If I already read the comments and direct messages via email client (on iPhone or Web) about my Facebook Status/Photos Updates or Twitter Direct Messages then why not these Social Media marked read those messages when I am browsing them using web browsers?
Gosh world is so disconnected.
Today was our last day at UX Intensive on Interaction Design and which was superbly intensive in a way that we did loads of hands-on with Andrew Crow of Adaptive Path, what an amazing person he is. The workshop started with a cartoon appears at New Yorker Magazine by Sidney Harris, for reference let me paste
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,
Today we had a super duper workshop on Information Architecture by the Kate Rutter at UX Intensive San Francisco 2010. Her presentation structure was superb, it was started with a sad story of a Product Director & Marketing Person at a company, however in the end the journey of those peeps was ended pretty well. Why and How it ended well? That’s what we learn today.
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 :
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
Alright fellas, we had a Design Research Workshop on Day 2 of our UX Intensive Workshop by Paula Wellings. First of all, she crafted the workshop in a way that makes a perfect sense even for a person like me who just started in this field – a rookie.
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
Today was my first day at UX Intensive San Francisco 2010 (#uxisf2010 on Flickr & Twitter).
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
I never been to any Book Club meetings before, it was my first time there. I attended UX Book Club San Francisco on the evening of May 26th 2010, it was about a book name Thoughts on Interaction Design by Jon Kolko. Very intriguing book. Part theory, part practical and stories of the experts.
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.
So far it is smooth and perfect, only take is, it only allow 10 second video preview. However now I am really getting away from the Google’s Picassa and Facebook Photosharing!
Today when I saw the news about “Google Buzz” at work, all of my office mates did try to find out if Google Buzz is available for them yet, some get success and some don’t. I as an Android phone user did try it from T-Mobile myTouch3G, guess what? It throw me to the page where it says only Android 2.0+ phones are able to use the Google Buzz.
That’s where I discussed the “reason why I still love iPhone” with him, Apple don’t discriminate on the basis of Software Updates with its users, reason? One Company, One Distribution Channel, One Device Manufacturer. I know we heard tons of time that Apple is bad (or good depends on to whom you are talking) that they control everything except the “Network”. Google on other hand with there semi-open-source Mobile OS and then there are different manufacturers coming up with the Android based phone now almost every month.
Here I am in a very limbo situation from a user perspective, why there is no symmetry on Android core firmware distribution? Is Network Carrier are the one who are suppose to decide what type of firmware I should have it? Crippled their experience? Check out the XDA Forums it fills with that kind of info, the brave Geeks of Android did their magic and still doing it to make the Experience superb! I myself running the T-Mobile Rooted Firmware and it gives me the boost on certain thing for instance… sliding my fingers on the screen and making the screen moves little faster than before (with the default Firmware).
I know here we can debate “buy the Google Nexus or Motorola Droid”, let me tell you… I need it on what I have, not what I don’t have.
I think the best way to approach this problem is let the Google give away the Android updates from there channel solely, and then if Mobile Network Operator and/or Manufacturer decide to put the ‘layer’ on it (see HTC Sense UI, MotorolaBlur, Sony Rachael UI, and Samsung TouchWiz UI for instance) they can ask there device users’ to download that ‘layer’ from their website. Only those who are interested will do it, and I think if your layer is so “Average Joe Friendly” they will for sure get it and it will fly from your server like a hot-cake.
I once told my God Father that …. “Google Android Phones are not for you, because you don’t want complexity in your life… However it is for those who either enjoy the complexities or love complications in their lives and enjoy the Dancing Bear”.
Happy Complexicating
So that’s the magical device, the most important invention. Well for average joe, it is somewhat promising. For some power user it is not.
Let’s take a look in to the reality first, it has awesome or I would say gorgeous screen, unlocked but useless on T-Mobile in short AT&T is your only best bet, virtually the only way to go with 3G version is with AT&T, great for high school and college kids, flashy bookstore and iBook no doubt the user experience is really appealing, existing iphone apps compatibility etc.
However in my family these days we are debating over the purchase of webcam based laptop, which I believed going to be an easy decision however it turned out little bit tough. As an average American family we are being careful with our spending. I was expecting the iPad with front facing webcam, because my second half is keeping in touch with her family abroad mostly with Skype Video Chat, alas! The introduction of first generation iPad is really not that impressive anymore from the “need” perspective.
I may buy one (iPad), only to awe myself with the Apple’s latest UI and UX bonanza and get the daily dose of UX inspiration from it. Other than that, it is just a man-up version of the iPhone. As I learned a very good lesson with iPhone that the third iteration is rock solid hence “third time is a charm”. So when they will have the front-facing webcam, I will be the first person in the line to get that device. Why? Apple is the king of “User Experience” enrichment.
From my pictorial experience I would say I am totally disappointed from the “Lock Screen”. The “Slide to Unlock” bar is tiny, it is like a small wee-wee on a Gigantic Dinosaur. I rather prefer something iPad centric as it can be seen in the following figure.
When you slide it up, it will fold-up like “Blinder”. And when you lock the screen, it will fall like a “Blinder”, you get the idea? Right?
Well, right-now we are inclined toward the HP Slate, it has freaking webcam plus full blown OS, and seriously when on Skype video chat you do not need a typing just rest at kitchen counter while in kitchen and continue chatting, on a table? Just dock and keep chatting. Freaking iPad doesn’t have that webcam.
Here is what I am expecting in 2011 iPad, the front-facing camera that will recognize the the user and will launch only those apps that bought or authorized to use for that specific user. Then Apple once again can bank on “$19.99” price for iPad Software upgrade, by default it will have 2 User Pack (couples mostly) and then if you have a big family you can have “$39.99” for Family Pack (5 users). Anyways, too much day dreaming I should go to bed now.
My today’s ranting ends here and hopefully I will continue more ranting on my user experience in coming days.
Good Luck and Thanks to all the magical Unicorns’ bubble burst.
Disclaimer: I took the iPad image from Gizmodo’s “Apple iPad: Everything You Need to Know” blog entry. Thanks to my friend Kamran for the design touch-up.
Yup! I just getting myself ready for the NaanMap launch. I dreamed about this idea when I first witness the Zabihah.com, the reason for coming up with the NaanMap idea was simple… I need simplicity whenever I need to search anything related to niche market. Zabihah.com is still complicated and we did our best to come up with the great User Experience with NaanMap to the niche market.
