Re: [IxDA Discuss] Mobile (Cellphone) Activated Streetlamps
A little more investigation reveals that the system is call-driven. You dial a number (that you of course can store in your contacts) and enter the six digit code to turn on the lights in your street. That way, even old landline phones that can send DTMF signals can be used to turn on the lights, but you still have to register that number online. An added advantage of using voice rather than SMS is that voice calls either go through immediately or get refused, while SMS messages can be queued, delaying the lighting. 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] (Mumbai, India) Last Date Reminder- Design Incubator's Weekend Workshop on Usability Testing
Hi, Kindly take note of Important Dates for Design Incubator's Weekend Workshop on Usability Testing given below: 06th Jan 09 - Last date to register for *UXD 05 - Usability Testing (10, 11 Jan 09)* Fees For Self Sponsored = 8,000 INR Fees For Corporate Sponsored = 9,000 INR For details visit: http://designincubator.com/training_current.htmhttp://www.linkedin.com/redirect?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdesignincubator%2Ecom%2Ftraining_current%2Ehtmurlhash=Vl0e_t=disc_detail_link Download Brochure: http://designincubator.com/Weekend%20Workshops%20on%20User%20Experience%20Design%20Winter%202008.pdfhttp://www.linkedin.com/redirect?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdesignincubator%2Ecom%2FWeekend%2520Workshops%2520on%2520User%2520Experience%2520Design%2520Winter%25202008%2Epdfurlhash=XwAu_t=disc_detail_link The Venue: MphasiS Ltd., 2nd Floor, Leela Business Park (Opposite to the Leela Kempinski Hotel), Andheri-Kurla Road, Andheri East, Mumbai 400059. For any queries feel free to contact us Mail: training[at] designincubator.comhttp://www.linkedin.com/redirect?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdesignincubator%2Ecomurlhash=w55r_t=disc_detail_link Call: +91 (0)22 6552 9069 (speak to Rohit) Kindly register asap and do inform your friends or colleagues who are also interested in the workshop. Thanks Regards, Rohit Keluskar Design Incubator RD Labs Pvt. Ltd. Mail to : rohit.kelus...@designincubator.com Tel : +91 (022) 6552 9069 -- regards, Rohit Keluskar Design Incubator RD Labs Pvt. Ltd. 9820 230 604 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 does knowledge of CMSs make you a better UX designer?
It's important to put CMS's on a spectrum of means of storing and connecting information: - Email - Web site (naive version) - Blog - Wiki - Online documents - CMS E-mail is point-to-point communication between an author and a group. Archiving is typically on a per-author basis. E-mail can include links to sites. Some providers insert links and ads in the content of the e-mail or in the reader environment. There are abbreviation services that make it easier to send long links that might otherwise get broken during transmission. A web site is created by a designer, populated by an author, and made available. It may have structure built in that connects the pages, that offers invitations of various kinds, and that provides context for users arriving from other places. A blog is created by an author as part of a time series. The web site aspects are often pre-determined or only lightly customizable. This makes a blog easier to create than a new web site. A blog has a comment feature that allows readers to annotate individual pages. The blogroll, trackback and permalink features connect a blog with other blogs and occasionally with other non-blog sites. A wiki is a collaboration environment in which each page is created individually by an author. Other authors can modify the page or contribute to an associated talk page. There is a naming mechanism that makes it easier to create links to pages by title, and a tagging or category mechanism that groups pages that mention a common subject. As with a hand-crafted web site, there is a need for some common practices in page titles, category assignments, and linking conventions in order to ensure that information remains findable. Online documents provide a collaboration environment in which multiple authors can update information and see each others' updates in something approximating real time. The update frequency determines how dynamically authors can interact through the online document. The internal structure of an online document is modeled after traditional desktop application documents. Online documents reside in an external framework that is modeled after a file system. A content management system is a collaboration environment in which each page of information that the user sees is built from multiple pieces. The pieces each have individual identifiers that are independent of their title. There may be a file system view that can be used to organize the pieces, but the file system relies on the internal identifiers rather than the other way around. A CMS typically allows content to be tagged or categorized, and usually the categories can be organized into a hierarchy called a taxonomy. In order to construct content pages in a CMS, it is not only necessary to design content templates. In addition, the taxonomy and the types of pieces that will be supported need to be designed. This determines the types of content pages that can be constructed. Blogs, wikis, online documents, and CMS's share common issues with participation. In each case, readers judge the content by how recently it has been updated, how carefully it has been