Re: [IxDA Discuss] UI Architect vs. Business Manager
On 29 Nov 2007, at 01:38, ELISABETH HUBERT wrote: [snip] Despite doing some of the traditional roles of an UI Architect type (this is the name of the role where I work) such as maintaining the site structure, brainstorming strategies etc... I've also been assigned to represent the business on some efforts. Meaning I'll bring the project teams the requirements, make sure they are fulfilled. In these cases our strategy team really is the business. I'm curious as to whether anyone else out there has the same type of role or if this is some unique case? [snip] It's not a role I'm in at the moment, but it has been one I've been in before. I'd say it's a moderately common one - and a useful position to be in. (I'm assuming here that you're also involved in setting out what those requirements are :-) Cheers, Adrian *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Some form fun, to lighten the mood
Its the 'vertical wizard' pattern. Robert:No need to type anything. While I dont disagree that its not the best form in the world and would be better suited with a traditional multi page wizard. In your view, if someone was actually entering text in to this.. is it really so bad? whats the fundamental interaction flaw? For me own learning I like to understand -why- things are poor, not just point at them and smile. So, you're insight would be of great value. thanks - pauric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://gamma.ixda.org/discuss?post=23078 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Examples where personas are *not* useful
Like statistics, it's a useful form of proof to show others. I am not convinced of its universal applicability, but it depends on the project. In some cases, personas may be useful. In others, the users follow similar paths at different speeds or with different amounts of data, but otherwise, their needs are the same. --- Todd Zaki Warfel [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I think this is the part that ant-persona people miss. It's a tool that helps get all the different stakeholders on the same page. And for that, we've found them to be a very, very useful communication artifact. http://technical-writing.dionysius.com/ technical writing | consulting | development Get easy, one-click access to your favorites. Make Yahoo! your homepage. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] Books on IxDA and RIAs?
I'm looking for a good discussion on how the technologies that get generally lumped under the Web 2.0 label (which I hate, but never mind) affect good established Web interaction design practices. I don't need someone telling me what Ajax is, or what the value of including customers as participants is - I get all that. What I'm looking for is concrete discussion of how I should (re)think workflows, user goal achievement, and design patterns when I have a technology like AJAX available to me. Any suggestions? --Alan *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Books on IxDA and RIAs?
Hi Alan, The first observation that I have is more in process than in designing. The web is becoming much more about activity, task and goals than about place. The standard wayfinding methods that were used in the initial days if IA are no longer enough. In fact a simple site diagram is not enough to accurately scope the complexity of a 2.0 site. We now work with dynamic containers that can, not only support a wide variety of data, but change interactions and functionality. This is much more than a simple template/data relationship. So, our sites and site map diagrams appear to have become simpler, but require some additional means of communicating the complexity - often a verbal presentation, but in some cases use case patterns with modal diagrams. Mark On Nov 29, 2007, at 9:29 AM, Alan Wexelblat wrote: I'm looking for a good discussion on how the technologies that get generally lumped under the Web 2.0 label (which I hate, but never mind) affect good established Web interaction design practices. I don't need someone telling me what Ajax is, or what the value of including customers as participants is - I get all that. What I'm looking for is concrete discussion of how I should (re)think workflows, user goal achievement, and design patterns when I have a technology like AJAX available to me. Any suggestions? --Alan *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Examples where personas are *not* useful
jared... you certainly make a great point on roleply vs personas I suppose I made my oversimplified statement assuming the designer has actually met and observed at least a few possible users. I forgot that even that element was in question in this thread. I agree that distinction is important! And I'm all for term-policing in this case. UX practitioners are long overdue for a real consensus on what we mean by 'personas.' In my view, the essential elements are primary experience of real, intended users, and an effort to internalize what youve learned (imagine what it will be like for such people to use your design). That primary experience could be very informal, or enhanced through some intentional method. I dont really believe you can even do roleplay in a total vacuum... you're still basing it on something. So to me, roleplay without real experience of the original person(s) is just going to be sloppy roleplay. But maybe youre meaning some specific kind of roleplay I'm not familiar with. I do believe that some intentional process is useful to doing this well and improving chances of a favorable outcome, but that method necessarily varies for each designer or team. Of course its always possible for a very experienced/talented designer to 'wing it' and hit a home run as well. (sent from mobile on a teeny keyboard) andrew hinton [EMAIL PROTECTED] On 11/28/07, Jared M. Spool [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Nov 28, 2007, at 8:50 AM, Andrew Hinton wrote: The funny thing is, if you've ever imagined what it might be like to be your intended user trying to *use* the thing you're designing, you've done persona-based design. Again, in an attempt to not overload terms, I'd say that isn't necessarily persona-based design. It is role playing, which is another important design technique and not mutually exclusive with persona-based design. It would be a part of persona-based design if the intended user were using was a persona. If it's just someone you just made up in your head, then its just role-playing. (Both are valid techniques, but have different purposes.) I would also say that persona-based design has many more activities than just role-playing. Sorry for being the namespace police, but I think its to our community's advantage to have everyone using a common language. Jared Jared M. Spool User Interface Engineering 510 Turnpike St., Suite 102, North Andover, MA 01845 e: [EMAIL PROTECTED] p: +1 978 327 5561 http://uie.com Blog: http://uie.com/brainsparks -- Sent from Gmail for mobile | mobile.google.com *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] UI Architect vs. Business Manager
your job sounds interesting. i can't speak for anyone but myself but not everyone on this list has a traditional background in HCI or related disciplines. some of us got into it by proxy - due to our jobs. i'm head of product for my company. as such, i do a little bit of everything, including getting requirements for features, designing then, writing the specs and so forth so your role is not necessary unusual. Ari On 11/28/07, ELISABETH HUBERT [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi all, I was doing some thinking after work today and I thought I'd post a question. A few months ago I moved to the strategy user experience area of my company after being in the user experience area that dealt mostly with executing and expanding upon strategy. Despite doing some of the traditional roles of an UI Architect type (this is the name of the role where I work) such as maintaining the site structure, brainstorming strategies etc... I've also been assigned to represent the business on some efforts. Meaning I'll bring the project teams the requirements, make sure they are fulfilled. In these cases our strategy team really is the business. I'm curious as to whether anyone else out there has the same type of role or if this is some unique case? Thanks! Lis http://www.elisabethhubert.com *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help -- -- www.flyingyogi.com -- *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] UI Architect vs. Business Manager
Hi Lis, I work for a small software company where we all seem to wear several hats at times. I'm helping now to create the software requirements documents for the next version of our software. The work is collaborative, involving our product manager and software architect. I did not create the initial feature list, so I'm mainly acting as a facilitator and writer at the moment. I'll transition into design mode once our requirements are finished, level-of-effort estimates are assigned, and the remaining requirements are validated (after we weed out the implausible wishes). It sounds like you have a more strategic role than I do, pushed further to the product management side of the business. IMHO someone with a design background and solid business skills/education would be a real asset as a product manager. The whole know your user/customer thing we all go on about will continue to serve you. Good luck with your new role, Michael Micheletti On Nov 28, 2007 5:38 PM, ELISABETH HUBERT [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: ...Meaning I'll bring the project teams the requirements, make sure they are fulfilled. In these cases our strategy team really is the business. I'm curious as to whether anyone else out there has the same type of role or if this is some unique case? Thanks! Lis *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Some form fun, to lighten the mood
