Helpful insights on some common traps UX designers’ fall into, from Silicon Valley insider Marty Cagan. Thanks to @A_Silvers for posting on Twitter. A sampling:
… don’t try to show taxonomies, concept maps, site maps, task analysis grids, design process maps and even wireframes to execs. These tools are all useful for designers, but not for execs. Please trust me when I say they will only serve to freak out the execs.
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Nice article by Kate Canales of design mind on why the best designs don’t come from good tools or cool workspaces, but from good teams. I also like her emphasis on the fact that designers are (optimally) not just “style makers” but “systems thinkers.” An excerpt:
A perception persists that designers are the arbiters of style, and that we work mainly in slick big-city lofts behind oversized computer monitors. There’s no doubt that many of us do love giving form to objects (likewise, few can deny the allure of a nice loft). But design is now so much more than aesthetics. Designers are systems thinkers. We create everything from electric vehicle infrastructures and citywide transit networks to social media healthcare apps and countrywide HIV helplines.
To create these kinds of complex systems we have to spend time doing research in the field, so we can understand who will be using what we design and how they will use it. This is how we can make designs that are relevant and usable.
Here’s a link to the full article, which describes a recent pilot project she worked on in rural Zambia ”that used text messaging to deliver lab results between doctors and HIV-positive mothers and infants.” Great stuff.
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From web content guru Gerry McGovern: “People involved with websites need to have a service heart…. Empathy. Great web teams have empthy for their customers.”
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Enjoyed this short essay by Don Norman on why “A Product is More Than The Product.” Here’s a snippet:
In reality a product is all about the experience. It is about discovery, purchase, anticipation, opening the package, the very first usage. It is also about continued usage, learning, the need for assistance, updating, maintenance, supplies, and eventual renewal in the form of disposal or exchange. Most companies treat every stage as a different process, done by a different division of the company: R&D, manufacturing, packaging, sales, and then as a necessary afterthought, service. As a result there is seldom any coherence. Instead, there are contradictions. If you think of the product as a service, then the separate parts make no sense–the point of a product is to offer great experiences to its owner, which means that it offers a service. And that experience, that service, is the result of the coherence of the parts. The real value of a product consists of far more than the product’s components.
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My colleague Mitzie Testani was kind enough to publish my response to this question from one of her students at the Tyler School of Design:
Why is there a difference between the information architect and the visual designer, if designers understand hierarchy and organization, why isn’t it up to the visual designers to set up the wire framing?
Her nonperishable site promises to be a great resource for budding designers and art school students — check it out!
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A bright motivated undergrad decides to ask her professor for a recommendation to graduate school. WARNING: Painfully accurate for anyone who has been down this path.
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This is priceless… So much for Peter Morville’s concept of “pervasive IA.”
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Johnny Holland published some decent summaries of the Day 1 and Day 2 sessions at last week’s IDEA 10 conference in Philadelphia. I will be posting my notes from the conference here soon, but in the meantime these summaries provide some sense of the conference’s central themes.
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Below are my notes from Samantha Starmer’s presentation at IA Summit 10 on “The Holistic Customer.”
NOTE: This YouTube video is from the MX 2010 conference, but it covers the same material Samantha presented at IA Summit.
Works for REI: started in 1938, member-owned
Started with story: Speaking at a conference in Palm Springs – got to stay in a fancy resort hotel. But had been flying all day and was tired; wanted an adult beverage. Wine on hotel menu cost $80. Decided to find a grocery store nearby. But had to get out of the 13 acre resort… with a crappy map. Had to tip someone to find the exit of the hotel. After getting her alcohol, she got lost in the dark at the hotel. She gave the hotel a FAIL for explorability.
Later learned that they have a no-sign policy. They even asked conference attendees to remove their conference badges (!). No signs on the doors; no label on the ice machine door or restaurant.
Why should you care about this story?
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