So far the following clubs I came to know in the San Francisco Bay Area:

Independent Local User Groups:

• San Francisco UX Practitioners
• Bay Area User Experience Professionals
• Content Strategy: San Francisco Bay Area

Book Clubs:

• UX Book Club San Francisco
• Silicon Valley UX Book Club

Local Chapters of ACM SIGCHI,  UPA & IxDA

• BayCHI local chapter of ACM SIGCHI
• Interaction Design Association of San Francisco

If you find I am missing any in the area, please do let me know by commenting on the post or sending me email to update this post with the requested group/club.

Hope it helps

For some good reason I upgraded my Bank Account and then I got the new Debt Card and got a new number, never felt to login to the PayPal to update it, actually stop using PayPal long time ago, because Amazon is serving me well with pretty much whatever I needed.

As I was trying to join the the BayCHI, my obvious choice was at that moment is to pay the membership fee by PayPal, who ignores the convenience factor of online payment. However, once I get logged in to the paypal account, I welcome by the “Security Measures” message and asking me to provide the Debt Card Number associated with my PayPal account. However there is no other way to verify it until and unless I provide them the card number I had with them before.

So annoying and frustrated, at least give user a  choice and verify with other means by asking me an option like “Social Security Number”, “Confirmation via phone” or “Email” .

I Am T-Pain: Bartender (Instrumental) 1

Cheers

Then all day we did try to “explore” that magic, the by following a path that consists of Research, Observation, Display, Ideation, Principles Refinement & Prototype. Let me try to summarized it :

“When you are done with Research, turn it in to the Mental Model, then try to ideate it, define your goal/objective or we can say Principles, now do the refinement and don’t forget there will be constraint, so keep iterating again and again till your constraint & need are settled down in a harmonic way, and then start prototyping, and test it in the field, again iterate it, till you taken care of all the rough edges… however remember nothing is concrete there is always a way to improve so enjoy doing refinement for the betterment not for the perfection (perfection is a myth, being right is the fact) “

Sounds like we are done for our User Experience Journey by the gurus of the industry from Adaptive Path. I will later in coming weeks will do my best to post the “Complete” life-cycle of the User Experience Design in parts or in big gigantic blog post, I will think about it later.

Thanks for staying with me on my “One Liner Series”, have a good one.

Cheers,

Let me summarized their journey and what we learn in today’s Workshop that what is information architecture:

“Forming, Labeling & Structuring the information around of the concerned object (that appears to be problematic, and that object can be anything from door-knob to website to a simple Wall Clock) in a way that interaction toward it is appears so easy that the “unaware” user get acquainted in a first meeting of it. “

Information Architecture has four rules of thumb as discussed today by Kate in a very detail way and they are :

1. Measure twice, cut once | (My thoughts: Think frugal, frugal in resources, in time, in money and in effort. Do the right thing, don’t try to be perfect)
2. It is impossible to make an editor or librarian out of software. (My thoughts: Not everything is achievable via Software Solutions)
3. First manage content, then personalize and extend. (My Thoughts: Don’t jump on the gun right away, step back, think through the content, with the right strategy for the right audience, and then worry about “personalization” and “extensions” on it)
4. Do not fix what is not broken. (My thoughts: Don’t try to break right solution for introducing the new solution, if right is already alright then what the fuss?)

Okay fellas, I am off for bed now, tomorrow it going to be our last workshop on Interaction Design by one and only Andrew Crow.

Cheers

I will try my best to write a “One Line Note” for Design Research, however it seems to me more difficult to shrink the design research in to a sentence:

“Design Research is a way to dig deeper in to the behavior of  the target audience  and observe their action in to the given context by utilizing the method suited for the given situation and then have a solid factual data for crafting the design in a way that fits perfect like a piece of missing puzzle in the said person’s life.”

Doing Design Research needs a framework/protocol according to the context, it is impossible to put a “Binary Format Protocol”. Happy or Sad is not really an emotion you need to understand as product are designed for Humans and they are not 1 & 0, so keep your mind open for any kind of possibilities regarding the service or product that you are designing for them, because you never know how they will use it.

That’s all I have for today, see you tomorrow with my “One Line Note”  on Information Architect by Kate Rutter.

Cheers

We had a wonderful day with the Brandon Schauer on Design Strategy Workshop,  I as a Software Architect migrating in to UX field find it very userful which  is necessary before doing any bit of pixel-pushing or code-crafting of a given project from this workshop. Thanks for my group-mates for supporting me as a newbie among them.

The key lesson I learned is, just shoot down these ducks and you will have a good start:

Focus  -  What’s worth doing

Definition – What are we creating?

Customer-value – What value does it provide?

Scope – How do we deliver it?

I will explain more in my wrap-up blog post after all those super duper workshops attendance.

That’s all for today folks, will continue my “One Line Note” tomorrow when I will attend the Paula Wellings’ Design Research Workshop.

Ciao

Still exploring but sounds like little bit more easy to configure than previous 2.8 version.

The topics that discussed were from the book context as I remember few were Data and Process.

Data as in web analytics data are mere representation of the usage but not the usability counter. It don’t capture the User Behavior, there likes or dislikes. Although the Usability Tests are there where you can observe the user and capture the accurate interaction conundrum or satisfaction.

Processes is like defining the path how a User will go from point a to point b. However these days applying something similar to Six Sigma is a big NO. Fast paced era needs fast paced process. As one of the participant pointed to the Agile Development Method. Where releases are in small chunk. Approvals are small chunks too. However it is not quite easy to get all the thing involved in an development to be catered in an agile context. As one of the member said and I kind of agree with her that You need to define the complete framework. For instance if we are taking from features perspective then do not try to implement them all at once, and ask the business owners to approve it at once. We should have release cycle for two weeks for let say only two to three feature. This will keep the standards of end-products very high. And as I personally saw where I work that our product that was developed from agile perspective has 0.001% support issue.