My only problem with it is that it could make you enter the same information (spouse and dependent names) up to three times, when it could just ask for it once and let you select them from a list later on down the form. Also, the insurer information fields could inherit, as well (might have the same carrier for medical/dental/vision, tho that's not guaranteed). I see your point tho, selecting all the radio buttons checkboxes is a worst-case scenario, and it could be most folks use only one part of this form and never have to experience the full cascading form. I like the subdued little R symbols for required although I wasn't sure what they meant until I found the key at the top. Funny, but if you click download form in the top right corner, you'll find the actual form looks shorter and easier to fill out by hand...it might actually BE easier to fill out, if it weren't for the need to fax it back in again. Of course, they don't tell you what to do with the downloaded form once you fill it out. Bryan http://www.bryanminihan.com -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of pauric Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2007 5:47 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Some form fun, to lighten the mood Its the 'vertical wizard' pattern. Robert:No need to type anything. While I dont disagree that its not the best form in the world and would be better suited with a traditional multi page wizard. In your view, if someone was actually entering text in to this.. is it really so bad? whats the fundamental interaction flaw? For me own learning I like to understand -why- things are poor, not just point at them and smile. So, you're insight would be of great value. thanks - pauric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://gamma.ixda.org/discuss?post=23078 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Some form fun, to lighten the mood
Its the 'vertical wizard' pattern. Hehe! In your view, if someone was actually entering text in to this.. is it really so bad? whats the fundamental interaction flaw? Great question. Basically, it completely fails to set clear expectations for users. You arrive at the page and are immediately tricked into believing the form is comprised of only a few radio buttons. As you choose Yes to the initial three questions, the form grows, and as you check more checkboxes, it keeps growing. So what appears to be a very simple form quickly turns into a major time-sucker. Also, it doesn't explain what kinds of information you need to have handy to answer the questions. Odds are, you won't know policy numbers and effective dates and such off the top of their heads, so you start filling out the form and find yourself needing to go dig stuff out of a filing cabinet somewhere. As you progress, you may need to make several more trips to the filing cabinet. Because everything is hidden by default, you have no idea what you're getting into. It doesn't offer the slightest clue about how much work is left to complete the process. Anyone else have some thoughts on this? -r- *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Some form fun, to lighten the mood
On Thu, 29 Nov 2007 05:47:29, pauric [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: While I dont disagree that its not the best form in the world and would be better suited with a traditional multi page wizard. In your view, if someone was actually entering text in to this.. is it really so bad? whats the fundamental interaction flaw? When I went to that link and followed Robert's instructions and more and more fields kept popping up I, who was not even filling it out, started to get impatient. How much more is there to this? I asked myself. And it kept coming. And then a song popped into my head: This is the form that ne-ver ends La la la la la la This is the form that ne-ver ends Etc. And now it's stuck there. Argh. Anyway, what's wrong with this pattern is that it is inappropriate for the audience the form is meant to serve, senior citizens (it deals with medicare and medicaid). Anyone who has tested with users 60+ years old will tell you that a common trait this group has is that they read EVERYTHING on the page before taking an action. So when you have all this junk on one page it's going to take them forever to complete it. Here's an example of how a designer (yes, a graphic designer!) at my previous place of employment solved a similar problem: *sigh* Someone redesigned the site and really made it awful. And they removed this interaction I wanted to show. Anyway, the old Medicare Physician Directory on UHC.com was a physician finder that asked seniors about what they were looking for one question at a time. All that was on a page was question text, a form field, and continue and go back buttons. Yes, for most of us that would be very tedious, but it tested incredibly well *with its intended audience.* The designer's original design was more like a simple wizard (with several fields for each of just a few steps), but observing the comprehensive reading behavior led him to this step-by-step approach. It's all about context... - Fred *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Define the User Centered Design process
Ooh! This is an easy one. There's no such thing as a User-Centered Design process. User-centered design is a philosophy, a sensibility, not a process. --peter On Nov 27, 2007, at 5:52 PM, Robert Hoekman, Jr. wrote: I know I'm asking for a war here, but let's try it anyway. I think if we came up with a common definition of what a UCD process looks like, it would be a lot easier to settle some of these debates. Some have said UCD simply means keeping the user at the forefront of your attention while doing design work. Some have said it means creating personas and scenarios, doing thorough user research, etc. Some have said ad- hoc personas are suitable in many situations. The list goes on. But my understanding has always been that UCD is a process. As such, I'd like to either find out I'm wrong, or determine exactly what constitutes a UCD process. So tell me, dear IxDA cohorts: what exactly is UCD? Let the battles begin! -r- *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Some form fun, to lighten the mood
Robert: Every time another section of the form is revealed, your heart sinks a little more. I agree. Thats the point I was hoping to explore a little. I come across people that both like of loathe the magical appearing form divs. Is the 'heart sinking' the designer in us or a proper usability issue? I personally dislike them but havent nailed down a solid usability argument against the design Robert highlighted. Lets put aside the fact that with a little thought the online form could be as succinct as the pdf. Let say the choice was a single ever expanding page or a multistage wizard (right xor choice??? another option?) then is a multistage wizard not conceptually the same thing - no real end in sight except some arbitrary progress bar? for the record I prefer to create wizards, but it would be great to have a solid argument for them to back up my choices. thanks for your thoughts on this folks - regards , pauric *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] UI Architect vs. Business Manager
Hi Elizabeth, Your job description seems somewhat common to what I've experienced in various places. IA's/UX'ers can wear many hats. Presently I'm the owner of UI design and User Experience, which involves flushing out all requirements which are executed or displayed via the GUI. Along with this I'm in release scope meetings to determine how and what to cut and refactor, and other impacts to UI. In another contract, I had the additional role of GUI bug sign off, being responsible for validating and escalating all GUI bugs. This was a great role, and really allowed design to own the UI. Rich *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Some form fun, to lighten the mood
