The Guardian supplement on Service Design

Added on 15 March 2010 Peter Bogaards
“We are happy to announce that the British newspaper The Guardian has released a ten page supplement on Service Design today, Monday, 15th of March! In co-operation with the Service Design Network The Guardian has produced a supplement themed on Service Design and Innovation in partnership with organisations from the Service Design and Innovation markets. Included are many interesting case studies and best practices with perceivable business impact but also enjoyable and easy understandable examples. 10 Pages, 350.000 copies… great stories! ” (Service Design Network) – courtesy of ronverweij

The Virtues of a UX Professional

Added on 11 March 2010 Peter Bogaards
“UX professionals can be an egotistical lot. We like to think that only certain people with certain qualities can do what we do. Not everybody has the right stuff to fly to the moon or storm the beaches at Normandy. And in a similar way (sort of) not everybody has what it takes to create great user experiences.” (Colman Walsh – IQBlog)

Can you mix Agile and UX?

Added on 11 March 2010 Peter Bogaards
“Here’s my open transparent written exploration of how I am navigating this concept. (…) I think the concept of Agile is fine, its the execution of it that I think is where the story kind of starts to fall a little to the way side, I think from a UX standpoint you really need to outline the features ahead but do so in a way that is suited to a ready, aim, fire model.” (Scott Barnes)

The Craft of Interaction Design

Added on 9 March 2010 Peter Bogaards
“I’ve been involved in developing what I would say is the craft of interaction design. A craft is a way of working that you develop entirely through experience without thinking about rationalizing it or systematizing it. And I believe that craft is essential to interaction design, and always will be. But I also believe that there could be ways of thinking about interaction design, ways of generalizing principles from experience and existing knowledge, just as in the twenties general principles about composition and graphic design were developed at the Bauhaus, or a new grammar of film was invented by Eisenstein and written about by Arnheim. These ways of thinking about practice make a platform in which people coming after us can build without them needing to invent everything from the start.” (Gillian Crampton-Smith 2007)

Proceedings First International Congress on Web Studies PDF Logo

Added on 8 March 2010 Peter Bogaards
“The 1st international congress on Web Studies aims at providing a venue for researchers and professionals from different backgrounds for discussion, study, practical demonstrations, sharing, and exchange on new developments and theories regarding the World Wide Web. The congress therefore invites contributions from a heterogeneous set of fields and domains such as: Web systems, computational intelligence, human-computer interaction, digital theory, Web sociology, and well as interactive and digital arts. We also encourage contributions from businesses and organizations.” (1st Int’l Congress on Web Studies) – courtesy of markbernstein

Do’s and Don’ts of Usability Testing

Added on 8 March 2010 Peter Bogaards
“Usability testing is one of the least glamorous, but most important aspects of user experience research. Over the years, it has also been one of the forms of user research we have performed most frequently. In doing so, we’ve learned quite a few best practices and encountered some potential pitfalls. We think it’s important that we share what we’ve learned with the many stakeholders, designers, and engineers who might find this information helpful.” (Demetrius Madrigal and Bryan McClain – UXmatters)

Designing Mobile Search: Turning Limitations into Opportunities

Added on 8 March 2010 Peter Bogaards
“Thinking of porting your Web finding experience to iPhone, Android, or Windows Mobile? Just forget about the fact that these devices are basically full-featured computers with tiny screens. Having gone through this design exercise a few times, I have realized that designing a great mobile finding experience requires a way of thinking that is quite different from our typical approach to designing search for Web or desktop applications. To put it simply, designing a mobile finding experience requires thinking in terms of turning limitations into opportunities. In this column, I’ll discuss some of the limitations of mobile platforms, as well as the opportunities they afford, and share a few design ideas that might come in handy for your own projects.” (Greg Nudelman – UXmatters)

The Art of Narrative and the Semantic Web

Added on 5 March 2010 Peter Bogaards
“The art of the narrative is one of the strongest threads running through our society and culture, and is in many respects one of the defining traits of humanity. ‘The story’ is more than just a recitation of facts or assertions (whether real or otherwise). A good story is experiential. It puts each of us as listeners into the narrator’s world and frame of mind, let’s us live, vicariously, through the experiences that the narrator had or conceived. In many cases we identify with the protagonist, whether the story is an epic fantasy journey through lost worlds, a sports article talking about the clash between two rival football teams, or the reportage of a major political event. We read meaning into these narratives at many level, from the bald statement of fact to the subtle interplay of analysis, implication, innuendo and metaphor, and it is the richness of these metaphors that give meaning to the work.” (Kurt Cagle – DevX)