Re: [IxDA Discuss] IxDA Board Retreat & Discussion - we need your input
How about ways to enable members outside of areas served by local groups to interact more directly with other members? It's a selfish request, as I live outside of a major center, and the nearest local group is about 500 miles away. But I imagine I'm not the only one. Mentoring helps, and local mini-conferences would perhaps bring more opportunities closer to more people. Yet maybe there are other ways to enable more one-on-one discussions and active participation that involve more remotely-located members. A couple ideas: -virtual seminars -local group roadshows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=48599 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Golden oldies: pre-web-era book recommendations
Thanks for the references so far, everyone. Some are a bit newer than what I was thinking, but I'm sure are good nonetheless. (If we run up to the early '90s, I'd add books by Stewart Brand, Edward Tufte, Scott McCloud, Henry Petroski, and Peter Senge to the list, too.) I forgot to mention another book who's original content's from 30 years ago I read through: Change:Principles of Problem Formulation and Problem Resolution by Paul Watzlawick et al. Published first in 1974, and is more from a clinical counseling perspective, but I think the discussions on paradox and second-order change still apply quite well to business/design problems as well. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=46867 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] Golden oldies: pre-web-era book recommendations
We have a lot of great communication and design-related books published in last 15 years, but there are others from 30+ years ago whose content still rings true. Sometimes they may speak even more loudly than when they were first published and remind us that many concepts we're exploring today aren't always so new after all. Some like those from Marshall McLuhan, Edward de Bono, and Christopher Alexander are still talked about and mentioned once and a while. But I haven't seen these books I've been reading mentioned: 'Design With Type' by Carl Dair (from 1967) Discussion on the printed word from letter to word to sentence to block and to page, history of type and more... 'Design for the Real World' by Victor Papanek (from 1971) Ethics for design, including ecological and sustainability principles Anyone else know of some pre-web-era books related to communication, design, and design-thinking that might deserve a fresh look from people today? Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Website UI competitive analysis
Maybe you're already aware of it, but since it hasn't been mentioned, Dan Brown's book "Communicating Design" has a good chapter on competitive analysis documentation. Like the rest of his book, he talks about a layered approach to the documentation, as well as presentation and context for it. To me, a competitive analysis is good for establishing a baseline reference and perhaps get some ideas for inspiration. But in the end, don't just try to include what your competition has or steer away from their perceived weaknesses. It might get you to a safe solution, but not a successful one. Sure, find out what others are doing. But rather than using it to imitate or "Frankenstein" concepts, first really know what _your business'_ goals and customer needs are. Then use the analysis, along with other resources, to maybe come up with something totally new that's tightly aligned with those needs. And test that out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=44753 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] UX Presentation to the CEO?
Navid, It may be more research than you'd like, but there are also some books that could be good references for you in preparing. Of the ones that I've found so far, those most connected to your points on design thinking and business would be: * Marty Neumeier's "The Designful Company" * Adaptive Path's "Subject to Change" I also see a lot of complementary ideas to design thinking and business in Peter Senge's "The Fifth Discipline", which focuses on building a "learning organization". It's a bit more of a read than the other two, though. As others have mentioned, knowing more about how your CEO currently views design would be helpful. But in addition to the other resources mentioned, you may also find the following article from Jess McMullin useful in developing your approach: http://nform.ca/publications/investing-in-design For the presentation itself: is there a story or situation that could capture the CEO's interest that you could use to anchor your presentation? Can you ask him or her beforehand? Use slides, but go beyond them. And focus on what's in it for the CEO, rather than what you'd like to impart upon him or her. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=44848 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Are We The Puppet Masters? The Ethics of IxD.
Ack.. Apparently the link correction I gave for Chris Nodder's Evil by Design site still didn't work. Hopefully this one's right: http://www.usability4evil.com/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=44045 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Are We The Puppet Masters? The Ethics of IxD.
As it's been mentioned, influence is out there in many contexts, not just in Interaction Design. I don't think it's wrong to influence someone, nor can you avoid it in any interaction with people. Being ethical is being aware of the implications of that influence and avoiding causing harm to those being influenced (which includes making decisions they didn't really intend to make). I think a lot of way we should approach things is summed up well by Aesop's 'The North Wind and the Sun' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_North_Wind_and_the_Sun "Kindness, gentleness, and persuasion win where force fails" As you mention in the articles 'Influence' section, and j. eric mentioned with the toothbrush, unless we're plugging into their brains, the choice is inevitably up to the user. So I don't think it's right to say we have direct control of another person's behavior: a guard could go off the watchclock, a person could keep their jacket on in the sun, and (a phrase I heard that's become a favorite of mine) "If people *really* want to put a pea up their nose, no matter what you do, you can't stop them from shoving it up there...". But we do set up the conditions for people to make certain choices over others, and you're right in that those conditions need to to be established in a way that address the human side of the equation, not just the system's. Those that do it well, I think, will tend to be more successful. Those that don't are found out, perhaps held onto begrudgingly for a while, but eventually abandoned. BTW, the link to Chris Nodder's site that David mentioned near the top is http://usability4evil.com. As David pointed out, the examples in there fall in line with this discussion. Murray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=44045 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] CONAN Design Review
Yes, I'd like to help. I guess there's only one day to go, but if you're still looking ... murraytho at gmail dot com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=43460 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] What is an Experience Strategy?