I personally dislike them but havent nailed down a solid usability argument against the design Robert highlighted. I don't think it's so much a usability issue, per se. It's an experience issue. I'm sure many people can *use* the form just fine, but the experience of doing so is rather frustrating. It's the emotional aspect I'm concerned about. A form shouldn't crush a person's sense of progress or accomplishment. then is a multistage wizard not conceptually the same thing - no real end in sight except some arbitrary progress bar? Progress bars (or progress thermometers as they are sometimes referred) are not arbitrary. They serve as indicators of how a process is chunked, and set clear expectations for users. They can easily see that there are, say, four steps and that they're on Step 2. This simple clarification makes a world of difference. Imagine you're an expert carpenter and you're building a treehouse. You know you need to design it, take measurements, go buy the lumber and nails and such, cut up the wood, and put it together. This may be a complicated process, but you have a good idea of what you're getting into. Now imagine you have no idea how to build a treehouse and you fumble your way through each of these steps, asking the staff at Home Depot every time you get stuck, every time learning that there are more and more steps, and never knowing when the end of the process will come. The trick is to make the user feel confident. You want to make her feel like an expert who can get through a form with no problem. You don't want her to feel like constantly-surprised novice carpenter. (Weird analogy, but it was the first thing that popped in my head.) -r- *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Define the User Centered Design process
There's no such thing as a User-Centered Design process. User-centered design is a philosophy, a sensibility, not a process. I'm not convinced. 1. Define the problem 2. Determine the audience 3. Locate and interview representative users 4. Develop persona descriptions 5. Begin design ... etc. (I realize some elements overlap and others come and go as needed, but you get the idea.) These are the basic tenets of what UCDers talk about all the time. Sounds like a process to me. -r- *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Books on IxDA and RIAs?
On Nov 29, 2007, at 6:40 AM, Mark Schraad wrote: The web is becoming much more about activity, task and goals than about place. The standard wayfinding methods that were used in the initial days if IA are no longer enough. In fact a simple site diagram is not enough to accurately scope the complexity of a 2.0 site. We now work with dynamic containers that can, not only support a wide variety of data, but change interactions and functionality. This is much more than a simple template/data relationship. So, our sites and site map diagrams appear to have become simpler, but require some additional means of communicating the complexity - often a verbal presentation, but in some cases use case patterns with modal diagrams. Basically, it's all circling back to a lot of the design paradigms of how traditional desktop client applications work. That's obviously because once you get past the server/client single page request model of the basic browser interaction, and back into refreshing only specific regions of a page, you're basically falling back into similar types of design problems of a desktop client that only refreshes portions of the screen it needs to, and how the main code loop works when anything can be refreshed at any moment if designed and coded to do so. The web 2.0 stuff is still not quite the same as desktop clients yet, but its getting close enough to make the design concerns and constraints similar enough that there's not a whole lot of need to reinvent the wheel for the basics. So imho you're best bet is start pulling out a lot of the old technical design books from before 1995. However, a book that crosses all boundaries and is applicable regardless of the technology is Paul Heckel's Teh Elements of Friendly Software Design. It's easily the best book about software design ever written, a particularly scary feat when you consider he wrote it in 1982. -- Andrei Herasimchuk Principal, Involution Studios innovating the digital world e. [EMAIL PROTECTED] c. +1 408 306 6422 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Define the User Centered Design process
The process you describe is too narrow, in my view, to define UCD. Not everyone uses personas, for example, or use only interviews (ethnographic observation, eye tracking, all kinds of stuff is also used). User-Centered Design is just what it says it is -- designing from an understanding of intended users at the center, rather than putting individual 'vision' or committee guesswork at the center. This is something that hasn't always been taken for granted (and in many circles still isn't). I'm not sure if you can call something that broad a process but I guess that depends on how you define 'process.' That's not to say there aren't conventions and patterns in how we do this kind of work, but those are instantiations, not the idea itself. Again, it comes to semantics, and I'm as weary as anyone of those circular talks. But this seems a pretty clear distinction to me. --- Andrew Hinton Vanguard User Experience Group personal: inkblurt.com Robert Hoekman, Jr. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent by: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 11/29/2007 12:23 PM To Peter Merholz [EMAIL PROTECTED] cc [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject Re: [IxDA Discuss] Define the User Centered Design process There's no such thing as a User-Centered Design process. User-centered design is a philosophy, a sensibility, not a process. I'm not convinced. 1. Define the problem 2. Determine the audience 3. Locate and interview representative users 4. Develop persona descriptions 5. Begin design ... etc. (I realize some elements overlap and others come and go as needed, but you get the idea.) These are the basic tenets of what UCDers talk about all the time. Sounds like a process to me. -r- *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help -- CONFIDENTIALITY STATEMENT. The information contained in this e-mail message, including attachments, is the confidential information of, and/or is the property of, Vanguard. The information is intended for use solely by the individual or entity named in the message. If you are not an intended recipient or you received this in error, then any review, printing, copying, or distribution of any such information is prohibited, and please notify the sender immediately by reply e-mail and then delete this e-mail from your system. *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Some form fun, to lighten the mood
On Nov 29, 2007 8:38 AM, Bryan Minihan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: My only problem with it is that it could make you enter the same information (spouse and dependent names) up to three times, when it could just ask for it once and let you select them from a list later on down the form. Perhaps your spouse as you begin the form isn't your spouse when you're finally finished with it? And maybe they should also ask for your address several times, in case you move before you're done. :-) Michael Micheletti *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Examples where personas are *not* useful
The bottom line for me in this entire thread: To those folks who promote personas as a useful design tool, it seems quite clear to me this industry has not done a good job of making clear what a persona is and what some of the better methods are to research them. Jared, to define that a persona is a meme inside an industry list is one thing, but to have the people who develop these memes then also create printed deliverables that read more like character studies for movie spec scripts and lack more practical data presentation discovered from the research is another. (I feel a Tufte moment of railing on all the chart junk in persona deliverables coming on, but I'll refrain.) The problem of how personas became flubbed in our profession is straight forward as far as I'm concerned. The printed persona deliverable -- the only tangible element of this research process -- becomes the actual persona in the minds of those who were not part of the research process. Basically, every one else in the company. Then over a small amount of time, the meme is no longer the persona, the persona has become that piece of paper with the superficial photo on it. Then that circles back into the core process and it degrades the tool overall for others who then try to copy what they see other people doing, which in this case is the printed deliverable. The fact that the persona has become so bastardized as a tool is a serious problem for our industry. We -- myself included to be honest -- need to fix that. If no one wants to fix it, then it becomes the kind of thing that seriously degrades our value as professionals. Why? Because when executives, entrepreneurs, engineers, product managers, marketing execs, etc... When they work with designers in this field, they get mixed messages and convoluted processes. The more they encounter that, the more we lose our credibility. And fwiw, that's exactly why I get so bent on some of these topics. I actually agree with Jared that its insane that companies will spend $8M on sales retreats but the design team has to scratch tooth and nail to get $800K to do the proper research on a product. At the same time, I also know that we don't enough of a good job justifying why we need the budget. Our deliverables and process still seem far too white ivory tower, throw it over the wall kind of things. (And this is also why I harp on prototypes, since that deliverable does exactly the job of creating large amounts of credibility for designers.) It really needs to change. -- Andrei Herasimchuk Principal, Involution Studios innovating the digital world e. [EMAIL PROTECTED] c. +1 408 306 6422 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Books on IxDA and RIAs?
