northtemple

Just took an interesting survey...

Just took an interesting survey by Nielsen / Norman on my career in User Experience. Results will be used to help others entering the field know how to prepare and what to expect. Report will be free to all.

Free book download: Mindfire 1....

Free book download: Mindfire 1.1. Scott is an engaging and inventive speaker and writer. I haven’t read all of these essays, but those I have ring true regarding the creative process and innovation.

Sculpture at the Martin Luther ...

Sculpture at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Park in Seattle. Re-posted from last year, in honor of the holiday and the man.
When we lived in Seattle, we would usually go to this park on Martin Luther King Day to honor this great man and talk to our kids about what he stood for. I Have Dream must stand as one of the greatest and most inspiring speeches ever.

The 18 minute "Connecting" docu...

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The 18 minute “Connecting” documentary is an exploration of the future of Interaction Design and User Experience from some of the industry’s thought leaders. As the role of software is catapulting forward, Interaction Design is seen to be not only increasing in importance dramatically, but also expected to play a leading role in shaping the coming “Internet of things.” Ultimately, when the digital and physical worlds become one, humans along with technology are potentially on the path to becoming a “super organism” capable of influencing and enabling a broad spectrum of new behaviors in the world.

Great Deal Ends Tonight...

Tonight at midnight ends Optimal Workshop’s Designer’s Toolkit sale. We’ve used a number of these tools, and gotten good value out of them. For $1990, here’s what you get in the toolkit:

OptimalSort for card sorting – 12 month subscription
Treejack for tree testing – 12 month subscription
Chalkmark for first click testing – 12 month subscription
4 books from Rosenfeld Media
3 remote user tests with UserTesting.com
6 webinars on the tools above
UXPin Web Design Kit
UXPin Wireframing App (first 20 purchasers)
Moleskine Evernote Smart Notebook
Stainless Steel Sharpie
A stack of Optimal Workshop Post-it notes

Enjoyed this article by co-work...

Enjoyed this article by co-worker Tom Johnson on Writing in the Trenches. For many of the points, you could replace “Writing” with “Designing”; if you are not out there where your users are, how can you design successfully for them?

Heuristics for Mobile Design

I enjoyed reading A Loose Heuristic for Mobile Design on UXBooth. The full article is worth the 5 minutes it will take to read, but here’s most of the heuristics in bullet form [with a few comments by me in brackets]:

Simplicity is a requirement [not just a “good idea”]
Balance brevity and comprehension [don’t throw the baby out with the bath water by stripping out necessary context]
Understand, then optimize, your core value proposition [don’t try to do everything your desktop version does]
“Where” is more important than “who” [understand physical context]
Assume terrible dexterity [favorite quote: “give it to a young/drunk/old person and see how they do.”]
The footer is a dead zone [don’t waste time on it!]
Assume distracted, disrupted, and intermittent use
Good experience is a subset of performance [it’s gotta be snappy]
Provide access to the “desktop” version [like it or not, the “non-optimized” version will still work better for some people, depending on familiarity, performance, device, etc.]
Test on as many devices as possible

Putting the product in the cust...

"Putting the product in the customer’s hand. Demos. Knowledgeable staff that can compare across brands, give context on the product class, and show how the thing works. Why not a cooking demo, right there in the store? Not once a week: immediately, on the spot. Show customers why this is the best choice." ~ Mark Hurst, in a great article on what brick-and-mortars must do to compete with online retailers like Amazon— not by trying to replicate Amazon in the store, but by providing what an online retailer CAN’T.

10 Reasons Why You Fix Bugs(and Usability Issues)as Soon as You Find Them

Great poster on why you fix bugs as soon as you find them. Many of the same cases could be made for usability issues (at least the medium to large sized ones). Here’s the short list (via uTest):

Unfixed bugs camouflage other bugs. (So true for usability issues! This is why I love RITE testing and similar methods; you get those Big Rocks out of the way so you can discover others.)
Unfixed bugs suggest quality isn’t important. (Amen, especially with regards to usability issues.)
Discussing unfixed bugs is a waste of time.
Unfixed bugs lead to duplicate effort.
Unfixed bugs lead to unreliable metrics.
Unfixed bugs distract the entire team.
Unfixed bugs hinder short-notice releases.
Unfixed bugs lead to inaccurate estimates.
Fixing familiar code is easier than unfamiliar code.
Fixing a bug today costs less than tomorrow. (Very true.)

Wow—a free online course ...

Wow—a free online course from Stanford on Human-Computer Interaction, taught by Scott Klemmer! Covers the basics of both design and evaluation. Might have to check that out… (Via Justin Hamilton, user research intern extraordinaire.)

Enjoyed this article by Chris R...

Enjoyed this article by Chris Risdon on Experience Maps. A great combination of vision, model of current experience, and design opportunities. I’ve done some things like this before and seen great value, but never as complete or compelling.

