date:20090331


Splitters!

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Expandable windows

Man, I've been looking for that name, mega drop (like on askmen.com), all
last week and had to rig my own.
I think the one in question here is a hoverbox.

First siting here (code calls the class a gallery and the naming convention
isn't quite self documenting, that bugs me):
http://www.javafx.com/

Crude example here (code @ the .com):
http://host.sonspring.com/hoverbox/

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[IxDA Discuss] Recover username service

2009-03-31 Thread Chris Wright

I'm looking at implementing a 'recover my username' serivce on a website i'm
working on. This will be a seperate service to recovering a password.

Thing is the existing userbase have custom usernames, users going forward
will be encouraged to use thier email address. recovering a username by
typing in your email works for the former, but not so for the latter.

any ideas?

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Wood gatherers, boat architects, or sailing experience designers?

2009-03-31 Thread Leon Barnard

For me, personally, I read the threads that interest me and skip the
ones that don't. I haven't participated in, nor read much of, the
what do we call ourselves discussion, so I'm not bothered by it.
There are still enough topics that do interest me to keep me
subscribed.
- Leon

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Wood gatherers, boat architects, or sailing experience designers?

2009-03-31 Thread Peter Van Dijck

(and I mean that in a good way.)

On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 1:04 PM, Peter Van Dijck petervandi...@gmail.comwrote:

 Maybe we just need a place where we can have a drunken fight once a year?
 Oh wait, wasn't that the IA summit?
 Peter


 On Mon, Mar 30, 2009 at 6:22 AM, David Malouf d...@ixda.org wrote:

 Joshua,

 It is also important every once in a while when your seaman got a bug
 up their butt to let them have a good old fashion bar brawl. It is
 healthy especially in this circumstance.

 To be honest, there have been some great posts in this series of
 threads that so far have lasted about 3 days. And if you observe the
 energy flow, you'll notice that the tide is going out.

 I've been on this list for 5 years now. This happens. It is in
 response to some trigger in the wide world that as a community we
 need to cathartically deal with. This is not just a list of peers
 doing business, but a community of people. We use each other. Whether
 on Twitter or on this list (or others).

 I think a call to just talking about the sea, is actually counter to
 the spirit I think you represent, in that we need to allow any social
 community to address itself. In taking this back to the issue of good
 design, any good community organizer knows that the people need more
 than a mission.

 -- dave


 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 Posted from the new ixda.org
 http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=40731


 
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 blog: http://poorbuthappy.com/ease/
 global UX consulting: http://290s.com
 free travel guides: http://poorbuthappy.com
 Belgium: (+32) 03/325 88 70
 Skype id: peterkevandijck




-- 
me: http://petervandijck.com
blog: http://poorbuthappy.com/ease/
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free travel guides: http://poorbuthappy.com
Belgium: (+32) 03/325 88 70
Skype id: peterkevandijck

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Recover username service

2009-03-31 Thread David Little

But, I wonder if this is more like a technical issue with the system
rather than a usability issue?

Not really what you're asking I know but as an example of a good
retrieve password mechanism, I like the Tumblr implementation which is
very simple:

http://www.tumblr.com/login

Tumblr uses email as username. If you want to recover your password,
you enter your account email address. Of course, this doesn't help
you remember which email address you used as your username, but how
many different email addresses would users be expected to have?

Cheers,
David



2009/3/31 Chris Wright chris.mathew.wri...@gmail.com:
 I'm looking at implementing a 'recover my username' serivce on a website i'm
 working on. This will be a seperate service to recovering a password.

 Thing is the existing userbase have custom usernames, users going forward
 will be encouraged to use thier email address. recovering a username by
 typing in your email works for the former, but not so for the latter.

 any ideas?
 
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-- 
David Little
w: www.littled.net
t: twitter.com/djlittle

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Wood gatherers, boat architects, or sailing experience designers?

2009-03-31 Thread Peter Van Dijck

Maybe we just need a place where we can have a drunken fight once a year? Oh
wait, wasn't that the IA summit?
Peter

On Mon, Mar 30, 2009 at 6:22 AM, David Malouf d...@ixda.org wrote:

 Joshua,

 It is also important every once in a while when your seaman got a bug
 up their butt to let them have a good old fashion bar brawl. It is
 healthy especially in this circumstance.

 To be honest, there have been some great posts in this series of
 threads that so far have lasted about 3 days. And if you observe the
 energy flow, you'll notice that the tide is going out.

 I've been on this list for 5 years now. This happens. It is in
 response to some trigger in the wide world that as a community we
 need to cathartically deal with. This is not just a list of peers
 doing business, but a community of people. We use each other. Whether
 on Twitter or on this list (or others).

 I think a call to just talking about the sea, is actually counter to
 the spirit I think you represent, in that we need to allow any social
 community to address itself. In taking this back to the issue of good
 design, any good community organizer knows that the people need more
 than a mission.

 -- dave


 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 Posted from the new ixda.org
 http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=40731


 
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me: http://petervandijck.com
blog: http://poorbuthappy.com/ease/
global UX consulting: http://290s.com
free travel guides: http://poorbuthappy.com
Belgium: (+32) 03/325 88 70
Skype id: peterkevandijck

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] JJG's IA Summit 2009 Keynote

To what end?


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=40597



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Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes of IA and IxD

Dan,

On Mon, Mar 30, 2009 at 11:39 PM, Dan Saffer d...@odannyboy.com wrote:
 There are many products that have limited information architecture, but a
 lot of interaction design: [snip]

I can't think of a single product you list that wouldn't be made
better with a thoughtful approach to the way they convey information.
And every one conveys information... whether it be primarily a
content-vessel or not. Many of them will also be part of a family of
products, and the design of the information they convey needs to be
thought out to the way their siblings do it. These are
information-rich design challenges.

To me, the distinction between the two areas is quite simple: the
focus of IxD is designing for behavior, while the focus of IA is
designing for meaningfulness. They are different lens that I put on
when working on different aspects of a project. In 15+ years that I've
been designing stuff (admittedly, mainly websites), I've not yet run
across a project that didn't require both. (In different measures, for
sure.) To suggest that these areas of focus can be independent of each
other only serves to place artificial limits on our scope as
designers.

 A digital toy or game can have a lot of interactivity but no content to be 
 structured.

Can you give an example of a game with no content?

Cheers,

~ Jorge

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes of IA and IxD

Saying IA is about content structuring is limiting and inaccurate. IA  
is about structure, sure, but not limited to content. Is the  
structuring of the navigation of a system not IA? The navigation  
system could be contentless, only having a Red, Blue, or Green button  
w/o any label or content. But organizing those buttons is still IA in  
it's purest sense.


I really don't see it being as complicated as you guys are making this  
out to be. IA at its core is about structure and foundation  
principles. IxD at its core is about the way that system behaves.


It's pretty simple, actually.

Cheers!

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





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[IxDA Discuss] Edge Case Scenarios (was: the alignment of the practices and outcomes of IA and IxD)

Riddle me this: Great designers design systems for the majority (85%,  
80/20, 90/10, etc.). So, why are the great designers of the fields of  
practice of IA and IxD arguing over edge cases?


All this bickering about the difference of IA/IxD, or why people  
aren't UX Designers, but are IAs or IxDs is an argument for 0.001%.  
The case where any of us are working on a system that won't have both  
IA and IxD is statistically non-existent.


So, why are we arguing over 0.001%?

Yup, I'm still Designing (big D intentional).

Cheers!

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





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Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes of IA and IxD



On Mar 31, 2009, at 6:05 AM, Jorge Arango wrote:

A digital toy or game can have a lot of interactivity but no  
content to be structured.


Can you give an example of a game with no content?


If you will agree that the field of information architecture is about  
organizing data/information so that it can be found and navigated  
through, most analog games don't call under this definition.  
Everything from chess to football to poker. But there is a lot of  
interactivity.


 If you take a digital game like Simon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_(game) 
 and interactive displays like Rosen's wooden mirror http://www.smoothware.com/danny/woodenmirror.html 
 there is no information architecture involved at all because there  
is no content to find or navigate through.


These are extreme examples, sure. But there are plenty of others like  
them.


Dan





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Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes of IA and IxD

On Mar 31, 2009, at 9:37 AM, Dan Saffer wrote:

[...] most analog games don't call under this definition. Everything
from chess to football to poker. But there is a lot of interactivity.

Try teaching Chess, Football, or Poker to a child and then tell me
there is no IA.

Maybe my perspective of IA is warped, but I see IA in Chess, Football
and Poker. Chess has a board that requires navigation through that
system. The layout of a board is architecture. Football has yardlines,
which are IA. Poker has cards, each with information on them that was
designed. Texas Hold'em has 5 cards, the Flop, 4th Street, and the
River. Each laid out on a table, or in an orderly fashion that is IA.

For me, IA is purely about organized structure. Maybe my vision of IA
is warped, but that's how I've always approached it. Not that
complicated.

Do these games have taxonomies? Not really. But a taxonomy is only one
small piece of IA.

If you take a digital game like Simon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_(game)
and interactive displays like Rosen's wooden mirror http://www.smoothware.com/danny/woodenmirror.html
there is no information architecture involved at all because there
is no content to find or navigate through.

Simon has IA, just look at the structure of the four buttons, red,
blue, yellow, and green, along with the arrangement of the buttons and
labels in the middle. The interface itself has IA. Does playing the
game have IA? Theoretically, you could argue that each sequence is IA,
it's just random IA. There is no such thing as computer generated
randomness, only theoretical randomness. If it's run by a computer
program, then it isn't random—anyone who's taken a research, theory,
or computer science class knows this.

I'm really surprised at these arguments. They seem like a grasp to try
and find examples that don't have IA just for the sake of arguing
rather than finding truth.

Cheers!

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

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes of IA and IxD



On Mar 31, 2009, at 6:13 AM, Todd Zaki Warfel wrote:


Saying IA is about content structuring is limiting and inaccurate.


Actually, I think it's pretty accurate. Here's the definition of  
information architecture from the polar bear book (the bible of IA):


   1. The combination of organization, labeling, and navigation  
schemes within an information system.
   2. The structural design of an information space to facilitate  
task completion and intuitive access to content.
   3. The art and science of structuring and classifying web sites  
and intranets to help people find and manage information.


It's limiting because, frankly, IA is limited in its application to  
mostly content-rich applications. If you don't have an information  
space to navigate through, you don't have much information  
architecture. And information spaces are typically made up of content.


IA is about structure, sure, but not limited to content. Is the  
structuring of the navigation of a system not IA?


I believe it is a combination of IA (the labels and categorization)  
and IxD (the controls to move).


The navigation system could be contentless, only having a Red, Blue,  
or Green button w/o any label or content. But organizing those  
buttons is still IA in it's purest sense.


Here we disagree. They laying out of controls to manipulate or engage  
with the system is the task of an interaction designer, with input and  
adjustment from visual and industrial designers. Pushing a button to  
trigger a behavior has nothing to do with IA. Labeling the button  
perhaps I'll give you, but even that is a stretch.


Dan



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Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes of IA and IxD

2009-03-31 Thread Austin Govella

On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 8:51 AM, Dan Saffer d...@odannyboy.com wrote:
 Actually, I think it's pretty accurate. Here's the definition of information
 architecture from the polar bear book (the bible of IA)

Dan,

Please don't quote the Polar bear book. It's the Bible because it's
big and thick and contains a TON of stuff, not because it's the
Gospel.

More IAs read Blueprints as an entre into the field (or Don't Make Me
Think, or Elements of UX).





--
Austin

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes of IA and IxD



On Mar 31, 2009, at 9:51 AM, Dan Saffer wrote:

Actually, I think it's pretty accurate. Here's the definition of  
information architecture from the polar bear book (the bible of IA):


  1. The combination of organization, labeling, and navigation  
schemes within an information system.
  2. The structural design of an information space to facilitate  
task completion and intuitive access to content.
  3. The art and science of structuring and classifying web sites  
and intranets to help people find and manage information.


Nowhere in that definition is IA restricted to content. And if we want  
to play that argument, then one could easily argue that just about  
everything is content. A button label is content. Information on a  
deck of cards is content. The navigation elements themselves are  
content. Finding something non-content is a stretch. Possible, sure.  
But a stretch. And why are we debating over stretches of the  
imagination and edge cases?


It's limiting because, frankly, IA is limited in its application to  
mostly content-rich applications. If you don't have an information  
space to navigate through, you don't have much information  
architecture. And information spaces are typically made up of content.


Only typically, because that's where we were in the past. There was a  
time when the web didn't exist. IA can evolve.


I believe it is a combination of IA (the labels and categorization)  
and IxD (the controls to move).


Completely agree. That's what I've been saying. IA provides the  
underlying structure, while IxD is the behavior of the system and/or  
how the person interacts with the system. I don't think we see this  
any different.


Here we disagree. They laying out of controls to manipulate or  
engage with the system is the task of an interaction designer, with  
input and adjustment from visual and industrial designers. Pushing a  
button to trigger a behavior has nothing to do with IA. Labeling the  
button perhaps I'll give you, but even that is a stretch.


But according to the definition of IA that you're using, cited above,  
the layout of controls to manipulate the system is IA, maybe it's done  
by an interaction designer or whatever the person wants to be called,  
but it's IA according to the very definition that you cite above.


Obviously, we agree that the pushing of a button to trigger the  
behavior has nothing or little to do w/IA. But, Dan, seriously, the  
labeling is a stretch? Come on. Even the definition you cite above  
states that labeling is IA.