Totally agree w/ Andrei that it is just like desktop. I think both desktop and web app design are heading into new directions though, which is around cinematic presentation of interfaces especially around transitions. OSX and XP started down this road at the OS level and many applications have taken this on even further. Sarah Allen of Laszlo Systems will be speaking as an invited speaker for Interaction08 on this very topic of cinematic presentation: http://interaction08.ixda.org/Sarah_Allen.htm As to the book question, I do think that there is something specific about technologies of AJAX vs. Flash vs. Silverlight vs. Java that will effect optimal design choices, and in this regard to Andrei's point, a book that is too generic such as the one you suggested will not have all the answers that I hear Alan asking for. I do know people (some on this list) are writing relevant books to this topic, but they won't be out for quite some time. People in NYC took a class on RIA Design that I taught through SmartExperience.org. I'm hoping to repeat in Q1 or Q2 next year. I think the Web App summit might be another place to look as well. -- dave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=23083 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Books on IxDA and RIAs?
On Nov 29, 2007, at 11:27 AM, pauric wrote: While Andrei is right on one hand that you can pick up a book from '82 and it will be of great use. The context of use has changed so much that there's an entirely different dimension to applications nowadays. To a certain degree that book from '82 will raise as many questions as it answers. I'll have to disagree with you. Have you read the book in question? When you do, I think it will make my point clear. Think of it this way: Robert Bringhurst's book on typography is highly relevant regardless of technology, time or context. It's of a higher level that discusses the topic of typography as core design principals. The same can be said for a book like Designing for People by Henry Dreyfuss, A Designer's Art by Paul Rand, Envisioning Information by Edward Tufte, Interaction of Color by Josef Albers. All books that trascend the technology and context. Paul Heckel's book is in this category for interface design. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. -- Andrei Herasimchuk Principal, Involution Studios innovating the digital world e. [EMAIL PROTECTED] c. +1 408 306 6422 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Examples where personas are *not* useful (encore)
Robert said: All I have to do is imagine a person to create a persona? And if it's a real person, it's not a persona? What if I imagine a cartoon character? What do you call that? If a tree falls in a forest and hits a mime, does anyone care? To continue beating a dead horse. Maybe there is a language issue here. I meant to use the word imagining to mean making something up in your mind not only visualizing something existing. To me, characters in a movie, in a novel, in a cartoon or in a comic book are all personas. Obviously, I have a broad definition of what a persona is. To me it is really a ficticious individual that has some traits. That movie character or persona is then put through scenarios (or plot) and reacts according to their traits. In software, we craft some of the experience the persona will have using it and hope the real people will have the same experience. In movies, the director (or whomever) crafts the experience the character goes through and expect the viewers will react in unison or discordance. When I was at Cooper, a colleague who was acting explained to us the techniques used by actors to inhabit characters and that process is similar to how personas are created. I guess that is where I got this more encompassive definition of personas. In the end, any two things can be seen as similar or dissimilar, it just depends one the level of granularity one is at. to be continued.. Pierre Roberge User Experience Designer etfs -- etfs inc. The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient, is prohibited. If you have received this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from any computer. Unless otherwise stated, opinions expressed in this e-mail are those of the author and are not endorsed by the author's employer. etfs inc. L'information transmise ne s'adresse qu'au particulier ou a l'organisme a qui il est dirige. Il peut contenir des renseignements de nature privilegiee et/ou confidentielle . Si le lecteur de ce message n'est pas le destinataire vise, ni l'employe ou le mandataire charge de la livraison au destinataire vise, il est par la presente avise que toute dissemination, distribution ou transcription de cette communication est strictement interdite. Si vous avez recu la presente communication par erreur, veuillez nous en aviser immediatement par courriel et detruire le document de tout ordinateur le contenant. A moins d'avis contraire, toute opinion exprimee dans le present courriel est celle de son auteur et n'est pas endossee par l'employeur de la personne qui l'exprime. *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Books on IxDA and RIAs?
