Temple Grandin PART 1 of 2 | UX Week 2009 | Adaptive Path from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

Temple Grandin PART 2 of 2 | UX Week 2009 | Adaptive Path from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

We’re digging on these tips for crafting subtle & realistic user interfaces.

Like everyone else, we’re itching to design for iPad. Already some folks have made it a little bit easier: Here’s a collection of iPad UI elements on Flickr, and here are clips from the Apple announcement that focus on the new interactions.

As part of some literature research for a client project, we dug up “Instructive Interaction: Making Innovative Interfaces Self-Teaching” (PDF).

It’s an older one, but we recently stumbled across, Dear Designer, You Suck, and found the post, and ensuring commentary, worth reading.

Why Closed Works: Moving Past Steampunk Thinking About The Future Of Computing.

Nice to see The Guardian asking the question, “What is Information Architecture?”

Redesigning the brand identity for Chiquita banana. The original Chiquita Banana song and animated short!

All you need to know is the URL: http://www.pajamajeans.com.

If you like Tom Selleck or waterfalls or sandwiches or ALL THREE, this site is for you.

We also had our own cute overload in the office this week, care of Leah’s new puppy, Roku! Roku loves you, particularly if you have a treat.

Now honestly, I’m more of a dictyosteliomycota fan. But I’m not against admiring the myxomycota branch of the family.

After all, what’s not to love about an organism that can solve mazes and whose fear can be harnessed to run a robot? Hell, with a slime mold in your back pocket, you can even win awards.

The latest news is using slime mold to model networks and find the nuanced efficiencies of connecting notes and optimizing pathways. When is this helpful? Well, it’s helpful if you are designing rail systems in Tokyo, or highway systems in the UK.

My prediction? If this handy bio-pet can discover efficiencies in movement and optimize networks, I see smart applications for architecture, urban planning and local transit networks. Heck, you could even model the optimal placement for the office watercooler so that the location promotes local connections between colleagues and team members.

Sigh. It’s all getting so very exciting. Go slime mold! What will you think of next?

More reading for members of the Slime Mold Fan Club:

• Slime Mold Grows Network Just Like Tokyo Rail System
• Designing highways the slime mould way
• Engineers ‘can learn from slime’

10 to 15 years ago the usability laboratory was the must-have for vetting and testing your design ideas. But more nimble development processes and new tools seem to have superseded the usability lab. Some of these are:

• remote screen sharing and screen recording tools and services
• voice of the customer feedback systems, like Get Satisfaction and other SaaS tools
• A/B testing and multi-variant testing
• remote co-design tools like online card sorting
• survey tools for straight-up surveys and concept evaluations
• public betas, previews, and opt-ins

  By picking a smart set of these tools, I think an organization can make smarter decisions throughout the design and development process in a live dialog with more users than a traditional usability lab ever could.

The gist of the internal response was, “Analytics!” As Jesse put it, “Studying actual user behavior will beat the lab every time.” Analytics alone isn’t sufficient, so it’s best augmented with live intercepts of actual users engaging in real tasks.

As I see it, though, this is not news. We’ve known about analytics, multi-variant and A/B testing, and the like for over a decade. Companies like Amazon have demonstrated just how powerful it is to instrument your site and use that data to drive key decisions. Heck, 5 years ago, Adaptive Path began work on what became Measure Map, an analytics tool designed specifically for bloggers, our reaction to a marketplace full of bloated tools.

However, even today, when we ask our clients for analytics data, it is common that they do not have any. How is it that in 2010, there are still many organizations not taking advantage of this rich vein of information?

The first reason (and, really, it’s my standard answer for almost anything to do with product development) is mindset. Most organizations simply don’t have the mindset to measure, analyze, and iterate to improve. Particularly product development teams. This is one place that marketing seems to have product development beat.

