November 2012

An Interview with Ann Rockley, the "Mother of Content Strategy"

A mother, not thé mother. Who's the father? Who's the child?

"The other driver is the digital content revolution. While best-of-breed technical communication and training departments have been creating multi-channel outputs for years using a write-it-once, use-it-often strategy, traditional publishers haven't felt the pressure to adopt this approach until the Kindle, smartphones, tablet computers - and of course, the iPad - changed consumer demand."

(Scott Wrangler)

Posted by PJB on November 29, 2012 | Classification: Content management - Content strategy - Interviews | Permalink

10 Principles for Service Design

Always good to have some principles to design by. In whatever domain it applies.

"James Lawther has spent the past 20 years working in factories, supermarkets and call centres. Apparently he is fascinated by operations and is always on the lookout for ways to make them work cheaper faster or better. But we are interested in him because he writes a great blog about service improvement and offered to give us some thoughts on service design, so we took him up on this and here's what he came up with."

(James Lawther a.k.a. @SquawkPoint ~ The Service Design Programme)

Posted by PJB on November 29, 2012 | Classification: Service design | Permalink

Mining Social Media: Tracking Content and Predicting Behavior

Computational predictability: the algorithmic perspective on human behavior. A kind of Ellerdale project.

"The advent of social media has established a symbiotic relationship between social media and online news. This relationship can be leveraged for tracking news content, and predicting behavior with tangible real-world applications, e.g., online reputation management, ad pricing, news ranking, and media analysis. In this thesis, we focus on tracking news content in social media, and predicting user behavior."

(Manos Tsagkias a.k.a. @samanos)

Posted by PJB on November 28, 2012 | Classification: Design research - Social Web | Permalink

Design Process Kills/Creates Creativity

It's one or the other: magic or no magic.

"What is created when we apply a process? When process is used consciously you have evidence of work for each part of the design process."

(Daniel Stillman a.k.a. @dastillman ~ Core77)

Posted by PJB on November 28, 2012 | Classification: Design research | Permalink

Collecting Payment Information Within a Single Input

Micro-design for the best payment experience.

"For years the advice for mobile designers has been to avoid text input. Screens are small, fingers are imprecise, and so errors happen. But at the same time mobile devices are always with us, always on, and always connected. So instead of trying to limit input we should be encouraging it and taking steps to ensure it's easy to provide accurately. Enter input masks."

(Luke Wroblewski a.k.a. @LukeW)

Posted by PJB on November 28, 2012 | Classification: Interaction design - Mobile design | Permalink

The first rule of content strategy: Don't talk about content strategy

Can be the first rule of almost all fields of practice.

"(...) the most employable people are hybrids."

(Guerilla-Editor)

Posted by PJB on November 27, 2012 | Classification: Content strategy - User experience | Permalink

Planning for Homepage Content

Homepage is a hierarchical concept, which doesn't apply to a network. Every page is 'home'.

"Let's explore some helpful approaches to creating a meaningful, successful homepage."

(Georgy Cohen a.k.a. @radiofreegeorgy)

Posted by PJB on November 27, 2012 | Classification: Content strategy - Information architecture | Permalink

Designing Life-Changing Solutions

Design of digital stuff changes everybody's lives. Deal with it.

"The boundaries between design and psychology are progressively blurring. With designers increasingly facing high stakes challenges and more psychologists jumping off the academic pedestal to get their hands dirty with real people in real contexts, the two disciplines are more intertwined than ever before."

(Giorgio Baresi a.k.a. @giorgiobaresi ~ design mind Frog Design) ~ courtesy of fabiosergio

Posted by PJB on November 27, 2012 | Classification: Information design - Interaction design | Permalink

Defining Patient Experience

DTDT for PX.

"The sum of all interactions, shaped by an organization's culture, that influence patient perceptions across the continuum of care."

(The Beryl Institute)

Posted by PJB on November 26, 2012 | Classification: Customer experience - User experience | Permalink

Effects of Typography on Reader Mood and Productivity

Great typography is like the oxygen of reading.

