culturedbits

The Local Maximum

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 10:41:00 +0200

In his latest article on 52 Weeks of UX, Joshua Porter once again nails an important aspect of UX:

One strategy we might employ is to optimize until we reach a point of diminishing returns: design until changes just aren’t having a big effect. Then, stop optimizing and return to other kinds of analysis to figure out the next steps. Conduct interviews. Do user testing. Give surveys, ask questions. Find out the biggest existing pain points instead of focusing on tiny design elements at this stage. Focus at the activity-level. What are people trying to accomplish? What are their higher-level goals? What aren’t people doing that we want them to? What big hurdles keep them from taking the next action? This level of insight will allow you to make those bigger changes.

If you’re a freelance, chances are good that you’re hired at the beginning of a project, or when it’s hopelessly stuck. You rarely get to the place where small change optimization reaches the point of diminishing returns.

The more important it is to keep an eye on it, so chances of innovation aren’t missed.

"The best software has a vision. The best software takes sides. When someone uses software,..."

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 13:44:00 +0200

“The best software has a vision. The best software takes sides. When someone uses software, they’re not just looking for features, they’re looking for an approach. They’re looking for a vision.”

- Jason Fried, Getting Real

This quotes latest reincarnation appears in Mike Rundles excellent article Kill The Settings, Build Opinionated Software and is still very true.

iPhone OS Service Menu

Sat, 05 Jun 2010 16:53:07 +0200

iPhone OS Service Menu:

Chris Clarks excellent idea delivers functionality, which remains discoverable, fits into the existing workflow and solves one of the remaining problems of copy’n’past in the iPhone OS. What’s not to like about it?

Sexy Skills of Data Geeks

Sat, 05 Jun 2010 16:22:37 +0200

Sexy Skills of Data Geeks:

In his excellent article on the rise of the Data Scientist, Nathan of Flowing Data writes:

Even if you’re not into visualization, you’re going to need at least a subset of the skills […] if you want to seriously mess with data. Statisticians should know APIs, databases, and how to scrape data; designers should learn to do things programmatically; and computer scientists should know how to analyze and find meaning in data.

There are many more nuggest of insight in his post, and I fully agree with him, that - what he terms - Data Scientists will become increasingly important.

I have lately been talking a lot about “IA for the Layman”, my idea that certain skills will have to become common teaching, so people will be able to cope with the increasing tides of data in their personal life.

But IA may be the wrong term, or rather an oversimplification in this context. As Nathan mentions, Ben Fry covers quite well what skills are actually involved and how they form different aspects. So maybe I shouldn’t call it “IA for the Layman”, but rather “Be Your Personal Data Scientist”.

V Lock

Fri, 28 May 2010 10:20:36 +0200

V Lock:

A true treasure of UX improvement for an everyday problem no one addressed in the last few centuries.

Rethinking the Inspector

Fri, 28 May 2010 10:17:55 +0200

Rethinking the Inspector:

Very creative rethinking of the traditional palette by Plasq co-founder Keith Lang. Probably not something I can imagine for the Creative Suite, but It sure would be handy for iWorks. Especially since it would create a bridge toward quasimodes in the touch interface version of iWorks (for more on this, see Gestures)

Gestures

Fri, 28 May 2010 10:12:23 +0200

Gestures:

Again, a thorough article by Lukas Mathis, this time on complex gestures in touch interfaces.

He points out that once a gesture becomes so complex that it doesn’t resemble any real world action associated with the task anymore, it’s not much better then a CLI.

In the next months and years, defining how complex touch interactions are done will be a major war zone for the Human-Computer-Interface field.

Maybe that’s something Apple sees too and tries to define from the very beginning. Since this is very much about UX, I’m glad Apple is leading the charge here. Still, it will be interesting to see how this unfolds, as we are once again on unknown terrain, not paving cow paths anymore.

"Graphic designers have the intention to grab an emotional response visually. While Interface..."

Thu, 27 May 2010 15:51:00 +0200

“Graphic designers have the intention to grab an emotional response visually. While Interface designers have the intention to grab a logical response mentally.”

- Michael Dick, creative interface designer.

As I mentioned in my posts “On the Quality of Business Ideas”, it needs both emotions and logic, and both on an above average level, to create something of quality.

Google Prediction API

Fri, 21 May 2010 15:54:00 +0200

Google Prediction API:

A developers magic 8-Ball. May still produce interesting results.