Good post from Jakob Nielsen on...

Good post from Jakob Nielsen on the relationship between SEO and usability, including ways in which they complement each other and the ways in which they conflict.

The media has missed a much lar...

"The media has missed a much larger, much more important point: Steve Jobs was the first CEO to bet the company on the user experience. From the very beginning of Apple, and renewing his efforts when he returned as interim CEO, Jobs was constantly focused on building products that would deliver the best possible experience—rather than the most up-to-date chipset, or the best partner arrangements, or the most horrific monopolistic lock-in scheme." ~ Mark Hurst, discussing an article focused on whether it works to “be mean” (like Jobs). Personal management style was much less important than a user-centered vision of the future; I agree.

Although the page design was ni...

"Although the page design was nice and worthy of silver, the overall UX doesn’t even place. In fact, the Olympics should be disqualified in the UX race for kicking the fans in the gut. Hijacking links is not sportsmanlike." ~ Jakob Nielsen, opining about the official Olympics site’s inability to deliver on the overall user experience, despite doing OK on following specific design guidelines.

I've always loved the idea of c...

I’ve always loved the idea of collaborative design sessions, parallel design competitions, evolutionary brainstorming— or whatever label you’ve come up with for what Jared Spool calls design studio workshops.” So … why oh why have I never gotten to participate in one? Someone invite me please.

Decision fatigue helps explain ...

"Decision fatigue helps explain why ordinarily sensible people get angry at colleagues and families, splurge on clothes, buy junk food at the supermarket and can’t resist the dealer’s offer to rustproof their new car. No matter how rational and high-minded you try to be, you can’t make decision after decision without paying a biological price. It’s different from ordinary physical fatigue — you’re not consciously aware of being tired — but you’re low on mental energy. The more choices you make throughout the day, the harder each one becomes for your brain, and eventually it looks for shortcuts, usually in either of two very different ways. One shortcut is to become reckless: to act impulsively instead of expending the energy to first think through the consequences. (Sure, tweet that photo! What could go wrong?) The other shortcut is the ultimate energy saver: do nothing. Instead of agonizing over decisions, avoid any choice. Ducking a decision often creates bigger problems in the long run, but for the moment, it eases the mental strain." ~ I read this article on “The New York Times” back in May. Since reading it I’ve found myself continuously thinking about it and I’ve referred to it in several conversations since. It’s one of those things that I’ve always subconsciously known was happening, but when once I read about it, it brought a certain type of life to it that it has fascinated me. Enjoy™

“Do You Suffer From Decision Fatigue?” By John Tierney and Published: August 17, 2011

The user doesn’t come out of ...

"The user doesn’t come out of nowhere. We don’t land on your page and then head happily to those social networks to promote you, just because you have a button on your site. We find content through Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest etc., not the other way around.

If you provide excellent content, social media users will take the time to read and talk about it in their networks. That’s what you really want. You don’t want a cheap thumbs up, you want your readers to talk about your content with their own voice." ~ Saw this article through an email newsletter sent to me from the Twitter. I am one of those people who LOVE those social buttons, but since reading this post it has really got me rethinking it all, and paying more attention to my own personal behaviors as well as other humans. Enjoy™

“Sweep the Sleaze” by Oliver Reichenstein

When you are designing, how muc...

"When you are designing, how much time do you spend in your own head, applying your own perspective, and how much time do you spend in someone else’s mindset? Next time you’re designing, try to spend more of the time outside of your own perspective. Make this into a practice." ~ Jeff Moyes shared this post with the UX group at FamilySearch today and what Indie Young wrote at the end really helped refresh how we should approach user experience in our work. Enjoy™

Mental Models: How to Wield Empathy Posted by Indi Young on Rosenfeld.

At familysearch we've been work...

At familysearch we’ve been working on a standard tool set for front-end developers to be amazingly productive/happy/awesome in. We settled on Node.js and have recently launched it in production. It is performing fantastically and we are falling in love.

If you’d like to work with Node.js and you’d like to do it at familysearch, give a holler to schlegel “at” familysearch dot org. Then we can tell you about all the other cool stuff we’re doing.

An excellent article from Lou...

An excellent article from Louis Rosenfeld: Stop Redesigning And Start Tuning Your Site Instead. You and your key stakeholders need to read this.

Dennis Wixon, my first "UX Boss...

Dennis Wixon, my first “UX Boss” at Microsoft and co-chair of my masters thesis committee, will be speaking at UPA 2012. Looking forward to hearing him speak!

I liked this article on Breakin...

I liked this article on Breaking the UX Status Quo. Some good thoughts on enlivening various design deliverables by integrating personas and related information throughout.

I like the subtle design change...

