All posts from
April 2014

Creating style guides

Added on 8 April 2014 Peter Bogaards

Documenting design decisions is a honorable piece of work.

“(…) a style guide is a living document of code, which details all the various elements and coded modules of your site or application. Beyond its use in consolidating the front-end code, it also documents the visual language, such as header styles and color palettes, used to create the site. This way, it’s a one-stop place for the entire team—from product owners and producers to designers and developers—to reference when discussing site changes and iterations. Several companies have even put their guides online; Starbucks is the most well known of the bunch, but others exist.”

(Susan Robertson a.k.a. @susanjrobertson ~ A List Apart)

An extended interview with John Maeda, Design Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Added on 8 April 2014 Peter Bogaards

Always a treat to read John Maeda speak about design, Design and De$ign. Even though it’s briefly in this interview.

“Technology has matured. We don’t buy things because they have better technology; we buy them because they’re better designed. People in technology generally don’t understand what design is. I think there’s an opportunity and responsibility for designers to play a larger role in economic development and leadership. I call it moving from lowercase design to capital D Design to dollar sign De$ign. It’s going to be important for design to take a larger role in the technology economy.”

(Tina Essmaker a.k.a. @tinaessmaker ~ The Great Discontent)

Mapping user journeys using visual languages

Added on 8 April 2014 Peter Bogaards

Great to see InfoDesign entering the territory of Service Design. We had to wait a while, but there it is.

“The use of wayfinding systems does not focus on aesthetics, but on the best ways of communicating key flows, barriers, and necessary improvements to stakeholders and clients, as well as to show opportunities to streamline experiences. Using the common framework of boxes and arrows just does’t do justice to the value that you can obtain from journey maps.”

(Shean Malik ~ UXmatters)

Orchestrating touchpoints

Added on 8 April 2014 Peter Bogaards

Cross-channels, omni-channels and trans-channels, all working in harmony to deliver great services.

“As services become more interconnected across channels and devices – and more importantly across time and space – it’s becoming increasingly important to find ways to gain insight about customers’ interactions with your product or service. Whether it’s an expanding digital product ecosystem, a cross-channel retail experience, or a complex, intangible service experience — how do we design experiences that unfold over time and through changing contexts?”

(Chris Risdon a.k.a. @chrisrisdon ~ From business to buttons 2014 videos)

Bringing users into your process through Participatory Design

Added on 7 April 2014 Peter Bogaards

I hear the distant voices of Pelle Ehn, Susanne Bødker and Morten Kyng calling us.

“We’ve been seeing an intense pressure on businesses to rapidly make sense of customer needs and demands, then incorporate that feedback into new or existing products. For today’s designers, it can be challenging to make well-informed decisions about the large and small details that comprise these products, especially when working within the constraints of an agile/scrum methodology.”

(David Sherwin a.k.a. @changeorder ~frog Design Mind)

The seduction of semantics and the third wave

Added on 6 April 2014 Peter Bogaards

Only the discourse will bring our field forward. Not the table tennis of opinions.

“If there’s a third wave, a new spirit, a , it’s because we can build on 20 years of continuous practice and research and some 40 years of framing a common problem space. We are as much moving on as we are bringing it all back home: it’d be great if we could do that without paying too much attention to the sirens of unnecessary semantics. It’s a waste of time and we have a ton of work to do.”

(Andreas Resmini a.k.a. @resmini)

The dawn of the next era of human computer interaction

Added on 4 April 2014 Peter Bogaards

Sometimes it’s going really fast when a technology giant puts its weight behind it.

“The history of Human Computer Interaction has had a few notable eras and we are at the dawn of the next era. In this talk I will describe those previous eras and how various factors shaped our interactions with computing as well as lead into how the forces at play in today’s world are calling for a new era with new design solutions.”

(Samuel Moreau ~ Design Authority videos)

Establish user experience transformation as a continuous evolution

Added on 4 April 2014 Peter Bogaards

Sometimes it’s going really fast when a technology giant puts its weight behind it.