authored, whether the authors seem to have been careful about writing authoritative content, and whether the content has since been superseded. In order to make the transition to contributor, a reader must be convinced that their contribution will be valuable, either by increasing the contributor's visibility, or by improving the understanding of subsequent readers. Wikis and CMS's also have social issues: how to deal with clashes among contributors. It can happen that different contributors have different perspectives on what needs to be said, or different frames on which to base their remarks. It can be very difficult to re-frame existing contributions to track an emerging consensus about the framework underlying the discussion. In this sense, a blog is a better technology for conversation that is based on a fluid set of assumptions. A wiki can be a place for consensus-building when the community agrees to focus their consensus-building efforts there. Traditionally, CMS's have concentrated on enabling content to be published, but not on serving as a forum for consensus-building. Consequently, a community using a CMS often designates specialists to serve as authors in particular subject areas. These specialists can be called owners, which would be considered too strong a term in the culture surrounding a wiki. The sense of ownership is made necessary in part by the difficulty of producing a coherent result from multiple small pieces. Each owner acts as editor of a subject-matter area, ensuring that the required assets are available to support the presentation of a particular point. This brings us back to web sites, since a CMS can serve as the back end for a web site. A CMS is a powerful mechanism that permits generation of pages that are adapted to the user and their session history. But because of the extra layer of
Re: [IxDA Discuss] People are Used to it
To add-on to Jared's reference, there are a number of articles in the Harvard Business Review related to usability, consumer research, etc. I wrote up a summary of some of the most relevant ones a couple of months ago - http://tinyurl.com/8q58hw Besides there educational/informational content, they can help bring business credibility to the user experience table (if it's needed). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36646 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] What's your favorite memory of Interaction 08?
Connecting in person with loads of people I only met in other mediums before. Meeting with peers in the field that you as a European seldom get a chance to do and the general feeling of being part of something big. The local leaders dinner was also a true feel of community force. I remember meeting Josh Seiden in person for the 1st time (with whom I at that point had shared a IxDA board position since one year) and upon him saying Hi Niklas! asking: I'm sorry, you are who?. I blame it on the mist of high fever and the strange strong U.S. Pharmacy pain relievers I took to suppress it... My hidden agenda for Vancouver is def to make up for all the partying and beers with peers I missed because of this. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36615 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 does knowledge of CMSs make you a better UX designer?
Well in the sense that knowledge of a tool at our disposal is good, I suppose it makes us better - like knowledge of how a planer works might make someone a better carpenter, particularly on a job that required one. I think an broad examination of CMS's might also be useful in that it's always valuable to look at different ways the same sort of tasks can be accomplished to see the variations in the solutions that were chosen. Looking at CMS's in particular might also be useful since so much of what we do as user experience designers is presentation of content. Presentation of different kinds and variable amounts of content can be tricky, and that's what these systems do. All that said, I am not sure that I fully agree with the statement that knowledge of CMS's makes people better user experience designers. The suggested inverse of this - that lack of knowledge of CMS's will make you a worse user experience designer - seems doubtful to me. I suppose a statement like this will be good for generating debate and discussion though. Michael On Dec 21, 2008, at 9:57 AM, Brian Henkel wrote: I'm planning to teach a course on how knowledge of Content Management Systems makes us better user experience designers. In this course, we will survey many prevalent CMS tools (slated at the moment: WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Sharepoint, Expression Engine) to review how they work, analyze their capabilities and limitations, and overall, make non-technical designers more conversant with these technologies. It is my belief that this background not only helps a designer when formulating/proposing a solution, but is also valuable in discussions with other (perhaps more-technical) project team members. I'd like to get thoughts and ideas from the community: How does knowledge of Content Management Systems make us better user experience designers? Literature on this topic seems to be scarce, so a recommendation for further research is welcomed as well. Brian Henkel User Experience Manifest Digital 1200 West Lake Street Chicago, IL 60607 manifestdigital.com 312 235 3024 v 773 331 7645 c 312 803 9669 f 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 does knowledge of CMSs make you a better UX designer?
