Or if you prefer shorter updates, follow @HabaneroConsult on twitter! Let us know if you have questions, or things you want to know and I will try to find the answer for you as well.

• Getting a sneak peak of SharePoint 2010 and preparing for THE SharePoint conference this year (drop me a line if you’re attending and we’ll meet up in Vegas in October!)
• Qualifying as a best place to work in Calgary for the second year in a row (thanks @AvenueMagazine!)
• Celebrating our latest 10 Year Hab-anniversaries: way to go @bskelton and Elizabeth!
• Playing with the new Iphone 3GS and it’s new search, map and voice functionality. The maps and location apps are awesome, but the voice controls still have a hard time understanding most names in my contacts (grrr!), and I’m still struggling with double and triple click on the headphones to skip songs…
• Observing that it’s about time cities build transit lines to the airport: way to go Vancouver for opening the Canada Line ahead of schedule and Seattle is almost there…
• Catching up on design summer reading. Check out free user experience books that are now online.
• Enjoying summer in Vancouver with record heat waves, freak lightening storms at music festivals, and everything in between (global warming anyone?)
• Getting married – congratulations @nickb

Look for more design insights, project updates and general commentary in the fall!

I’ve been a practicing designer for ten years now, and I finally decided to join the organization. It was an interesting process, as I had to prepare a portfolio of my work, along with an explanation of the strategies and considerations that formed the designs. I think the most unnerving part was knowing my work would be reviewed by my peers in the GDC on strategy, typography, use of imagery, implementation and presentation, and that I had to score well to become a member. I feel honoured to be recognized by my peers as a professional practitioner, and I am excited to be part of a supportive, creative community.

I’m pretty impressed so far with the open communication I have experienced within the organization, and I’m looking forward to getting out to the events to meet more of the community and share ideas. Above all, I can only hope this will help improve my work and to deliver more excellent value to our clients.

Some take-aways from the session:

Drawing is pictures and words together in space. Visual thinking is comprised of drawings, to which we add words to fine-tune meaning and then we can arrange and juxtapose to create connections. Interestingly, the wireframes we Information Architects produce are comprised of the same elements and all are critical to someone understanding our work.

Everyone can draw. You just need to learn the basics. Using Dave Gray’s visual alphabet it really isn’t hard to draw most things. The basics include the following: a point, a line, a circle, a square and a triangle (you can extend this as well a bit with a rectangle and a swirl).

Many clients like to say they can’t draw and I think this is a great way to show them they can and get them involved in sketching out ideas and their user experience. I’ve been using this same technique with my son over the past few months and it’s amazing to see how quickly kids can learn to draw using these principles.

Build a symbol library and vocabulary. Each of the presenters yesterday had a toolkit of things they use regularly. Austin has a particular way of drawing clouds and the sun; Sunni breaks her drawings into sections with dividers to make things easier to digest; while Mike uses typography and design basics (layout, size, color, shading) to show importance on the page. All of these are elements they can use quickly and easily and pull from their toolkit as needed. I see this as similar to the modular thinking and frameworks based work many IA’s and developers are now using to speed up work.

Start where you like. Austin likes to start in the middle and work his way out, Sunni tends to start top left of her paper (usually adding a title, the company logo, etc.), while Mike starts where it feels best to begin. All were valid approaches and changing up where you start sketching may help shift how you approach your work.

Listening when sketching is a fine art. Some tips from the session included:

• Listen to the speakers tone, volume, cadence, emphasis, speed, metaphors and similes, references to structure and gestures when determining what to draw
• Prioritize what you are capturing
• Cache ideas with simple reminders (like bread crumbs) when you can’t catch everything being said
• Relax and don’t worry about what others think of your drawings
• Add your own personality (each of the presenters had their own style)
• Keep it simple

There were also some great books referenced during the webinar worth checking out:

• Ed Emberley’s Drawing Book: Make a World – Edward Emberley
• Handbook of Pictoral Symbols – Rudolf Modley
• Beyond Bullet Points – Cliff Atkinson
• What It Is – Lynda Barry

Happy visual thinking!

The Project

A while back, I told you about our experiments in agile design, how we were applying agile methodologies in working groups to get results faster. Our working group was tasked to find a better way to explain our UE process to the organization and our clients. We felt that the nuances were getting lost in translation, and perhaps a few tools would help our colleagues in those conversations that count. We envisioned a master spreadsheet, complete with every UE task known to man, subdivided by roles and wired with rates, so our project managers could have a way to devise estimates. We also envisioned a Tuftesque super graphic that would explain the dance of roles, tasks and deliverables; a veritable work of art that would leave no one in question of our process. It was that easy, right?

More Questions

Our hypothesis soon began to generate more questions than answers. Although the master spreadsheet is useful, it does cause headaches for us that are more visually inclined. It also lent to creating rigid, waterfall processes, which gave no room for flexibility and creativity. How is this helpful for team members? Also, how were we going to create that super graphic? Our process changes from project to project, so how could one graphic and spreadsheet explain it all? Perhaps we should create multiple graphics for types of projects? How do we get to those frameworks?