“Many enterprises have committed to and invested in large digital transformations; they now need to understand that these transformations are merely the first iteration of a continuous cycle. The most successful enterprises recognize that digital initiatives are never complete – they evolve. (…) Establishing a foundation for continuous UX improvement with an end-to-end governance process and structure across an entire enterprise is critical.”

(Richard Berkman a.k.a. @RichBerk & Marvin Klein a.k.a. @thouxghts ~ IBM Interactive Experience)

The woman behind Apple’s first icons

Added on 3 April 2014 Peter Bogaards

Honoring our historical roots is what makes us more mature as a relevant domain in world history. Even though is still three decades old, sort of.

“Thirty years ago, as tech titans battled for real estate in the personal computer market, an inconspicuous young artist gave the Macintosh a smile. Susan Kare was the type of kid who always loved art. As a child, she lost herself in drawings, paintings, and crafts; as a young woman, she dove into art history and had grandeur dreams of being a world-renowned fine artist.”

(Zachary Crockett a.k.a. @zzcrockett ~ Priceonomics)

Telling stories: Mapping the patient experience at John Muir Health

Added on 3 April 2014 Peter Bogaards

PX (‘patient experience’) following close to CX (‘customer experience’). Upcoming new kid on the block soon, LX (‘learner experience’).

“For us this not only gave us an opportunity to leverage and diversify methods, like storytelling, to gather insights, but also brought us closer to the heart of the new face of healthcare, the patient.”

(Anel Muller ~ Adaptive Path)

Systemic design principles for complex social systems

Added on 3 April 2014 Peter Bogaards

Economic, technological and social trends force designers to do some deep reflective thinking on what they’re working on.

“Systemic design is not a design discipline (e.g. graphic or industrial design) but an orientation, a next-generation practice developed by necessity to advance design practices in systemic problems. As a strong practice of design, the ultimate aim is to co-design better policies, programs and service systems. The methods and principles enabling systemic design are drawn from many schools of thought, in both systems and design thinking. The objective of the systemic design project is to affirmatively integrate systems thinking and systems methods to guide human-centered design for complex, multi-system and multi-stakeholder services and programs.”

(Peter Jones a.k.a. @redesign)

Proceedings of Chi Sparks 2014: Creating the difference

Added on 3 April 2014 Peter Bogaards

Proud to have contributed to at least one of the papers.

“At the Chi Sparks 2014 conference, researchers and practitioners in the HCI community convene to share and discuss their efforts on researching and developing methods, techniques, products, and services that enable people to have better interactions with systems and other people. The conference is hosted at The Hague University of Applied Sciences, and proudly built upon the previous conferences in Arnhem (2011) and Leiden (2009).”

(Chi Sparks 2014 ~ April 3, 2014)

Service blueprinting: Transforming the student experience

Added on 2 April 2014 Peter Bogaards

Our current educational system at large requires outside-in thinking. Service design and its deliverables is a little step. A different mindset is needed.

“In this article (…), we explore the transformative power of viewing higher education and the student experience through a service lens and explain and provide an example of how service blueprinting, a simple but powerful service design technique, can be used to transform student experiences in higher education. Throughout, the strategic role of technology in transforming student experiences is emphasized.”

(Mary Jo Bitner, Amy Ostrom, and Kevin Burkhard ~ EDUCAUSE)

UX is a social justice issue

Added on 1 April 2014 Peter Bogaards

Finally, somebody addressing UX design work for social and common causes, like health, education and privacy. Librarians rulez!

“Let’s look at what it takes to do user experience work. You have to look at your service from the point of view of someone who knows a lot less than you, and see where they’re coming from. You have to imagine the reasons why they want what they want. Seeing that causation, seeing the connection between what someone’s doing now and all the causation that went before it, is empathy. (…) Better user experience is the best force multiplier we have at our command, so it’s vital that we make it a first-class priority, throughout the development process. And with disciplined empathy we can do that – here at the intersection of libraries and tech, we can figure out how to scale hospitality, fix the new last mile problem, and actually achieve the social justice goals that so many of us got into this for.”

(Sumana Harihareswara a.k.a. @brainwane ~ Code4Lib)