What are we really debating here?


Cheers!

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





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Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes ofIA and IxD

2009-03-31 Thread Peter Morville

Dan,

It's disingenuous to omit the fourth definition just because it weakens your
case. I'm not about to promote or defend these aging definitions, and I
won't wade into this debate, but here's how they are presented in the book:

1. The combination of organization, labeling, and navigation schemes within
an information system.
2. The structural design of an information space to facilitate task
completion and intuitive access to content.
3. The art and science of structuring and classifying web sites and
intranets to help people find and manage information.
4. An emerging discipline and community of practice focused on bringing
principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape.


Peter Morville
President, Semantic Studios
http://semanticstudios.com/
http://findability.org/

 


-Original Message-
From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com
[mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Dan
Saffer
Sent: Tuesday, March 31, 2009 9:51 AM
To: IXDA list
Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes ofIA
and IxD


On Mar 31, 2009, at 6:13 AM, Todd Zaki Warfel wrote:

 Saying IA is about content structuring is limiting and inaccurate.

Actually, I think it's pretty accurate. Here's the definition of information
architecture from the polar bear book (the bible of IA):

1. The combination of organization, labeling, and navigation schemes
within an information system.
2. The structural design of an information space to facilitate task
completion and intuitive access to content.
3. The art and science of structuring and classifying web sites and
intranets to help people find and manage information.

It's limiting because, frankly, IA is limited in its application to mostly
content-rich applications. If you don't have an information space to
navigate through, you don't have much information architecture. And
information spaces are typically made up of content.

 IA is about structure, sure, but not limited to content. Is the 
 structuring of the navigation of a system not IA?

I believe it is a combination of IA (the labels and categorization) and IxD
(the controls to move).

 The navigation system could be contentless, only having a Red, Blue, 
 or Green button w/o any label or content. But organizing those buttons 
 is still IA in it's purest sense.

Here we disagree. They laying out of controls to manipulate or engage with
the system is the task of an interaction designer, with input and adjustment
from visual and industrial designers. Pushing a button to trigger a behavior
has nothing to do with IA. Labeling the button perhaps I'll give you, but
even that is a stretch.

Dan



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http://www.ixda.org/help



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Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes of IA and IxD

Dan, thanx for taking the morning charge here. ;-)

Peter, the answer to your question depends. Obviously!

Since we are responding to Dan's piece, we have to respect Dan's
definition of IA. From THAT definition, Dan is correct. I can define
IA to mean whatever I want. It is young enough to be maleable. 

Austin, I love your book, but to compare it to Polar Bear the way you
did is just wrong. The 1st edition of the book was OK, the 2nd edition
is great!, but it is not a defining book of IA as a discipline as much
as it is about IA as practice.

Jorge, meaningfulness? I think you stretch the lexicon a tad
here. understanding I can take. But meaningful? that is a
personal value statement that I don't think fits here at all. having
meaning and being meaningful are not on the same plain. 

Back to Peter,
contemporary IA exists within hypertext. It is about what happens
when you add a 3rd  4th dimension to information design. In that
regards, I think Dan expresses quite well many examples of where Ix
exists without information spaces.

For example, I'm in a class right now where we are designing the
HARDWARE for a laptop. Yes, there are information design problems in
this problem, but most of those are more classically covered under
viz or graphic design, or ID in order to communicate affordances and
apply meaning. Where to put a power button, what sound is associated
to it, and how to communicate its actuation are things that happen in
IxD that don't in IA. I don't know how anyone who's used a consumer
device could think otherwise, unless you REALLY do think that IA = UX.
And thus is everything. In which case our frameworks are so
oppositional that there is no productivity in communicating in this
way and to other's point lets just talk about the work.

Show me where an IA method applies to the design of a power button,
but not as IA. Just do it! How would you go about designing a power
button?

-- dave


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=40789



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Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes ofIA and IxD



On Mar 31, 2009, at 7:05 AM, Peter Morville wrote:

It's disingenuous to omit the fourth definition just because it  
weakens your

case.


Sorry, I didn't see the 4th definition. Was quoting from:

http://semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/10.php

Which doesn't have #4. #4 seems less about what information  
architecture *is* than it is about what IAs do. Don't think it weakens  
my case much, if at all.


Dan






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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Wood gatherers, boat architects, or sailing experience designers?

2009-03-31 Thread Paul Nuschke

FWIW, I use Gmail for all my mailing lists because the way it groups
conversations makes it very easy to ignore any thread that I find
particularly annoying. I also tag each mailing list and automatically
archive it, so the many, many messages do not plug up my inbox.

-- 
Paul Nuschke
Principal, Research  Strategy
ELECTRONIC INK©
www.electronicink.com


On Mon, Mar 30, 2009 at 5:47 AM, Joshua Porter por...@bokardo.com wrote:

 I quit the SIGIA list 4 years ago because I couldn't stand the bickering.

 I'm now ready to quit the IxDA list for the same reason.

 Not saying I'm special, just saying that here is *one* vote that the
 current discourse sucks.

 There is a saying that I particularly like:

 If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather
 wood...Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.

 So...right now we're discussing what to call the people who are gathering
 the f'ing wood. Should they be called wood gatherers, or boat architects or
 sailing experience designers?

 Here's a suggestion:

 Let's talk about the sea.

 Let's talk about how the Facebook interface is rewiring the way people
 interact online. Would you design it similarly? Or different...why?

 Let's talk about how the Kiva interface is changing economies for
 entrepreneurs in 3rd world countries. How would you design the profiles 
 reputation framework for this system?

 Let's talk about how the PatientsLikeMe interface allows people to manage
 their illnesses better. How would you design the relationships between the
 site and pharmaceutical companies?

 Let's make hypotheses, gather evidence, SHOW OUR RESEARCH  WORK, and
 discuss rationally.

 There are IxDA board members whose role it is to organize the community.
 Let's leave that work for them.

 For us regular folks on the list, the people creating the interfaces that
 enables important human interaction, let's talk about the awesome potential
 of the work we do.


 
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Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes ofIAand IxD

2009-03-31 Thread Peter Morville

Ah, so I omitted my own definition. I apologize for my mistake.


Peter Morville
President, Semantic Studios
http://semanticstudios.com/
http://findability.org/

 


-Original Message-
From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com
[mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Dan
Saffer
Sent: Tuesday, March 31, 2009 10:16 AM
To: IXDA list
Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes
ofIAand IxD


On Mar 31, 2009, at 7:05 AM, Peter Morville wrote:

 It's disingenuous to omit the fourth definition just because it 
 weakens your case.

Sorry, I didn't see the 4th definition. Was quoting from:

http://semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/10.php

Which doesn't have #4. #4 seems less about what information architecture
*is* than it is about what IAs do. Don't think it weakens my case much, if
at all.

Dan






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Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes of IA and IxD

Peter, I omit it in my classes of IA, not b/c of its weakness to this
discussion, but b/c of its weakness. It is so broad of a statement,
and contextually so out of place. It is really the definition of
digital design.


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=40789



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Re: [IxDA Discuss] I'm designing in Visio for the last time

2009-03-31 Thread Stewart Dean

In Visio the easiest way to zoom in and out is to use a wheel mouse.
Press Control then move the wheel to zoom in and out.

Press shift to pan left and right.

Visio's layers are a joke. Instead it's better to use multiple layers of
backgrounds. Backgrounds can use different backgrounds and, with a little
patience, can be used as layers. You can't turn these on and off when needed
though.

I have never used any of the shapes in Visio (well maybe a mouse pointer
once or twice). Instead I have a library built up from others libraries and
my own items - once mastered Visio's masters are quite powerful (if not
entirely free of bugs).

There is much wrong with Visio - no merging documents, not paste in place,
lots of annoying bugs and needless features. Having used both Omnigraffle
and Visio in anger I feel both have major short comings but, under pressure,
I find Visio twice as quick to use. The perfect user experience tool has yet
to be built.
-- 
Stewart Dean

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] I'm designing in Visio for the last time

2009-03-31 Thread Michael Micheletti

You are all generous with good advice and tips. I'm especially intrigued by
the idea of Blend 3 becoming more of a design tool. Thank you for the kind
help,

Michael

On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 7:42 AM, Stewart Dean stewd...@gmail.com wrote:

 In Visio the easiest way to zoom in and out is to use a wheel mouse.
 Press Control then move the wheel to zoom in and out.

 Press shift to pan left and right.

 Visio's layers are a joke. Instead it's better to use multiple layers of
 backgrounds. Backgrounds can use different backgrounds and, with a little
 patience, can be used as layers. You can't turn these on and off when needed
 though.

 I have never used any of the shapes in Visio (well maybe a mouse pointer
 once or twice). Instead I have a library built up from others libraries and
 my own items - once mastered Visio's masters are quite powerful (if not
 entirely free of bugs).

 There is much wrong with Visio - no merging documents, not paste in place,
 lots of annoying bugs and needless features. Having used both Omnigraffle
 and Visio in anger I feel both have major short comings but, under pressure,
 I find Visio twice as quick to use. The perfect user experience tool has yet
 to be built.
 --
 Stewart Dean




-- 
Michael Micheletti
michael.michele...@gmail.com

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[IxDA Discuss] Names are Important (was Re: Wood gatherers...)

2009-03-31 Thread J. Ambrose Little

Good grief!  I mean, really?!?

We are not cave people.  We don't (only ;) ) communicate with grunts and
chest beating.  We have words.  Words are one of the most valuable things we
have as humans.  They have real meaning.  They build up language, which is
at the heart of everything else we build and often at the heart of our
relationships and just generally how we relate to that which is outside
ourselves.

Discussing naming is inextricably intertwined with discussing the underlying
concepts, which are the important bits and what people get worked up over.
Titles are names.  If you are at all a reflective person, you care about
what people call you, especially when it has to do with what you invest so
much of your waking hours doing.  It's natural, and it is good.  (And that's
ignoring the pecuniary aspect, which is important and necessary, too.)

Frankly, I find these kinds of discussions some of the most interesting on
this list.  Tiring?  Yeah, sometimes, especially when one or two voices seem
to drown out others or when they devolve into the internecine organizational
historical conflicts.

But really, words--names--titles are important.  We are humans, after all.

-a

P.S. Personally, if I could filter out something on this list, it'd be the
job and event postings.  But hey, Gmail works nicely to help me scan for
what I'm interested in and quickly skip over that which I am not.

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] The People's Front of Design (was JJG's IA Summit 2009 Keynote)

2009-03-31 Thread Jen Randolph

Richard's comments mirror my thoughts exactly, and going off his
point about a coordinated approach...

When it comes to finding work, I don't think forcing everyone under
one job title is the right thing, but it sure would make looking
through job listings a lot easier. User Experience Designers,
Experience Architects, Producers, Information Architects, Interaction
Designers - every recruiter and every organization uses different
words to describe the same job, so it ends up that we job hunters
must read every job description to try and figure out if it's
something we should apply for or not. Thus the titles are totally
meaningless.

And not just for people applying for the jobs - but for those who are
listing the jobs, it's gotta be difficult for them to figure out
which title(s) to use in order to attract the right applicants.

It also makes it difficult for the uninitiated to understand what we
do, which is a really bad thing - the uninitiated are often those who
need to understand how we can provide them with value! All those
titles like User Experience Designer and Interaction Designer sound
cool, but I think the fact that we don't seem to be very unified can
make people skeptical about the value of our field altogether.

It's ironic, but at times it's a real IxD challenge to explain my
job to people :)

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


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=40728



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Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes of IA and IxD

On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 2:12 AM, dave malouf dave@gmail.com wrote:
 Dan, thanx for taking the morning charge here. ;-)

I knew it! It's a tag team! ;-)

 Jorge, meaningfulness? I think you stretch the lexicon a tad
 here. understanding I can take. But meaningful? that is a
 personal value statement that I don't think fits here at all. having
 meaning and being meaningful are not on the same plain.

meaningful (adjective): 1) having meaning, 2) having a serious,
important, or useful quality or purpose, 3) communicating something
that is not directly expressed, 4) (logic) having a recognizable
function in a logical language or other sign system.

English is not my native language; I try to be extra careful with the
words I use.

Cheers,

~ Jorge

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Names are Important (was Wood gatherers...)

2009-03-31 Thread Patrick Neeman

Humans? Maybe you. Not me.


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=40822



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Re: [IxDA Discuss] I'm designing in Visio for the last time

2009-03-31 Thread Dante Murphy

RE: Paste in Place...

Check out the VISIO Stuff on www.welie.com for a macro that you can use to 
enable paste in place.  It's so easy to do I've memorized it, and works 
perfectly.  At least that's ONE problem solved.

Dante Murphy | VP/D User Experience| D I G I T A S  H E A L T H
100 Penn Square East| Wanamaker Building, 11th Floor | Philadelphia, PA 19107 | 
USA
Email: dmur...@digitashealth.com 
www.digitashealth.com  


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Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes ofIAand IxD

What would be an interesting and useful exercise (possibly for the  
UXnet folks to take on) would be to take three complex, distinct  
products and, using something like JJG's Elements or the diagram of  
the disciplines of user experience I made a few months ago http://www.kickerstudio.com/blog/images/ux.jpg 
 map the disciplines onto the products. Show how all the pieces fit  
together without regard to WHO is doing them, only WHAT is actually  
involved in making these complex products.