These questions led to some interesting answers. To come up with the diagram prototypes, we decided to write the tasks on bits of paper and try some configurations on a tabletop. We quickly jumped to creating permanent magnets to be used on the magnetic white board, on which project specific notes could be written quickly. Reuse, recycle, recreate! Plans of Steel, no less!

The Results

We’ve been using the H Pack internally now for a few months, and we have seen some great successes:

• Project estimation time has been cut in half.
• Unique and innovative approaches are developed collaboratively with all team players.
• By giving everyone a voice at the table, project engagement and ownership has increased.
• Understanding our colleagues’ roles happens in context to specific project objectives.
• Critical discussions happen early on.

We are always adding more tasks and deliverables to the H Pack as each team uses it. It continues to become a richer source of knowledge at Habañero. And it gives us time to spend time together working, which can be a whole lot of fun! ]]> http://ueblog.habaneros.com/2009/05/12/h-pack-plans-of-steel/feed/ 1 http://ueblog.habaneros.com/2009/05/12/h-pack-plans-of-steel/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/habanero-ueblog/~3/9QBEVseqPfY/ http://ueblog.habaneros.com/2009/05/10/movie-review-objectified/#comments Mon, 11 May 2009 01:22:08 +0000 Jasvir http://ueblog.habaneros.com/?p=359 Last week a few us at Habanero went to see Objectified, which is a film about designing objects as well as the people and process behind them. The director, Gary Hustwit, was at the screening at the Rio Theatre to introduce the film and to answer questions after. I think it’s great to see the personal connection to a film, especially how passionate and curious he is about design. It was also neat to learn that he works right up to the last minute like the rest of us – the day before the worldwide premiere, he was up all night editing the film!

I had no idea how this film would approach “design” and “objects,” which are such broad terms. The film covered a lot of ground – everything from toothpicks to laptops, and people from Jonathan Ive (Apple) to Andrew Blauvelt (Walker Art Museum, Minneapolis).  The time passed quickly though, it was a fascinating and engaging look at object design.

Cardboard phones, anyone?

It’s not only about designing objects, but process too

Jonathon Ive at Apple showed pieces of MacBooks and how the laptop comes together in a behind-the-scenes look of designing Apple products. They try to use less material and less steps to build computers to reduce the build complexity of the machine. It was interesting to hear Jonathon discuss that they not only design the final product, but they have to design how the product comes together. In other words, they spend just as much time designing the process as designing the final object itself.

I recently read an article in Yoga Journal about practicing aparigraha (greedlessness) at the table, one of the ethical practices of yoga. This idea of not taking more than we need or can use is a tough one in our Western culture, where consumption and competition seem to be hard-wired. And I wonder, how does this play out in an economic time that scarcity is becoming the norm?

The article speaks about how scarcity can create a poverty mentality, in that you feel you don’t have enough so you take more than you need, or what will be good for you. This in turn results in an inability to digest what we take in, which can lead to sickness.

Fortunately, Ayurveda gives some guidelines on how to determine how much to consume. Our bodies are beautifully designed, and the right amount is what will fit in two cupped hands. You can also use the measure of 50% solid, 25% liquid and 25% air. But how does this relate to time, work and staying solvent?

For me, I like to use a calendar to mark out my personal life, appointments, work responsibilities and fitness. I know, it seems rigid, but it actually gives me a good indication what I can take on, and what I need to say no to. And when I colour code the entries, like using blue for work and pink for fitness, I get a really quick indication of how balanced my days are. Checking in with my calendar also gives me that time to say woah, think about what I am committing to, and if it’s really the right thing for me, my values and my goals. I am less inclined to grasp, and more inclined to be happy with what I have.

I also find that if I do have a million commitments, I still strive to immerse myself in the task at hand, and do not think about the other millions. But being fully present in the moment, I can give my best to clients and students, instead of doing just enough to get it done and running off to the next thing without properly finishing the first. This can be incredibly difficult, what with Twitter, Yammer, email and many other distractions! By allowing myself the time to completely “digest” my work, I hope it will continue to nourish my practice, make successful, meaningful projects, and happy clients.

What do you do to keep yourself sane and in balance?