Point taken Andrei and no I havent read that specific book. I'll add to my ever increasing to-read list )o; thanks! So, on that note, a tier down from that seminal book list, do you have anything in the get'r'done section that might address Alan's original question? Thanks in advance -pauric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://gamma.ixda.org/discuss?post=23083 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Define the User Centered Design process
Robert wrote: These are the basic tenets of what UCDers talk about all the time. Sounds like a process to me. No, sounds like people who adhere a philosophy (Peterme) talking about their favorite design process, which includes methods that support a way of working that matches their philosophy. It's a Venn diagram (of course!): - all design processes should include some of the steps you mention (define problem) - many design processes will include steps that can also be found in a UCD-influenced design process (determine the audience) - all UCD-influenced design processes will include some of the UCD-steps (maybe develop persona descriptions but maybe not). When I teach my Interaction Design training (which really is a User Centered Design for interactive systems training, but that is because I adhere to the UCD philosophy; another trainer adapted the material slightly to make it an Activity Centered Design for interactive systems training) I show the students the following description of User Centered Design: User experience and interface design in the context of creating software represents an approach that puts the user, rather than the system, at the center of the process. This philosophy, called user-centered design, incorporates user concerns and advocacy from the beginning of the design process and dictates the needs of the user should be foremost in any design decisions. (From Microsofts MSDN Library, User Interface Design and Development section at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnanchor/html/anch_uidesigndev.asp ) Peter -- Peter Boersma | Senior Interaction Designer | Info.nl http://www.peterboersma.com/blog | http://www.info.nl *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Some form fun, to lighten the mood
My point of view is that this kind of form is the typical one that needs to be made in steps, 3 by the way. The first page is ok. If the user clicks yes in a category, the validation button brings him to the step needed to gather the information of the category where he clicked yes. Sorry for my english, I hope you understand the point. And sorry for the noise. -- Cedric Magnin *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] Verifying a user is human
I am in the process of designing a support forum for a software product. The goal is to make it as easy as possible to ask a question. Ideally I'd like to do away with the need to login all together, but it also needs to be Spam resistant. I've looked a little into the CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart) method, better known as the distorted text method, but questions have been raised about both its accessibility and effectiveness. There is the option of sending an activation email. However, this adds several steps for the user and is not without its own issues (Spam filters etc.) Does anyone have any thoughts on the best method to confirm a user is human? Maybe a third option I haven't thought of? Cheers, Chris Some links on CAPTCHA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha http://www.w3.org/TR/turingtest/ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Some form fun, to lighten the mood
My issue with the form is its misrepresentation to the user. At first glance you decide or estimate the time investment to complete the screen. Slight modifications or an increase is expected, so I would not be too put off by a few extra fields to fill out. What is unacceptable in my eyes, is the length and lack of feedback. It seemed an unending process, similar to the form version of matryoshka dolls. On Nov 29, 2007, at 5:47 AM, pauric wrote: ... For me own learning I like to understand -why- things are poor, not just point at them and smile. So, you're insight would be of great value. thanks - pauric *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Some form fun, to lighten the mood
A lot of great responses regarding how to make this interface better. I agree with making it multi-step via wizard. Honestly, I was so focused on the disappearing check boxes that I didn't even read the div that appeared below the checked box. I wanted to first figure out what happened to my check boxes. If I was doing the talk-aloud test here is what it would sound like: (mumble, mumble - reading to self first set of instructions.) Okay, Yes. (Selecting Yes) (mumble, mumble, Medical, Dental, Vision) All three, so let me click them. (Checking Medical) Hey! Where did the rest of them go! (Unchecking Medical) Oh, there they are, let me click Dental. (Checking Dental) Dammit! Now Vision is gone! Alright, let me uncheck it. (Unchecking Dental) Alright, starting from the bottom, now, check vision, dental, and now medial. HAHA! Got them before they disappeared! (reading next section) Oh, that's why it was gone, it moved down. Well, I don't even want to finish this form anymore. (runs off pouting) Okay, so I'm not the typical user ever since I entered into the UX realm. But still, I feel so violated. (I don't post much but I read these posts daily.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=23078 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] The Rise and Fall of Friendster
On Nov 26, 2007 5:38 PM, Matthew Nish-Lapidus [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: There was a great article about this on Bokardo a little while ago... Joshua Porter wrote that the success of any social networking site depends on the usefulness of that site in the absence of other users. In other words, what does this site do for -me-, is the primary concern, the social aspects are secondary. http://bokardo.com/archives/the-delicious-lesson/ Matthew, I wouldn't go that far, saying that the success of **any** social networking site depends on the usefulness of that site in the **absence** of other users. That may make sense in the article you've mentioned, because it discuss del.icio.us tagging feature, in comparison to flickr and other social networking (sic) sites which use tags as well. But there are some sites that doesn't have any valeu in absence of other users. Orkut is a HUGE success here in Brazil, and it's success is directly related to the presence of other users. In fact, brazilian orkut users have been using some features of that site in a very interesting way, that many times has nothing to do with it's original intention. But it is all about the social networking, about staying in touch with friends, other people, whoever... Joshua Porter article is really interest, but there's no way to generalize it to other social networking sites. Flickr and del.icio.us have other primary functions, I would say they help you organize your stuff (photos, bookmarks, whatsoever). Orkut, Facebook and Friendster are totally different. For those who say that social networking sites fall down when a fresh new one emerges, I wouldn't be sure about that...Orkut continues to increase it's presence here, although there are many other sites just like it, for a long time. Here in Brazil Facebook users are just a few, (Friendster never happened), in comparison with Orkut. And nobody can say why. Particular contexts have different users, and we should be cautions with generalizations. -- prof. mauro pinheiro universidade federal do espírito santo centro de artes depto. de desenho industrial *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Define the User Centered Design process
This is good stuff. If we accept that any well-thought out process ought to be founded on a sound philosophy (or paradigm/model/theory/etc.), why can't UCD be BOTH a philosophy/paradigm as well as the label (rather than definition) for a VARIETY of different processes. Which might beg the question, is there such a thing as Non-User Centered Design? And while NUCD might not be a philosophy, we do know that many designs develop with little concern for the user, or alternatively, are Developer/Designer Centered. Therefore UCD is a justifiable label. I first encountered the term in the title of Norman and Draper's edited collection of papers, UCSD (a clever title, since Norman was on the faculty of UCSD at the time) two decades ago. I initially sneered at the title since I thought, 'What other kind of systems design could there ever be.' But the more I hung around geeks, the more I realized that being user-centered was the exception rather than the norm among them; at least, even when they believed they were being user-centered, they were, in fact, merely projecting their own personas on to arbitrary users employing 'cold logic'. So, in conclusion, for those who always look the world through user-centered lenses (and this is mostly a personality style issue, in my experience), the term is redundant. And perhaps most IxD practitioners and theoreticians are in fact UC. If so, then the term serves the purpose of at least signaling to the rest of the world of their intent. -- Murli Nagasundaram, Ph.D. http://www.murli.com *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Some form fun, to lighten the mood
