THE USABILTY CORNER

[Video] Psychology of Online Behavior by Susan Weinschenk

2012-01-16T08:18:00.001-08:00

Big Design Conference 2011 Video

2011-08-01T14:17:00.000-07:00

Designing for Awareness in the Attention Economy

2011-07-20T14:12:00.000-07:00

At Big Design Conference 2011, Taylor Cowan and I talked about the importance of awareness and how designers need to truly understand the different levels of human awareness to make an impact.

Enjoy!

Design for Awareness

View more presentations from Brian Sullivan

Edward Tufte and Information Design

2011-04-06T07:32:00.000-07:00

Edward Tufte

Recently, I attended a one-day seminar taught by Edward Tufte, who has four books on information design. Tufte is one of these rare thinkers, who makes these connections that most people rarely, if ever, do make.

During this workshop, Tufte had the class of almost 500 people look at different pages in his various books. To be perfectly honest, I was impressed and scared of this man's intellect. Yet, I found Tufte to be warm and engaging. He smiled, asked me where I worked, and he autographed my book. I mumbled something.

Why You Should Read Tufte?

History of Rock and Roll (Infographic)

Tufte is going to challenge you to be a better thinker. His books delve into how information design should be respectful of the intellect of each person. As shown above, an information graphic about the history of rock and roll shows several datapoints:

Artists (their genre, their timeframe, their influencers, and who they influenced)
Overall sales by decade
Genre sales

This wave of information allows the audience to pick and choose their entry and exit point. You probably start with the artists that you know, and then you explore how their influencers and who they influenced. you get a better picture and make deeper connections because the information graphic has these different data points. This design respects the knowledge of the audience.

Napoleon's Failed March to Moscow

Tufte will also explain ways to better design your information evidence. The above information graphic shows Napoleon's failed attempt to conquer Russia during the winter. The brown line (on the top) shows the troop levels as they begin their march towards Moscow. The black line shows their retreat. You can note several things here:

The tan line is initially wider becase their are more troops.
The tan line gradually decreases as the march goes to Moscow.
The tan line touches the black line to illustrate the retreat.
The black line gradually decreases to a very thin line.
At the bottom of the graphic, we see the cold temperatures.

Tufte explains how at one crossing Napoleon was in a carriage, while his soldiers actually fell through the ice. Clearly, the cold weather affected the movement of the troops, possibly as much as battles and skirmishes.

I love the examples from Tufte. His lecture was first-rate. I highly recommend it!

Where Tufte Might Be Going to Far?

Tufte Notes as a Bulleted List

Tufte blames technology for bad thinking. He talked for about 30 minutes in this class about how Powerpoint enable poor thinking by its very design. He gives a harsh critique of how Powerpoint might have enabled the Challenger shuttle disaster. Tufte's points do have merits:

Powerpoint does default to bulleted lists
Bulleted lists encourage encourage an over-simplification
Things in a bulleted list have equal weight

Yes, I was being very "tongue in cheek" by showing a bulleted list.

The irony of the entire day is that Edward Tufte was telling over 500 people to not use bulleted list for information chunking and presentation displays. Yet, I have over 20 pages of notes done as a bulleted list of information chunks. On the right, you will see another person who shared their notes. Notice how the information is basically a bulleted list of thought chunks.

This is a minor criticism here.

In my humble opinion, Tufte goes too far when you blame a tool for the crime. It is the same argument that people give for high fructose corn syrup causing childhood obesity or guns causing violence. These tools (high fructose corn syrup, guns, Powerpoint) might be enablers, but they do not cause the core issues (obesity, violence, poor thinking).

Poor thinking causes poor thinking. Poor design causes poor presentations.

Yes, the NASA scientists are not designers. Yes, they used Powerpoint. And, they probably own guns and ate pancakes with high fructose corn syrup.

I think Tufte's argument is a non-sequitur.

And, I still don't care!

We do need better graphics. We need better thinking. We need to respect our audience. We need to look at classical designs (like Tufte does) to improve our current ones.

Study his books. Go Tufte's classes. He is a great lecturer and gifted teacher.

Don't drink all the Kool-aid, though. You might get a stomach ache. But, it sure tastes good.

I loved the class. I love the books, too.

[Video] Storytelling and Video Games

2011-03-24T06:19:00.000-07:00

I am an educated nerd with a great appreciation for storytelling. I have an MA in English Literature with a focus in 18-century British Literature. My primary focus in these days included the works of Jonathan Swift, William Shakespeare, and John Milton.