For the products, some representative ones would be helpful. A complex  
website (a la Yahoo), a mobile device (laptop, phone), an interactive  
environment.


Might end most of this discussion if we all had concrete examples to  
point to.


Dan





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[IxDA Discuss] [Job] Need more hands?

2009-03-31 Thread Mary Deaton

http://www.linkedin.com/redirect?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2EeLearningZoom%2Ecomurlhash=ZymQ_t=disc_detail_linkNeed
feet on the ground in the Northwest? Too much work and not enough hours in
the day?

Skills include:
Information architecture
Usability research and testing
Online and embedded user assistance design and development
Technical writing and instructional design

Seeking full- or part-time remote contract work anywhere in the United
States or Canada, or part-time on-site work in the Puget Sound area.

Over 20 years experience as a technical communicator; Masters of Engineering
in Technical Communication.

For a full resume, got to
http://www.mmdeaton.comhttp://www.linkedin.com/redirect?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Emmdeaton%2Ecomurlhash=JTx5_t=disc_detail_link.

Contact information: Mary Deaton, mmdea...@mmdeaton.com, or telephone 206
32


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

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes of IA and IxD

Dan,

On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 8:37 AM, Dan Saffer d...@odannyboy.com wrote:
 Everything from chess to football to poker. But there is a lot of
 interactivity.

The things that differentiate chess from (say) a pile of random pieces
of wood on a table is _precisely_ its information structures. Chess
has a clear taxonomy (the different pieces, the colors, the layout of
the board) and rules that define how those taxonomies interact. What
makes chess in any way interesting is how the relationships between
the items in that taxonomy vary throughout the game. I could go as far
as saying that chess is primarily about information structures in a
state of flux with each other.

The interactive elements of chess, on the other hand, are not core to
its chessyness. This is illustrated by the fact that chess can be
played with wooden pieces on a board, by correspondence on paper, by
email, blindfolded, using a console terminal, by two computers playing
each other using binary numbers, etc. (The same is true to football
and poker, to a lesser degree.)

I'm not saying chess is _only_ information architecture; I don't
particularly enjoy the game without its tangible UI (try playing
http://www.craftychess.com/ using a terminal). But to say there is no
IA there belies an incredibly closed-ended view of IA.

  If you take a digital game like Simon
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_(game) and interactive displays like
 Rosen's wooden mirror http://www.smoothware.com/danny/woodenmirror.html
 there is no information architecture involved at all because there is no
 content to find or navigate through.

I agree with your stance re: Rosen's wooden mirror, but that's hardly
a game, is it?

Simon, on the other hand, does have clear (if very simple) information
structures. As with chess, they are what makes Simon different from a
plastic cylinder with randomly blinking lights: there are only four
colors (and not 19,202, for example), there are only four sounds, and
there is a one-to-one relationship between these colors, sounds, and
the buttons that the user interacts with. The rules of the game are
also information: the fact that the sounds/lights are emitted in a
random sequential order, and that said order is revealed incrementally
one at a time. Someone designed these information structures for
Simon. These are architectural decisions, and they deal with
information being conveyed to the player. Information. Architecture.

However, Simon -- unlike chess -- _is_ highly dependent on its
interaction design. I would not be amused at all by Simon if I was
playing it on paper, or on my computer screen. The behavioral
aspects of the game are what make it successful.

My point: all these things have IxD and IA. I don't know of anything
that doesn't to a degree or another. Even if we agree that IA is about
organizing data/information, that is still a pretty big and pervasive
area of concern!

Cheers,

~ Jorge

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes of IA and IxD

2009-03-31 Thread Peter Merholz



On Mar 30, 2009, at 9:39 PM, Dan Saffer wrote:

There are many products that have limited information architecture,  
but a lot of interaction design:


- appliances and consumer electronics like stereos, digital cameras,  
microwaves, etc.


Are you kidding me?

Have you used a digital camera recently? I can't figure out much of my  
Nikon D80 thanks to poor information architecture.


Or how about TiVo? TiVo demonstrates a brilliant marriage of IA and IxD.

The other thing I find interesting is while (a very few self-styled)  
leaders of IxD bitch about IA supposedly landgrabbing UX, the IxD  
community seemingly feels no compunction in landgrabbing industrial  
design (to whit: commentary about microwave ovens and power buttons).


Which, of course, is the point. We're all contributing to the design  
of the experience. And hard-and-fast distinctions are not helpful.



- toys


Which toys? Again, I would argue that any toy with significant  
interaction design characteristics (and not just industrial design  
ones) also require IA sensibility as well.



- games


This I'm more willing to accede.


- ambient devices


This is ignorance, pure and simple. Ambient devices are *all about*  
information architecture. If you think about the ur-ambient device,  
the Ambient Orb, there's almost no interaction. It's all about the  
conveyance of information in a meaningful format. There's a reason I  
invited David Rose to speak at IDEA 2007, because his work is so much  
about the structuring and presentation of meaningful information.



- robots


I see both IxD and IA as relatively minor contributors here, when  
compared with industrial design, electrical engineering, mechanical  
engineering, computer science, and artificial intelligence.




- ubicomp and other interactive environments


You've got to break that down.


- tangible devices like Siftables


Your bias is showing. Siftables is a platform. Some things will weigh  
heavily on the IxD side, others on the IA side.



- gestural or haptic systems


This is meaningless. What are these systems *doing*?


- a lot of sensor-driven interactivity


Again. What sensor driven interactivity? But, if I think of sensor  
driven activity, the key thing it puts out is data. Lots of data, that  
needs to be made sense of. IA helps.




- interactive displays like digital whiteboards


Whiteboards, maybe. But CNN's Magic Wall, what John King is  
interacting with -- very much IA.




- many medical devices


Perhaps. But think about the challenges with the data and information  
in those devices. Even Charmr, in its simplicity, was all about making  
the data meaningful. That interpretation is much more IA than it is IxD.


It would be more fair to say that IA needs to be closely aligned  
with IxD, but not necessarily the opposite. A digital toy or game  
can have a lot of interactivity but no content to be structured.  
But you cannot have a content structure (an information  
architecture) without some means of navigating through it  
(interaction).


Sure you can. Whether traditional library examples (card catalogs,  
unless IxD is now claiming the design of physical drawers), or  
wayfinding.


What this all speaks to, honestly, is an IxD landgrab, or, at least, a  
desire to elevate IxD as the premier UX practice. The mentality  
exhibited here and by a couple others on this list is dispiriting. The  
IxD advocates have eagerly sought the evolution of IxD practice and  
influence. But in doing so, there's no recognition of the evolution of  
IA. The only interpretation I can make of this desire to put IA in a  
little box and to make IxD the King Discipline is a unproductive  
landgrab.


And it's clear that if anyone should NOT be placing boundaries around  
what IA is/isn't, it shouldn't be interaction designers with chips on  
their shoulders.


The field of experience design will most benefit from equal advocacy  
across all its constituent disciplines, including IA, IxD, visual  
design, industrial design, architecture, environmental signage, etc.  
etc. etc.


--peter

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Command line or GUI

2009-03-31 Thread Jared Spool



On Mar 30, 2009, at 9:50 AM, dave malouf wrote:


2) Almost every major API client has invented a way to do in GUI what
previously was purely CLI.


How much of this is because the twitter CLI is clumsy, particularly  
because it uses the same channel as the data? (Anyone who has been  
bitten by the oops-that-was-supposed-to-be-a-direct-message problem,  
raise your hand.)


Jared



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[IxDA Discuss] Help! Is there a Cardiothoracic Surgeon in the room?

2009-03-31 Thread Jared Spool

In an emergency, you fetch a doctor.

Interestingly, there are no doctors. Or, more accurately, there are
many doctors that you don't want to help you in a medical emergency.
(My good friend, with the Ph.D. in 15th Century English Literature, is
not the person you want to deliver the baby, even if he was the only
Doctor on the island.)

Many qualified medical professionals don't have an official doctor
title. Rehabilitation specialists, nurse practitioners, and myriad
other professionals deliver trained, quality healthcare despite
missing that quintessential label.

In an emergency, a layman looks for a doctor. It's a useful term and
it works great.

If you're having a heart attack, you might want a Cardiothoracic
Surgeon. Certainly, if the result you want is to have your chest cut
open, your ribs spread, and your heart massaged. On the operating
table, this is a great result. In the foyer of the Opera House, an EMT
might in fact be better qualified to help you. (Cardiothoracic
surgeons are doctors, while EMTs are not, usually.)

Some of you may know that over the past eight years, we've been
researching what makes the ideal UX team. One of our early results is
that ROLES DON'T MATTER, SKILLS DO. It doesn't matter if a team has an
interaction designer or information architect. It does matter that
interaction design and information architecture skills are present
amongst the team.

Teams with the right skills are more likely to produce great user
experiences. Teams missing the right skills are very unlikely to
produce anything exciting or delightful. (Of course, we can't say
'never'. Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every so often. But, if
I'm staffing a team, I want to do so in a way that will have the best
odds, no?)

Our research showed there are core skills: interaction design,
information architecture, user research, visual design, information
design, fast iteration management, copywriting, and editing. There are
also what we call enterprise skills, some of which are: analytics,
development methods, design-to-development documentation, ethnography,
social networks, marketing, technology, business knowledge, and domain
knowledge. (If you're interested, I wrote about these in more depth
and gave teams a tool to assess their strengths here: http://www.uie.com/articles/assessing_ux_teams/
)

On the best teams, every team member has a solid foundation in all of
these skills. That's important because it gives the team flexibility.
No matter who is available, no matter what needs to get done, a
competent and informed job is possible.

When teams are made up of specialists -- teams that have only one
person who can do a thorough job with a particular skill -- those
individuals run into the binary workload problem -- either they are
overworked or unnecessary. There is either too much work for them,
thus creating a backlog, or they don't have anything to do, thus
wasting a valuable resource.

The best teams still have individuals who are top-of-their-game in one
skill area or another. People who are up to date on the latest
thinking and techniques. But, because the entire team is fully
competent in the skill area, they can leverage their exceptional
skills in those areas on the rare project that demands it, plus act as
an advisor and mentor to the rest of the team, thereby continuing to
raise the entire team's skills further.

In my opinion, we'll see less emphasis on individual specialist job
titles going forward. We're already seeing that in the job postings
that have come out in the last year. They tend to be looking for more
generalist individuals with a well-rounded, rich set of skills. Many
teams can't afford to have members who are missing the core skills,
even if the skills they have are rich unto themselves.

(This goes beyond the T-shaped person concept that's been floating
around, or its more recent cousin, the broken comb shaped person.
We're talking a full hair brush here. I promise to never use that
metaphor again.)

UX is not something unto itself. UX is a synergy of all the skills of
the team. The more skills and the richer each team member is, the
better the UX that will result.

And you probably wouldn't want to check into a hospital filled only
with extremely talented cardiothoracic surgeons, unless chest surgery
is the solution to every problem you have.

Jared

Jared M. Spool
User Interface Engineering
510 Turnpike St., Suite 102, North Andover, MA 01845
e: jsp...@uie.com p: +1 978 327 5561
http://uie.com Blog: http://uie.com/brainsparks Twitter: jmspool
UIE Web App Summit, 4/19-4/22: http://webappsummit.com

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[IxDA Discuss] text changing on buttons

2009-03-31 Thread Julie Stanford

I wanted to solicit people's advice/examples on a small but interesting
interaction we're working on. Here's the scenario:

User launches a dialog that has a list of people who they need to handwrite
checks to (it's a payroll application; don't worry about why they are
handwriting and not printing checks). The dialog has a table of the people
and the amounts. For each line in the table, the user can do up to two
things:

- Add/Edit a check number for that person's check
- Print a paystub for that check

They can do any or all of these things, it is up to them. To support this,
we have two buttons on the dialog -- Save and Cancel -- however if someone
selects to Print a stub, the Save button changes to Save and Print'. 

Here's what it looks like in ASCII (the actual is obviously not in ASCII):
In the example below: [] = checkbox field  = text field


Print Stub  Name AmountCheck number
   [  ] John Doe $500  __
   [  ] Mary Smith   $200  __
   [  ] Billy Bob$300  __

 [Save]   [Cancel]

As soon as someone selects to print a stub (by checking of a box in that
column) the Save button changes to be Save and Print.

Questions:
- What do people think about this interaction?
- Another option would be to have three buttons to start - Save, Save and
Print, Cancel and just disable Save and Print till you've checked something.
I think that is just more cluttered and annoying. What do other people
think?
- Do you have examples of other UIs where the button name changes based on
your selection?

Julie

_
Julie Stanford
Principal, Sliced Bread Design
650-969-0400 x706



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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Help! Is there a Cardiothoracic Surgeon in the room?

2009-03-31 Thread Andrei Herasimchuk




--
Andrei Herasimchuk
Chief Design Officer, Involution Studios
e. and...@involutionstudios.com
c. 408.306.6422

On Mar 31, 2009, at 7:50 AM, Jared Spool jsp...@uie.com wrote:


In an emergency, you fetch a doctor.

Interestingly, there are no doctors. Or, more accurately, there are  
many doctors that you don't want to help you in a medical emergency.  
(My good friend, with the Ph.D. in 15th Century English Literature,  
is not the person you want to deliver the baby, even if he was the  
only Doctor on the island.)


Many qualified medical professionals don't have an official doctor  
title. Rehabilitation specialists, nurse practitioners, and myriad  
other professionals deliver trained, quality healthcare despite  
missing that quintessential label.