"The lesson here is twofold. First, good typography has a clear impact on the mood of the reader. People who are reading a well typeset page are more engaged in the experience and find that time flies by faster. Second, research has shown that positive mood improves creative problem solving, and since typography can be used to influence mood, it is possible that good typography also has direct effect on our productivity, at least in the sphere of certain creative tasks. Good typographic design then is not just a way to communicate the character of your text and strengthen reader engagement, it could boost their cognitive performance, too."

(Dmitry Fadeyev a.k.a. @dfadeyev ~ UsabilityPost)

Posted by PJB on November 26, 2012 | Classification: Typography | Permalink

What is the emerging role of design in the public sector?

Design is now so ubiquitous, it's exploding into all kinds of industries: health, education, business, tourism, and now even government as well.

"And so we find ourselves seeking a deeper transformation in the way we organise and build our society. We face a choice about the future we want to create and live within and who should be entrusted with envisioning, contributing and ultimately delivering that future. From the invention of the modern concept of the designer as an agent for change in the industrial era, to the demands of an ever-changing, interconnected global community, our needs for design and creativity have evolved. Designers are increasingly directing their talents to new problems, bringing professional creativity to the biggest and most important challenges of our times. As we acknowledge that the unprecedented demands facing public services cannot be met by increased funding alone, it seems right to look to those dissatisfied optimists for new approaches that will help deliver the innovative solutions we need."

(Andrea Siodmok a.k.a. @designcomedy ~ Design Council)

Posted by PJB on November 23, 2012 | Classification: Design research | Permalink

Why the Best Designers are also Facilitators

Due to reframing of design challenges as wicked problems.

"This definition paints the picture of what it means to facilitate a session really well. As a facilitator, your job is to help a person, or a group of people, traverse a problem space. The context of the problem space could be one where you, as the designer, need to learn more about what is going on so you can properly craft an effective solution. Or it could be a situation were the participants needs to identify and solve the problem on their own, while you take that solution back and refine it further."

(Brad Ty Nunnally ~ UX Magazine)

Posted by PJB on November 22, 2012 | Classification: Service design | Permalink

Avoid Problem Solving For Better Critiques

You can also call it a critical cognitive walkthrough.

"Problem solving in a critique is also a frequent occurrence. It seems to be a common trait of people who are involved in the design, development and overall creation of things, whether they be websites, products, services, or whatever. We can't help but try to solve problems. It's just the way our brains work. But in the context of a critique, problem solving and jumping to solutions can be detrimental for a number of reasons."

(Adam Connor a.k.a. @adamconnor ~ Discussing Design)

Posted by PJB on November 22, 2012 | Classification: Design research - Information design | Permalink

Service Design: Buzzword or Magic Method?

Then, here in the middle 'something magical happens'.

"Having worked in the design field for quite some time, Pia Betton has observed fundamental changes in the design industry in the last years: a paradigm shift from corporate to social, as she puts it, and the rise of service design methods."

(Pia Betton ~ NEXT Berlin)

Posted by PJB on November 21, 2012 | Classification: Events - Service design | Permalink

Should You Become A UX Generalist Or A UX Specialist?

Generalist inside the UX comfort zone (think: coding, visual design or content creation), or outside (think: gastronomy, theatre or architecture).

"If you doubt whether you're up to the task, you'll probably discover that you do indeed fall short. I'd encourage you to embrace those moments when you're outside of your comfort zone."

(Matthew Magain a.k.a. @mattymcg ~ UX mastery)

Posted by PJB on November 21, 2012 | Classification: User experience | Permalink

Experience Design in the Agency Setting : Architecting cross-channel experiences to drive brand relationships

Experience design: user, customer, patient, and student experiences.

"As the user experience field has been maturing, certain unique disciplines have emerged, like user research, usability testing, content strategy, information architecture, and experience design. While different organizations may have UX departments named after any one of these disciplines, this article focuses not on taxonomy or the UX/XD service offering as a whole. Rather, it will examine the distinct "experience design" discipline itself and how this discipline can add value within the agency setting."