So, can this thread be used to illustrate an example of what is NOT User Centered Design, a topic being discussed in another thread? Which brings up an interesting design issue. Is there any tool that allows discussion threads to flow like rivers, connecting at times, and then flowing off in different directions if the contact is only temporary? Yeah, I know this can be done manually and mentally, but is front end, or an applet that can be, say, embedded in Gmail as well as other mail clients, which allows you to drag two threads together and connect them visually, so that anyone who wishes can travel back up both tributaries if they wish? [Now, chances are, with such busy threads and such busy people, nobody really has the time or desire to go back up a thread, but there might be some context in which this sort of structural feature is useful.] -murli *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Verifying a user is human
I am in the process of designing a support forum for a software product. The goal is to make it as easy as possible to ask a question. Ideally I'd like to do away with the need to login all together, but it also needs to be Spam resistant. First, I'm amazed you know what CAPTCHA stands for. :) Second, this is a problem that really bugs me too, so I'm interested in ideas. How about something like a 2+2 = ? followed by a dropdown? Dropdowns have low usability, so maybe entering the answer into an input field would be better. I've seen this type of solution used before, and while it requires more work for the user, it's often less work than trying to interpret the letters in a CAPTCHA system. -r- *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Some form fun, to lighten the mood
Oh, that's why it was gone, it moved down. Well, I don't even want to finish this form anymore. Beautiful simulation! -r- *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] UI Architect vs. Business Manager
Thanks for all the great responses!! At first I had a difficult time adjusting to the business side of my role probably due to past experiences (and arguments) with the business partners on projects. I'm learning to appreciate this new point of view because it allows me to learn so many new things which contributes of course to my work :). It's great to hear that this isn't uncommon and that I'm not steering away from my roots. Just a few comments/questions. In response to Adrian I am heavily involved, along with the other IAs on my team, with creating the requirements for the project. In response to Michael what exactly do you refer to when you say the product management side? ~ Lis http://www.elisabethhubert.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=23076 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Some form fun, to lighten the mood
Murli: Is there any tool that allows discussion threads to flow like rivers, connecting at times, and then flowing off in different directions Not exactly related to discussion threads but your question reminded me of the interaction on http://www.liveplasma.com/ Enter in an artist and then you can follow the connection around. Each time you click on a new datapoint, the context changes. Using that as a visual model for your design issue. The datapoints are posts, I can then copy-past a section of a post and create a response. This forms a link. Links could also be represented by common tags. The solution would require a new and complex type of recommendation engine as a large 'thread' would become static noise very quickly as I think you allude too: busy threads and such busy people, nobody really has the time or desire to go back up a thread Nor would they see new posts in a multithreading conversation... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://gamma.ixda.org/discuss?post=23078 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Define the User Centered Design process
why can't UCD be BOTH a philosophy/paradigm as well as the label (rather than definition) for a VARIETY of different processes. I think there are definitely going to be differences in process that still qualify, but overall, there are a few specific things that are usually associated with UCD, which is why I think of it a a process, I suppose. Which might beg the question, is there such a thing as Non-User Centered Design? Yes. UCD assumes the user is the center of focus (according to several definitions so far in this thread). When I design, I put the activity at the center. The user is part of the equation, but so is the system and its possibilities, and the activity itself is the important factor. Not what either side does exclusively, but the activity that both are required to perform. (OK, so that was pretty abstract, but yes, there is such a thing as non user-centered process.) -r- *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Verifying a user is human
How about something like a 2+2 = ? followed by a dropdown? 2+2 in text would probably be easy to parse. Make the 2+2 an image and it would probably do pretty well for next year or two. The deterrent against the computer (image deciphering) is still being used but it's more natural since it's a question format than a copy this task. I have failed the CAPTCHA tests more than once or twice and it's quite dehumanizing. -Dan *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] design patterns for list sorting and filtering
I'm working on what might be a similar project - it's a combo of filtering, sorting and faceted search (which could be considered filtering). Here's a bunch of links, hope they help. You'll have to start some of these by doing a search, but you should get some good ideas from the various treatments of results pages, and different ways of manipulating large data sets. Also, a few of these have interesting combinations of faceted search and tag clouds. http://www.sportsauthority.com/shoeFinder/ http://electronics.pricegrabber.com/ http://www.kayak.com/?uselast=true (Do a search and check out the filters on the left) http://www.endless.com/homepage/ref=topnav_gw_b (Same as kayak) Faceted search: http://www.shopzilla.com/ http://www.properazzi.com/ http://www.nines.org/collex http://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/ http://www.buzzillions.com/ Flamenco search engine demos: http://flamenco.berkeley.edu/demos.html On Nov 28, 2007 9:39 PM, Matthew Nish-Lapidus [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi, I'm working on a project where users will have potentially large lists of items, sometimes personal collections, sometimes search results. Each item in the list will have a number of fields, but not always displayed in discreet columns, some of the data will be merged into sentence form and some in shared columns. I want users to be able to sort and filter the lists and I'm looking for some good example of complex sort and filter interfaces. eBay was a good starting point, but I'd like a few other examples. Does anybody have any good live examples? or documentation of any good patterns for this? Thanks! -- Matt Nish-Lapidus email/gtalk: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ++ LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mattnl Home: http://www.nishlapidus.com *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] JOB: Interaction Designer, LA area, Ripple, Full Time
*** If you're interested, please don't reply to this address, instead email me here: adam[at]rippletv.com *** Position: Interaction Designer (full-time, mid or senior level) Company: Ripple (www.rippletv.com) Location: El Segundo, CA (Los Angeles area) *** Description *** Ripple is looking for a full-time mid- or senior-level Interaction Designer. You will design web-based applications that help people to buy time on our networks, give access to our partners to manage their networks, and enable Ripple employees to effectively run our entire advertising and content system. Although we have some version 1.0 products up and running, this is a chance to get in relatively early and shape the future of some exciting products. Things you should like to do (and be good at): - Discover and interpret requirements - Create and work with personas - Write scenarios and storyboards - Draw boxes and arrows - Organize information - Design work flows, behaviors, and interactions - Design new products from scratch - Maintain and improve existing products - Clearly communicate your design in writing and in person - Work well with researchers, product managers and engineers Helpful, but not necessary: - Ability to create simple production-ready graphical elements for the web (layout elements, widgets) - Experience designing advertising and/or content management systems *** About Working at Ripple *** - Ripple is a good place to work - Our office is located in El Segundo, CA (Los Angeles area) - We offer competitive pay, stock, and benefits *** How to Apply *** Please do not reply to this address. Send your resume and portfolio/ work samples to Adam Korman -- adam[at]rippletv.com *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] How's this for user friendly?