In an emergency, a layman looks for a doctor. It's a useful term and  
it works great.


If you're having a heart attack, you might want a Cardiothoracic  
Surgeon. Certainly, if the result you want is to have your chest cut  
open, your ribs spread, and your heart massaged. On the operating  
table, this is a great result. In the foyer of the Opera House, an  
EMT might in fact be better qualified to help you. (Cardiothoracic  
surgeons are doctors, while EMTs are not, usually.)


Some of you may know that over the past eight years, we've been  
researching what makes the ideal UX team. One of our early results  
is that ROLES DON'T MATTER, SKILLS DO. It doesn't matter if a team  
has an interaction designer or information architect. It does matter  
that interaction design and information architecture skills are  
present amongst the team.


Teams with the right skills are more likely to produce great user  
experiences. Teams missing the right skills are very unlikely to  
produce anything exciting or delightful. (Of course, we can't say  
'never'. Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every so often. But,  
if I'm staffing a team, I want to do so in a way that will have the  
best odds, no?)


Our research showed there are core skills: interaction design,  
information architecture, user research, visual design, information  
design, fast iteration management, copywriting, and editing. There  
are also what we call enterprise skills, some of which are:  
analytics, development methods, design-to-development documentation,  
ethnography, social networks, marketing, technology, business  
knowledge, and domain knowledge. (If you're interested, I wrote  
about these in more depth and gave teams a tool to assess their  
strengths here: http://www.uie.com/articles/assessing_ux_teams/ )


On the best teams, every team member has a solid foundation in all  
of these skills. That's important because it gives the team  
flexibility. No matter who is available, no matter what needs to get  
done, a competent and informed job is possible.


When teams are made up of specialists -- teams that have only one  
person who can do a thorough job with a particular skill -- those  
individuals run into the binary workload problem -- either they  
are overworked or unnecessary. There is either too much work for  
them, thus creating a backlog, or they don't have anything to do,  
thus wasting a valuable resource.


The best teams still have individuals who are top-of-their-game in  
one skill area or another. People who are up to date on the latest  
thinking and techniques. But, because the entire team is fully  
competent in the skill area, they can leverage their exceptional  
skills in those areas on the rare project that demands it, plus act  
as an advisor and mentor to the rest of the team, thereby continuing  
to raise the entire team's skills further.


In my opinion, we'll see less emphasis on individual specialist job  
titles going forward. We're already seeing that in the job postings  
that have come out in the last year. They tend to be looking for  
more generalist individuals with a well-rounded, rich set of skills.  
Many teams can't afford to have members who are missing the core  
skills, even if the skills they have are rich unto themselves.


(This goes beyond the T-shaped person concept that's been floating  
around, or its more recent cousin, the broken comb shaped person.  
We're talking a full hair brush here. I promise to never use that  
metaphor again.)


UX is not something unto itself. UX is a synergy of all the skills  
of the team. The more skills and the richer each team member is, the  
better the UX that will result.


And you probably wouldn't want to check into a hospital filled only  
with extremely talented cardiothoracic surgeons, unless chest  
surgery is the solution to every problem you have.


Jared

Jared M. Spool
User Interface Engineering
510 Turnpike St., Suite 102, North Andover, MA 01845
e: jsp...@uie.com p: +1 978 327 5561
http://uie.com  Blog: http://uie.com/brainsparks  Twitter: jmspool
UIE Web App Summit, 4/19-4/22: http://webappsummit.com

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Help! Is there a Cardiothoracic Surgeon in the room?

2009-03-31 Thread Nancy Broden

Let me first say that I agree with Jared's POV on the value of being a  
generalist.


As for this:
In my opinion, we'll see less emphasis on individual specialist job  
titles going forward. We're already seeing that in the job postings  
that have come out in the last year. They tend to be looking for  
more generalist individuals with a well-rounded, rich set of skills.  
Many teams can't afford to have members who are missing the core  
skills, even if the skills they have are rich unto themselves.



I think the rise in interest in people with broad skills has a lot to  
do with the economy. Every time it goes down the toilet, employers  
want people who can fill more than one role. When the economy improves  
and more bodies are needed, that pressure is alleviated and employers  
become less picky and demanding. It happened in 2001 and again in 2008.


Nancy


Nancy Broden
nancy.bro...@gmail.com




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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Help! Is there a Cardiothoracic Surgeon in the room?

2009-03-31 Thread Andrei Herasimchuk


Damn iPhone buttons.

That last message was supposed to say:

I think I love you, Jared. 

And yes, watching this bickering is a little too much for me on the  
enjoyment scale. Pots and kettles and all.


Once the fighting is over, someone will remember to bring in the  
visual people to the table and then things can continue where they  
left off in 1996 before people thought that splitting up all of the  
skills was a good idea.


--
Andrei Herasimchuk
Chief Design Officer, Involution Studios
e. and...@involutionstudios.com
c. 408.306.6422

On Mar 31, 2009, at 7:50 AM, Jared Spool jsp...@uie.com wrote:


In an emergency, you fetch a doctor.

Interestingly, there are no doctors. Or, more accurately, there are  
many doctors that you don't want to help you in a medical emergency.  
(My good friend, with the Ph.D. in 15th Century English Literature,  
is not the person you want to deliver the baby, even if he was the  
only Doctor on the island.)


Many qualified medical professionals don't have an official doctor  
title. Rehabilitation specialists, nurse practitioners, and myriad  
other professionals deliver trained, quality healthcare despite  
missing that quintessential label.


In an emergency, a layman looks for a doctor. It's a useful term and  
it works great.


If you're having a heart attack, you might want a Cardiothoracic  
Surgeon. Certainly, if the result you want is to have your chest cut  
open, your ribs spread, and your heart massaged. On the operating  
table, this is a great result. In the foyer of the Opera House, an  
EMT might in fact be better qualified to help you. (Cardiothoracic  
surgeons are doctors, while EMTs are not, usually.)


Some of you may know that over the past eight years, we've been  
researching what makes the ideal UX team. One of our early results  
is that ROLES DON'T MATTER, SKILLS DO. It doesn't matter if a team  
has an interaction designer or information architect. It does matter  
that interaction design and information architecture skills are  
present amongst the team.


Teams with the right skills are more likely to produce great user  
experiences. Teams missing the right skills are very unlikely to  
produce anything exciting or delightful. (Of course, we can't say  
'never'. Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every so often. But,  
if I'm staffing a team, I want to do so in a way that will have the  
best odds, no?)


Our research showed there are core skills: interaction design,  
information architecture, user research, visual design, information  
design, fast iteration management, copywriting, and editing. There  
are also what we call enterprise skills, some of which are:  
analytics, development methods, design-to-development documentation,  
ethnography, social networks, marketing, technology, business  
knowledge, and domain knowledge. (If you're interested, I wrote  
about these in more depth and gave teams a tool to assess their  
strengths here: http://www.uie.com/articles/assessing_ux_teams/ )


On the best teams, every team member has a solid foundation in all  
of these skills. That's important because it gives the team  
flexibility. No matter who is available, no matter what needs to get  
done, a competent and informed job is possible.


When teams are made up of specialists -- teams that have only one  
person who can do a thorough job with a particular skill -- those  
individuals run into the binary workload problem -- either they  
are overworked or unnecessary. There is either too much work for  
them, thus creating a backlog, or they don't have anything to do,  
thus wasting a valuable resource.


The best teams still have individuals who are top-of-their-game in  
one skill area or another. People who are up to date on the latest  
thinking and techniques. But, because the entire team is fully  
competent in the skill area, they can leverage their exceptional  
skills in those areas on the rare project that demands it, plus act  
as an advisor and mentor to the rest of the team, thereby continuing  
to raise the entire team's skills further.


In my opinion, we'll see less emphasis on individual specialist job  
titles going forward. We're already seeing that in the job postings  
that have come out in the last year. They tend to be looking for  
more generalist individuals with a well-rounded, rich set of skills.  
Many teams can't afford to have members who are missing the core  
skills, even if the skills they have are rich unto themselves.


(This goes beyond the T-shaped person concept that's been floating  
around, or its more recent cousin, the broken comb shaped person.  
We're talking a full hair brush here. I promise to never use that  
metaphor again.)


UX is not something unto itself. UX is a synergy of all the skills  
of the team. The more skills and the richer each team member is, the  
better the UX that will result.


And you probably wouldn't want to check into a hospital filled only  
with extremely

Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes of IA and IxD



What this all speaks to, honestly, is an IxD landgrab, or, at least,  
a desire to elevate IxD as the premier UX practice. The mentality  
exhibited here and by a couple others on this list is dispiriting.  
The IxD advocates have eagerly sought the evolution of IxD practice  
and influence. But in doing so, there's no recognition of the  
evolution of IA. The only interpretation I can make of this desire  
to put IA in a little box and to make IxD the King Discipline is a  
unproductive landgrab.


And it's clear that if anyone should NOT be placing boundaries  
around what IA is/isn't, it shouldn't be interaction designers with  
chips on their shoulders.


The field of experience design will most benefit from equal advocacy  
across all its constituent disciplines, including IA, IxD, visual  
design, industrial design, architecture, environmental signage, etc.  
etc. etc.


Oh come on. I'm calling, in Merholz style, bullshit. I haven't heard  
anyone here in this thread or any other related one suggest IxD is  
anything but a component of the overall user experience alongside  
other disciplines including information architecture. What has been  
reasonably suggested, I think, is that there is a continuum of  
products: some of them require more IA than others, some require more  
IxD than others. In the same way some projects require more visual  
design than others. Your objection seems to be that I dared say that  
the products that require more IA are mostly web-based. I've not seen  
a reasonable argument against this assertion yet. The Polar Bear Book  
is information Architecture for the World Wide Web and the  
Blueprints book is called Blueprints for the Web. Don't Make Me  
Think is a web usability book. Where is the Information  
Architecture for Devices book? Or Information Architecture for  
Physical Spaces book?


There's nothing wrong with this, btw. The web is simply the perfect  
medium for a discipline like information architecture. The web is all  
about information spaces. The web isn't a great medium for industrial  
design, for instance. It's not the greatest medium for interaction  
design either, truth be told.


Is interaction design important to the people on this list and do we  
consider it our focus and a major component of UX? Umm, yeah, it's THE  
INTERACTION DESIGN ASSOCIATION after all. It's not our job to advocate  
or recognize the evolution of information architecture. That's what  
the IAI's job is. Complain to them that people don't know what the  
boundaries of their discipline are. The IxDA was set up to expand the  
influence and define the practice of interaction design. Not to the  
detriment of sister disciplines, but for the benefit of ourselves.


Dan

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes of IA and IxD

I pretty much agree with Dan's thesis here, but I think it's because
the remit of IA drops off at a point where IxD can carry on. But it's
not that one excludes the other in any way. 

You can design interactions for toys and games that don't require
any IA at all. Playful interactions often have no IA and part of the
play challenge and interaction is to develop it yourself. How many
times can I catch the bouncing ball, how do I score that? etc.

That is if you're willing to stretch the definition of IA to include
the developing the rules of play and the 'magic circle' of the game
and play space. Most games designers and games design theories I know
of don't usually refer to themselves in that IA way, but I'm sure it
is out there.

On the other hand, making data meaningful, as Peter says, can be very
powerful, but it usually isn't unless there is a decent amount of
interaction design there too. Jon Harris's We Feel Fine does both,
but there are plenty of example of data mining and visualisation
tools that are horrible to use as an interactive experience
regardless of what they do with the data.

Sigh. Can't we all just get along?

Best,

Andy


Andy Polaine

Interaction  Experience Design  
Service Design Research  
Writing

Twitter: apolaine
Skype: apolaine

http://www.polaine.com
http://www.designersreviewofbooks.com
http://www.omnium.net.au
http://www.antirom.com


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=40789



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Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes of IA and IxD

2009-03-31 Thread Peter Merholz

 What has been reasonably suggested, I think, is that there is a  
continuum of products: some of them require more IA than others,  
some require more IxD than others. In the same way some projects  
require more visual design than others. Your objection seems to be  
that I dared say that the products that require more IA are mostly  
web-based.


If I were to reduce interaction design to interface design, we would  
never hear the end of it.


My objection is that you put forth a similarly retrograde notion of  
IA, and have not bothered to acknowledged how that field has evolved.


I've not seen a reasonable argument against this assertion yet. The  
Polar Bear Book is information Architecture for the World Wide Web  
and the Blueprints book is called Blueprints for the Web. Don't  
Make Me Think is a web usability book. Where is the Information  
Architecture for Devices book? Or Information Architecture for  
Physical Spaces book?


Peter Morville's Ambient Findability and Adam Greenfield's Everyware  
are both largely about information architecture in devices and spaces,  
whether explicit (in Peter's book) or implicit (in Adam's).


--peter

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[IxDA Discuss] Edge Case Design of IA vs. IxD

So, once again, I'll propose all this bickering about the difference  
of IA/IxD, or why people aren't UX Designers, but are IAs or IxDs is  
an argument for 0.001%. The case where any of us are working on a  
system that won't have both IA and IxD is statistically non-existent.


So, why are we arguing over 0.001%?

Incidentally, whether intentional or not, the appearance here is that  
IxD is trying to become the dominant field in UX and not acknowledge  
that the IA field can or has evolved. Dan, I have the utmost respect  
for you, your work, and your contributions to the community, but some  
of your most recent claims, like games don't have IA, are simply bogus  
(as I've clearly shown by illustrating they do have IA).


