Lean UX
Zeldman is teaching a class “Selling Design” and has made an online reading list.
http://www.zeldman.com/2012/01/11/selling-design-an-online-reading-list/
Curate forums for me
I would like to have a spider go out and collect the references from multiple forums and put them in one place. I want to search this aggregate site not the individual rambling.
Tell Mr Spider to go to sites X, Y and Z. Look for any topic on “UI patterns” and collate the list of links for that topic. Do this on a regular basis every month or so. I would like to have the ability to pass through and remove what is not of interest and let Mr Spider learn.
If you go visit ixda or linkedin forums or any other forums on UI topics the same questions appears over and over again. This is the same across any topic and any forum site. It is mind numbing. I follow so I can pay attention. I would rather follow the aggregate not the specific.
Do Innovation Consultants Kill Innovation?
” Are companies more innovative than ever before? Judging from the vast number of Fortune 500 companies professing their commitment to innovation, the answer is yes.
But we sense that the more a company talks, thinks, and strategizes about innovation, the less real, big innovation it produces.” -Jens Martin Skibsted
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1665764/why-innovation-consultants-kill-innovation
Do large companies really want innovation?
Are they looking for better solutions to start with?
Is the iPod really an innovation or a better solution to the problem?
Is innovation what 3M did with inventing the sticky note or Xerox with the mouse and icons?
The biggest problem I have seen across many industries is the willingness to solve a problem with the first idea or idea with the path of least resistance. This first idea/solution sits way down low on the normal distribution of ideas but is taken with the belief that they can iterate to the best solution.
This makes me think of trying to take an average or subpar runner and making him an Olympic champion. With all the training, money, technology in the world this average runner will improve. But will he ever become a champion? Not likely. So if you are going to train someone you find the person with the above average natural ability with a large lung capacity and drive to win. Apply the training, money and technology to him and you will have a better chance at a champion.
This applies to design ideas as well. The hard part is working toward the best solution to start with. Bill Buxton points out there are 2 industries in particular that have this baked into the way they do work: 1) film industry and 2) the car industry. There processes work through to get to the better script or better design.
“We are ruined by our own biases. When making decisions, we see what we want, ignore probabilities, and minimize risks that uproot our hopes. What’s worse, “we are often confident even when we are wrong,” by Daniel Kahneman
“How analytics harvested from massive databases will begin to inform our day-to-day business decisions. Call it Big Data, analytics, or decision science. Over time, this will change your world more than the iPad 3.Computer systems are now becoming powerful enough, and subtle enough, to help us reduce human biases from our decision-making. And this is a key: They can do it in real-time. Inevitably, that “objective observer” will be a kind of organic, evolving database. These systems can now chew through billions of bits of data, analyze them via self-learning algorithms, and package the insights for immediate use. Neither we nor the computers are perfect, but in tandem, we might neutralize our biased, intuitive failings when we price a car, prescribe a medicine, or deploy a sales force.” – Dennis Berman
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203462304577138961342097348.html
Your online portfolio
http://carbonmade.com/
Your portfolio on an ipad
http://www.xtrafolio.com/
So many portfolio tools are for images or graphics. I am looking for something that covers all of interaction and visual design so I can show click throughs and design interactions as well as graphics.
I thought this an interesting opposite of an Agile “Done.” Agile is focused on an engineering methodology of done. Below is a start up methodology of done. They are very different.
I know this spectrum is very wide, but this is a good example of why each team has to define its operational rules and their definition of done. A team starting up will have a different definition of done from a legacy development team.
Done Manifesto: Or rather a get it done manifesto
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1665527/infographic-of-the-day-13-rules-for-realizing-your-creative-vision Article by Cliff Kuang of Co.Design
This fastcompany article is an interesting writeup of the expectations of users today.
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1665491/what-the-jawbone-ups-failures-tell-you-about-ui-design
This is a review of a product (a wristband and smartphone app that track your wellness) that has spots of brilliance interrupted by transitions of annoyance. Follow his progression:
· The wristband itself is superbly designed
o track how much you’re walking, exercising, or sleeping; upload data to the app,
· The software is too buggy and confusing, the user experience too unresolved.
· The wristband, which has a speaker jack clearly hidden on one end, has to be plugged into your phone every time you want to refresh your data. (Why no Bluetooth?)
· Imagine if the wristband was constantly communicating data to your phone.
· introduces just enough friction into the process that it never quite integrates seamlessly into your routines
· Simply having to take the wristband off, uncap the end piece, plug it into your phone, load up the UP app, and then have it synch means that it becomes another chore
· we are approaching a point where if something matters to your life, it’s on your smartphone
· (On a smartphone) The apps themselves are stripped down to their functional essence, so even though they’re always present, it doesn’t feel like any of them are claiming more attention than we want to give.
· there’s too many paths for ultimately doing the same thing. You can go around in circles on the thing, and that quickly becomes exhausting
· it leaves you this constant nagging worry that no UI should ever create: Am I doing this the right way? You feel lost, in a very high-tech manner.
Disruptive innovation
Start with simple and affordable then change the definition.
http://gartner.mediasite.com/mediasite/play/9cfe6bba5c7941e09bee95eb63f769421d?t=1320659595
Just finished talking about “innovation” and what enterprise software companies mean by it. While the thoughts are still in my head I will write them down. It is not that this is rocket science but it seems to be missed in the discussions of doing design in a company. Is what you are working on go to make money or save the company money? To that end it is important that you know whether you are building your software for the “line of business” or for the delivery to the customer.
On the topic of innovation, how much are people willing to “innovate” on the line of business? How much are they willing to pay for something that they consider a cost center not a profit center. Should the definition of “best” be in the context of efficiencies: design, development, implementation and usage? If it is not incrementally better how do you describe the cost savings to the organization?
When delivering to the customer the solution might not be the most efficient. This may depend on the goals. When someone says they want something innovative here what are they asking for? Increasing profits? Here we may not want incrementally better. We may need something that is a step wise improvement or in some organizations a completely different approach. In any case beware of what you are designing for.