Of course the UI — like other electronic music equipment I've used — looks typically bad. Pull the knob out, switch to one of the letter modes, hold the button gently for 3 seconds… Sheesh. It might be easier just to tune it myself. *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Some form fun, to lighten the mood
Yes. The disappearing checkboxes are the weirdest part of this. It's also a great example of how confusing the colored sections are. At first I thought brown meant conditional questions, but I guess it's really alternating row colors. Eric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=23078 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Verifying a user is human
Chris asked: Does anyone have any thoughts on the best method to confirm a user is human? Seems like this made the rounds on the blog circuit a few weeks ago: You're in a desert, walking along in the sand when all of a sudden you look down and see a tortoise. You reach down and you flip the tortoise over on its back. The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over but it can't. Not without your help. Do you flip it back over? Type your answer below. IIRC there was an abbreviated test that simply asked: What color is an orange? On my own blog I've found it pretty effective to simply block any comments with more than a certain number of URLs in the body. Also, the Akismet spam filter on Wordpress has been remarkably efficient. It's filtered out hundreds of spam comments with no false positives and only one false negative since I started using it. I've never looked in to how it works but it doesn't require anyone to prove they're human. // jeff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=23115 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Some form fun, to lighten the mood
Awesome. I was laughing on that one. You know you've got problems on your hands when your test participants resort to profanity. On Thu, 29 Nov 2007 10:00:33, Patricia Garcia [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: A lot of great responses regarding how to make this interface better. I agree with making it multi-step via wizard. Honestly, I was so focused on the disappearing check boxes that I didn't even read the div that appeared below the checked box. I wanted to first figure out what happened to my check boxes. If I was doing the talk-aloud test here is what it would sound like: (mumble, mumble - reading to self first set of instructions.) Okay, Yes. (Selecting Yes) (mumble, mumble, Medical, Dental, Vision) All three, so let me click them. (Checking Medical) Hey! Where did the rest of them go! (Unchecking Medical) Oh, there they are, let me click Dental. (Checking Dental) Dammit! Now Vision is gone! Alright, let me uncheck it. (Unchecking Dental) Alright, starting from the bottom, now, check vision, dental, and now medial. HAHA! Got them before they disappeared! (reading next section) Oh, that's why it was gone, it moved down. Well, I don't even want to finish this form anymore. (runs off pouting) Okay, so I'm not the typical user ever since I entered into the UX realm. But still, I feel so violated. (I don't post much but I read these posts daily.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=23078 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Verifying a user is human
Hi, CAPTCHA done right is very effective, and can be accessible as well. I suggest taking a look at the reCAPTCHA project (http://recaptcha.net/), they have an audio version available as well, and it contributes back to the Internet Archive project, always a worthy cause. There was just a great article on a blog about CAPTCHA's, but I can't remember which one right now.. when I find it I'll make sure to send it back to the list. Matt. On Nov 29, 2007 10:18 AM, Chris Maissan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I am in the process of designing a support forum for a software product. The goal is to make it as easy as possible to ask a question. Ideally I'd like to do away with the need to login all together, but it also needs to be Spam resistant. -- Matt Nish-Lapidus email/gtalk: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ++ LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mattnl Home: http://www.nishlapidus.com *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] Verifying a user is human
Chris, I'd suggest you create your own test instead of using a standard CAPTCHA. The simplest way to resist spambots is to give them a question they haven't seen on several thousand other sites - and you can easily make it accessible for humans if you don't have to worry about fooling the machines. Take a look at http://almaer.com/blog/logic-based-captcha-to-beat-the-blog-spam-bots for a discussion of some possible questions at the end of the post. Jennifer Berk On 11/29/07, Chris Maissan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I am in the process of designing a support forum for a software product. The goal is to make it as easy as possible to ask a question. Ideally I'd like to do away with the need to login all together, but it also needs to be Spam resistant. ... Does anyone have any thoughts on the best method to confirm a user is human? Maybe a third option I haven't thought of? *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] link vs button
Hey gang - Back in the day when there was a clear(er) delineation between software and the web, the way most of us designed was to use buttons for actual actions or operations, and hyperlinks for opening or filtering a web page. It seems to me like this is changing in our wild mashed-up world of web app fabulousity - lots of folks are designing apps where a hyperlink invokes an action (edit, add, send message, etc). What do you say - are said designers committing heresy, or are they trailblazers? Should we be enforcing this line, or letting it blur? Cheers, -Billie * * * * * * * Billie Mandel | Manager, User Experience Design Research | OPENWAVE | [EMAIL PROTECTED] *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Verifying a user is human
Also, if it's a support forum for a software application, you could provide the key for submitting support requests inside the software, or the ability to do so (in the form of a button or link). Folks who come to the site outside the software may have to suffer a login, but those coming from your software would have a free ride, so to speak. Bryan http://www.bryanminihan.com -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Matthew Nish-Lapidus Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2007 7:34 PM To: Chris Maissan Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Verifying a user is human Hi, CAPTCHA done right is very effective, and can be accessible as well. I suggest taking a look at the reCAPTCHA project (http://recaptcha.net/), they have an audio version available as well, and it contributes back to the Internet Archive project, always a worthy cause. There was just a great article on a blog about CAPTCHA's, but I can't remember which one right now.. when I find it I'll make sure to send it back to the list. Matt. On Nov 29, 2007 10:18 AM, Chris Maissan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I am in the process of designing a support forum for a software product. The goal is to make it as easy as possible to ask a question. Ideally I'd like to do away with the need to login all together, but it also needs to be Spam resistant. -- Matt Nish-Lapidus email/gtalk: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ++ LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mattnl Home: http://www.nishlapidus.com *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Define the User Centered Design process
Robert Hoekman, Jr. kirjoitti 28.11.2007 kello 3:52: So tell me, dear IxDA cohorts: what exactly is UCD? That's really hard to say. I'm not a UCD proponent even, because in addition to user happiness, the technical feasibility and business viability are almost always equally essential. Users are important, but even they aren't the center of the world. There are those other issues. I don't like xCD, whatever the x. Designing for behavior has been so rare in the past, that most digital stuff behave like computers and expect human beings to adapt. But it doesn't mean that the users should take the whole stage. There are other factors too, and asking which of those is more important is like asking which is more important: breathing or eating. But ISO 13407 is a standard for Human-centred design processes for interactive system. Maybe there's something that we could use to define UCD/HCD, if it helps our cause: http://www.usabilitynet.org/tools/r_international.htm#13407 Personally I think that Cooper's Goal-Directed Design captures the feasibility and viability aspects well. The design is directed by goals, not centered at them. And not only user goals, but those others too. But I give at least 3/4 of my time to think about the users. The architect next room is responsible for the feasibility and the coders are responsible for building it bug-free. Thinking about business-related design, such as organizational processes or material/information flow design (when applicable) is all part of the behavior of the new solution. I hesitate to call that user- centered. User-directed, maybe. But goal-directed feels better. Thanks, Petteri -- Petteri Hiisilä Senior Interaction Designer iXDesign / +358505050123 / [EMAIL PROTECTED] Simple is better than complex. Complex is better than complicated. - Tim Peters *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] link vs button