For decades, marketing has tracked the impact of its efforts, and that practice has carried over to the Web. Product development often does not — before ubiquitous internet, there was no value in instrumenting software interfaces, because there was no way to get that data. So product development learned to make decisions using other methods, such as usability engineering. And once something ships, product groups tend to move on to the next thing, and aren’t particularly interested in how well what they shipped is performing — that’s now in the past. Product dev teams need to incorporate analytics feedback into their processes.

Another issue is that came up in our company dialogue was that many companies that do use analytics tools don’t know what to do with the data. It’s not clear how to turn that data into information, and that information into valuable insights about what action take. They don’t know what questions to ask the data; or they ask too many questions, and they get so many answers, they don’t know how to prioritize the feedback; or they have a focused set of answer, but they don’t know what to change in their efforts to desirably “move the needle”.

So what to do? Well, if you’re not embracing analytics, do so, now. Google Analytics is free. Use it. But don’t go crazy. Identify a few key measures. Allow a little while for the data to be dependable. Develop some hypotheses as to what’s happening, and make some small changes to test those hypotheses. Lather, rinse, and repeat. You’ll grow more confident, and as you do, you’ll get more sophisticated. Always remember that analytics are not “the answer” — but they are an input into a continually improving and iterating development process.

So I put together both a PowerPoint and Keynote file to help you do the same thing. Try it out before your next design session, and let us know if you think it works!

We also followed the release of a new touchscreen tablet and a whole lot of practically obligatory cheeky commentary, especially from MadTV.

Okcupid’s blog has been fascinating lately, analyzing what factors affect the rate of messages (or replies) someone gets on their site. There’s also plenty earlier entries correlating other fascinating trends across their data.

Okay, this is pretty smart. Tynt Insight tracks user engagement on your web site by tracking copy and paste activity and automatically adds a link back to your content when it is pasted somewhere else.

We have found ourselves wondering if Mega Shark could really take down a plane? And then checking, once more, the evidence..

If you are looking for fantastic illustrations, paintings, photography and vintage book designs, you might check this lovely blog.

And finally an argument against safety for the mere appearance of safety: Hans Monderman, who argued that “traditional traffic safety infra structure— warning signs, traffic lights, metal railings, curbs, painted lines, speed bumps, and so on— is not only often unnecessary, but can endanger those it is meant to protect.”

• Fit in shirt pocket
• Sync seamlessly with PC
• Fast and easy to use
• Costs no more than $299

While the quality and characteristics of the product’s behavior were crucial, it’s revealing that among the top considerations was price. Simply building a great product isn’t sufficient, if people aren’t willing to fork over the cash. Also, setting a price limit is a great way to fight feature and function creep.

Before iPad was announced yesterday, some industry watchers were guessing for a price tag just short of $1000.

Steve blew them away when he announced $499.

Image taken from Engadget’s coverage.

He also made investors very happy at that moment.

And what I firmly believe is that “$499″ was a mantra for the device. (If you calculate what $299 is worth in today’s dollars using the Consumer Price Index, you get $410.) Steve knew that he had to be able to release something that was less than $500. Once you factored the components that have become table stakes–wi-fi connectivity; accelerometer; full capacitive touch; support for high-quality video; crazy long battery life–there was no room left for a camera or for GPS. And that was the sacrifice they were willing to make in order to hit that number.

Jared Spool. You know him, you love him, and you can see him when he keynotes MX: Managing Experience on March 7th.

He’s graciously allowed us to repost this article so we can give you an idea of what his MX talk is based on.

The 3 Qs for Great Experience Design
By Jared M. Spool
(Originally published: Oct 06, 2008 here)

For more than seven years, we’ve studied how the great user experience teams succeed. We’ve looked at a variety of variables to isolate what it takes. We’ve looked at management structure, employed methodologies, best practices, and hiring qualifications. We’ve looked at team communication techniques, requirement gathering techniques, the target industry, and the geographic location. All said, we’ve inspected about 250 different variables for dozens of organizations across a wide variety of industries, educational institutions, and government.