(Tom Schneider ~ UX magazine)

Posted by PJB on November 19, 2012 | Classification: Customer experience - User experience | Permalink

Accessibility is part of UX (it isn’t a swear word)

Having access should be a hygiene factor, not a motivator.

"People often go a bit wobbly when accessibility is mentioned. Visions of text only websites, monochrome designs and static content swirl in their heads. Teeth are gritted, excuses are prepared, and battle conditions ensue. The reality is that accessibility is simply a key part of UX. A truly outstanding digital experience is a fusion of accessibility, usability, creativity and technology. The trick is to weave those things together, and to do that successfully there needs to be a cross pollination of skills and expertise. The good news is that accessibility is usability under a magnifying glass. If you’re thinking about great usability, the chances are that you’re already thinking about great accessibility too."

(Léonie Watson ~ humanising technology blog) ~ courtesy of ericscheid

Posted by PJB on November 17, 2012 | Classification: Accessibility - User experience | Permalink

The Music Outlives the Band

Let's rock too.

"User experience has momentum. Let it roll, and get back to work."

(Robert Hoekman Jr. a.k.a. @rhjr ~ NEW Boxes and Arrows)

Posted by PJB on November 17, 2012 | Classification: User experience | Permalink

A Perfection of Means and a Confusion of Aims

Is it what you are or what you do? Both."

"My work involves helping people to understand how to best plan circumstances in which users are engaged and satisfied with their experience. Yet, I do not call myself a user experience designer."

(Abby Covert a.k.a. @Abby_the_IA ~ NEW Boxes and Arrows)

Posted by PJB on November 17, 2012 | Classification: Information architecture - User experience | Permalink

What is User Experience?

"I shall not today attempt further to define 'it'; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it."

"I am one of these people. I design experiences. Or I design for experiences, if we must mince words. I don't do this because I was trained to do so. I do this because I must. I am a User Experience Designer. Or whatever they’re calling it these days."

(Stephen Anderson a.k.a. @stephenanderson ~ NEW Boxes and Arrows)

Posted by PJB on November 17, 2012 | Classification: User experience | Permalink

Whither "User Experience Design"?

Revitalized and DTDT (again). Just like love.

"It makes no sense to ask what "user experience design" really means; it means whatever we use it to mean. We can ask what we need it to mean and how we already use it. I submit that we need a term for designing systems that include interaction design. And we already use "user experience design" to mean that now. If we could agree on that, I might stop feeling so bad about calling myself a "user experience designer"."

(Jonathan Korman ~ NEW Boxes and Arrows)

Posted by PJB on November 16, 2012 | Classification: User experience | Permalink

The Design for Usability book

A Dutch delight.

"The Design for Usability project published a book that provides the product development community with a comprehensive and coherent overview of the results of the project, in such a way that they can be applied in practice. The book outlines the studies conducted in the project, and indicates how the individual research projects are related and which of them can be applied in a coherent mode."

(Edited by @jaspervankuijk ~ Design for Usability)

Posted by PJB on November 16, 2012 | Classification: Design research - Usability - User research | Permalink

Thriving in the Experience Economy: Connecting with customers on an emotional level

Connection at an emotional level, a kind of emo-HREF.

"Materials, products, services ... Experiences? Welcome to the newest evolution of economic value – and the companies that are earning big dividends by satisfying their customers on a deep, emotional level."

(Lisa Roner ~ Compas)

Posted by PJB on November 16, 2012 | Classification: Customer experience | Permalink

Content, the once and future king

Shaping compelling experiences with data, lots of them.

"This is a new sandbox for technologists, data scientists, marketers, and experience designers. What are the corpora we have access to? What is lurking within our data smog? What are the new experiences we can create? No doubt we will continue to see art and humor, but let’s use those to inspire us as we imagine what else is possible. The biggest potential (and as always the hardest problem) is in the development of game-changing experiences. I look forward to seeing where this goes."