The following video is about 10 minutes, which is the type of talks that we want to have at the Big Design Conference.

Key Takeaways

Games have the potential for great storytelling. The gaming systems of today are interactive with all of the visual flare of films--plot, character, action, and so on. Characters can now move through space and time, overcoming great obstacles, which is the primary purpose of any game.

Some interesting notes made in the video:

Well-written games do not usually sell like action games.
Developers are creating the narratives, which makes storytelling in games poor.
Writers are usually brought in the last minute to clean up dialogue.

Game narratives can create a deeper, more meaningful experience for the participants. Gaming narratives should be the work of writers, who are well versed in the concepts of plot, pacing, character development, themes, and so on.

What to Expect at Big Design Conference 2011

We are planning to have speakers talk about game narratives at the conference. We want to look at the game track in a different way.

Design Like Da Vinci

2011-03-21T06:59:00.000-07:00

I presented "Design Like Da Vinci" at Open Camp 2010 before Jeremy Johnson. You can check out the presentation below. It is just 20 slides.

Design Like Da Vinci

View more presentations from Brian Sullivan.

Da Vinci, As Designer

We all know the great works of art that Leonardo produced, such as The Last Supper and The Mona Lisa. As a designer, Leonardo produced thousands of sketches of various objects and ideas. Leonardo is credited with many military ideas, such as parachutes, tanks, helicopters, and more.

Leonardo used the analytical side of his mind to observe the natural order of things. He is known to have dissected cadavers to get a better understanding of the muscle tissue and bone structure. With this knowledge of human anatomy, Leonardo would alter his brush strokes to layer the paint on his works to mimic the underlying muscle and bone structure for his masterpieces.

Da Vinci, As Blogger?

Arguably one of the greatest legacies of Leonardo were the volumes of sketches that he left behind. Leonardo was using a rudimentary form of the Cornell method of note-taking for categorizing and tagging his sketches. Scholars have argued that Leonardo was preparing to publish the sketches. Sadly, Leonardo was known to procrastinate. The sketch books were never published in his life time.

When I talked at Open Camp, the room was filled with bloggers. My message to the bloggers was that micro-blogging is very easy today. We tend to look at getting traffic and numbers up. Bloggers want their content to go viral. Da Vinci produced more than 10,000 pages of detailed sketches of ideas and observations.

Da Vinci could have produced more, if he just had blogging software. In the end, I explained to the bloggers that Da Vinci did not care about numbers or an audience. He cared about his ideas. If he had an audience of one, namely his Patron, Da Vinci would have been relatively happy, as it meant that he could work.

Conclusions

Da Vinci created his sketch books as idea journals. Thomas Edison was known to have done the same thing. Do you keep a moleskin as an idea journal? Do you write down your ideas? Do you do mind mapping? If so, you are on your way to designing like Da Vinci.

Tell me what you think!

Build A Better Mousetrap With CATWOE

2011-03-10T06:32:00.000-08:00

A Smarter Mouse

We all want to build a better mouse trap, except for my cat, Junior. She just wants us to get out of the way! To build a better mousetrap, we need to better understand the problem.

As designers and developers, we tend to jump towards the solution. We see a symptom (i.e. the mouse infestation) without digging deeper into the core issue(s). Why are the mice attracted to your location? Can you motivate the mouse to leave? What can you do differently to no longer have mice come to your home? When you better understand a problem, you stop treating the symptom, and then solve the problem permanently.

The Problem is: We Do Not Understand the Problem

A Better Mousetrap?

Before you jump to a solution, you want to really understand the problem space. As mentioned before, you do not want to treat a symptom, when the core issue may still exist. In other words, you may not need another mousetrap!

When I first started working, my boss was very smart, strong woman with this great motto:

"The biggest problem is getting people to solve the same problem."

She was right!

The marketer sees the problem in terms of market share, market segmentation, and survey data. The developer sees the solution from a coding perspective, how to call certain jobs, or the architecture of the back end. The project manager sees the problem as a set of deliverables reaching a milestone developed by C-level executives viewing the problem from 30,000 feet. Each person looks at the solution differently with a specific lens.