It’s actually pretty neat app, with great cross-platform/device support, and it has support for a wide variety of features that you’d typically find in other enterprise applications, or heavier-duty microblogging applications like Jaiku or Pownce:

• Ad-hoc user groups with RSS feeds and filtering by group
• Direct (private) messages and @replies (public), Twitter-style
• A dynamically-created staff organizational chart (very cool)
• Support for file attachments, embedded images & link sharing
• Built-in support for tagging (using a #hashtags-like syntax)
• Integration of RSS feeds into your company’s activity stream (interesting)
• Officially-supported client apps for the iPhone, Blackberry, Firefox (plugin), and desktop (via Adobe AIR)
• A clean, easy-to-use UI
• Contact info & vCards for all participants

And that’s just the free stuff. I’m not even sure what the paid accounts offer just yet. Yammer’s membership plans are quite reasonably priced ($1/$5 per user, per month, depending on the plan), with a bunch of additional enterprise-friendly features. It’s been working smoothly (thus far), and I think it supplements what we have in our existing internal Sharepoint and Office Communicator deployments nicely without overlapping too much in terms of raw functionality (which is a primary concern for us when evaluating any type of new company-wide communications application.)

There’s a literal tonne of debate, both internally and in the general corporate public, as to whether these kinds of microblogging tools are suitable for the workplace, especially if your organization, like us, already has both a knowledge management solution (Sharepoint) and an internal instant messaging solution (in our case, Office Communicator, although it requires us to be logged into a VPN to access.)

In a technologically-oriented organization like Habañero, I can see some definite value if we can properly complement our existing tools without replacing features we’re already using. Yammer definitely has a leg up over using a public application like Twitter as it really suits the needs of an single organization much better, providing support for common internal activity streams, easy remote access on a variety of mobile devices, and a relatively low price-point.

Although I’m obviously not a decision-maker in this case and I’m just providing suggestions for improved tool use within our organization, I think Yammer makes a good argument for itself and requires very little explanation or support. It remains to be seen whether it provides value or increases productivity here, but I’m impressed with the functionality I’ve seen so far so I’m more than willing to give it a chance.

If you have experience using Yammer or other similar microblogging applications within the enterprise, we’d love to hear from you.

But then last weekend, I went to Blasted Church’s Midnight Service at Christ Church Cathedral. It’s great event put on by one of the Okanagan’s leading wineries – it marries their wine with gospel music and great southern food in a beautiful church…all taking place close to midnight. After that performance I realized that the leadership and team characteristics of these two successful musical ensembles apply not just to the musical realm but also to our world as technology consultants.

So…now I must write!

Before I launch into explaining just what those characteristics are, first I need to describe these two very different groups. BSS is an ensemble band of about 20 people. At any given time during their show, you might have all of them on stage, some of them or maybe just one of them. They all take turns playing different instruments. They take turns being the “front man”. Members can be young or old. They bring in guests (like the night I was there, K-os showed up on stage and there was a guitarist from Arcade Fire). They improvise and try all kinds of stuff that’s off the menu. And sometimes Kevin Drew isn’t even on stage. Sure, sometimes they make mistakes, but they have a ton of fun and play some great music – check out Shoreline and Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl if you’re not familiar with them.

The Gospel Experience Choir that performed last weekend was also a fairly large group – twelve members – and included local legend and jazz vocalist Sibel Thrasher. They broke off into smaller groups to perform particular songs but most were done as an entire team. There was one woman who introduced a few more songs than the others, but it was hard to tell who or if they had a clear leader since each member led at least one song throughout the evening. As with all gospel, the singing was enthusiastic, emphatic and powerful. One woman who had been part of the group stepped up and did a heart wrenching song that was absolutely spellbinding, supported 100% by the rest of the choir on backup vocals. Throughout the performance, support and camaraderie were obvious.

So…what are the characteristics of these bands that we also see in great leaders and teams?

Managed Risk:

The leadership of these musical groups, be it formal or informal, gave latitude for members to try different roles, instruments and levels of responsibility… with the possibility of success or failure. In the gospel choir, one woman seemed to have her first solo – she was nervous and not the strongest of the singers, but I’m pretty sure she had just fulfilled a life’s dream that night.

I know that when I stretch on a project, or support others with the space to do so, it’s extraordinarily gratifying and almost always results in deeper skills and a richer experience.

Selflessness:

During some songs for BSS, as I mentioned, the founder wasn’t even on stage. He certainly didn’t always singing the lead vocals or even positioned at the front of the stage when he was performing. He was humbled by the skills of his colleagues, visibly encouraged them, and had a great time with them. He also seemed to know that the band would do a great job whether he was onstage or not.

I’ve found that great leaders know when to step back and shine the spotlight on other team members. They know just when to push someone’s comfort zone and when they are ready to rise to the occasion. And should they stumble, they are there to provide support.

Sum of the Whole:

In both musical examples, the teams worked together for a greater sound than they could make alone. They collaborated and innovated together. Sometimes they succeeded and other times less so – but they were definitely in it together.

I think we’ve all been on projects where you are working solo don’t have the support or validation of a team. We know how much more we can achieve surrounded by other equally talented folks whose complementary skills make our work sing.

I wonder if you have similar experiences? Do you see the parallels?

In the meantime, I’m off to listen to some BSS – as a reminder of what it’s like to be part of a great team, and what it takes to lead one!

Z-Axis in the Web World

Z-Axis and Gestures