...another word that might work could be 'framework'. It encompasses the idea of bringing together a number of concepts together in a consolidated way. On the other hand, it may be too broad a term. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=42620 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] What is an Experience Strategy?
Hmm... to me, 'offering' has that duality: it could mean one instance or the consolidation of many. I was thinking that a circular reference to 'experience' might not be too bad. But in the end, an experience resides within an individual. Through an experience strategy, we can make efforts to direct that experience towards something we'd like them to have with our organization, but can't control every part of it, much less provide or offer it to a person. So 'experience', at least on its own, probably won't work either. Why not just get rid of the parentheses: instead of '(product or service) offering', use 'product or service'? Or maybe even better: 'products and services', as an individual product or service doesn't often stand alone from each other with respect to a person's experience? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=42620 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] User Experiences of a Company from Varied Contexts
Does anyone know of, or have experience with, resources or studies
related to how people engage with a parent company and a wide variety
of related brands/entities? I'm looking for information presented
from a user experience perspective, not a branding and marketing
one.
Some of the things I'm looking for are different examples of:
* How people have made distinctions or viewed relationships between a
parent company and its children
* How varied associations people have with different areas of a
company have been addressed in navigation and page elements among a
company's web properties
* How end-user research has been used to promote consistent contexts
between online and offline service delivery
Thanks for any pointers you can provide,
Murray
Some background:
Working for a local government, I find some people strongly associate
information from "The City". Others associate the same information
strongly with "Facility X" or "Department Y", sometimes entirely
independent of the city context.
Having a consistent approach across all areas may help those coming
from "The City" perspective, but not be as optimized for people
coming from a more specific context. On the other side, focusing on
individual, sometimes widely-varied business perspectives could help
those coming to each area directly do better, but lose those coming
from a wider context. ("Widely varied" in this case doesn't mean
like the differences between buying books and buying electronics, but
more like the differences between knowing about transportation delays,
finding social services, keeping up with changes to legislation,
finding swimming times, ...and so on)
There is a balance in there somewhere. Branding efforts will have an
influence on what's promoted, but I feel it's likely best to align
that with what people already associate with, instead of trying to
force an artificial view. In the end, people are doing the same
tasks, but how they find information, who they look to for support,
and how they navigate to other areas is affected by where they are
coming from.
We need to do more work to learn directly from people we interact
with. But knowing how others have struck a balance to address the
needs of people coming from widely-varied contexts, even if different
from our situation, would also be useful as we move ahead.
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Re: [IxDA Discuss] [Event] IxDA Vancouver -- Interaction09 Video Redux and Discussion
Shaun, The link you gave included the comma after it. Since if gives you a 404, I don't think it was intentional. I'm thinking you meant: http://library.ixda.org/ As I couldn't make it to Vancouver earlier this year, I look forward to watching the videos. Thanks muchly! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=42529 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Nice Research on Persona Effectiveness
Steve's point is on the nose: "Fictitious" could mean "was created, imagined" or "based on a lie". "Representative" means "to serve as an example" or "to act on behalf of". Much less consternation there. Minus the XXX's, the discussion is fairly a healthy one. Keep it going. Frank's study was a good start at empirically investigating the efficacy of personas, and it's great for Jared to highlight it for us. Yet I think a number of Robert H's concerns about it are valid. Frank's reply helped address them, but didn't render them moot. (To be fair, some concerns will never be moot, as we're dealing with humans on both sides of the study.) So as Jared pointed out... we can do more research. Use Frank's study as a springboard. Bring in user testing as an evaluation method for design. Use teams comprised of "equally evaluated" designers more separated from one another, or perhaps individual designers. "Ceci n'est pas une pipe." I think folks are in agreement here: A map is not a real place, and a persona is not a real person. Yet both provide understanding of the things they represent. And in many ways, a representation can help aid understanding of a real object in ways that experience with the object itself cannot. By way of being made by people, that representation is influenced by those who create them. And in that way, could be used for good or evil, to assist or %u2014intentionally or unintentionally%u2014 mislead those that use them. To ensure that the representation remains valid, it needs to be tied back the concrete things they represent. For a persona, this means back to users themselves. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=42315 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