I like the subtle design changes to the banner area on LDS.org that have gone out over the last few months. This week’s Easter messages have been a good example. (I also appreciate that they got the title and alt attributes fixed, so the thumbnails on the right are more accessible to blind readers—and others who want some text to describe what they’ll get.)

I'm always amazed at people who...

I’m always amazed at people who can take such beautiful notes… These are Benjamin Norris’s notes from the LDSTech Conference last week.

Subjecting all designs to usabi...

"Subjecting all designs to usability studies before shipping is prudent risk-management.
Radical innovation is extremely risky. Yes, you might invent the next iPhone. But you’re more likely to invent the next Newton." ~ From a good article by Jakob Nielsen on
A/B Testing, Usability Engineering, Radical Innovation: What Pays Best?
The contrasts between A/B testing, usability activities, and just turning a genius loose to invent the next Big Thing are clearly drawn. I would temper Nielsen’s position a bit by emphasizing his final point—that there’s no reason you have to pick just one. If you have a genius on staff, subjecting his ideas to A/B testing and usability testing will only polish his or her brilliance to an even greater sheen…

We've found the most successful...

"We’ve found the most successful teams are those that spend as much time in each iteration measuring their designs as they do implementing it." ~ Jared Spool, in an interesting article on making agile iterations… agile! I have found the situation he describes over and over again—agile teams organizing a series of sprints, but never really iterating. They are basically doing waterfall planning, just on very short timescales. This article gives direction on how to get out of that rut. And no surprise, it relies on robust design and user research processes.

Here's a great article by Chris...

Here’s a great article by Christian Holst on an frequent need: designing country selectors. What I love most is that he’s gone beyond describing the challenges, to designing a working solution—which he then makes open source! You can try out his redesigned country selector and download the jQuery plugin.

The problem with business today...

"The problem with business today isn’t a lack of innovation; it’s a lack of empathy." ~ Great quote by Dev Patnaik, cited in a UX Booth article called
Invisible Armor: Protecting Your Empathy at Work.
I enjoyed this (sometimes corny) article and related to a lot of the points.

Speed and agility are the most ...

"Speed and agility are the most important attributes any design team can have, even beating out creativity and innovation.
This is because a fast–moving process that iterates frequently gets to take advantage of the natural evolution of the design, whereas a slow moving process needs to discover innovation out of the gate, which is much more difficult." ~ Jared Spool, in
Prototyping’s Resurgence: Communicating the Designer’s Intent

The web is an ever-changing bea...

"The web is an ever-changing beast, full of flaws and imperfection and experimentation. And that’s why we love it." ~ Dan Cederholm in What I learned about the Web in 2011

I'm excited to be registered fo...

I’m excited to be registered for UPA 2012. Lots of great user research presentations, but also more on UX and Design in general than I’ve seen in the past. (It’s been a while…) Curious who else is going… Let me know: borenmt at ldschurch org !

BBQ, plaid shirts, and midnight...

BBQ, plaid shirts, and midnight networking at The Belmont. Yep, it’s that time of year again and we’re hosting our annual meetup at SXSW on Sunday, March 11th from 6-8 PM. If you’ll be in Austin, we’d love to meet you. We’ll be offering a behind-the-scenes look at several applications supporting the LDS Church’s global operations and over 13 million members. The event is invite-only, so please contact us for more information or find one of us for an invitation.

I love these new commercials fo...

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I love these new commercials for the 2012 Kia Optima with Blake Griffen. I can’t remember the last time I saw an NBA player do so well in a commercial. Somehow Blake Griffen is able to give a performance that fits the overall mood of the commercial perfectly. So if Fantasticnous is tied up in someone’s basement I’m pretty sure Kia came and kidnapped it from that basement and has unleashed it in this fantasticly brilliant campaign. Enjoy™

SOURCE: 2012 Kia Optima Blake Griffin Commercial “Easy to Fold” (by KiaMotorsAmerica)

We are becoming symbiotic with ...

"We are becoming symbiotic with our computer tools, growing into interconnected systems that remember less by knowing information than by knowing where the information can be found." ~ Betsy Sparrow, quoted by Tim Minor in an interesting article on
memory and design on UX Booth.

A king brings six men into a da...

"A king brings six men into a dark building. They cannot see anything. The king says to them, “I have bought this animal from the wild lands to the East. It is called an elephant.” “What is an elephant?” the men ask. The king says, “Feel the elephant and describe it to me.” The man who feels a leg says the elephant is like a pillar, the one who feels the tail says the elephant is like a rope, the one who feels the trunk says the elephant is like a tree branch, the one who feels the ear says the elephant is like a hand fan, the one who feels the belly says the elephant is like a wall, and the one who feels the tusk says the elephant is like a solid pipe. “You are all correct”, says the king, “You are each feeling just a part of the elephant." ~ “The story of the elephant reminds me of the different view of design that people of different backgrounds, education, and experience have. A visual designer approaches UX design from one point of view, the interaction designer from another, and the programmer from yet another. It can be helpful to understand and even experience the part of the elephant that others are experiencing.” Enjoy™

The Psychologist’s View of UX Design by Susan Weinschenk on UX Magazine.