Hi Billie, Assuming that both will be used, I think it's important to maintain a learnable convention. I'm inclined in favor of the following distinction: buttons for simple, finite actions versus links for actions that begin a process or require further detail. That's a bit ironic, since you'd think that buttons would be good for the heavier task, but it seems that the convention of using buttons for simple confirmation is really strong. For simple actions in tables, links seem better. In a table, a button is visually ambiguous: is it part of the row, or apart from the row? A link fits into the row better. Best wishes, Bruce Esrig At 08:24 PM 11/29/2007, Billie Mandel wrote: Hey gang - Back in the day when there was a clear(er) delineation between software and the web, the way most of us designed was to use buttons for actual actions or operations, and hyperlinks for opening or filtering a web page. It seems to me like this is changing in our wild mashed-up world of web app fabulousity - lots of folks are designing apps where a hyperlink invokes an action (edit, add, send message, etc). What do you say - are said designers committing heresy, or are they trailblazers? Should we be enforcing this line, or letting it blur? Cheers, -Billie * **** * * Billie Mandel | Manager, User Experience Design Research | OPENWAVE | [EMAIL PROTECTED] *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Verifying a user is human
Here's one called Asirra that Microsoft is working on: http://research.microsoft.com/asirra/ Blurb: * Asirra is a human interactive proof that asks users to identify photos of cats and dogs. It's powered by over three million photos from our unique partnership with Petfinder.com http://www.petfinder.com/. Protect your web site with Asirra — free! Cheers, murli | www.murli.com * *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Verifying a user is human
That's a neat idea...hopefully your visitors aren't crying by the time they make it into the site. Clever, tho =] -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Murli Nagasundaram Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2007 9:20 PM To: Chris Maissan Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Verifying a user is human Here's one called Asirra that Microsoft is working on: http://research.microsoft.com/asirra/ Blurb: * Asirra is a human interactive proof that asks users to identify photos of cats and dogs. It's powered by over three million photos from our unique partnership with Petfinder.com http://www.petfinder.com/. Protect your web site with Asirra - free! Cheers, murli | www.murli.com * *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Define the User Centered Design process
And from my readings and attendance at all day workshops and seminars - the Other UCD - Usage Centered Design - is not User focused at all. The actuall user not not the central focus of the design effort. What is at the center of the design effort is a conceptual model of a particular usage based on the, I suppose, ruminations of the person doing the conceptual model. There is a strong de-emphasis on user interviews and research. At least that is my interpretation of what I have heard the other ucd advocates proclaiming. On Nov 29, 2007 4:18 PM, Robert Hoekman, Jr. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: why can't UCD be BOTH a philosophy/paradigm as well as the label (rather than definition) for a VARIETY of different processes. I think there are definitely going to be differences in process that still qualify, but overall, there are a few specific things that are usually associated with UCD, which is why I think of it a a process, I suppose. Which might beg the question, is there such a thing as Non-User Centered Design? Yes. UCD assumes the user is the center of focus (according to several definitions so far in this thread). When I design, I put the activity at the center. The user is part of the equation, but so is the system and its possibilities, and the activity itself is the important factor. Not what either side does exclusively, but the activity that both are required to perform. (OK, so that was pretty abstract, but yes, there is such a thing as non user-centered process.) -r- *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help -- ~ will Where you innovate, how you innovate, and what you innovate are design problems --- will evans user experience architect [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Verifying a user is human
I've seen this type of solution used before, and while it requires more work for the user, it's often less work than trying to interpret the letters in a CAPTCHA system. reCAPTCHA is a nice CAPTCHA implementation that uses (mostly) actual words for verification. And it's a nice way to help with the digitizing of books as well. http://recaptcha.net/ It also has some accessibility features built in. But, as with all CAPTCHAs, it can be circumvented in a manner as described here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha#Human_solvers The math equation solution is subject to this hack as well. I think the only way you can absolutely verify that there's a non-nefarious human on the other end is via biometrics, and I'm guessing that that won't be a feasible option. jason *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] JOB-Correction: Information Architect, SF area, IGN Entertainment, Full Time
Sorry, but I wanted to correct this posting to reflect that it's only available for Brisbane, CA (San Francisco area). Thanks! -Original Message- From: v6 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Nov 27, 2007 7:28 PM To: discuss@lists.interactiondesigners.com Subject: JOB: Information Architect, LA/SF area, IGN Entertainment, Full Time Hi folks, please email me directly at ekim[at]ign[dot]com if you're interested in this position--thanks! - Eugene Information Architect IGN Entertainment, a unit of Fox Interactive Media, Inc. Location: Greater San Francisco or Los Angeles area IGN has an immediate need for a highly motivated, full-time Information Architect. This person will be responsible for identifying and documenting the functional aspects, behaviors and standards of IGN's websites. Responsibilities: • Create clean and concise wireframes, use cases, site maps, flow diagrams, screen prototypes and other artifacts to describe the intended user experience • Participate in project definition and review activities with program managers and business stakeholders • Visualize concepts quickly and cleanly through sketching and other rapid prototyping methods • Define site architecture and navigation that serves as a blueprint of the site upon which all other aspects are built • Moderate and prepare documents for usability tests, including test plans, scenarios and questionnaires • Participate in user studies to understand user behaviors/preferences and build, from this understanding, informed user interface solutions • Participate in formal and informal design critiques • Work collaboratively with designers to develop interface functionality • Scope, develop and understand development / engineering leads to determine efficacy of a given solution • Participate in quality assurance checks during production Qualifications • Bachelor's, Masters degree or equivalent work experience in HCI, Information Science, design disciplines (industrial, graphic, instructional, architecture), or other relevant field • 2+ years of experience as either a Junior Information Architect, or a member of an interactive design team. • Highly demonstrable skills creating user flows, sitemaps, wireframes, screen prototypes and functional specifications • Working knowledge of User Centered design principles and practices • Ability to research, understand and organize specialized content • Experience working on large, complex sites • Experience and/or interest in mentoring others • Excellent writing, speaking, presentation and interpersonal skills • Proficiency in Visio, Word, and Photoshop • Solid understanding of HTML CSS *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