(Steve Portugal a.k.a. @steveportigal ~ ACM Interactions November + December 2012)

Posted by PJB on November 15, 2012 | Classification: Content strategy - User experience - Writing | Permalink

The Design in Service Design

Getting into the essentials of service design.

"But the design in service design is what makes things better. Combining research and craftsmanship is powerful. Therefore, Lisa emphasised, passion, experimentation and creativity are the key factors in successful, innovative design processes. Her solution: put the heart back in!"

(Lisa Lindström ~ NEXT Berlin)

Posted by PJB on November 14, 2012 | Classification: Service design | Permalink

Service Design: On the Evolution of Design Expertise

Great set of publications.

"Service design is a relatively new field of expertise: it has mostly developed over the past 20 years. The deepest roots of both design and service design are in arts, crafts, and organised planning. Later the actual concept of design and many of its sub-areas, such as architecture and jewellery as well as textile, furniture, and graphic design, started to emerge. Then service business development, service marketing, industrial design, as well as ergonomics, interaction design, usability design, and information design grew out from the thick root of design."

(Tuomo Kuosa & Leo Westerlund ~ Servicedesign.tv)

Posted by PJB on November 14, 2012 | Classification: Service design | Permalink

Content Strategy Is A Process Not A Deliverable

Or to put it differently, it's a verb, not a noun.

"Strategies involve objectives. They have to. Either a strategy supports the attainment of the objective or the longer term impact to outcomes after the objective has been reached. Either way, a strategy is something that uses tactics but is not exclusively about them. Strategies also have to support measurable objectives. That is, a strategy's success can only be realized once an objective has been met and that objective has a set of metrics against which it is measured."

(Kris Mausser a.k.a. @krismausser ~ The Discontented Company)

Posted by PJB on November 13, 2012 | Classification: Content strategy | Permalink

What is User Experience Design?

DTDTs are signs of community dynamics. More DTDTs, the better.

"The translation of megabytes and code into a deliverable product that fulfills the needs of a user is done through User Experience Design."

(Julie Celia ~ Cooper Journal)

Posted by PJB on November 13, 2012 | Classification: User experience | Permalink

The business of design: A series of interviews

Business will open up for UX, only when UX shows respect.

"A lot of the problems with practitioners in our field arise because we are sometimes seen as almost anti-business. I've seen this attitude in the community, I've seen practitioners become zealots about the user, their feelings and their rights. They fight and resist decisions that are made for commercial benefit because they might impinge on the perfect user experience. This isn’t helped by an often evangelical, polemic and condescending attitude and language."

(Meld Studios)

Posted by PJB on November 13, 2012 | Classification: User experience | Permalink

UX Strategy on the Job: An Interview with Three UX Strategists

From business, through digital to C/UX strategy. The plan to achieve the vision.

"The statement that they agreed to participate is significant. Some of the people I asked to participate in this interview said their companies wouldn’t allow it. A couple of the UX Strategists who did participate said that they would have to send their responses all the way up the command chain for editing and approval. Why the secrecy? Why can’t UX Strategists share their craft openly like other UX professionals do when they discuss things like Photoshop filters or research methods or JavaScript tips? It's because a UX strategy is a valuable asset that companies want to protect: a battle plan for success in the digital realm."

(Paul Bryan a.k.a. @paulbryan ~ UXmatters)

Posted by PJB on November 12, 2012 | Classification: User experience | Permalink

Information Architecture's Two Schools of Thought

I thought there were three: the Polar Bears, the Enterprise IAs and the Wurmians.

"Most of or clients and colleagues perceive information architecture in a way that resembles either a classic or a contemporary view."

(Nathaniel Davis a.k.a. @iatheory ~ UXmatters)

Posted by PJB on November 12, 2012 | Classification: Information architecture | Permalink

Service Design: Are we still talking about this?

Human values are much more important than roles.

"(...) Chris hates the word 'consumer'. He doesn't want to be called a consumer, because the word carried the implications of being passive and dumb. Instead, he wants to live in a world where he feels valued and useful. And this means we are not talking about point of view anymore, but about purpose. We are talking about values on a much deeper level than marketing and communications were ever able to."