Use CATWOE to Understand Your Problem

CATWOE

CATWOE is a critical thinking tool, which is a mnemonic for understanding your problem space. As a thinking tool, CATWOE provides you with a framework for looking at your problem from a system level. CATWOE stands for the following things:

Customers. The people on the receiving end of whatever you plan to do. From your problem definition, do you understand who wins? And who loses?
Actors. The people that carry out the activites defined by your solution. You may have primary actors and secondary ones. Did you think of all of these people?
Transformation. How does your solution transfer inputs into outputs? Can the inputs be managed? Are they the best inputs? Do the outputs satisfy the key problem?
World View. Put your solution into a wider context. How does
it affect another part of the world? Can it be used by people with
physical and mental impediements?
Owners. What people can stop your solution from being implemented?
The owners may or may not be the implementers of the solution.
Environment. Do you face any ethical dilemmas, new regulations, budget
constraints, resource issues, and so on?

For the sake of clarity, let's use CATWOE to explore the mouse problem that some people might be facing.

The CATWOE for Your "Mice" Problem

Yikes, now there's two mice!

When you see one mouse, you can be sure that another one (or two) are lurking nearby. Let's go through each of the CATWOE categories to get a fuller idea of our problem space--a mouse infestation.

Customers

The customers are the people (or animals) on the receiving end of whatever you plan to do. You will have primary and secondary customers, such as homeowners, renters, landlords, exterminators, and so on. These different groups are important because:

Marketers will want to market to these groups.
Designers will want to create personas of these groups.
Usability will want to recruit from these groups.

Animals get affected by your choice here, too. Cats, dogs, horses, and other farm animals are affected. Imagine what might happen if you choose to use rat poison on a farm. Finally, let's not forget about the mice. Mice are on the receiving end of the solution. It greatly affects the mice, as they are literally on the receiving end of your solution.

Actors

The actors are the people that carry out the activities defined by your solution. In some cases, the actors are the same person, such as the Homeowner that puts out rat poison or a new mousetrap.

The Customer and the Actor are not always the same person. For example, let's say you are designing a website for a swanky new hotel. The Hotel Manager is not the Customer, but they are one Actor (because they will probably be adding content to the website and wanting reports kicked out). The Customer is more than likely the Hotel Clients, or people staying at the hotel.

The Actors are the end-users of your solution. In some cases, the Actors are the Customers. But, this is not always the case.

Transformation

Inputs to Outputs

Your solution will take something (your inputs) and turn it into something else (your outputs). So, we have this mouse situation, right. How does your solution transfer inputs into outputs? Are we just adding more mousetraps? Are we going to get another cat to chase them away? Do we put out poison to kill the mice? Do we bait the mice to another location? Other transformation question still need to be answered.

Think about managing the input. If you figure out how to manage a cat, let me know. (Cats are their own person, if you know what I mean.). Some things you should do with a cat are feed, bathe, fix, take them to vet (for shots), and more. Assume you choose a different solution.

If you decide to use rat poison, you have to manage the chemical. Is the chemical harmful to plants, animals, children? Are their special handling instructions for administering and storing the chemicals? Do you need to wear safety goggles and gloves? Is this chemical the best input for solving the mice problem? Let's look at the outputs now.

Your outputs vary greatly based upon your solution. You can do nothing, which means you leave the mice alone and educate people on how to best leave the rodents alone (i.e do not feed them or keep them as pets). The output would be to monitor the mice.

Another output is compel the mice to leave. You can find sound devices to drive mice to a different location. A cat is also another motivator for mice. You could always hire the Pied Piper, if he is not too busy.

Finally, you could use poison, traps, and a cat to kill the mice. The output here is going to be dead mice, which require you to dispose of them. Poisoned mice are not what you want around pets, farm animals, or small children. Traps will cut the mice into parts, which means you clean up the mess. Plus, you will want to dispose of the dirty trap.

World View

Let's put your solution into a wider context. How does it affect your family? Neighbors? City? Region? State? Nation? World? If you get a cat to solve your mouse problem, it has a greater impact on your family and neighbors. If you use traps, the disposal of the used traps and mouse body parts impacts your family, neighbors, city, and region. Those traps and mouse bodies will go into a city dump, possibly affecting the water supply.

Can your solution be used by people with physical and mental impediements? We call this issue: accessibility. For example, let's say you adopt a solution that uses sound to repel the mice. How does a hearing impaired person know the device is turned on. You might want to add a light to show the device is on. Now, how does a blind person know the device is turned on. They will not be able to see the light. So, you might want to add a switch with Braille lettering.

