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 :

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

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