Is IxD purely Interface design? Is IA purely about content for the  
web? It's pathetic that this even has to be asked.


This is like watching a bunch of kindergartners argue over which MM  
is better.


Cheers!

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





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Re: [IxDA Discuss] text changing on buttons

2009-03-31 Thread Dante Murphy

Why not just use auto-save and get rid of the save and cancel buttons 
altogether?  Then all you need is a single print button that only does 
something when one or more lines are checked.

Dante Murphy | VP/D User Experience| D I G I T A S  H E A L T H
100 Penn Square East| Wanamaker Building, 11th Floor | Philadelphia, PA 19107 | 
USA
Email: dmur...@digitashealth.com 
www.digitashealth.com  


-Original Message-
From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com 
[mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Julie 
Stanford
Sent: Tuesday, March 31, 2009 1:40 PM
To: disc...@ixda.org
Subject: [IxDA Discuss] text changing on buttons

I wanted to solicit people's advice/examples on a small but interesting
interaction we're working on. Here's the scenario:

User launches a dialog that has a list of people who they need to handwrite
checks to (it's a payroll application; don't worry about why they are
handwriting and not printing checks). The dialog has a table of the people
and the amounts. For each line in the table, the user can do up to two
things:

- Add/Edit a check number for that person's check
- Print a paystub for that check

They can do any or all of these things, it is up to them. To support this,
we have two buttons on the dialog -- Save and Cancel -- however if someone
selects to Print a stub, the Save button changes to Save and Print'. 

Here's what it looks like in ASCII (the actual is obviously not in ASCII):
In the example below: [] = checkbox field  = text field


Print Stub  Name AmountCheck number
   [  ] John Doe $500  __
   [  ] Mary Smith   $200  __
   [  ] Billy Bob$300  __

 [Save]   [Cancel]

As soon as someone selects to print a stub (by checking of a box in that
column) the Save button changes to be Save and Print.

Questions:
- What do people think about this interaction?
- Another option would be to have three buttons to start - Save, Save and
Print, Cancel and just disable Save and Print till you've checked something.
I think that is just more cluttered and annoying. What do other people
think?
- Do you have examples of other UIs where the button name changes based on
your selection?

Julie

_
Julie Stanford
Principal, Sliced Bread Design
650-969-0400 x706



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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Help! Is there a Cardiothoracic Surgeon in the room?

I totally wrote the doctor, mechanic, musician, specialist post and then
deleted it before sending. I wanted a cello player not a stand up bass, yea
they are both stringed instruments, I only do transmissions I can refer you
to a brake specialist, I know a great plastic surgeon my ex wife uses etc...
I've decided even though these arguments are ridiculous based on the fact
that every time it comes to an end, that's just what happens. It ends;
although, the name is very important for findability and a good example of
best practice. The entire use of self documenting is what you all should
strive for.

Just recently I've been looking for more custom type leads for front end
'functions' with google and coming up short. Perfect example was posted last
night. The skills you employ are similar to a function or a collection of
functions that would fall under the design class, right?

If everyone agreed on what was named what your search time would have to
branch off in so many directions when under the gun. I'm all for branching
off into tangents; but, when you need to actually deliver and your
'researching' a clean channel is nice, ideal, desirable. If someone wants to
steer with there teeth and use their hands for the gas and clutch, let em,
just get out of the car.

Changing the name on a whim would be the same as changing the names in the
names of functions in code which in turn would be easier with a CLI and the
system built with this frequent urge in mind.

#designer

interaction (idea) {
return deliverable
}
visual (wireframe) {
return deliverable
}
database (functional-spec) {
return deliverable
}


On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 10:58 AM, Andrei Herasimchuk 
and...@involutionstudios.com wrote:

 Damn iPhone buttons.

 That last message was supposed to say:

 I think I love you, Jared. 

 And yes, watching this bickering is a little too much for me on the
 enjoyment scale. Pots and kettles and all.

 Once the fighting is over, someone will remember to bring in the visual
 people to the table and then things can continue where they left off in 1996
 before people thought that splitting up all of the skills was a good idea.

 --
 Andrei Herasimchuk
 Chief Design Officer, Involution Studios
 e. and...@involutionstudios.com
 c. 408.306.6422

 On Mar 31, 2009, at 7:50 AM, Jared Spool jsp...@uie.com wrote:

  In an emergency, you fetch a doctor.

 Interestingly, there are no doctors. Or, more accurately, there are many
 doctors that you don't want to help you in a medical emergency. (My good
 friend, with the Ph.D. in 15th Century English Literature, is not the person
 you want to deliver the baby, even if he was the only Doctor on the island.)

 Many qualified medical professionals don't have an official doctor
 title. Rehabilitation specialists, nurse practitioners, and myriad other
 professionals deliver trained, quality healthcare despite missing that
 quintessential label.

 In an emergency, a layman looks for a doctor. It's a useful term and it
 works great.

 If you're having a heart attack, you might want a Cardiothoracic Surgeon.
 Certainly, if the result you want is to have your chest cut open, your ribs
 spread, and your heart massaged. On the operating table, this is a great
 result. In the foyer of the Opera House, an EMT might in fact be better
 qualified to help you. (Cardiothoracic surgeons are doctors, while EMTs are
 not, usually.)

 Some of you may know that over the past eight years, we've been
 researching what makes the ideal UX team. One of our early results is that
 ROLES DON'T MATTER, SKILLS DO. It doesn't matter if a team has an
 interaction designer or information architect. It does matter that
 interaction design and information architecture skills are present amongst
 the team.

 Teams with the right skills are more likely to produce great user
 experiences. Teams missing the right skills are very unlikely to produce
 anything exciting or delightful. (Of course, we can't say 'never'. Even a
 blind squirrel finds an acorn every so often. But, if I'm staffing a team, I
 want to do so in a way that will have the best odds, no?)

 Our research showed there are core skills: interaction design, information
 architecture, user research, visual design, information design, fast
 iteration management, copywriting, and editing. There are also what we call
 enterprise skills, some of which are: analytics, development methods,
 design-to-development documentation, ethnography, social networks,
 marketing, technology, business knowledge, and domain knowledge. (If you're
 interested, I wrote about these in more depth and gave teams a tool to
 assess their strengths here:
 http://www.uie.com/articles/assessing_ux_teams/ )

 On the best teams, every team member has a solid foundation in all of
 these skills. That's important because it gives the team flexibility. No
 matter who is available, no matter what needs to get done, a competent and
 informed job is possible.

 When teams are made up of

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Edge Case Design of IA vs. IxD



On Mar 31, 2009, at 2:38 PM, Todd Zaki Warfel wrote:

Incidentally, whether intentional or not, the appearance here is  
that IxD is trying to become the dominant field in UX and not  
acknowledge that the IA field can or has evolved.


Just to be clear, I'm not attempting to state that Dan is crafting  
this argument, or that he's the one behind this appearance, but it is  
a common perception that comes up during discussions I've had with  
practitioners in the field who do both IA and IxD among other things.



Cheers!

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





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Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes of IA and IxD

Dan,

On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 1:05 PM, Dan Saffer d...@odannyboy.com wrote:
 That's what the IAI's job is. Complain to them that people don't know what the
 boundaries of their discipline are.

I had a good laugh at this. It's become something of a joke for me to
measure the amount of time that passes between the yearly publication
of the IDEA conference website, and when Dave Malouf posts his first
snarky Tweet complaining about the IAI overstepping IA's boundaries.
Getting shorter every year!

The fact is that you and some other folks who are viewed as leaders in
the interaction design community have been very intentionally trying
to perpetuate a very narrow view of IA, all the while pushing an
incredibly broad view of IxD. (Microwaves! Power buttons! Robots!
etc.) How on earth did these things get designed before IxD came
along? (I looked in Amazon, but couldn't find any books on The
Interaction Design of Household Appliances. Are you sure this is
interaction design?) Are IxDA constituents entirely clear on what the
boundaries of IxD are? (I consider myself an IxDA constituent, and I'm
not entirely clear. In a field as young as ours, I consider this a
good thing.)

What irks me about all this (and I'm putting my IAI hat on now) is
that the boards of both organizations (IAI and IxDA) have been working
to reach out to support each other better. As others have mentioned,
we've already started collaborating on certain things. It is
incredibly unhelpful for folks -- especially people perceived as
leaders in each community -- to continue perpetuating the perception
of antagonism between our fields and organizations as you are so
blatantly doing in this thread.

~ Jorge

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Help! Is there a Cardiothoracic Surgeon in the room?

oh yea, my summation/conclusion based on my analysis/findings is
that:users/people/humans
need to know what they are looking for before they can find it which makes
it very necessary for something that wants to be found have an accurate name
and description.

I think...

On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 11:42 AM, Angel Marquez angel.marq...@gmail.comwrote:

 I totally wrote the doctor, mechanic, musician, specialist post and then
 deleted it before sending. I wanted a cello player not a stand up bass, yea
 they are both stringed instruments, I only do transmissions I can refer you
 to a brake specialist, I know a great plastic surgeon my ex wife uses etc...
 I've decided even though these arguments are ridiculous based on the fact
 that every time it comes to an end, that's just what happens. It ends;
 although, the name is very important for findability and a good example of
 best practice. The entire use of self documenting is what you all should
 strive for.

 Just recently I've been looking for more custom type leads for front end
 'functions' with google and coming up short. Perfect example was posted last
 night. The skills you employ are similar to a function or a collection of
 functions that would fall under the design class, right?

 If everyone agreed on what was named what your search time would have to
 branch off in so many directions when under the gun. I'm all for branching
 off into tangents; but, when you need to actually deliver and your
 'researching' a clean channel is nice, ideal, desirable. If someone wants to
 steer with there teeth and use their hands for the gas and clutch, let em,
 just get out of the car.

 Changing the name on a whim would be the same as changing the names in the
 names of functions in code which in turn would be easier with a CLI and the
 system built with this frequent urge in mind.

 #designer

 interaction (idea) {
 return deliverable
 }
 visual (wireframe) {
 return deliverable
 }
 database (functional-spec) {
 return deliverable
 }


 On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 10:58 AM, Andrei Herasimchuk 
 and...@involutionstudios.com wrote:

 Damn iPhone buttons.

 That last message was supposed to say:

 I think I love you, Jared. 

 And yes, watching this bickering is a little too much for me on the
 enjoyment scale. Pots and kettles and all.

 Once the fighting is over, someone will remember to bring in the visual
 people to the table and then things can continue where they left off in 1996
 before people thought that splitting up all of the skills was a good idea.

 --
 Andrei Herasimchuk
 Chief Design Officer, Involution Studios
 e. and...@involutionstudios.com
 c. 408.306.6422

 On Mar 31, 2009, at 7:50 AM, Jared Spool jsp...@uie.com wrote:

  In an emergency, you fetch a doctor.

 Interestingly, there are no doctors. Or, more accurately, there are many
 doctors that you don't want to help you in a medical emergency. (My good
 friend, with the Ph.D. in 15th Century English Literature, is not the person
 you want to deliver the baby, even if he was the only Doctor on the island.)

 Many qualified medical professionals don't have an official doctor
 title. Rehabilitation specialists, nurse practitioners, and myriad other
 professionals deliver trained, quality healthcare despite missing that
 quintessential label.

 In an emergency, a layman looks for a doctor. It's a useful term and it
 works great.

 If you're having a heart attack, you might want a Cardiothoracic Surgeon.
 Certainly, if the result you want is to have your chest cut open, your ribs
 spread, and your heart massaged. On the operating table, this is a great
 result. In the foyer of the Opera House, an EMT might in fact be better
 qualified to help you. (Cardiothoracic surgeons are doctors, while EMTs are
 not, usually.)

 Some of you may know that over the past eight years, we've been
 researching what makes the ideal UX team. One of our early results is that
 ROLES DON'T MATTER, SKILLS DO. It doesn't matter if a team has an
 interaction designer or information architect. It does matter that
 interaction design and information architecture skills are present amongst
 the team.

 Teams with the right skills are more likely to produce great user
 experiences. Teams missing the right skills are very unlikely to produce
 anything exciting or delightful. (Of course, we can't say 'never'. Even a
 blind squirrel finds an acorn every so often. But, if I'm staffing a team, I
 want to do so in a way that will have the best odds, no?)

 Our research showed there are core skills: interaction design,
 information architecture, user research, visual design, information design,
 fast iteration management, copywriting, and editing. There are also what we
 call enterprise skills, some of which are: analytics, development methods,
 design-to-development documentation, ethnography, social networks,
 marketing, technology, business knowledge, and domain knowledge. (If you're
 interested, I wrote about these in more depth and gave

[IxDA Discuss] Using Interaction Design to Change Behavior

2009-03-31 Thread David B . Rondeau

Joshua Porter recently had a very interesting post on his blog about
using design to change, guide, support, elicit, constrict, and
control behavior. 
http://bokardo.com/archives/demystifying-interaction-design/

It got me to thinking about *how* interaction design *is being used*
to change behavior. The first example that came to mind was the Wii
Fit. http://www.nintendo.com/wiifit

I recently got a Wii Fit. It's a clever, mildly cajoling device that
shows you how to do yoga, strength, and aerobic exercises, as well as
play balance games. A virtual trainer shows you how to do the
exercise and then you can follow their movements while you do the
exercise. You stand on the Wii Balance Board to do most of the
exercisewhich provides direct feedback on how well you are doing
them. It encourages you to do a Body Test every day, which measures
your weight, BMI, and Wii Fit Age. You can then track your progress
in these areas over time and even set a weight goal for yourself.
Nintendo is combining audio, video, physical motion, game play,
rewards, feedback, tracking, and encouragement to make exercise
*enticing*. All of this is made possible by the interaction design of
the Wii remote, the game software, and the hardware device. I
would even argue that the interaction design itself is crucial to
making it feel *enticing*.