Assume you use rat poison on a farm. Do you want to have this stuff near your crops? Instead, you may want to entice the mice to a location away from the crops, where you can better take care of them....permanently.

You want to examine from a world view because your solution impacts not only your clients using the product or service, but also their friends, neighbors, and other people. Most business solutions affect people, not one single individual.

Owners

Citation, anyone?

So, you want understand the problem. You might be surprised at how many people want you to know their viewpoint on this problem, too. Many groups of people can be considered as Owners in this decision. It is not just Customers and Actors. Owners want you to know how the solution can be implemented.

We have this mouse problem, right? What people can stop your solution from being implemented? Think about for a minute. The Owners are people that can prevent your solution from being implemented.

For example, local government might have a policy where you can only own three animals in the city. Assume you already have three birds. Do you violate city laws by getting a cat?

Assume you are a farmer now. You want to use rat poison and traps to solve the mouse situation. How will the government want you dispose of the mice without affecting your crops? How will the government police it? Do you want citations?

Here is an important thing to remember: the Owner may or may not be the implementers of the solution. If you are replacing your fence, you will need to make sure all of the Owners know (in this case, the Homeowner, Fence Contractor, and City Inspector). The City Inspector is an Owner, as they can prevent you from build a 20-foot wall that you affectionately The Mending Wall (because "good fences make good neighbors").

Environment

Porter's Five Forces

How does the solution get implemented? Do you face ethical dilemmas, new regulations, budget constraints, resource issues, and so on? What is the environment for implementing your solution? Let's assume you are implementing some kind of new rat poison immediately after animal activists have held rallies protesting the inhuman treatment of animals in some new Hollywood summer film.

Or, you think some new legislation will be passed that will affect the kinds of chemicals that can be used in poison. Maybe, you have competitive intelligence about how a manufacturer in a foreign country can mass produce the poison, as their country has a large supply of the main chemical ingredient used in production.

The forces acting within the environment of your problem space can help you to define the possible solution(s) you want to pursue. You may want to take some to review Michael Porter's Five Forces:

Substitutes within the market
New entrants within the market
Intensity of the rivalry within the market
Bargaining power of suppliers
Bargaining power of customers (or buyers)

Understanding these forces helps to shape the design parameters for your solution. Again, we are looking at a mouse situation.

Conclusions

A Better Mousetrap!

CATWOE is a great framework for you to explore a problem area in greater detail. It is not about generating solutions, as much as it is about understanding the various aspects of a problem area.

When you better understand the problem, you can start to create innovate, insightful, and intriguing solutions. The key is to understand the problem.

Coincidentally, I did find a product called "The Better Mousetrap", which traps mice into a cigarette-like case (see image on the right). In my opinion, it is a creative solution to a mouse problem.

5 Sketching Secrets of Leonardo Da Vinci

2011-03-02T09:49:00.000-08:00

You can improve your sketching and paper prototyping by adopting some of the methods used Leonardo da Vinci in his sketch books. Leonardo was a prolific sketcher, filling his journals with over 13,000 pages of notes and drawings. These 5 sketching lessons will make you a better thinker.

Lesson #1: Sketch Your Ideas Out 4-5 Times

Study of Flowers

Leonardo frequently sketched things multiple times, showing an object from different perspectives or different stages of development. Leonardo's different sketches of flowers show some with leaves and others without leaves. Some of the flowers are budding, while other flowers are mature.

Takeaways:

To better understand, sketch it out multiple times.
Quantity leads to quality.
Explore from multiple angles and different stages of development.

Lesson #2: Use Annotations in Your Sketches

Study of Arms & Shoulders

Beside most of Leonardo's sketches, you will find annotations about the about being sketched. The annotations are, obviously, used to clarify the object being studied. For example, the sketch called The Study of Arms and Shoulders shows four different drawings of the shoulder with annotation between the arms, which were literally the only place to put this information.

Did you know? Leonardo studied anatomy to help him with his brushstrokes for painting The Last Supper.

Takeaways:

Leave room for annotations in your sketches.
Your annotations might answer a question for someone that sees your sketch.
Your annotations are memory joggers for you.

Lesson #3: Collaborate With Others When You Sketch

The Great Lady

Leonardo made his sketches individually, but he collaborated with other people to flesh out out the finer details. Leonardo's sketches of human anatomy were a collaboration with Marcantonio della Torre, an anatomist from the University of Pavia, and Leonardo. Their collaboration is important because it marries the artist with the scientist.

