Janet Chang’s Blog about Design

High-Definition User Research

September 20, 2008 – 4:00 pm
Speaker: Rob Tannen, Bresslergroup Date: September 20, 2008 Characteristics of Research Tools Current Usage Article – 21th Century Technology for Usability and User Interface Design Activities. Some survey… Data Collection - Software designer tend to use online survey and online analytics more than product designer. But pretty consistent data collections used. Analysis – spreadsheet most common. Very few using qualitative analysis software. Knowledge and Satisfaction – big lack of knowledge and satisfaction in the research field. (the gap and need presents an opportunity). The basic characteristics of effective user research tools Documentation Measurement - it can be a sub-category of documentation. Efficiency Enhancement - i.e. eye tracking. Mora 3 is a multidimensional tool that has many if not all of the research characteristics. Reviews of New Technologies Livescribe Pulse It writes and record. also recording what’s being written. Both actions are sync up. Flaw: it rolls! Many Eyes (by IBM) Nice visualization features both quantitative and qualitative. Flaw: it’s free, and it’s ...

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Can’t we just all get alone? Human-centered design meets agile

September 20, 2008 – 11:40 am
Speaker: Maria Giudice, Hot Studio, Inc. Date: September 20, 2008 Waterfall approach Predictable and structured approach Human-centered: solutions are based on upfront research and strategy Team roles are clearly defined (designers design, engineers build) Rigid, heavy, and slow Documentation and specifications "Waterfall method is best when you can't afford to learn from your mistakes. You don't design software for the Space Shuttle in an Agile manner." Alon Salant, engineer When Waterfall method works better Type of projects: Creating experiential, immersive, branded experiences that are not module-driven. High-risk or complex projects that require breadth and deep thinking. Findings through design research and insight are key to project success. Team dynamics: Engineering platform and team is not defined early on Team is remote, making collaboration and quick decision-making difficult Client situations: Clients that don't understand user's needs, want and desires and lack domain knowledge Cannot be involved face-to-face, day-today or make decisions quickly Many stakeholders that require documentation to provide context around decision-making Agile Manifesto, 2001 We are uncovering better ways ...

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Mental Models: Sparking Creativity through Empathy

September 20, 2008 – 9:40 am
Speaker: Indi Young, Independent Consultant Date: September 20, 2008 Advices: Step out of your problem solving role Empathy Vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another. Feelings, thoughts, attitudes, emotions, beliefs, behaviors, reactions, philosophies, motivations Example - Mental model courtesy of Google Analytics Team, 2007 Understand My visitors (use first-person verbs). Make sure you are in the same mental model as they (users) are, wearing their shoes. Advices: Play Psychotherapist to explore root causes Don't conduct interviews, don't write interview questions, have conversation with people. Find out what makes them tick. Ask open questions, ask them in relation to what's going on in the conversation. Listen, and think. The Hallway Test - what is she thinking while walking down the hallway? Advice: Build a Model of Behaviors and Harness it for perspective Find patterns and similarities in the transcripts. working it from bottom to top, group and label patterns into table. bubbled up from the bottom. ...

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Setting Research Targets: Using a Scenario Planning Process to Envision How the World Might Change

September 20, 2008 – 9:00 am
Speaker: Colleen Murray, Jump Associates Date: September 20, 2008 The origins of scenario planning Developing and communicating scenario worlds Frameworks Make sense of what you see Build mental models, maps and metaphors Use needs to highlight opportunities Imperatives Suggest directions and principles for development Offer guidelines for prioritizing and making decisions Observations See the world with fresh eyes Listen and Learn Find points of view Solutions Make concepts tangible Have an impact Get feedback Seven Steps to planning scenarios: 1. Focal Issue - A specific, high-level strategic challenge facing the organization. 2. Key factors and Driving Forces - Key Factors (impacting the business) and Driving Forces (going on in the macro-environment) influencing the focal issue. Common Practice - Focus on understanding the problem at hand Reframe - Look broadly to expand and inform our thinking "What will our business look like in 2025? Should we make an acquisition in a new industry?" 3. Critical Uncertainties - Understanding which forces will happen, which won't and which will be critical and less critical? Common Practice - ...

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Maximizing Design and Innovation by keeping a Pulse on multicultural Audiences

September 19, 2008 – 4:00 pm
Speaker: Miguel Gomez Winebrenner, Cheskin Added Value Date: September 19, 2008 Focus on Latin America multi-cultural segment Assimilation vs. Acculturation Assimilation - the abandonment of one's original culture in favor of a second or host culture. In the US, some immigrants gradually lose their original culture in favor of the second, thus assimilating. Acculturation - in contrast to assimilation, is considered to be the process of learning a second culture while preserving or retaining their original culture. In the US, some immigrants acculturate by adding a second culture, not replacing their first culture. Define and Articulate Hispanic Dominant - people who have not adopt to US culture Culturally Unique - somebody doesn't adopt to mainstream culture and not maintaining their original culture (very few of these kind, not-relevant) Findings to save you $500,000 - Culturally Unique and US Dominant are not relevant groups Acculturation Factors Technology/Transportation Long distance rates Internet/chat/email Air transportation costs and routes Changing U.S. Society Acceptance of multi-ethnicity Coolness Benefits of cultural melting ...