While discussing about the Interaction Designer role and why most of the time Project Manager, Business Owner and most of the Development Team does not put them on priority. At that point I felt that there is a need of a bridge. Double-Decker Bridge like Bay Bridge but not weak one.

I at that point did have my say. Developers and Interaction Designer are doing the something except there perspective is different. They both are fluent in there Design Pattern language. Coding is art. So does crafting product behavior. Coding a piece of module is an art too, developers do need to code in a way that it don’t hurdle the future enhancement which lead them to carefully pick the Design Patterns in such a harmonic way that I am dead sure people from the other side will be amazed. Same thing goes for Interaction Designers, there mindset is totally toward the usefulness with ease. Their observation of the user behavior is really intriguing and artistic then putting there research in to a desirable form and combing with the developers effort for sure it will create a very useful, desirable and emotional product. Why we love Gmail rather than Hotmail? Why some who are not in favor of Dancing Bear are lean toward iPhone than Google Android? Why we want elegancy? Even at Target Store people love to get there prescription? Why Boxee Media Center is much more usable then the Windows Media Center? It is the work of Interaction Designer and Developers. Not just one entity but two working together.

I told the group a story of a two construction worker, it goes like this:

a curious person was looking at a construction site, there he saw couple of construction workers building something. he went to “constructor worker a” and asked him, “what are you doing?” the worker replied “oh, I am constructing a building where I need to put the cabling modules, sewerage system, heater and ac and ventilation etc”. then that curious person went to another worker “construction worker b” and asked him the same question ” what are you doing?” he replied… I am building a church.

Now you see both groups are doing there job and they are doing perfectly. One group is really focused in to the inner and other is working on the outer side, that group is also trying his best to get the perfect aura of the end result. However they can’t live without each other they need each other.

How to make Developer to see the goal of Interaction Designer? Very simple Interaction Designers should pull them take them 30,000 feet and show it to them that’s what we are building. Same thing developer do with UX peeps, take them in to a wonderful world of coding and show them the MVVC pattern, how it is really benefiting the designer, and developers.

See one group trying to build a robust engine for Ferrari another group creating an exterior and the behavior. There path is  parallel, it is a two lane street they have to make sure they are sync and holding each other hand. If any of them fail. Blame will be on both of these groups, on a team. Instead of Developers or Interaction Designers.

For that purpose go play with android and iPhone. iPhone works superbly well because Hardware, Software and Interaction is extremely taken care of. On the other hand Android software is awesome. However hardware and interaction around it is poor. So overall Google Android is complex. Where as iPhone is superior. Simple. Here blame goes to Everyone who worked on Android not on one group only.

Hope we in coming days will lead to a path where we understand each other.

May the ease be in our life and in those who we work with.

Get inspired be inspired.

I start viewing the interview Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg conducted with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Apple CEO Steve Jobs at the D5 conference on May 30, 2007.  It is full of the precious gems, and subtle but obvious hints what they are envisioning and what is it for us as a consumer of the digital age.

I am going to paste a very superb piece of advice they gave to a Business Owners / Entrepreneurs / Starters in general:

Rob: Thanks, Steve and Bill. Rob Killion, here with my business partner. We’ve got a 100-person Internet media business. I’m wondering what would be the single most valuable piece of advice you’d give us to even attempt to create some of the value that you guys have done in both your very impressive companies.

Bill: Well, I think actually–it may be in both cases–correct me if I’m wrong–the excitement wasn’t really seeing the economic value. You know, even when we wrote down at Microsoft in 1975, “a computer on every desk and in every home,” we didn’t realize, oh, we’ll have to be a big company. Every time, I thought, “Oh, God, can we double in size?” Jeez, can we manage that many people? Will that feel fun still? You know, and so every doubling was, like, okay, this is the last one. And so the economic thing wasn’t at the forefront. The idea of being at the forefront and seeing new things and things we wanted to do and being able to bring in different people who were fun to work with eventually with a pretty broad set of skills and figuring out how to get those people those broad skills to work well together has been one of the greatest challenges. You know, I made more of my mistakes in that area maybe than anywhere, but, you know, eventually getting some of those teams to work very well together. So, you know, I think it’s a lot about the people and the passion. And it’s amazing that the business worked out the way that it did.

Steve: Yeah. People say you have to have a lot of passion for what you’re doing and it’s totally true. And the reason is because it’s so hard that if you don’t, any rational person would give up. It’s really hard. And you have to do it over a sustained period of time. So if you don’t love it, if you’re not having fun doing it, you don’t really love it, you’re going to give up. And that’s what happens to most people, actually. If you really look at the ones that ended up, you know, being “successful” in the eyes of society and the ones that didn’t, oftentimes, it’s the ones [who] were successful loved what they did so they could persevere, you know, when it got really tough. And the ones that didn’t love it quit because they’re sane, right? Who would want to put up with this stuff if you don’t love it?

So it’s a lot of hard work and it’s a lot of worrying constantly and if you don’t love it, you’re going to fail. So you’ve got to love it and you’ve got to have passion and I think that’s the high-order bit.

The second thing is, you’ve got to be a really good talent scout because no matter how smart you are, you need a team of great people and you’ve got to figure out how to size people up fairly quickly, make decisions without knowing people too well and hire them and, you know, see how you do and refine your intuition and be able to help, you know, build an organization that can eventually just, you know, build itself because you need great people around you.

Hope it will help you a lot.