All posts from
May 2008

Leading the Rebellion Inside Large Organizations

“What are the stories behind the truly great ideas? What are the obstacles that got in the way of these ideas? And, what’s the real story behind visionary products that do manage to make it through otherwise hostile environments? From sticky notes to the RAZR phone, the stories of how these things came to be typically includes some form ‘rebellion’ against business as usual— which in large organizations has a tendency to be about power, position, predictability, and a score of other concerns fairly well-removed from the idea itself.” (Stephen P. Andersonpoetpainter)

Urban procedural rhetorics

“This is a transcript of my presentation at The Web and Beyond 2008: Mobility in Amsterdam on 22 May. Since the majority of paying attendees were local I presented in Dutch. However, English appears to be the lingua franca of the internet, so here I offer a translation. I have uploaded the slides to SlideShare and hope to be able to share a video recording of the whole thing soon.” (Kars AlfrinkLeapfrog)

Everything in Moderation: Using Content Units to Manage UX

“The Roman philosopher Cicero stated, ‘Never go to excess, but let moderation be your guide.’ The trouble is, even though people have repeated this particular quotation over the past couple of millennia, our clients often push the limits excessively—beyond moderation—for both content and presentation. As a UX professional, how do you demonstrate to your clients the benefits of moderation in user experience? You show them.” (Keith LaFerriereUXmatters)

Breaking Down the Silos: Usability Practitioners Meet Marketing Researchers

“Being a consultant with experience in both traditional marketing research and user experience and usability gives me a unique perspective on a broad range of issues relating to customer experience. Not only do I have a good idea of what the other discipline does, I am a practitioner of the other discipline. However, in attempting to play both roles at once, I often find that client companies keep these two disciplines locked up in separate silos—usability research within IT and marketing research within the Marketing Services department. This can have a serious impact on the sharing of information relating to customer experience.” (David KozatchUXmatters)

Getting Emotional With… Lorraine Justice

“Lorraine Justice Ph. D., is currently head of the Design School at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Dr. Justice has served in higher education for the past seventeen years, teaching in the areas of industrial design and human computer interface design. (…) Currently, Lorraine is involved in the shared organization (between the Polytechnic University and the Design & Emotion Society) of the 6th International Conference on Design & Emotion in Hong Kong, October 6-9, 2008 . The International Conference on Design & Emotion is a forum where practitioners, researchers and industry meet and exchange knowledge and insights concerning the cross-disciplinary field of design and emotion. Lorraine will also give a key-note lecture at this exciting event.” (Design & Emotion – Marco van Hout)

Subject To Change: The Movie

“Well, not exactly … but two of my co-authors, Brandon Schauer and David Verba, recently gave a presentation on Subject To Change at Google and it was recorded on video. It’s a good overview of the main points of the book so we thought it would be good to share as a way to learn more about what the book has too say. Sit back, grab some popcorn, and enjoy.” (Todd WilkensAdaptive Path Blog) – courtesy of marcfonteijn

Thoughts on Interaction Design (download)

“Interaction designers are the shapers of behavior. Behavior is a large idea, and may, at first blush, seem too large to warrant a single profession. But a profession has emerged nonetheless. This professional category includes the complexity of information architecture, the anthropologic desire to understand humanity, the altruistic nature of usability engineering, and the creation of dialogue. These topics are discussed in the four sections of this text. Download ‘Thoughts on Interaction Design’ as a single .pdf file suitable for on-screen reading (2,520k)” (Jon Kolko et al.)

Document Engineering and User Experience Design

“A great user experience on the web site doesn’t mean squat if this back stage ‘content choreography’ goes wrong. So I’ve been saying that it is essential to consider the entire network of services that comprise the back and front stages as complementary parts of a ‘service system’. We need new concepts and methods in service design that recognize how back stage information and processes can improve the front stage experience.” (Robert J. GlushkoDocOrDie)