The agreement was for Leonardo to provide immaculate sketches, while Marcantonio would provide accurate accounting of the inner details (annotations and assumptions made by Leonardo). Marcantonio agreed to have the Leonardo's drawings published. Ironically, one year later, Marcantonio would die of the Black Death. Luckily, Leonardo's sketches remained.

Did you know? The sketch called The Great Lady might be the first documented example of female anatomy.

Takeaways:

In general, show your work to other people.
Collaborate with others when you sketch.
Collaborate with someone that will make your sketches better (more accurate, more imaginative).

Lesson #4: Engage Your Imagination

Leonardo's Parachute

Leonardo drew things beyond nature and human anatomy. His sketches include civil engineering projects (bridges, roads, maps), military objects (parachute, airplane, tank, machine gun), and robots (knight armor which had cranks to show movement). In some cases, these imaginative objects would not be created for almost 500 years later. The key is to engage your imagination.

Leonardo used his imagination because he was curious. Leonardo once wrote:

Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination when awake?

Da Vinci was very curious about flying. In his sketch book, you can find a page with the name: "Flying machines. The Flight of Genius!" On this page, you will find sketches for a parachute, airplane, and glider. Some scholars have postulated that Leonardo's study of birds helped him with the design of the glider.

Did you know? Leonardo has an entry in his notebook about an unsuccessful flight test.

Takeways:

Sketch beyond your comfort zone (quantity helps you here)
Sketch multiple solutions around a problem area (example, flight)
Let ideas percolate, revisit your sketches

Lesson #5: Look for New Combinations

Da Vinci's Ladder

Just as Leonardo engaged his imagination, he also sought out new combinations. Build on existing concepts to come up with something different. Force fit different things together.

Da Vinci's sketch of a "Ladder" was meant to be used for scaling walls. He took existing technology (spikes), then he adding some additional elements to modify these spikes into "rungs" for his ladder.

More importantly, Leonardo used a simplistic form of the Cornell Method of note taking in all his sketches. In the Cornell method, you divide your paper into columns, where two columns—one larger for the body text (or sketch), and another that’s thinner for note taking, observations, and so on.

You can add more details for a sketch, create categories, tag your sketch, and literally make mental notes. You can quickly scan the page, looking for keywords, then you can seek a new combination based upon a different sketch.

If you are doing collaborative sketching, you can capture ideas from several team members. You can catalog the ideas using the Cornell Method. You can seek out other combination later. The important thing is to develop the habit of cataloging for the future, so you can make new combinations.

Takeaways:

Seek new combinations with your individual sketches
Catalog your sketches using the Cornell Method to reuse them in the future
Seek combinations from your previous sketches

Conclusions

You can improve your sketching and idea generation by following these secrets from Leonardo Da Vinci. Hidden within his notebooks are a variety of ideas on painting, sketching, architecture, and life (in general).

These are my takeaways from reviewing his work. What do you think?

Your Eyes Do Trick You (Attention Blindness)

2011-02-23T03:55:00.000-08:00

The following experiment shows how your eyes can trick you. The phenomena is called attention blindness, which is both scary and true.

Awareness Economy at Big Design Conference 2011

At the Big Design Conference 2011, Taylor Cowan and I will be talking about the impact of technology, gaming, and social interfaces have greatly impacted your own awareness economy. In this talk, we will explain how you have certain levels of awareness, how you can build design strategies to support a level of awareness, and how some applications are already building awareness into their designs.

Taylor and I believe that one of the biggest challenges facing users (and designer) is the Awareness Economy. You can only process a certain amount of information at any given moment. We will talk about how today;s connected, tech savvy user needs to be made aware of changes in their online world.

11 Year Old Interviews 94 Year Old Grandpa about WWII

2011-02-02T08:09:00.000-08:00

My 11 year old son, Sean, interviewed his 94 year old grandpa, Bob Soulliere, about his days as a solider in World War II. The interactions between grandson and grandfather are priceless.

If you look real close, you will see a tube of PEZ candies in the background. Maddie Stoulil gave them to as a gift to Sean before the interview.

Designing for Erikson's Psychosocial Stages

2011-01-11T11:33:00.000-08:00

Like Freud, Erik Erikson believed that human psychological development occurred in stages. The stages are framed by a certain internal conflict, where certain activities affect each person. In my mind, it is both nature and nurture here.

