2nd to 4th day of the UXintensive - Washington DC

I liked the informative, enlightening and creative atmosphere we had. It was so great to learn from and with this creative people.
The last day started with this video …

… well and what should I say – the some fun you can see in this video was the same fun we had again and again throughout the days and especially at the last day. ( by the way @ Andrew your heart is or should be on the left side :-)
We pass the three further days of the UXintensive. If I’m honest I had expect more and different issues and topics throughout the second and third day. But what I’ve heard were a positive affirmation to me and my work that I done in the last few years. I hoped that I would become acquainted with a new and or so far unknown tool or method. However, these issues and topics enable me to be aware and to recollect of these tools and methods in research and IA.
The whole days forced us to focus on the vital aspects of UX, the goal of designing a user interface and to do this by the methods of user centered design, to support our clients as good as possible and to increase the return of invest not by saying always “YES” and by doing every our clients want to, but rather by understanding the user’s and client’s expectation and improve the user's experience.
The results of our efforts of research and information architecture must end up in a product which is …

• usable
• effective
• simple
• clear
• supportive
• engaging
• enjoyable
• transparency

Whatever we develop it should be crafted to help the users reach information and offer them intuitive and efficient functionalities. We should put great emphasis on developing a powerful contextual environment around the content. I know it I mention it again and again – but we live in a world which is moving faster and faster and becomes more and more complex … that is one of several more reasons to pay a great attention on metadata. The metadata available in the content can be used to dynamically generate and offer content relevant information, features and links which can have great benefit for the user.
When I remind me on the topic of the second day and its topic research and all the things we did throughout the day …

• Objectives & Planning
• Selecting & creating methods
• Collecting data
• Analyzing data
• Representing findings to colleagues, clients and stakeholders
  

… after all the main message I take with me of this day – is to mix, adapt and adjust the methods of research I know much more than I already do and did concerning on clients, timelines and situation.

The third day was about Information Architecture. What I really liked was that Kate focused her talk and topics on aspects of IA which be ignored, missed and overlooked all too often …

• Metadata
• Analysis of content, features and context
• Behavior for searching and finding – And the requirements to support these ongoin
• Cchange of behavior
• Classification and categorization
  

Too many people still think that information architecture is just diagramming of sitemaps, sketching of mock-ups and function plans and finally drawing of wireframes. Thank you Kate for this valuable talk!
As I already mentioned the fourth day started with an inspiring tube. And I want to show Andrew my greatly respect that he was able to held this spirit on a high level to the very last minute of the day. He presented the elements of interaction design …

• Making Models
• Ideation
• Design Principles
• Refinement
• Fixing Broken Products
• Prototyping
  

My group and I, and it was pretty the same in every group, we had so much fun and we get so inspired that we developed so many extraordinary and unexpected ideas in these few hours.
I think it will take a few days until I’ll combine and figure out all the information I got – And I also need to get a few things straight.

Great workshop(s)
Great colleagues
… and all of this in a great city – Washington DC.

http://www.adaptivepath.com/events/2009/uxi/

1st short Review of the UXintensive Event in Washington DC

I’ve been extremely excited to be attending to the Adaptive Path’s 2009 UX Intensive event in Washington DC, started today
We had a great first day with Henning Fischer. He pointed up that strategy planning is about saying „NO“– Sounds familiar? I hope so – but all too often we all have to go through the opposite. That’s pretty the same with statements “Our strategy is to be the best” – Being “the best” might be the target but it couldn’t never be a strategy. I’m firm believer that design processes will always fail to succeed unless they aren’t supported by a fundamental business strategy and a professional approach.

Henning mentioned again and again a quote by Eliel Saarinen (Architect) I’ve never heard before
“Always design a thing by considering it in its next larger context - a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan.”
May you know it already - I am an architect and town planner and I never heard of Eliel Saarinen or this excellent statement – sad but true. I like the statement it's should be a leading view for architects of urban environments and virtual environments.

I’m looking forward to three further seminar days.

Why personas matter and how to utilise ...

I do not know whether you know it, but a lot of creative people and colleagues doesn’t like or work with personas. And several people say personas are just a trend or whim in the design industry and or design history.
I would like to make two points very clear …
… Personas are well known and used since decades
… Personas are powerful tools - but it isn’t a must for each project
The intention of a persona is to help you and the whole design team makes decisions about user guidance, utility, usability, design and appearance – personas can help you at quite a lot of levels of design and phases of your project.
Clear communication within the project and development team and between the developers and clients is a crucial factor in the development process - and it’s often the key to the success of any project.

No matter how you call the organization of data and knowledge of users and customers, without it the project team works with a collection of ideas and thoughts out of context and makes conclusions without a good basis. All too often these design conclusions are pure flukes.
Time and time again I recognized that individual team members, groups or whole teams do not know whether specific and multipart design decisions were limited to particular kinds of users, customers or their intentions, interests and goals.

I would like to emphasize that empathy is important and not to be underestimated. Empathy is something that has to happen within the person designing, but it’s not something you can make someone feel through generalization (Man or Women, knowledge, experience, preferences, boredom, likes and dislikes, needs, goals, etc.). Be that as it may, personas strength designers getting into the right mindset for design.

By providing and working with good methods and approaches, we can identify values, goals and main concerns that support and smooth the progress of decision making, not confine or restrict it.

