warrant additional research on that smaller group. 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. 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