Hi Brian, In my view, there are three reasons for understanding CMS's. All three are more practical than theoretical. First, you need to know the medium through which your design will be realized. If you are designing a solution that will be implemented with a CMS, then you should certainly know the limitations and strengths of that system. Understanding how the CMS generates navigation, incorporates taxonomies, and presents interaction, etc. will help you design something that can be built within the constraints of the system, or, identify what needs to be altered or created. Second, (assuming you are not the primary webmaster/author) you are actually leaving behind two (or more) 'experiences' - the site as published and the site as tool for publishing/communicating. Usually our designs are 'populated' and maintained by content owners and authors who interact with the site through various types of management interfaces, long after the 'design' has been delivered. Those interfaces are typically determined by the CMS and are often not modifiable by the experience designer. Knowing how the CMS handles data/content input can help you create a system that is usable for the full spectrum of user roles. Third, if you are involved in choosing a CMS, as you may be when specifying requirements, then knowing what's out there seems a necessary bit of preparation. If you are in the attractive position that William is describing of creating a publishing/CMS platform, to suit all your user types/needs, then knowing how an existing CMS works is less important, other than, as he suggests, learning from past mistakes/successes. And as Bruce mentions, CMS's can be viewed as collaboration platforms. There again, i think knowing what functionality your CMS platform supports (blogs, commenting, etc.) and understanding how your particular platform enables (or hinders) exchange and presentation of information can only improve your design work. /avi brightroom.ca On Dec 21, 2008, at 9:57 AM, Brian Henkel wrote: I'm planning to teach a course on how knowledge of Content Management Systems makes us better user experience designers. In this course, we will survey many prevalent CMS tools (slated at the moment: WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Sharepoint, Expression Engine) to review how they work, analyze their capabilities and limitations, and overall, make non-technical designers more conversant with these technologies. It is my belief that this background not only helps a designer when formulating/proposing a solution, but is also valuable in discussions with other (perhaps more-technical) project team members. I'd like to get thoughts and ideas from the community: How does knowledge of Content Management Systems make us better user experience designers? Literature on this topic seems to be scarce, so a recommendation for further research is welcomed as well. 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] People are Used to it
In repeated posts, William Brall asked: What is the excuse for this? Other than that people are used to it? I think there are two factors at play. On the outside, they appear as the laziness that Jared identified, but I think it's something different. It's more of an organizational inertia, where it's simply easier to do nothing than do something new. This isn't laziness as such, but a combination of: - siloed organizations - risk aversion The Philips TV is a good example, because I can pretty much guarantee that the designers of the TV software, TV hardware, and the remote control were in different teams, and coordinating their work was nearly impossible. In order for a jog dial or click wheel to work, you'd need to coordinate across product groups that are likely currently siloed. Innovation requires busting down these walls, getting all teammembers who affect a product in the same room, at the outset. Risk aversion is a spin on the people are used to it sentiment. Trying something new introduces a greater degree of risk than sticking with what is standard, and is known to work. Trying something new consumes resources, and there's no guarantee it will work. In fact, most new things don't work. So risks must be justified, either as not being too expensive to try, or with the demonstration of a huge potential upside. William's lament is the reason it's so important for designers to understand and get involved in how their organization operates, and not be satisfied simply following others requirements. --peter 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] [PLUG] Adaptive Path '09 Events: 15% off!
Between now and the end of the year, you can get 15% off the registration price of any Adaptive Path event, simply by using the promotional code RNSB (for Register Now, Save Big). http://adaptivepath.com/events/ Of particular interest to the IxDA audience, I highlight the following events: Mobile User Experience: What Web Designers Need to Know Virtual Seminar, January 14, 10:00am Pacific, 1pm Eastern, 1800 GMT http://www.adaptivepath.com/events/2009/jan/virt.php Regularly $129.00, only $109.65 with RNSB. Good Design Faster San Francisco, April 2-3, 2009 An expanded version of our most popular UX Week workshop, this intense two-day workshop delivers a hands-on guide to the new UX skills required to tackle the design challenges of fluid interactions, service design, and multi-channel experiences. http://www.adaptivepath.com/events/2009/apr/ Currently $1,095, only $930.75 with RNSB. --peter Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] [Event] Chicago IxDA--Campaign learnings of America for make benefit glorious movement of progress