As with most things, most variables don’t play a role. However, we found three key variables as being critically important: vision, feedback, and culture. Using these three variables, we’ve created corresponding questions to help us quickly rate a team’s experience design prowess. Teams that answer these questions well are far more likely to create great experiences than the rest of the pack.

Factor #1: Understanding the purpose of vision
Here’s the first question we ask: “Does everyone on your team know what the experience will be like interacting with your offerings five years from now?”

When the answer is affirmative, any team member can describe what the user’s experience will be like in five years. They’ll tell us a story, like this real one from a century-old insurance company:

“An insured home and car owner, having just had a tree fall on their garage, will log into the site, explain the damage, upload pictures, and get initial claim approval to start temporary repairs and get a rental car—all within a few minutes. Within the next 24 hours, inspection appointments and a detailed damage assessment are scheduled and reviewed, and the repairs are underway within 48 hours. All the payments are handled electronically from the insurance company, with a single NET-60 bill sent to the policy holder for the deductibles.”

This story is an experience vision. It outlines how the person, in this case someone who insures both their home and car with the company, can make a joint claim and quickly start the recovery process. Notice that the story doesn’t describe the specifics of the design or the system — that’s not important. What’s important is understanding the experience of the policy holder.

While this particular story may not sound that interesting or difficult to someone outside, for this organization it’s a radical departure from today’s experience. Their business units currently don’t talk to each other and pretend that customers don’t exist beyond their own individual products. So, this integrated vision shows a radical departure and eliminates much of the frustration caused by today’s organizational reality. For this organization, five years is aggressive for the substantial, under-the-covers changes that this vision will require.

We like looking five-years ahead because it gets beyond the immediate reactive requirements and starts considering what a great experience could be. If we only looked one year ahead, we’d be stuck with the current realities. If we look too far out, we get into the realm of science fiction.

Because everyone on the team has the same vision, they are all on the same page for what it takes to succeed. Think of it as a stake in the sand on the horizon. Everyone can see the stake and knows when they are taking baby steps towards it and when they are moving away. The stake can move at any time (and, for some organizations, does frequently), but that’s ok, since everyone can see the change and start moving in the new direction.

Struggling teams can’t answer this question affirmatively. They either have never considered beyond the problems of the day or everyone has a different vision. Working to have a solid vision that everyone shares will go a long way to help these teams.

Factor #2: Having a solid feedback mechanism
While the first question deals with where the team is going, the second question deals with where the design has been: “In the last six weeks, have your team members spent at least two hours watching people experience your product or service?”

We’re looking for teams that can answer affirmatively no matter when we ask. That means they are regularly watching the users and learning from them.

These observation sessions can happen in a variety of ways (and in the best organizations, the variety is wide). They can be usability tests or field studies. In each case, each team member has spent a minimum of two hours observing the current experience.

Note that we’re not talking about surveys or satisfaction measures. Those instruments are often flawed and only give a very small piece of the picture. In the best case, they can tell us whether users are frustrated or delighted, but they can’t tell us why. The team needs to observe the experience, in a detailed manner, to really get the information required to make the critical decisions.

Six weeks is an important period. In our research, the average team member works on an experience design project for twenty-four months. This means they’ll encounter a minimum of 16 separate experiences during their tenure, working out to be an average of 48 observations for a four-member team during that period. All of that detailed information can’t help but create better informed decisions in the design process.

Longer than six weeks and the exposure to the users starts to wear off. It’s far less likely that a team member will say, “What about when we saw Fred have problems with accessing multiple policies?” when Fred’s experience happened months before.

Many struggling teams have never had a single member observe the experience of using their design, even though, in some cases, millions of users interact with the design every day. In other cases, they only get data from indirect sources or they’ve had limited exposure during their tenure. When this happens, each member of the team can only talk to their own experience of using the design, which is very likely to be at odds with how real users experience it.