Each stage builds upon the other stages preceding it. While you will see age ranges, these markers are not hard rules. A person's development (or lack of development) occurs in their own time. Again, the age range is to give you the average personality development.

Read the stages below. I have some general observations about how these stages might be considered by UX designers.

Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development

Infancy (birth to 18 months)

Trust vs. Mistrust
Feeding
Children develop a sense of trust when caregivers provide reliability, care, and affection. A lack of this will lead to mistrust.

Early Childhood (2 to 3 years)

Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt
Toilet Training
Children need to develop a sense of personal control over physical skills and a sense of independence. Success leads to feelings of autonomy, failure results in feelings of shame and doubt.

Preschool (3 to 5 years)

Initiative vs. Guilt
Exploration
Children need to begin asserting control and power over the environment. Success in this stage leads to a sense of purpose. Children who try to exert too much power experience disapproval, resulting in a sense of guilt.

School Age (6 to 11 years)

Industry vs. Inferiority
School
Children need to cope with new social and academic demands. Success leads to a sense of competence, while failure results in feelings of inferiority.

Adolescence (12 to 18 years)

Identity vs. Role Confusion
Social Relationships
Teens need to develop a sense of self and personal identity. Success leads to an ability to stay true to yourself, while failure leads to role confusion and a weak sense of self.

Young Adulthood (19 to 40 years)

Intimacy vs. Isolation
Intimate Relationships
Young adults need to form intimate, loving relationships with other people. Success leads to strong relationships, while failure results in loneliness and isolation.

Middle Adulthood (40 to 65 years)

Generativity vs. Stagnation
Work and Parenthood
Adults need to create or nurture things that will outlast them, often by having children or creating a positive change that benefits other people. Success leads to feelings of usefulness and accomplishment, while failure results in shallow involvement in the world.

Maturity(65+ Years)

Ego Integrity vs. Despair
Reflection on Life
Older adults need to look back on life and feel a sense of fulfillment. Success at this stage leads to feelings of wisdom, while failure results in regret, bitterness, and despair.

Key Takeaways for UX Designers

As a usability professional or a UX designer, the stages provide useful insight into the various conflicts that affect psychological development. You can help alleviate some of the conflict:

Design products for each stage. For example, when someone enters the stage of Maturity, you can design products and services to help them with reflecting back on their life or deal with failure.
Design with empathy. While it is easier to understand a stage after going through it, you will still need to think about how an individual feels today. Are the pressures the same? How does technology impact your stage? What other forces (social, legislative, family) affect your stage?
Cross-marketing opportunities. You can design products to help parents teach their children to be successful in school. Or, you design products to help Middle Adults teach Young Adults how to deal with Infants or Preschoolers.

Big Mac Attack? Why You Know So Much About Them.

2011-01-10T10:07:00.000-08:00

In Morgan Spurlock’s “Super Size Me”, the filmmaker asks a group of tourists to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, while standing in front of the White House. The group of tourists struggle with reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in unison. When he asks the group about the ingredients of a Big Mac, one of the tourist’s says:

Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun.

While Spurlock uses this test to show how mass media has created a toxic food environment, we may actually be seeing how our brains encode things for quick retrieval.

The Big Mac and Neuroplasticity

Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to reorganize neural pathways based upon new experiences. As you learn, you obtain knowledge and skills though instruction or experience. Neural pathways are created during your childhood. Gopnick (1999) estimates newborns with 2,500 synapses and three-year old children have 15,000 synapses. As you age, you develop synaptic pruning, where stronger connections are kept and strengthened. Experience determines which connections stay and which ones get pruned.

Let’s get back to that Big Mac.

The Big Mac offers us an example of both instruction and experience creating multiple pathways in the brain. First, we learn the ingredients of the Big Mac from either the catchy jingle or reading the food labels. Second, we experience the Big Mac by seeing, touching, tasting, smelling, eating, consuming, buying, and so on. If you sit by someone consuming a Big Mac, you get a tacit experience, as you see and smell their food.

Let’s get back to the Pledge of Allegiance.

Memories are about storage and retrieval. Some memories are strongly tied to a primary entry point, where your start the retrieval process. For example, let's say you need to recall some phrase from the Preamble to the Constitution. You probably start with the phrase, “We the People”, until you get to the particular phrase that you want. Like the Preamble, the Pledge of Allegiance has a strong entry point.