(You can read more about the Wii Fit and how it was created at
http://us.wii.com/wii-fit/iwata_asks/vol1_page1.jsp)

*But what about behavior?*
I don't need to lose weight, but my good cholesterol is a little
low and my doctor keeps telling me to exercise regularlyin fact
she's been telling me this for 4 or 5 years. I just haven't been
able to find the time or even an activity that would compel me to
exercise regularly. I usually worry about it for about 2 weeks and
then don't think about it until I see the doctor again. But since I
have started using the Wii Fit, I find myself actually thinking about
exercising and trying to make time to do it. I can't say how long it
will have this affect, but so far it is *definitely* changing my
behavior.

How do you see interaction design affecting behavior *now*?

In what ways do you think we should be using interaction design to
change behavior in the *future*?

Can we use it to help people adopt green behavior and practices?
What about making people behave in ways that are more considerate,
courteous, and polite? Or even to behave in a way that is more
community focused and less individualistic?

David B. Rondeau
Design Chair
InContext Design (http://www.incontextdesign.com)

Twitter: dbrondeau

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Help! Is there a Cardiothoracic Surgeon in the room?

You mean I should drop my PhD? ;-)


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=40833



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Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes ofIA and IxD

I feel like calling HUGE bullshit in so many ways to Jorge and Peter:

I work in an industrial design department, and previous to that with
industrial designers. There is no land grab going on. The work I did
w/ and do now is most akin to the work I did as software ixd with
visual designers. I design the dialog  behavior, and they design the
form. What is happening though is that they are also becoming great
IxDs just like many visual designers are becoming great IAs  IxDs as
well.

This is why it is not about land grab, but mind share. Yup! (see, it
is about grabbing something). I don't care about IAs. I really
don't. Your work is almost superfluous to me in my world. I care
about Visual Designers  Industrial Designers  Architects. THEY are
the ones who to put it arrogantly, need me. They need to understand
what it means to do dialogs, narratives, metaphors and mental
mappings as these things are not (yet) taught in their disciplines,
or they don't even have time to teach it any more (this is a whole
other topic). IxD is a layer to be placed on top of a solution. The
same with IA. You are not a form, you are nothing w/o it. Same with
us. This is why many IxDs on this list, gravitate to the Identity of
UI Designers, b/c they want to control both the behavior and the form
and it is from that place that they can do it under a single title.
But they are practicing many roles or disciplines: IA, IxD, Visual
Design, Engineering (in many cases).

Power buttons  other notions of grandeur:
From a practice perspective, I dare to find even 100 IxDs on this
list who were involved in the design of a power button on a piece of
hardware. I'm not so delusional as you think I am.

From a discipline perspective, I KNOW that theories of interaction
design, when applied to practice of industrial design and
engineering, can make a HUGE difference to the implementation of a
design of a power button.

I AM one of those lucky few who do get to do this in their day-to-day
job and I have seen how Industrial Designers not previously trained to
think about feedback systems, metaphors, thresholds, and other pieces
of the material that IxDs think about (beyond the plastic) get so
excited to learn it and incorporate it into their practice.

Do you get it? Do you see the difference in the rhetoric? I'm not
here to BE an industrial designer. I'm not here to BE a visual
designer or interactive designer or game designer. I'm here to share
what I know about the discipline of interaction design and imbue that
into the practices of form.

In the software world there is s much interactivity that this
requires a specific role, just like in the web/interactive world of
information spaces the role of an IA is necessary.

What gets me about this whole conversation is the inability to think
in terms of continuums. I teach IA as part of an IxD minor here in an
ID department. My students will need IA to help them do even the most
simple of information organization tasks, so having this knowledge
will be valuable to them, to no end. But not in everything. While the
IxD for them from my set of experiences permeates into everything they
do. NOT the role of IxD, but the discipline and study. From joy stick
designs for skid steering systems to designing the dimmer switches on
a floor lamp. NO! I'm not saying that these are IxD problems. I'm
saying that the problems require IxD applied through their ID
practice.

-- dave



. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes of IA and IxD

2009-03-31 Thread Andrei Herasimchuk



On Mar 31, 2009, at 11:21 AM, Peter Merholz wrote:

What has been reasonably suggested, I think, is that there is a  
continuum of products: some of them require more IA than others,  
some require more IxD than others. In the same way some projects  
require more visual design than others. Your objection seems to be  
that I dared say that the products that require more IA are mostly  
web-based.


If I were to reduce interaction design to interface design, we would  
never hear the end of it.


Reduce? That's funny considering that all of this time, interface  
design has always required a broader collection of visual, interaction  
and information skills to do effectively.


All this discussion is seemingly exposing is that the various camps of  
people who don't want to be cross-disciplinary need to have their own  
worlds to inhabit, which is fine. But for the last 10 to 20 years,  
what has been lacking is a digital product design organization that is  
the functional equivalent to industrial design organizations that  
encompasses people who ONLY care about digital as it relates to code  
and software but who need practical skills as broad as what ID folks  
are expected to do on the job or learn in school. People who need to  
have a broad range of skills that Jared listed out and that I have  
been beating to death for far too long.


UXNet is not enough in that people who call themselves user  
experience designers generally are thinly disguised IA or IxD types.  
That and user experience has always been a horrid label for reasons  
listed far too many times to repeat now. However, if UXNet wants to  
open the doors to encompass the skills of the visual and graphic  
designer types to be included in the job description and not be  
something orthogonal, the skillls of designers found at places like  
SXSW, then we might finally be on track to having something that  
serves digital product designer needs and its growing field of practice.


--
Andrei Herasimchuk

Chief Design Officer, Involution Studios
innovating the digital world

e. and...@involutionstudios.com
c. +1 408 306 6422


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Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes of IA and IxD

On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 6:13 AM, Andy Polaine a...@polaine.com wrote:
 Most games designers and games design theories I know
 of don't usually refer to themselves in that IA way, but I'm sure it
 is out there.

Absolutely. And I can guarantee there is no book on information
architecture of games, nor one being written soon. That doesn't mean
there isn't IA _in_ games. Corollary: I can guarantee that whoever
designed Simon didn't think of him or herself as an interaction
designer either. That doesn't mean that IxD isn't an important part of
the game.

 Sigh. Can't we all just get along?

This question should be pointed to the leaders who have been trying
their damnedest to keep these communities divided.

I see the current flareup of this discussion as a direct reaction to
JJG's speech in Memphis. For some reason I can't fully grasp, there
are people who seem to feel incredibly threatened by the notion that
we should think of what we do in broader terms and work more closely
together. I think it's high time these people were called out to
explain their motives, because (in my experience) their POV in no way
represents the day-to-day experience of most practitioners, and they
are actively holding back the (constructive) dialog that should be
happening between these fields.

(For the record: I thought much of JJG's speech was inspiring and
energizing. However, his views on the relationship between the IxDA
and IAI don't reflect my experience. I mentioned this to Jesse after
his speech.)

~ Jorge

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Help! Is there a Cardiothoracic Surgeon in the room?

2009-03-31 Thread Alan Salmoni

Andy: You mean I should drop my PhD? ;-) 

It (sometimes) doesn't help much! 
See the post by Rich Rogan http://www.ixda.org/discuss.php?post=30388

Back to the initial point: the important thing is that if you are
having a medical emergency, then you want someone with at least a
base medical training to be there - a set of common skills and
understandings about how the body functions and how it can be put
right when it goes wrong.

I guess there are two problems: 1) which skills and knowledge
comprise this field; and 2) how can we get people outside of us to
agree on what skills and knowledge are required so that they don't
start making the main criteria as must have 5  years C   GUI
experience

I get the impression that the community is quite happy to deal with
skills rather than roles but this often falls over when recruiters
are being dealt with. Quite often, they need a nice single title to
summarise everything because they deal with so many different roles.
Stepping outside of the norm can cause serious problems in getting
jobs if you're not perceived as a guru (just talking from my own
experience here - I sincerely hope other people's is better)

Well, we're supposed to be experts in people's experiences - why
don't we find out how we really are perceived in the wider world so
we can address any discrepancies?



. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=40833



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[IxDA Discuss] IxDA on LinkedIn

2009-03-31 Thread Janna Hicks DeVylder

IxDA has several 'platforms' that we provide for the community to gather
upon:  Discuss list via email, IxDA.org, the conference, and our
hard-working IxDA Local Groups.

There are then platforms that are not sponsored by IxDA but obviously
provide a great place for the community to share, such as your individual
blogs, JohnnyHolland.org, Twitter, Flickr, Slideshow.com, vimeo.com or
Facebook to name a few.  The point is that there is so much good content and
discussion out there, and there is no way we can ever capture all of this
great knowledge in one place (ideally we could get you there, but that's for
another entry), and each source is serving a potentially different audience,
or tapping into a preference of engagement.

With that in mind, we see an opportunity and want to try out an experiment.

We currently have 9,985 people affiliated with the IxDA group on LinkedIn.
While there is no way of knowing how many of those folks are actually
subscribed to the Discuss list, we do think there is a substantial amount
whose affiliation and involvement ends there.  We are opening up the IxDA
LinkedIn group to conversation in order to broaden the possibility of
involvement, in both allowing the community to share knowledge with a
broader audience, as well as move forward our goal to create more awareness
of IxD.  We are also in turn able to message the group directly on occasion
and raise awareness of the org and the initiatives that are taking place
beyond the platforms.  Beneficial on many fronts.

If you're not already affiliated, go here...
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=gid=3754trk=anet_ug_hm

Let's see how it goes. If anyone is interested in helping monitor and
lightly moderate, let me know.

thanks,

Janna DeVylder
President, IxDA

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[IxDA Discuss] Edge Case Design of IA vs. IxD

2009-03-31 Thread Robert Reimann

The Introduction to About Face 3 contains a very simple venn diagram that I
first described here on this list:


I like to think of User Experience Design as a 3-circle Venn diagram,
where the circles represent Form, Behavior, and Content design.  The
circles each intersect with each other. IxD occupies the Behavior
circle, but overlaps with the Form and Content circles to some degree.
IA occupies the Content circle, but overlaps with Form and Behavior to
some degree. And Industrial Design (and Visual Design)
occupy the Form circle, but overlap with Content and Behavior to some
degree. As others have said, there are clearly overlaps in skill sets
in these design practices; it is (IMHO) more a matter of focus and
where the depth of expertise lies.

---

Design of content, of course, refers to the design of its logical and
spatial structure, as Todd and others have described it.

BTW, I would definitely consider labels to be part of content and in need
of structuring: when I was at Bose, we had a person whose primary job was
to develop and execute the structure of labels for back panels of devices
(with input from IxDs and IDs).

The point being that these are complementary areas of design that, while
they may not have equal weighting or visibility for a particular product or
design,
each contribute uniquely and significantly to the user experience.

I would humbly suggest that more can be accomplished by practitioners of
these
fields working together and leveraging their strengths and knowledge bases
than
by quibbling over the self-evidently fuzzy boundaries at their
intersections.

So, now, can we all be friends?  :)

Robert.


Robert Reimann
IxDA Seattle

Associate Creative Director
frog design
Seattle, WA



On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 11:48 AM, Todd Zaki Warfel li...@toddwarfel.comwrote:


 On Mar 31, 2009, at 2:38 PM, Todd Zaki Warfel wrote:

  Incidentally, whether intentional or not, the appearance here is that IxD
 is trying to become the dominant field in UX and not acknowledge that the
 IA field can or has evolved.


 Just to be clear, I'm not attempting to state that Dan is crafting this
 argument, or that he's the one behind this appearance, but it is a common
 perception that comes up during discussions I've had with practitioners in
 the field who do both IA and IxD among other things.



 Cheers!

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




 
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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Edge Case Design of IA vs. IxD

2009-03-31 Thread Milan Guenther

 So, why are we arguing over 0.001%?

I have no clue. But another thing:

I have thought about what Dave said some days ago in this 
(multiple thread) discussion, that I wanted to start a 
marketing campaign for UX.

It was not the main reason, but re-thinking the issue in
marketing terms makes sense. We have a profession, we want
to raise awareness, and to connect all the dots.

However, it has already begun. This discussion involves 
a lot of people who shaped my definition of what I do, and
thus are responsible for what is written in the footer of
this message. Maybe if I had found IAI first, that would be
different, but finally it doesn't matter.

It was a quite successful marketing campaign made me
transition from interactive systems design to what I 
call the things I do today.
The initiatives, discussions and daily communications by 
people who use the term UX as a common identifier for
this profession, both inside and outside this community,
will make the campaign a big success.

milan

-- 
milan guenther * interaction design
||| |  |  ||  | || | ||

+33 6 67 11 13 83 * www.guenther.cx


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Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes ofIA and IxD

On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 7:41 AM, dave malouf dave@gmail.com wrote:
 I don't care about IAs. I really
 don't. Your work is almost superfluous to me in my world.

Nothing more need be said.