Factor #3: Living a culture that relishes “failure”
The first two questions are straight-forward and make sense, from a strategic perspective. You have to know where you’re going and you have to know what you’ve already built. The last question, on the other hand, can seem counter-intuitive: “In the last six weeks, has your senior management held a celebration of a recently introduced design problem?”

In most organizations, problems are not cause for celebration. However, in a culture that pushes for frequent small changes, problems become opportunities for improvement. Teams that answer affirmatively have established a culture that not only accepts failure, but relishes it as a way to learn about the users and their needs.

At a major software corporation, the CEO regularly holds parties to give out a valued award, shaped as a full-size life preserver, to individuals who have created “learning opportunities” by introducing a problem into the design. Of course, the CEO acknowledges that the problem wasn’t introduced intentionally. But, because it made it into the design, the organization learned important lessons they can use going forward. Receiving the life preserver award from the CEO has become a high honor within the company.

For example, a technology company recently experienced a massive server outage as, upon the release of a highly-desired new feature, millions of users tried to upgrade simultaneously. While the server outage was a major embarrassment (reflected in the press and on Wall Street), it was because of a successful marketing and design campaign for highly-desired functionality. Despite the momentary crisis, the organization simultaneously learned how to create desirable enhancements while also learning the impact that it has on their infrastructure — both valuable lessons they’ll refer to for years to come.

The best organizations hold these celebrations frequently, because they are constantly learning from their mistakes. By making the learning process explicit, through their acknowledgement and reward, the culture starts to look for it. As the old saying goes, “That which is measured gets done and that which is rewarded gets done well.”

Struggling organizations do not hold celebrations of what they perceive to be design problems. Instead, they’ll punish the “culprits” and put new product-preventing policies in place to stop it from re-occurring. Soon, the original stimuli for these policies are forgotten and the organization is doomed to repeat the mistakes.

Driving Towards Improvement
The neat thing about these three questions is their applicability to constant improvement. Teams can self assess and look for opportunities to answer the questions better.

A good team may have a start to the vision, but hasn’t communicated it to everyone who has influence over the design. The team may occasionally get feedback on their current experience, but hasn’t seen anyone recently. And there’s always opportunities to highlight the latest things they’ve learned, even if it was a difficult learning process.

While further research could show there are other factors that influence a team’s success, it’s clear to us that these three factors are critically important. Fortunately, improving them has little downside, making them a serious candidate for any amount of investment the organization can afford.
———–
About MX: Managing Experience
March 7-8 | San Francisco | $1,595
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www.mxconference.com

MX is a conference for people who take a leadership role in guiding better experiences into the world. MX serves up examples to learn from and approaches to adopt that can help you lead your organization toward investing in or improving your customer experience on the web, mobile, and more. Over a day and a half we’ll look at the key elements critical to your success as a leader: experience strategy and communicating that strategy, organizational buy-in, results-oriented investment and measurement, and the emerging trends you’ll have to master.

This got us debating if driving connected is safe. Where is the line between our personal responsibility to drive safe and the responsibility of the car manufacturers or traffic engineers to design safe? Or for that matter, what happens when a citizen takes designing street signs into their own hands?

The next time we need to facilitate a meeting here in SF with a difficult client, we will bring in the big guns: SF Double Dutch.

We’re admiring how the design team at YouTube is respecting its users and their videos with a new redesign. More design teams should acknowledge that their users “are smart”.

Do you take pictures of your food? The Foodspotting iPhone app, created by our very own iPhone app veterans – Alexa Andrzejewski and Dan Harrelson – is now in the store!

Robots never grow old, but sometimes they eat geriatric pharmaceuticals for fuel. But they’re not all bad… these (cute) robots are taking over on Etsy!

This wearable health monitoring sensor caught our eye. The future is now (in Japan)!

If all this technology is frustrating you, “Give it a second… it’s going to space!”

And lastly, take a break and enjoy this floating world of peace and beauty.

MX 2010 | What is MX? from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

We hope to see you in March! Register now and use code BLOG for 10% off your registration.