In addition, the instruction and experience with reciting the Pledge of Allegiance is different for each person. Let's look at natural born citizens, immigrants, and foreigners. Natural born citizens of the US will learn and recite the Pledge during their early school years. Immigrants are required to learn, if they apply for US citizenship. Foreigners are not required to learn it, but they might read it.

Now, consider how any person might encounter a Big Mac—purchasing, advertising, tasting, smelling, seeing, touching, digesting, and more. The Big Mac is simply encoded more into our minds because we experience it more. The Big Mac is tangible. You can argue about its nutritional value, but it is consumed. The Pledge of Allegiance is about intangibles—we call them American ideas.

We might be able to recall the pledge, if we recited it each time we eat a Big Mac.

First Usage of Computer Mouse [Video]

2011-01-06T14:38:00.000-08:00

This video spotlights Douglas Englebart talk from 1968, where he envisions a future filled with personal computers. Englebart shares his grocery list with the public using a word processing program and the first computer mouse.

Get Connected on World Usability Day

2010-10-29T12:45:00.000-07:00

This year's theme for World Usability Day is Communication. When you consider the proliferation of smartphones, the emergence of social networks, and the emergence of 3G and 4G, communication is the most important user experience issue facing us today.

On World Usability Day 2010, we challenge you to get connected with user experience and usability enthusiasts from around the world by getting on the Connection Wall.

What's the Connection Wall?

The Connection Wall (powered by Eventbrite) gives you the opportunity to put your Twitter and Facebook userids on the World Usability Day site. The Connection Wall lets other user experience enthusiasts know that you believe in good design, usability, accessibility, and user experience.

The Connection Wall also allows you to donate money to support the continuing efforts of the World Usability Day operations. Elizabeth Rosenzweig wants to have the United Nations recognize World Usability Day in an official capacity. Let's help her with this next operation by getting on the Connection Wall.

See you on the Connection Wall!

Big Design Supports World Usability Day

2010-08-20T15:42:00.000-07:00

Check out this video that Big Design helped make happen. Look at the credits at the end.

Next Big Design Workshop

2010-07-12T21:16:00.000-07:00

Event Registration Online for Big Design Workshop: Intro to ActionScript 3.0 powered by Eventbrite

Big Design Conference Hour 1: Coffee Talk

2010-06-22T15:20:00.000-07:00

So, I entered SMU a little early (see last post about my "Secret Entrance"). By 7:05 AM, we already have our first customer. This same person would later go on to win the Adobe Creative Suite 5.0 giveaway. I am positive that he did NOT stuff the ballot box, too. Adobe turned it upside down.

NOTE: I am sure he went there before getting coffee (as it was not there).

Coffee, Coffee, Coffee--Where is It?

My father, Norman Sullivan, drank over 30 cups of coffee each day of his adult life. He liked it black. He drank it on hot or cold days. I can't recall a single moment, when he did not have his BIG cup (really 2 cups) filled with Folgers.

The man loved coffee. Everyday.

Our first crisis was the coffee did not arrive until 9:30AM. Our post-conference survey revealed that people were really angry about not having the coffee there. They craved it. They wanted it. They needed their coffee.

As it turns out, Ryan Plesko had ordered the coffee and donuts to arrive by 7:00 AM with a setup by 7:30 AM. Lara Becker, you probably saw her at registration, is a big fan of coffee (especially, Dunkin Donuts coffee). Now, we have attendees and organizers craving the caffeine.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Conference

Our Dunkin Donuts representative finally arrives at 9:15AM. Keith Anderson, Lara Becker, Joshua Bright, Dustin Askins, and two volunteers go to her car. You need to imagine this scene:

1. We see her 1998 Toyota filled with stuff.
2. Back seat has coffee and cups.
3. Front seat has donuts, napkins, cream, and sugar.
4. Trunk is filled with donuts.

Keith spills coffee on he front seat. We get all donuts and coffee into the trade show by 9:30 AM.

As it turns out, the Dunkin Donuts representative had to make all the donuts (800 of them) by herself. And, she had to make all the coffee, too. She loaded it all up in her car. Her co-workers had called in sick. But, this young lady delivered.

God Bless Her.

BC: Before Coffee (What To Do)

Before coffee, we had plenty of water. 800 bottles were ordered. So, you drank it up. It was gone before the second day ended.

Conference fact: Over 1,400 bottles of water were drank at Big Design Dallas 2010.