Now, perhaps those of us who /do/ care about constructive dialog
between these fields can move along without paying heed to your
thoughts on the matter.

~ Jorge

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes of IA and IxD

2009-03-31 Thread Austin Govella

On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 2:12 AM, dave malouf dave@gmail.com wrote:
 Austin, I love your book, but to compare it to Polar Bear the way you
 did is just wrong. The 1st edition of the book was OK, the 2nd edition
 is great!, but it is not a defining book of IA as a discipline as much
 as it is about IA as practice.

That's kind of my point. The Polar Bear book isn't a defining book
either. It's a things you might need to know how to do when building
a large website kind of book. More importantly, though, it's not an
intro book. When we raise our young'uns, (very broadly generalizing
here...) they read Don't Make Me Think, Blueprints, or Elements.

Those books defines the IA they practice. (More likely, defines the
blended UXD they practice.)

(Not to mention, the Polar Bear is East Coast IA and Blueprints is
West Coast. Claim yo set!)





--
Austin Govella
User Experience

Work: http://www.grafofini.com
Blog: http://www.thinkingandmaking.com
Book: http://www.blueprintsfortheweb.com

aus...@grafofini.com
215-240-1265

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Using Interaction Design to Change Behavior

2009-03-31 Thread ELISABETH HUBERT

Wow this is an awesome post. I think you pose some very interesting
questions. It would seem that if we can design interactions that
change peoples behaviors from hiring a camera man to taking our own
photos at home, or from only being on the internet while i'm near a
computer to using the internet wherever we should be able to then
accomplish the tasks you mention. i guess the really fun part is
figuring out how. 

We know that some mobile phone companies are taking the time to
create devices that don't expire as quickly or are creating
universal chargers etc. Will this make us more green or does it
force us to be so? does this force equal the goal?

Great post!


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=40847



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Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes of IA and IxD

The more I think about this the more I think back to my early training  
in film and video. One of the things I really appreciate about the  
film production model starts off from the premise that you need  
several skillsets in order to make one thing and that the  
collaboration works pretty seamlessly.


Broadly, those roles fall under the three pillars of Producer,  
Director and Director of Photography. Everyone else fans out  
underneath and there is interaction between those people, but also  
deep respect for the others' art. Props people don't move lights, for  
example, they'll ask a lighting person to do it. Other decisions move  
up one pillar and down the other. So a second camera assistant won't  
ask the Director about something directly, they'll ask the DP who will  
ask the Director. And so it goes on.


This process works very well, by and large and each area has its  
specialists, it's 'blueprints' (the script, the shooting script, the  
storyboard, the lighting schema, etc., etc.) but all of it is aimed at  
one goal - the film. That doesn't stop disagreements and discussion  
and it certainly doesn't erode creative thinking, quite the opposite.  
Sometimes people move around roles too and sometimes those roles  
collapse together on smaller teams -  a DP might also handle the  
sound, the Director might also be the DP, etc. The smallest being a  
director, writer, producer, cameraperson and editor being the a single  
person. All of these people - from the electrician to the Director are  
involved in filmmaking. All those people are filmmakers, each has a  
speciality.


I have often wondered why this hasn't happened in our area and the  
reason is that what our (broader) community suffers from isn't a lack  
of role definition, it's a lack of a single goal and medium.


We used to be able to say we were in 'new media'  - that rubbish, but  
fairly all encompassing term. Interactive media used to be a useful  
term because interactivity was a defining feature of 'new media', but  
interaction design's role on the software parts bleeds into the  
hardware and vice versa. The use of the kinds of techniques and  
approaches have both borrowed from and contributed to a much wider  
range of forms (you know the list - it's pretty much every single role  
discussed on this list).


What is different about film is that there is much less division  
between the creative and technical amongst the crew. Perhaps the  
engineers/designers divide is close to the crew/talent divide in film,  
but it's different. In our case, the 'talent' is the client or the end  
user/interactor.


I don't know if there is a solution to this and this feels somewhat  
along the lines of Joshua's comment about boat builders and the sea.  
The endless debate about roles is useless and will continue until  
someone can point to the thing that we all make. That seems unlikely  
to happen any time soon because the stuff that we all get involved in  
gets more diverse all the time.


I submit that this is the reason we have this discussion endlessly and  
we just have to live with it or forget about it and get on with making  
whatever our equivalent of films is.


Best,

Andy


Andy Polaine

Interaction  Experience Design +
Service Design Research +
Writing

Twitter: apolaine
Skype: apolaine

http://www.polaine.com
http://www.designersreviewofbooks.com
http://www.omnium.net.au
http://www.antirom.com


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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Some of the non-software things that interaction designers do

2009-03-31 Thread Milan Guenther

 In the US a very scientific approach was formed. It built off the
 work being done in Human Factors and called itself HCI  its method
 collection as User-centered Design.
 In other parts of the world, especially in Europe, designers began
 applying THEIR methods and practices to understanding this in a
 fairly different way.

There are some on this list, including myself, who attended a design
school in Europe. I would like to know if this is really so different
from the US in terms of teaching. 

I graduated in Communication Design, and there was a sub-field called
Interactive Systems where I did most of my coursework. Now, after
completing, there are also Interface Design, Interaction Design and
Information Design courses emerging in Germany. They have UCD classes,
we didn't.
Yes, we didn't care much about formal HCI or Usability issues, in fact
most of the knowledge about these things I acquired in self-study. Just
as mastering some code and design apps, but that is expected from any
student at my school, because classes are essentially about studio work.
There are no Photoshop or HTML classes. Some theory courses centered
around art, semiotics, systems and media theory.

 I think that it is from here (That Euro school of design thing) that
 many are unaware of, b/c they haven't looked for it, or otherwise
 experienced it, but THIS is what for me has made IxDA and IxD a

But why then IxDA was created by Americans, in the US?
I think it is the mix of HCI knowledge and Design methods that makes the 
difference.

milan

-- 
milan guenther * interaction design
||| |  |  ||  | || | ||

+33 6 67 11 13 83 * www.guenther.cx


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Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes of IA and IxD

Andy,

This comparison with cinema is very interesting.

On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 3:48 PM, Andy Polaine a...@polaine.com wrote:
 I have often wondered why this hasn't happened in our area and the reason is
 that what our (broader) community suffers from isn't a lack of role
 definition, it's a lack of a single goal and medium.

Another reason may be that cinema is over 100 years old, they've had
time to work it out. Our fields are still fairly new. However, it's
worth noting that even in a field as old as cinema, it does nobody any
good to become dogmatic about roles. (Foley artists only appeared
after the addition of sound, and the people who wrote title cards
became scriptwriters. Many animatronics artists have had to become 3D
animators. The role of directors has changed over the years, etc.)

The way I see it...

What is new in IA (the equivalent of celluloid film in our world) is
the understanding that comes from having to resolve the types of
design problems posed by digital systems, especially those with large
distributed banks of information (like websites). The lessons learned
and tools acquired as a result of having to deal with these problems
can then be applied to a variety of other design challenges. (Much
like we can apply techniques learned from film in other fields.)

What is new in IxD is the understanding that comes from having to
resolve the types of design problems posed by digital systems,
especially those with complex, highly mutable interfaces. The lessons
learned and tools acquired as a result of having to deal with these
problems can then be applied to a variety of other design challenges.

I believe the two fields have much in common: we are using the things
we've learned from having to deal with these design challenges that
have appeared over the past 20 years or so to re-fashion our
understanding of _many_ design fields. (That's why I used the lens
metaphor in my earlier post.) For example, I think it's perfectly fine
that we take an IxD lens to industrial design. I don't think of this
as a land grab: I see it as applying new knowledge to old problems. I
expect to do the same with IA.

Cheers,

~ Jorge

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes ofIA and IxD

2009-03-31 Thread Janna Hicks DeVylder

I'd like to start seeing some ideas about how we can move forward, for those
whose interests lie in both camps organizationally as well as those whose
work lives straddle/sit/are the two.

On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 4:36 PM, Jorge Arango jara...@jarango.com wrote:

 On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 7:41 AM, dave malouf dave@gmail.com wrote:
  I don't care about IAs. I really
  don't. Your work is almost superfluous to me in my world.

 Nothing more need be said.

 Now, perhaps those of us who /do/ care about constructive dialog
 between these fields can move along without paying heed to your
 thoughts on the matter.

 ~ Jorge



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Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes ofIA and IxD

2009-03-31 Thread Patrick Neeman

(Grabbing popcorn, enjoying this from afar.)


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=40789



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[IxDA Discuss] What does the number 0 imply?

2009-03-31 Thread Eugene Kim

I'm working on a mobile site which includes keypad shortcuts for
navigating a list of items (e.g. press the 1 hard key to open the
first item, 2 for the second item, etc.).  There's a question of
whether associating an item with 0 (which usually represents the
tenth item in the list on many mobile devices) will have a negative
impact on that item.  In our case, it concerns a list of businesses.

There are 2 parties involved, the business and the end user.  Our PM
feels businesses will not want to be listed as 0 (even though this
can change) and that many users may devalue a business listed as
such.  I feel that's probably going a little extreme on how they
interpret the shortcut, but I do wonder about users who may not be
familiar with these shortcuts and whether they'll be confused by the
use of 0 at the end of the list.

What does it imply to you?

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[IxDA Discuss] Four questions every UI designer and usability professional should be thinking about...

2009-03-31 Thread Russell Wilson

All of these questions are obvious and yet we still don't have consensus or
standardized solutions for them...

http://www.dexodesign.com/2009/03/30/four-questions-every-software-user-interface-designer-and-usability-professional-should-be-thinking-about/


Russell Wilson
Vice President of Product Design, NetQoS
Blog: http://www.dexodesign.com
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/russwilson

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes ofIA and IxD

Create two distinct lists one from IA and one from IxD of their primary,
secondary and tertiary activities. Merge the common elements and treat the
outside activities with baby gloves...

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] What does the number 0 imply?

0=originzero=end

On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 7:55 AM, Eugene Kim v...@mindspring.com wrote:

 I'm working on a mobile site which includes keypad shortcuts for
 navigating a list of items (e.g. press the 1 hard key to open the
 first item, 2 for the second item, etc.).  There's a question of
 whether associating an item with 0 (which usually represents the
 tenth item in the list on many mobile devices) will have a negative
 impact on that item.  In our case, it concerns a list of businesses.

 There are 2 parties involved, the business and the end user.  Our PM
 feels businesses will not want to be listed as 0 (even though this
 can change) and that many users may devalue a business listed as
 such.  I feel that's probably going a little extreme on how they
 interpret the shortcut, but I do wonder about users who may not be
 familiar with these shortcuts and whether they'll be confused by the
 use of 0 at the end of the list.

 What does it imply to you?
 
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Re: [IxDA Discuss] What does the number 0 imply?

2009-03-31 Thread live

0 to me connotes the 'home page', 'starting page', or 'back' function  
(to get to the homepage.)


On Mar 31, 2009, at 2:55 PM, Eugene Kim wrote:


I'm working on a mobile site which includes keypad shortcuts for
navigating a list of items (e.g. press the 1 hard key to open the
first item, 2 for the second item, etc.).  There's a question of
whether associating an item with 0 (which usually represents the
tenth item in the list on many mobile devices) will have a negative
impact on that item.  In our case, it concerns a list of businesses.

There are 2 parties involved, the business and the end user.  Our PM
feels businesses will not want to be listed as 0 (even though this
can change) and that many users may devalue a business listed as
such.  I feel that's probably going a little extreme on how they
interpret the shortcut, but I do wonder about users who may not be
familiar with these shortcuts and whether they'll be confused by the
use of 0 at the end of the list.



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Re: [IxDA Discuss] What does the number 0 imply?

2009-03-31 Thread Casey Edgeton

Caveat: I've never used a non-iPhone mobile site so I'm probably not your
target user.
As someone with a programming background, before seeing the list of names, I
would actually assume that 0 was the first option. Once I saw the list it
would not surprise me to see it at the end, though.

As far as placing a company with 0, I would never see that as a negative
thing.

If the user noticed the 0, I would hope they see the numbers near the rest
of the company names and see a pattern rather than thinking you've deemed
this company as a zero.

c a s e y   e d g e t o n
-
Interaction Designer | http://www.designasaurusrex.com
cedge...@gmail.com | casey.edge...@oracle.com


On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 7:55 AM, Eugene Kim v...@mindspring.com wrote:

 I'm working on a mobile site which includes keypad shortcuts for
 navigating a list of items (e.g. press the 1 hard key to open the
 first item, 2 for the second item, etc.).  There's a question of
 whether associating an item with 0 (which usually represents the
 tenth item in the list on many mobile devices) will have a negative
 impact on that item.  In our case, it concerns a list of businesses.

 There are 2 parties involved, the business and the end user.  Our PM
 feels businesses will not want to be listed as 0 (even though this
 can change) and that many users may devalue a business listed as
 such.  I feel that's probably going a little extreme on how they
 interpret the shortcut, but I do wonder about users who may not be
 familiar with these shortcuts and whether they'll be confused by the
 use of 0 at the end of the list.

 What does it imply to you?


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Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes ofIA and IxD

2009-03-31 Thread Steve Baty

Janna,

The core techniques of information architecture, and those of interaction
design, can be articulated in a manner which I think is fairly
uncontentious. We also have several visual representations - and
descriptions - of the areas in which IA overlaps with IxD; where IxD
overlaps with Industrial Design; where IA overlaps with Architecture
(wayfinding in physical spaces, for example); and the application of all
these disciplines to larger scale issues - the total experience of an
airport, for example.