(Chris Downs ~ NEXT Berlin)

Posted by PJB on November 09, 2012 | Classification: Service design | Permalink

Dueling and Design : How fencing and UX are quite alike

Seeing parallels between UX and other fields of practice stimulates the creative flows.

"Since most people are not very familiar with modern competition fencing, let’s start by taking a look at the sport. Modern fencing has its roots in swordplay, but the training and tactics employed are meant to win competitions, not duels. Bouts are fenced to a set number of points. Points are most often scored by making a valid touch on your opponent although points can also be awarded if a fencer retreats off the end of the strip or for certain rule violations. There is a director who judges the bout and enforces the rules."

(Ben Self ~ UX magazine)

Posted by PJB on November 09, 2012 | Classification: User experience | Permalink

Structured Content is Like Your Closet

Based upon the principle of structure: common properties connected.

"Imagine you have a house with a decent-sized closet. But the closet only has couple of hanging rods across the top and middle. Into this closet, you put all of your clothes, from shoes and socks, to suits and ties, sweatpants, your entire wardrobe. And you try to loosely organize the closet – given that all you have are hanging rods. You have a hanger for all of your ties (hanging haphazardly across the middle), you have a pile of socks in one corner, your shirts are on hangers, but placed randomly on the bars. You get the picture."

(Content Rules)

Posted by PJB on November 09, 2012 | Classification: Content strategy | Permalink

Revealing unawareness in usability related decision-making

Usability, (still) a vibrant concept.

"Nowadays, many users experience usability issues with their electronic products. It does not work as they expect or otherwise irritates the user, so he becomes dissatisfied about the product and may even complain about it. These numbers of complaints to companies and usability issues are high and rising. Reasons for these increasing numbers are the highly complex electronic products that are being developed, the global economy in which they are created and produced, and the wide variety of users that uses the product."

(Christelle Harkema and Ilse Luyk-de Visser ~ Design for Usability) ~ courtesy of annekevandelangkruis

Posted by PJB on November 08, 2012 | Classification: Usability | Permalink

Creating Socionas: Building creative understanding of people's experiences in the early stages of new product development

Personas going social. Next up: Mobinas.

"Creating Socionas seeks to address two questions: What do design teams need to understand about the social to develop products and services that delight users? And how can they build this understanding under the constraints of new product development practice?"

(Carolien Postma ~ Delft University of Technology IDStudiolab)

Posted by PJB on November 07, 2012 | Classification: Personas - Social Web | Permalink

All Experience is Organized

Organized through orchestration, choreography, or direction.

"Experience design claims to know better both a user experience as well as its design. The paradox therein being that no experience is designed. Experience is either in the Now, in which case it is event. Or it’s in the past, in which case it is reflected upon and then retold."

(Adrian Chan a.k.a. @gravity7 ~ Johnny Holland Magazine)

Posted by PJB on November 07, 2012 | Classification: Customer experience - User experience | Permalink

Using social bookmarks and tags as alternative indicators of journal content description

From top-down to bottom-up.

"Qualitative journal evaluation cumulates content descriptions of single articles. Articles are either represented by author–generated keywords, professionally indexed subject headings, automatically extracted terms or, as recently introduced, by reader–generated tags as used in social bookmarking systems. The study presented here shows that different types of keywords each reflect a different perspective on documents and that tags can be used in journal evaluation to represent a reader–specific view. After providing a broad theoretical background and literature review, methods for extensive automatic term cleaning and calculation of term overlaps are introduced. The efficiency of tags and other metadata for journal content description is illustrated for one particular journal."

(Stefanie Haustein and Isabella Peters ~ First Monday, Volume 17, Number 11)

Posted by PJB on November 06, 2012 | Classification: Information architecture - Metadata | Permalink

Your Content, Now Mobile

Congrats Karen with this major achievement!