Usability problems usually fall...

"Usability problems usually fall into two categories; either it’s not clear how to do something, or something is too cumbersome to do. The latter is fixed by a better understanding of what the key tasks are, and the former is usually resolved by adding clarity. Often the best way to do this is through the writing of the interface." ~ Des Traynor: “Writing an Interface” a post about a presentation he gave at Content Strategy in London (Sep. 5, 2011). If you have 25 minutes I highly recommend watching the presentation. Enjoy™

Colleague Carrie Fox called thi...

Colleague Carrie Fox called this a “wordle on steroids.” Interesting interactive word cloud from CNNMoney on the best places to work and why employees think so. Make sure to click around a bit… I like both the presentation and the data…

The most profound thing is that...

"The most profound thing is that when something crazy happened, they paid attention. They didn’t throw the idea away as most of us would." ~ Scott Berkun on the “accidental invention” of Post-it Notes, Nutrisweet, and other cool stuff, in a really good post on the importance of working hard and paying attention.

Innovation is not Luck, even when it seems like it.

A designer above all should be ...

A designer above all should be a problem solver. I love Matthew Smith’s thoughts on the subject that he contributed to “The Pastry Box Project.” Enjoy™

Any reference to constraints th...

"Any reference to constraints that limit creativity is just another way of equating creativity with self-expression, an erroneous and irresponsible idea. Except for personal projects, self-expression has no place in design, but constraint is vital to design. No component fuels creativity more than constraint. Indeed, without constraint, creativity (and design) is irrelevant. The discovery process is mostly about finding constraints, which is why we must do such a thorough job of it.

Constraints are a designer’s best friend. They’re signposts, not shackles. In a sense, constraints amount to the solution half-built. It is merely up to us to then realize the other half according to what these signposts indicate is appropriate. Nowhere in this concept does self-expression find any valid foothold." ~ Taken from an article written by Andy Rutledge on March 4, 2008 titled, “On Creativity” on A List Apart. As I read this article I didn’t realize that it was written almost 4 years ago, yet I found it completely relevant to today. Enjoy™

Google is taking action against...

Google is taking action against SOPA and PIPA. Quote from Google, “Millions of Americans oppose SOPA and PIPA because these bills would censor the Internet and slow economic growth in the U.S.”

Research strongly suggests that...

"Research strongly suggests that people are more creative when they enjoy privacy and freedom from interruption. And the most spectacularly creative people in many fields are often introverted, according to studies by the psychologists Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Gregory Feist." ~ An opinion article titled, The Rise of the New Groupthink by Susan Cain on NYTimes.com Enjoy™

Count this "guru" as caring les...

"Count this “guru” as caring less about what’s new and more about what works. (If it happens to be new and works better than what came before, then I’ll be the first to add my praise.)" ~ Mark Hurst, in
Using what you have (and when to change)

Very cool video I ran into whil...

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Very cool video I ran into while visiting cameronmoll.com. Reminded me of some of my old school projects.

10 New Year’s resolutions for designers

Here is a nice little article Mike Monteiro wrote in netmagazine.com on how to get the new year off to a positive start.

northtemple

Just took an interesting survey...

Free book download: Mindfire 1....

Sculpture at the Martin Luther ...

The 18 minute "Connecting" docu...

Great Deal Ends Tonight...

Enjoyed this article by co-work...

Heuristics for Mobile Design

Putting the product in the cust...

10 Reasons Why You Fix Bugs(and Usability Issues)as Soon as You Find Them

Wow—a free online course ...

Enjoyed this article by Chris R...

Good post from Jakob Nielsen on...

The media has missed a much lar...

Although the page design was ni...

I've always loved the idea of c...

Decision fatigue helps explain ...

The user doesn’t come out of ...

When you are designing, how muc...

At familysearch we've been work...

An *excellent* article from Lou...

Dennis Wixon, my first "UX Boss...

I liked this article on Breakin...

I like the subtle design change...

I'm always amazed at people who...

Subjecting all designs to usabi...

We've found the most successful...

Here's a great article by Chris...

The problem with business today...

Speed and agility are the most ...

The web is an ever-changing bea...

I'm excited to be registered fo...

BBQ, plaid shirts, and midnight...

I love these new commercials fo...

We are becoming symbiotic with ...

A king brings six men into a da...

Usability problems usually fall...

Colleague Carrie Fox called thi...

The most profound thing is that...

A designer above all should be ...

Any reference to constraints th...

Google is taking action against...

Research strongly suggests that...

Count this "guru" as caring les...

Very cool video I ran into whil...

10 New Year’s resolutions for designers

An excellent article from Lou...