And there is a great deal of overlap in the underlying techniques used by
each of these disciplines: in research, analysis, evaluation. We are able to
share a lot of knowledge and understanding around these fundamentals.

I'd also think we can focus on problem solving and the solutions to those
problems and look at the role played by the various core techniques - and
discuss the ways in which both the approach to problem-solving and the
solution may have been improved or influenced by the application of those
techniques.

Regards
Steve

2009/4/1 Janna Hicks DeVylder ja...@devylder.com

 I'd like to start seeing some ideas about how we can move forward, for
 those
 whose interests lie in both camps organizationally as well as those whose
 work lives straddle/sit/are the two.

 On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 4:36 PM, Jorge Arango jara...@jarango.com wrote:

  On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 7:41 AM, dave malouf dave@gmail.com wrote:
   I don't care about IAs. I really
   don't. Your work is almost superfluous to me in my world.
 
  Nothing more need be said.
 
  Now, perhaps those of us who /do/ care about constructive dialog
  between these fields can move along without paying heed to your
  thoughts on the matter.
 
  ~ Jorge
 
 
 
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-- 
Steve 'Doc' Baty | Principal | Meld Consulting | P: +61 417 061 292 | E:
steveb...@meld.com.au | Twitter: docbaty | LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/in/stevebaty

Blog: http://meld.com.au/blog
Contributor: Johnny Holland - johnnyholland.org
Contributor: UXMatters - www.uxmatters.com
UX Australia: 25-27 August, http://uxaustralia.com.au
UX Book Club: http://uxbookclub.org/ - Read, discuss, connect.

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] What does the number 0 imply?

2009-03-31 Thread J. Ambrose Little

On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 6:54 PM, J. Ambrose Little
ambr...@aspalliance.comwrote:
 A bunch of irrelevant stuff..

Oops.  I missed the site part.  My bad..

-a

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Using Interaction Design to Change Behavior

2009-03-31 Thread Robert Reimann

Excellent post, David!

Folks unfamiliar with PopTech's Project Masiluleke should check it out:

http://www.poptech.org/project_m/

frog design (led in this effort by Robert Fabricant), and frog's parent
company Aricent, were both
partners in this effort, along with many others.

It's a great example how well targeted interaction design and technology can
directly improve
human situations by positively affecting people's behaviors.

Robert.

Robert Reimann
IxDA Seattle

Associate Creative Director
frog design
Seattle, WA


On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 6:47 AM, ELISABETH HUBERT ehuber...@gmail.comwrote:

 Wow this is an awesome post. I think you pose some very interesting
 questions. It would seem that if we can design interactions that
 change peoples behaviors from hiring a camera man to taking our own
 photos at home, or from only being on the internet while i'm near a
 computer to using the internet wherever we should be able to then
 accomplish the tasks you mention. i guess the really fun part is
 figuring out how.

 We know that some mobile phone companies are taking the time to
 create devices that don't expire as quickly or are creating
 universal chargers etc. Will this make us more green or does it
 force us to be so? does this force equal the goal?

 Great post!


 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 Posted from the new ixda.org
 http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=40847


 
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Re: [IxDA Discuss] IxDA on LinkedIn

2009-03-31 Thread Evan Meagher

I noticed the other day while creating an account at http://ted.com/
that IxDA seems to have some representation there, also. When I
started entering interaction into the Associations field,
Interaction Design Association popped up, so there must be more
of you out there. I'm not sure how much connectivity the TED site
offers, but it was cool to see the group represented.


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
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Re: [IxDA Discuss] What does the number 0 imply?

2009-03-31 Thread Eugene Kim

Thanks for the replies.

Yes, this is in regards to a mobile site and not a phone tree, but
from the other responses I wonder if this is even used enough to
warrant implementing keypad shortcuts. On most phones (excluding
modern phones such as iPhone, Win Mobile, BB,  etc.) you're likely
to find this in your regular phone navigation, too.  Have you guys
used this before?  I haven't come across a device that uses 0 to
connote home or end.

In addition to various phone menu systems, here are some mobile sites
which make use of keypad navigation:
- Citysearch reults (http://m.citysearch.com)
- ask.com (text only) (http://m.ask.com)
- New York Times (http://mobile.nytimes.com)
- Earthcomber mobile weblink (http://m.earthcomber.com)

They vary in the number of items listed, but they make use of the
keypad shortcut.

The suggestion to lead with 0 is interesting, but I feel it may
confuse when viewing feedback on results (e.g. Results 1-10 of 232) 
whereas you're actual list will show 0 - 9.  Plus the 0 hard key is
usually the last numeral on the keypad (at the bottom) which doesn't
seem to convey the correct order.  But still something to consider.


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=40864



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Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes of IA and IxD

2009-03-31 Thread Elizabeth Bacon

Hi guys,

So here's my take on IA and IxD, and it's a unifying one that I
think represents more of the majority opinion. Of course, pipe up if
you think I'm wrong. :)

Information Architecture looks through the lens of product design
with a focus on structure, on the space side of the space-time
continuum. Interaction Design looks through the lens of product
design with a focus on behavior, on the time side of the
space-time continuum. We are sister disciplines when operating in the
digital realm, absolutely. If there's silicon, there's near-infinite
complexity to mold into order. The object, the structure, the
information cannot be useful without its purpose, the behavior, the
interaction. So stop any unproductive bickering and recognize that
yet again, your perspective on the issue comes from your own personal
context and consensus is impossible but clarification is. Polite,
respectful clarification. 

As far as working together, I have a practical question for the group
coming from my capacity as director of the Conan project. What would
people think of soon splitting the IxDA Discussion into various
sub-forums, to which you could subscribe/publish/observe etc.?
Specifically, one of which could be Information Architecture.
Other potential discussions would be Local Groups and Jobs and
someday Events, as well. In the case of an IA discussion forum,
this could be a place where a typical IxD practitioner with just
surface knowledge of IA methods could ask questions and get expert
responses. We have some of IA's leading lights in our community,
after all. Constructive or unhelpful? I get worried about subdividing
the conversation on nearly un-definable grounds; like, IxDA would
never want a stand-alonePrototyping forum...or would we? Thanks
for your thoughts about IxDA IA... ;)

Cheers,
Liz


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes of IA and IxD

2009-03-31 Thread Elizabeth Bacon

Hi Angel,

Of course, I'm happy to respond. I didn't want to spend time to
mention that these forums would work seamlessly with email; we'll
provide support for people of their delivery preference. We know many
want to keep IxDA Discussion as an email interaction. Think of it
operating more like tags than hard-structured forums, if you will.
Ideally, or something. ;) And yes, we'll be custom-building this
stuff.

Thanks,
Liz


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Edge Case Design of IA vs. IxD

2009-03-31 Thread Jared Spool



On Mar 31, 2009, at 11:38 AM, Todd Zaki Warfel wrote:

This is like watching a bunch of kindergartners argue over which MM  
is better.


I don't know which one is better, but I'm pretty sure that Blue has no  
real reason to exist.


Jared

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Some of the non-software things that interaction designers do

2009-03-31 Thread Dave Malouf

Milan,I'm not talking about all courses, but specifically the courses in
IxD.
There is a very distinct difference between these courses of study.
In fact, in the US there are currently 2 active courses in IxD from a design
perspective at all. There are other programs that talk about IxD, but not
from a design perspective.

Your course of study sounds very similar to what in the use is Interactive
Design.

-- dave

On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 5:04 PM, Milan Guenther mi...@guenther.cx wrote:

  In the US a very scientific approach was formed. It built off the
  work being done in Human Factors and called itself HCI  its method
  collection as User-centered Design.
  In other parts of the world, especially in Europe, designers began
  applying THEIR methods and practices to understanding this in a
  fairly different way.

 There are some on this list, including myself, who attended a design
 school in Europe. I would like to know if this is really so different
 from the US in terms of teaching.

 I graduated in Communication Design, and there was a sub-field called
 Interactive Systems where I did most of my coursework. Now, after
 completing, there are also Interface Design, Interaction Design and
 Information Design courses emerging in Germany. They have UCD classes,
 we didn't.
 Yes, we didn't care much about formal HCI or Usability issues, in fact
 most of the knowledge about these things I acquired in self-study. Just
 as mastering some code and design apps, but that is expected from any
 student at my school, because classes are essentially about studio work.
 There are no Photoshop or HTML classes. Some theory courses centered
 around art, semiotics, systems and media theory.

  I think that it is from here (That Euro school of design thing) that
  many are unaware of, b/c they haven't looked for it, or otherwise
  experienced it, but THIS is what for me has made IxDA and IxD a

 But why then IxDA was created by Americans, in the US?
 I think it is the mix of HCI knowledge and Design methods that makes the
 difference.

 milan

 --
 milan guenther * interaction design
 ||| |  |  ||  | || | ||

 +33 6 67 11 13 83 * www.guenther.cx




-- 
Dave Malouf
http://davemalouf.com/
http://twitter.com/daveixd
http://scad.edu/industrialdesign
http://ixda.org/

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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Edge Case Design of IA vs. IxD

My sister won't eat the blue ones. It's her way of protesting them  
since they weren't originally there when she was a kid.


On Mar 31, 2009, at 9:28 PM, Jared Spool wrote:

I don't know which one is better, but I'm pretty sure that Blue has  
no real reason to exist.



Cheers!

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





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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Edge Case Design of IA vs. IxD

2009-03-31 Thread Richard Dalton

Robert, I have a similar 3-way diagram, with Control being the
primary focus of IxD, Comprehension being the primary focus of
Information Design and Connectedness being the primary focus of
IA.

http://mauvyrusset.com/2008/09/26/the-foci-of-user-experience/

 - Richard


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Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes of IA and IxD

2009-03-31 Thread Richard Dalton

I totally agree with Jorge's assessment of Whats new in IA/IxD -
namely, we're learning from digital and applying it to non-digital.

I do find myself wondering though, why the non-digital argument is
being used to show how IA and IxD arn't that related, because i'm
sure digital is 99% of what both sets of practitioners are doing.

In the 196 IxDA list messages I looked at from July I don't think
there was a single one about non-digital domains (and i'm sure i'd
see a similar trend from the IAI list).

 - Richard


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes of IA and IxD

I have been arriving at a problematic sentiment that discipline
based community of practice is not practical.

It really sounds like to me that CoP really needs to be focused on
medium, which may speak to Janna's topic. 

Maybe there needs to be topics about practice IN X medium or Y
Medium. Separating on discipline (IA or IxD) doesn't make sense
given the lack of consensus within the community about what these
things even are.

I'd also like to step back from the comment that Jorge called me on.
(Thanx Jorge). Its not that I don't care about IA, but there are
strong elements of my work where the solutions within the
organization of the information I'm presenting have patterns and
solution that are so well understood compared to the behavioral
problems that I'm working on. I think that actually is a compliment
to the level of maturity that much of information architecture has
achieved within its core. I'm not sure that IxD could say the same
thing.

The point of this thread started challenging the concept that IA is
focused on the Web brought on by Dan. 

1) If the Polar Bear  Blue Prints  Elements are the totems of IA,
can we not agree that the roots of IA? Its amazing to me that Info
Anxiety never comes up in the IA community which for me is so much
more historically definitional about the IA I practice than either
book. (Going back to GvP's post comparing Findability to
Wurman IA practices, which I hated btw.). So if these are the
totems, then we have to agree that IA practice historically is rooted
in the Web. It is the quintessential transition of Library Science
into an interactive discipline. And to be honest, I never understood
the dif bet. E  W coast IA. It all seemed pretty similar and the
content of BP vs. PB (BluePrints vs. PolarBear) from the stand point
of theory is REALLY similar.

2) I think a similar thing has happened in IxD. There is the
Cooper practice of IxD that is so rooted in what I would call
The Valley practice of IxD. It's focus has been on software, and
its methods directly related to the HCI world, which is very
scientifically driven. (Clarification: I don't think that Cooper as
an agency represents this in any way any longer.) 

The other side of IxD though is the interaction side of classical
design school thinking. It is deconstructive in nature, and treats
interaction just like it would visual, space, and form. It is an
aesthetic part of the total composition. 


UX like all of these labels is rhetorical in nature, so you need to
look beyond what it could be, and more towards what it is! What is
the body of work from folks who identify with this rhetoric? 

If I look at the contemporary agencies who speak IxD, my take from
their body of work is that they are shifting away from UX and
moving towards Design. Is there really a dichotomy here?
Rhetorically, I do think so. Is there room for both in the same
community OF COURSE! 

Is there an umbrella here? maybe? I don't know what it is called, I
just know that the rhetoric of UX and its body of work is no longer
representative of a growing segment of the work and the overall
direction of contemporary Interaction Design. That isn't to say that
I can't swing in and define UX in such a way that it can encompass
everything that I do. I've seen how people are doing that. But that
is not the same as looking at the history of and realities of the
work/practice here.

All this is to say that there is alignment taking place, that people
really don't practice with these separations. So maybe the
experiment of an organization soley about a discipline (NOT a
practice) when that discipline is not tied to a tangible medium is
not practical.

Personally, I think Interactions 8  9 say otherwise. It tells me
that things are great the way they are. Separate but equal in some
areas of the world works real well. ;-)

-- dave


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Help! Is there a Cardiothoracic Surgeon in the room?