"It is your mission to get your content out, on whichever platform, in whichever format your audience wants to consume it. Your users get to decide how, when, and where they want to read your content. It is your challenge and your responsibility to deliver a good experience to them."

(Karen McGrane a.k.a. @karenmcgrane ~ A List Apart)

Posted by PJB on November 05, 2012 | Classification: Content strategy - Information architecture - Mobile design | Permalink

The UX of publishing for tablets and smartphones

How fast things are going is a matter of perspective. Even in the publishing industry.

"You can debate all these things for as long as you want, but your audience has already chosen for you. They've already gone "mobile first". You probably need to start playing catch up."

(Martin Belam ~ Emblem)

Posted by PJB on November 05, 2012 | Classification: Mobile design - User experience | Permalink

Hardware Specs vs. User Experience

A kind of atoms versus bits, again.

"Product quality has to be judged in the context of human tasks, and reviews should emphasize real use—not raw numbers."

(Jakob Nielsen ~ Alertbox)

Posted by PJB on November 05, 2012 | Classification: HCI - Usability - User experience | Permalink

Testing Positive for Healthcare UX

Experience design for employees, customers, users, and (now) patients.

"The healthcare experience is improving even though we've almost all had a less-than-pleasant memory of either waiting endlessly for an appointment, forgetting when and what dose of meds to take, crying over massive and unpredictable bills, or even just locating decent care in the first place. All of these mounting complaints and expenses have finally pushed healthcare to the tipping point. As a result, a patient-centered paradigm has emerged that is forcing organizations to more closely examine and improve the experiences they provide."

(Maren Connary a.k.a. @MarenConnary ~ UX Week 2012 videos)

Posted by PJB on November 02, 2012 | Classification: Customer experience - User experience | Permalink

Responsive Navigation: Optimizing for Touch Across Devices

On moving through pixel sets and screen sizes.

"As more diverse devices embrace touch as a primary input method, it may be time to revisit navigation standards on the Web. How can a navigation menu be designed to work across a wide range of touch screen sizes?"

(LukeW)

Posted by PJB on November 02, 2012 | Classification: Mobile design | Permalink

Mobile Input Methods

Input, output and the magic in-between.

"One key area that surprises a lot of designers and developers that I have worked with is input methods. Yes, they know that users don't have a mouse, but there's still an unstated assumption that all desktop Web input widgets will work. Perhaps more troubling is that their personal preferences and rumors sometimes supplant data regarding the kinds of actual experiences that exist out in the world."

(Steven Hoober a.k.a. @shoobe01 ~ UXmatters)

Posted by PJB on November 02, 2012 | Classification: HCI - Mobile design | Permalink

"Product designers" and design team evolution

The new 'homo universalis' of experience design.

"Product designers often work alone, and because they're expected to do so many things, end up working on projects of limited scope. (I think this contributes to the problem of managing complex user experiences). My supposition is that the small team of generalists can also out-produce an equal number of team-of-one product designers. You get higher quality, because folks who have a functional emphasis (such as visual design or interaction design) can deliver better than those whose priority is developing a broader set of tools. And you get greater output, because their mastery of those areas means they can deliver more quickly. What you give up are the transaction/overhead costs of teamwork, but I don't think those are as great as the gains."

(Peter Merholz a.k.a. @peterme)

Posted by PJB on November 01, 2012 | Classification: Information design - User experience | Permalink

Philips Design: From data to meaning for people

Sounds a lot like 'Design for Understanding', but I guess that's not what they mean. Or maybe they do in part 2/2.

"The internet is becoming ever more intertwined with our daily lives, even more so now that mobile platforms are blurring the dividing line between the online and physical worlds. Data now touches so many parts of our lives that our world is becoming a composite of digital and real. Data is pervasive, abundant and constantly changing how the world operates. Tapping into this wealth of Big Data has huge potential for data-enhanced businesses that are creative and capable of making data meaningful and relevant for people."

(YouTube Part 2/2)

Posted by PJB on November 01, 2012 | Classification: Information design | Permalink