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Insight Translation: Bridging the Gap between Research and Design

September 19, 2008 – 2:00 pm
Speaker: Marty Gage, Lextant Date: September 19, 2008 Design = Problem solving Design Research = Problem seeking Principles of Insight Translation: Aspirational - expresses what people wish. Actionable - data that affords translation. Concrete. Sensory. Direct. (this one is tough) Meaningful - clearly linked to the research data. ( back up with numbers) Inspirational - descriptive not prescriptive. (combination of different inspirations show possibilities) Examples: What is a rugged phone? Stimulus planning Collaborative image Sample kit Colleague Increase meaning (connection to the date) by shortening the leap between actionable stimulus and inspirational Big Ideas Provides a clear transition from customer meaning to product attributes - focusing team creativity for market success. Requires visual skills and concrete thinking to embody abstract ideas and principles. The object is not to solve problem, but to create a framework to focus creativity. Planning is critical to getting the right input from people to effectively translate insights for design teams. In the end how to present the ideas in a ...

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Co-Creation and the New Landscapes of Design

September 19, 2008 – 1:20 pm
Speaker: Liz Sanders, Make Tools Date: September 19, 2008 The design and research boundaries are blurring Design and research are blurring at the front end of the design process. It is a time of disruption and confusion. Changes can be seen The roles people play in the design processes are changing. These changes can be seen in the language we use. The name that we used to refer of the people we are serving having changed and become more and more proactive. (customer -> consumer -> user -> adapter -> participant -> co-creator -> ) Co-creation - Expert-driven and user-centered is not going away. The new thing is not replacing the old thing. But we need to know when and which is taken place. "Co-creation is a new and innovative marketing mantra intended to keep consumers brand loyal." www.admark.wordpress.com We'll focus on the user-centered related co-creation. A map of design practice and design research A ...

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Designing your reputation system

August 25, 2008 – 5:14 pm
Designing Your Reputation Systemview presentationtags: patterns karma levels points Bryce Glass, Sr. Interaction Designer at Yahoo!, shared his presentation on building reputation system at the 2008 IA Summit. Highlights from the slide presentation: Yahoo! Design Pattern Library: Reputation Patterns Define your business goals Drive user engagement Promote a specific feature Acknowledge top contributors Increase content quality Promote user retention Community Spirit The Competitive Spectrum Caring (i.e. Support Groups, A Live Journal blog) Collaborative (i.e. Wikipeida, dating sites) Cordial (i.e. Yahoo! Answers, Message Boards) Competitive (i.e. Fantasy Sports, Casual Gaming) Combative (i.e. Halo on Xbox Live, Hot or Not) People write reviews Self-interest Interest in others Interest in the Object being rated Entities accrues reputation People (video, blog posts, bookmarks, article submissions, collections, playlists, message board post, reviews, social objects) Content Takeaways Rate the thing, not the person Beware of ambiguity in semantic Contexts should generally be as specific as necessary, but still general enough to apply widely

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Inspiring talk by Hans Rosling

August 24, 2008 – 9:30 am
Global health expert Hans Rosling’s presentation on debunking third-world myths with Gapminder. Developed by Hans himself, Gapminder shines new meaning into stats and set right myths due to preconceived ideas. More on Hans Rosling and his contributions here.

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About Causal Gamers

July 28, 2008 – 7:40 pm
Paul Thelen ( Founder of Big Fish Games) presented casual game study industry findings performed by Big Fish Games in partnership with NPD Group. The study focused in US market with emphasis on the casual portion of the gaming industry. During the keynote, Paul presented the14 distinct gamer groups. Of the 14 segments, Heavy Action, Slow Strategists, Fantasy Worlds, and Virtual Life are “Core” gamer groups, the rest are “Casual” groups. Core gamers are also considered as the target audience as the study showed there’s a overlapping 58% of gamer play both casual and core games. Gamer profile - Nancy Drews Older female gamers that prefer to play alone and like to think, relax and rejuvenate. Primary Genres: - Match 3 Puzzle Games - Brain Teasers/Logic Games - Mahjong - Word games - Hidden Object Puzzles - Jigsaw Puzzle Games - Trivia Games - Puzzle Adventure Key Findings: - 63% female - 59% over 35 - Highest concetration of retirees and unemployed but not looking for work - Over-represented in Old School and Clicker segments - Least likely ...

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