All posts from
October 2013

How to be an educated consumer of info graphics: David Byrne on the art-science of visual storytelling

A couple of my universa coming together.

“(…) at the heart of the aspiration to cultivate a kind of visual literacy so critical for modern communication. Here are a few favorite pieces from the book that embody that ideal of intelligent elegance and beautiful revelation of truth.”

(Maria Popova a.k.a. @brainpicker ~ Brain Pickings)

Designing healthy organizations: Education and transparency in XD consulting work

Adding XD to the X-soup.

“Luckily, the healthcare industry has figured out more effective approaches to treating patients and achieving better outcomes. Unfortunately, those of us in experience design (XD) consulting have not. In this column, I’ll first explore why the typical XD consulting approach is not healthy for our client organizations. Then I’ll look at what I think should be the ultimate goal of an XD engagement: educating our clients and being transparent about our XD methods and approaches.”

(Laura Keller ~ UXmatters)

Fight the dark side of Lean UX with the Experience Canvas

Connecting Lean, Scrum, UX and canvas thinking.

“As Lean UX becomes more mainstream in the practice of product design and build, more and more teams are coming up against an interesting problem: by focussing so much on results not deliverables, and shipping small and often, the product itself can be in danger of feeling like a loose collection of features added over time, rather than a cohesive, robust, well-considered experience.”

(Ben Crothers ~ Atlassian Blogs)

Design thinking is killing creativity

Is business killing creativity by nature?

“A fellow designer and I were discussing this in detail and jointly came to this disappointing conclusion. It was quite a significant conclusion and likely to be correct, as both of us were in positions to manage design processes and teams, and also shape and influence design centric business strategies. I do not think that this epiphany happened as a result of this discussion. This was something that has been cooking at the back of my mind since design thinking started gaining traction in the competitive corporate environment. My thoughts include design thinking’s impact, its fallout, and its side effects. This was really not an easy post to write, there were lots of information for me to manage and reorganize. As with any story, lets start from the beginning by looking at why design thinking was even needed in the first place?”

(Avi Bisram a.k.a. @avi_bisram)

Service design: The most important design discipline you’ve never heard of

So, business wake up!

“There’s a growing number of professionals who are dedicated to making great customer experiences – and today is a day to celebrate their work. Today I’d also like to celebrate the role of design in helping CX pros create those experiences. Not graphic design or interior design or industrial design – but the lesser known field of service design. You may not have heard of service design yet, but I’d argue that it’s the most important design sub-specialty in the business world today.”

(Kerry Bodine a.k.a. @kerrybodine ~ Forrester)