Analysis vs. Sythnesis

I was struck by this section when reviewing the Design Thinking post on wikipedia. The Greek meaning of “to loosen up” and “to put together” are great concepts in regards to a standard “divergent” and “convergent” thinking and design methods. I like it and hope to incorporate it into my Design Workshop sessions – loosen up ideas then put […]

“Empathy is understanding people’s [observed] needs.” not making decisions based on intuition.

Quick summary, “Empathy is understanding people’s [observed] needs.” Good article from Gerry McGovern on “getting out of the building” and Tomer Sharon’s “Field Fridays” Developer + Customer speed [dating] feedback sessions. Research and valid “customer feedback” is observing people’s behavior, not listening to what they say. http://diigo.com/0tytt

Remote, collaborative sketching and ideation

Ran across this on the 8Shapes site. Brilliant. Love the technique and webcam tool.  http://www.eightshapes.com/blog/2011/08/19/sharing-sketches-remotely/  Pretty great methods here, would love to grab one of these IPEVO cams ($70).  We struggled with a webcam and tripod to do remote mobile demos, and this would do the trick ideally. Along with the added benefit of easy […]

Twitter’s “#lazyweb” … or the “#humancuratedweb

Interesting post and info graphic: http://www.fastcodesign.com//1664402/infographic-of-the-day-how-twitter-exposes-googles-limits I’ve done this before, just posted a questions to my Twitter/Facebook feed, hoping for a good recommendation on a restaurant or product purchase. As I comented on the post: #lazyweb is part of it, but, as you note, I’d propose it’s something like the #humancuratedweb that’s prompting these requests. […]

Ah, the iCloud…

Just read this great post about Apple and Google and their versions/spins on the Cloud. http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/08/apple-icloud-google-cloud/ With iPad/iPhone and now OS X Lion, you don’t save documents anymore. They save automatically — but an easier way to think about it is that they just exist, as is, in realtime on all your devices. … They just […]

Interview-based Tasks, Jared Spool

http://www.uie.com/articles/interview_based_tasks/ Reviewing this article from 2006 from EUI and Jared Spool struck a few key points: “Scavenger-hunt tasks work best when you’ve thoroughly researched the types of things people look for on the site. Our tasks came from extensive interviews and field research. Unfortunately, many times, teams just make up their tasks without doing the […]

Usability Testing… your own designs

Origin: http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2009/12/testing-your-own-designs-redux.php The challenge in dealing with conformitory bias – “People can reinforce their existing attitudes by selectively collecting new evidence, by interpreting evidence in a biased way or by selectively recalling information from memory.” – is real. Getting “over yourself” and seeking out valid user testing and feedback is a tough call when you’re doing […]

Twitter’s Redesign and “The Mark”

An interesting review of Twitter’s new site design – from the perspective of a content provider of “tweets”: http://ritubpant.com/why-twitters-new-design-totally-misses-the-mark/ His points are valid, that in Twitter’s new design the core function of social network is overshadowed by the emerging core function of search (clearly dependent on the successful social network use and content provision). But […]

Mmmm, to work at Netflix….

http://jobs.netflix.com/DetailFlix.asp?flix2998 “Netflix is looking for an outstanding user interface designer to join our small but amazing team. If you are as passionate about designing great experiences as you are about helping a successful business reach even higher heights, then we would love to talk to you. We are a close-knit team, so our ideal candidate […]

Jared Spool’s Denver UIE Roadshow

I was thankful to be able to attend Jared’s Denver UIE Roadshow and was encouraged to keep pursuing solid UX processes and design solutions. Here are a few thoughts and hope to follow up a bit on some more. Successful Experience Design is at the intersection of the User and the Business – Jared did […]

Web Form Design, Luke W.

Just finished reading through Luke W.’s great resource on web form design, Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks. It’s a great overview, deep dive, and a must read for any UX/Web DesignerFront End Developer who’s interested in serving the user and building in quality efficiencies into a web form experience. I loved the thoroughness, […]

Components, Patterns, and Frameworks! Oh My!

Jared’s thoughts on Patterns and Frameworks. Components, Patterns, and Frameworks! Oh My! He gives a good overview of the use and value, particularly for smaller teams, to establish libraries of interface patterns, components for reusable code, and frameworks. Setting the foundation of a solution on previous uses allows the designer/team to then customize and to […]

Designing Web Interfaces, Scott & Neil (O’Reilly Book)

I’ve started to read through the Designing Web Interfaces book and find it interesting and validating – a good touch point for reference when talking to or sharing patterns and uses with other people. The main pattern “values”: Make it direct Keep it lightweight Stay on the page Provide invitations Use transitions React immediately I […]

UX vs. XD – what’s the difference?

I’ve been wrestling with the use of XD (Experience Design) within our organization instead of the term UX (User Experience Design, or UXD). For some reason the differences seem significant to me and I’m talking a bit of time here to dig into why that might be. The context of my inquiry and work is […]