I wrote in my article (UXP isn’t a one man show) on boxes and arrows that I firmly believe personas are a powerful method throughout the whole design process. Depending on personas we can formulate, discuss and prove scenarios – up from the very beginning of the project, during the project and as check or analysis at the end of the project.

By some examples I’ll show you where and how you can use personas during the development process.


>> Original image on boxes and arrows


Basics-strategy phase
During the basics-strategy phase you should develop our personas and afterwards they will support your deliverables and your decisions during your upcoming steps.
When evaluating, estimating and comparing the content, features and functions, you should use personas as judge and guideline. During the analysis and study of competitors you can check how the competitive sites, products and processes fulfill the expectation and needs of the same persons with the same roles.
The analysis of potentials and the concept model needs to concentrate on all the content and utility available by the product and or application, and must therefore demonstrate that it can assist and support all requirements of the individual user.
At this point I like to put emphasis on the fact that as long we work on a and with high-level documents the approach have to have more or less direct relationship to the personas

Concept and design phase
Personas have an effect on the design process, important criteria and exchange of ideas about concept and design by reminding team members and stakeholders of the users’ needs and requirements. And by these dialogue personas supports and improves from the very first step to the screen design and development in so many ways and levels.
If we link and connect personas to sitemaps and to flowcharts, it shows, on the one hand, how different areas of the information structure take care of the different user groups and, on the other hand, how user’s goals and needs correlate with information areas and their contacts and interaction.
Personas help IAs, UXPs, Interaction designers and screen designers to put themselves in users’ shoes and influence mockups, wireframes, screen structures and screen design.

Usability and Testing
Depending on the manner and method of your usability tests, you can use the scenarios, goals and needs described in the personas as starting point and basis. You can use personas as “imaginary participants” to make usability tests during early process phases.
Personas have the potential to be of assistance identifying a plan for recruiting participants in the usability test. You can incorporate the personas in the test plan by describing how you’ll represent each type of user in the test.

Presentation and Reports
Your presentations and reports can be structured, explained and exemplified by personas.

Final words …
To organize your research and development process you should have several ways and tools in your repertoire / your “tool-box”. As I said … it should be clear that personas are only one technique / procedure of organizing your researches - other methods include user profiles, user scenarios, mental models, and simple storytelling. Many design teams have their own way of organizing and summarizing their research data. It’s up to you and to them whether are personas are a good user-centered design tool for your task and project. It should be clear that personas aren’t suited to every situation (client, product, budget, timeline, etc.).

Personas aren’t the Holy Grail – but it’s one of the most powerful methods for user experience (UXD and UXP) and user centered design (UCD).

Why and how to use Personas - Comic by Brad Colbow

As all of you know I'm a firm believer in Personas. Personas are a powerful tool for helping the whole project team to better understand the needs of their customers and users. Brad Colbow drew an awesome comic. In this comic, drawn exclusively for Think Vitamin, you'll learn more about Personas and how they'll revolutionize the way you design and build web sites.

How to Understand Your Users with Personas
> read more

Beyond advertising

As I often said client, enterprises, media and entertainment companies and also agencies need to start moving beyond traditional advertising and information processes - they have to concentrate on becoming more consumer centric.
Significance of UCD, IA and UE (User centered utility and usability)
Beyond advertising and interesting study by IBM

Digital formats such as social media, online video, mobile communications, gaming
and advanced TV enable companies to simultaneously meet transactional and brand-building objectives. Four primary trends blur the boundaries between traditional brand advertising and direct marketing:

1. Consumer adoption of new distribution formats – Consumer behavior has changed forever: They are more digital-savvy, willing to provide personal information in return for perceived value, and increasingly ready for permissionbased advertising.
2. A shift in advertiser spend – Spending is moving from traditional advertising toward measurable, interactive marketing. Combined with spending contraction in the new economic environment, this requires smarter advertising, and doing more with less.
3. Digital migration of platforms – Traditional boundaries are fading, creating opportunities for innovative business models for content platforms.
4. Emergence of new capabilities – Gamechanging moves, by both new entrants and existing players, are driving new types of industry innovation, challenging existing business models and accelerating the pace of change.

Download the complete IBM Institute for Business Value study

The Art of Community - Now Available For Free

The Art of Community by Jono Bacon - Now Available For Free Download

While the book is ready to download right now, the book is available to buy in print, on Kindle, and other electronic book formats and Jono Bacon would like to encourage you to buy a printed copy of the book for a few reasons:

• Firstly, buying a copy sends a tremendous message to O’Reilly that they should continue to publish books (a) about community and (b) under a Creative Commons license.
• Secondly, it will encourage O’Reilly to invest in a second edition of the book down the line, which will in turn mean that communities around the world will have a refreshed and updated edition that is available to them.
• Thirdly, aside from the voting-with-your-feet side of things, it is just a really nice book to own in print. It is really well made, looks stunning and feels great to curl up with in a coffee shop or on the couch.

You can download the The Art of Community here:
http://www.artofcommunityonline.org/downloads/jonobacon-theartofcommunity-1ed.pdf

Jono Bacon is pleased to announce the general availability of The Art Of Community under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license.

With this license that the book is under you have the following freedoms with the entire content:

• to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work
• to Remix — to adapt the work

…with a few requirements:

• Attribution — You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
• Noncommercial — You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
• Share Alike — If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.

Great presentation by Jonathan Jarvis

His talk is called:
Learn How Design Can Make Complex Concepts Clear and Provide New Roles for Designers



http://max.adobe.com/online/session/356

> former articles related to this topic and author