Although it makes me wary to trust yet another set of data to the great google machina, it is an interesting opportunity to use all the experience and know how google gained in evaluating data.

~~Possibilities afforded by~~ such tech~~nical opportunities~~ may ~~actually one day~~ become ~~more then just hapless sprawls into the direction of~~ the semantic web.

The Psychologist’s View of UX Design

Thu, 20 May 2010 13:33:00 +0200

The Psychologist’s View of UX Design:

Good stuff.

First Person User Interfaces

Tue, 18 May 2010 15:15:03 +0200

First Person User Interfaces:

Combines most of my late posts about future ux into a handy presentation. So, either this stuff is glaringly obvious, or I think like a Yahoo bigwig… :)

Jesse Schell (@jesseschell, former Disney Imagineer, game...

Mon, 17 May 2010 15:33:50 +0200

Jesse Schell (@jesseschell, former Disney Imagineer, game developer and professor at Carnegie Mellon university talks about “Design Outside the Box”.

Although this talk is already six months old (which, by internet-time, means 2 years) we only now begin to see a more widespread pondering of concepts like FPIs, game mechanic oriented social networks (like foursquare and gowalla) and augmented reality applications trying to connect the real world and the virtual world in interesting ways.

I think his depiction of the future may be a bit black and white, but it’s visionary and in many ways spot on.

Especially the part about Cognizance is a nice visualization of...

Mon, 17 May 2010 15:18:56 +0200

Especially the part about Cognizance is a nice visualization of how raw data turns into wisdom, aka From Noise To Pattern.

More FPI Samples

Wed, 12 May 2010 10:28:29 +0200

Lately, articles and pre-concepts of FPI’s seem more abundant then ever.

Check out this interesting take of US Homeland Security on how the future of fire fighting and crisis management may look like. /via Andrew Vande Moere

Next, there is this fascinating look behind the scenes of Iron Man 2’s FPIs, done by Perception. During the movie I admired most how natural and fitting the interfaces appeared. This was not some lanky and akward SciFi concept, this was very much how interacting with data should feel like. At least for me, it also proves that a third (and fourth) dimension can do a lot for comprehending data. /via @smeidu

How UX Can Drive Sales in Mobile Apps

Tue, 11 May 2010 11:13:56 +0200

How UX Can Drive Sales in Mobile Apps:

Excellent Interview with Jeff Powers of Occipital, creator of the iPhone App RedLaser, on how a change in UX perspectives dramatically enriched the app.

Curators of the Real-Time Web

Mon, 10 May 2010 12:42:00 +0200

Curators of the Real-Time Web:

Interesting article on how SwiftRiver distills chatter to relevant, actionable information. A lot about trust, and in extension thereof: quality.

iPad Usability: First Findings From User Testing

Mon, 10 May 2010 12:37:00 +0200

iPad Usability: First Findings From User Testing:

Yes, it’s Nielsen, but it’s still an interesting read.

UPDATE: Interesting response to Nielsens findings by Fred Beecher:

Understand the Web

Mon, 03 May 2010 09:59:00 +0200

Understand the Web:

I totally agree with @benward’s perspective on the recent discussion about web apps vs. native apps, started by @joehewitt.

On the Quality of Business Ideas

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 14:40:00 +0200

Something can be perceived as good if it is useful, beautiful or beneficial to exist.

In common vernacular use, the term quality refers to to a high degree of excellence and therefore means either usefulness or beauty.¹

Nature shows us many examples of great quality.² That’s why I believe that great quality attracts people all by itself. It just feels right and provides a satisfying experience.

So, if your product absolves a pain with it’s existence, is useful in nature, excellent in its handling and beautiful to behold, it possesses great quality. Therefore, it will attract people all by itself.

Those who use it, will talk about it. They will do so with passion and spread the message of it’s existence. The product itself will resonate with and convince those discovering it. Because It can stand for itself.

If you strive for quality, you product will attain that fabled aura attributed to so many Apple products, as described by Mr. Jobs himself:

It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.

1) If you consider aristotelian quality to be functional, and platonic quality to be aesthetic, you can even come to a metaphysical, absolute perception of quality as defined by R. Pirsig.

2) After all, emulating nature is what the science of bionics is all about.

"Eventually everything connects - people, ideas, objects. The quality of the connections is the key..."

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 13:56:00 +0200

“Eventually everything connects - people, ideas, objects. The quality of the connections is the key to quality per se.”

- C. Eames, again via @amyhoy