During the last few months of the presidential campaign, Billy Belchev and Paul Baker of Webitects traveled to Obama for America offices in swing states studying the campaign's ground game. Using design research methods, they recorded screens, mouse movements, and voices as organizers cut turf, pulled walking and calling lists, entered volunteer information, etc. They also photographed and collected artifacts, took videos of strategy meetings, and interviewed organizers. Their design research will help inform the redesign of campaign software. In very graphic terms, they will present what they learned, and how they learned it. Zack Exley of ThoughtWorks and the New Organizing Institute (former Director of Online Communications and Organizing for John Kerry's campaign) will also preview his book about the Obama ground game. See his related story on the Huffington Post at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zack-exley/the-new-organizers-part-1_b_132782. html. Details: Wednesday, January 14, 6:30-8:30, ThoughtWorks in the AON building. Please RSVP if you want to attendhttp://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pKwbS7NpPcWl4zO9aLzemVA . Food and beverages will be provided. * Announcements from the Dec event:* Know anyone interested in a contract development position at a competitive hourly rate? The office is located at 1900 N Clybourn. Skills requested: 1. General web developer with Moveable Type or Wordpress skills, or able to learn Moveable Type 4; PHP, Javascript, MS-SQL. 2. Actionscript3, Flex3, Ruby On Rails. email: Patrick Malon at mal...@gmail.com for more information and mention where you saw this posting _ *Sears Holdings Corp is looking for:* Information Architect: Taxonomy Specialist Project Overview: Must be able to analyze large amounts of data about a product assortment to create categorical relationships among entries to enable shoppers to browse to a desired product. Required Skills/ Experience: Research • Card sorting, • Task analysis, • interview methods, • contextual inquiry affinity diagramming, • Web analytics, • metadata organizing ontology design • categorization labeling • clickstream analysis (Tea leaf), • search term analysis (Omniture) • user survey creation and analysis, • heuristic competitive review • evaluation methods Interface Design • UI design • site architecture • faceted browsing search • Navigation design Consulting Skills • Understanding business needs in relation to user needs technology restraints • Ability to negotiate with business stakeholders • Gain consensus on designs through peer review • Team leadership • Group facilitation • Project planning and tracking, keeping to tight deadlines • Mentorship of co-workers • Identification tools, templates, and techniques that evolve existing approaches for the user experience group Desired, but not required Skills/ Experience: • Ability to run remote testing • TeaLeaf and Omniture experience • Semantic Web and underlying technologies • Semantic tagging • Degree in Information Science Daily Responsibilities: The Taxonomy Specialist will play a key role in presenting our products online. As a member of the Experience Strategy Design Group you will work closely with Business Stakeholders (Management, Merchandising, IT) to ensure that the Sears.com, Kmart.com and other web-based products meet business objectives, support the brand and are useful, intuitive and desirable to users. You will work with multidisciplinary teams to create smart, innovative online solutions involving: • Understanding target audiences' needs and other motivating factors and translating them into concepts for compelling interactions and experiences. • Planning and executing iterative user research and analysis projects including but not limited to interviews, concept testing, and usability testing and heuristic evaluations. • Leading and/or participating in immersive user research, concept testing, and usability testing. • Collaboratively developing scenarios, navigation models, and prototypes for demonstration of concepts to stakeholders and project teams. • Developing and documenting detailed information architecture and interaction designs for highly interactive interfaces to support business strategy, marketing strategy, and desired user behaviors. • Serving as an expert consultant during the detailed design phase by reviewing interaction design, copy and visual design for usability best practices. Please send resume to : Mark
[IxDA Discuss] JOB | Microsoft Expression Blend Jockey| Philly and Atlanta | Recruiter | Contract
MissionStaff has a unique three month project with our client, who is looking for a UI Designer to develop the user interface design of a highly interactive desktop application, including objects such as widgets, frames, controls, buttons, icons, etc. This project will require occasional on-site work in Atlanta and Delaware; most work can be done remotely. The timeframe is mid-January through end of March. The preferred candidate will have experience using WPF XAML (Expression Design, Expression Blend), MS Expression and Silverlight, and will participate as part of an interdisciplinary team including other user experience designers, project managers, and technical leader. The role will involve communicating conceptual ideas, detailed design, and design rationale both verbally and visually, particularly focused on graphics design in XAML (MS Expression Blend and Design). Required Experience * Strong graphics/UI design experience * Strong WPF experience * MS Expression * Strong XAML experience (Expression Design, Expression Blend) * Desktop application design * User-centered design experience * Silverlight 2.0 experience preferred Required Skills * UI Design * WPF * XAML * Human Factors, Silverlight, Photoshop, Illustrator, Visio, InDesign, Dreamweaver * (Understanding of .NET framework 3.5, .NET 3.0 in order to interface w/ developers) Please feel free to share this description. Anyone interested may contact me directly at: Meg Metz | m...@missionstaff.com | (215) 545-1600 http://www.missionstaff.com/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Soliciting opinions on voice recognition software for general computer interfaces
Perhaps. But it is folly to talk about voice based interfaces without diving into the future, where advanced AI will enable it to be conversational rather than command based. An example of this might be a system administrator's tool which communicates with the sys admins by voice. Repetitive but not identical actions are tough to model, and sys admins often spend a lot of their time at the command line. So such a system could be like a junior sys admin sitting at the next cube. Bark a few orders, get a few updates, be shown a few processes. This would be a very good use of voice-based interaction. But it is very far off, and could easily be supplanted before then. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36596 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] Forms - selecting a country
There have been previous discussions on this topic, one here: http://www.ixda.org/discuss.php?post=23593 But they haven't really focused on what I'm after: your favorite examples for having a person specify what country they live in, in the context of a web form. Anyone come across a particularly effective way of collecting this information recently (including consideration for accessibility)? Bonus points if it does not involve a gigantic dropdown with ~ 195 countries in it. Unless, of course, you feel that's the best way. Thanks, Jeff 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