To Do List for 2011:

1. Make sure coffee is on time.
2. Order more water.

AC: After Creamer (What To Do)

Dang, some people like lots of creamer in their black coffee stuff. We ran out, of course. What to do with this emergency? Think people.

Keith Anderson started telling people to use a donut, instead of a creamer. Our attendees laughed. Let me tell you....those donuts were DUNKED, too.

Now, that is Big Design.

To Do List for 2011 (add these things):

3. More creamer.
4. Less donuts (maybe).

Big Design Day 1: A Secret Entrance

2010-06-03T04:44:00.000-07:00

In my last post, I wrote about Day 0, which is the day before the actual conference. For an organizer, Day 0 is exciting and filled with endless possibilities.

And, Day 0 is very long (see my last post).

A Secret Entrance

Keith Anderson and I had used a specific entrance at the facility to unload the conference swag on Day 0. I arrived at SMU at 630 AM, which is 30 minutes before I was really allowed into the building.

I decided to try this secret door, as all other doors were locked. It was a little risky, but I did not want to sit around to watch the grass grow.

Success!!!

I entered the building, making my way to the Big Design Conference Trade Show. It was dark. So, I used my phone (which Jeremy Johnson calls a "Hello Kitty" phone).

The light from my phone helps me to find the light switch. "Hello, Kitty!"

I hang the remainging signage and move some furniture. The new building manager asks me how I got into the building. I told him that a little kitty let me in and bribe him with conference swag and a t-shirt.

He takes on to his girlfriend.

Joshua Bright and Keith Anderson are surprised to see me at SMU, already. I told them I pulled an all-nighter.

In need of some coffee, our first attendee arrives at 7:05 AM. I think he shadowed me in from the secret entrance.

NOTE to Self: Always watch your back.

Big Design Conference: My Timeline

2010-06-02T10:37:00.000-07:00

When you plan an event (wedding, conference, vacation), time starts to warp when you go into a full-blown execution mode. The planning of Big Design Conference 2010 started for me during June 2009. The year came really fast. This blog is dedicated to the volunteers, whose lack of sleep made the conference possible.

Thursday

- 500 AM: Laundry is started--my jeans are dirty
- 530 AM: Dishes are now going in the kitchen
- 600 AM: Woke my son up. Next load of laundry. (My wife leaves for her work.)
- 630 AM: Eating breakfast with my son
- 645 AM: Making up the bed, folding laundry, telling my son to catch the bus
- 700 AM: Phone call with Keith Anderson about trade show
- 715 AM: Checking email and answering questions
- 730 AM: Laundry done. Bag packed done. Teeth brushed done.
- 800 AM: Mow the front yard
- 830 AM: Mow the back yard
- 845 AM: Check voice mails from Keith and Cynthia. Lara has tweeted three times.
- 900 AM: Shower and shave.
- 930 AM: Off to work (talking with Jeremy about last minute things)
- 1000 AM: All swag delivered to me (now, I need the Hummer)
- 1100 AM: Lead a meeting for the next hour
- 1200 PM: Have lunch with my sister and exchange car for Hummer
- 100 PM: Damn it, she left the car empty. Fill the Hummer up. Whew, it's $$$.
- 130 PM: Running late, call Joe Dyer to help load up swag. He is running an errand.
- 200 PM: Load up the entire Hummer to the roof. No passenger room, at all.
- 245 PM: Cleaning up sweat, Meet Aaron Hursman. Call from Elizabeth (she is lost).
- 255 PM: I get to the Big Design panel with 5 minutes to spare.
- 300 PM: I moderate a Big Design panel at Sabre (kinda mailed it in) for next hour.
- 415 PM: Panel runs over. Dang, I am going to hit traffic.
- 430 PM: Encountered traffic.
- 545 PM: It takes 75 minutes to get to SMU. I am 45 minutes late.
- 546 PM: Damn it, spot rain shower that last until 6:15 PM.
- 614 PM: Rain is letting up. I go for the entrance with some swag.
- 615 PM: Rain stops.
- 645 PM: All swag is unloaded from Hummer
- 655 PM: Travel arrangements are messed up with a speaker. Lara fixes it.
- 700 PM: Skirts are on tables. Trade show is good. Four exhibitors show up.
- 715 PM: Ryan leaves to work on pre-conference party.
- 720 PM: Signage arrives.
- 730 PM: Book store arrives.
- 740 PM: Building Manager tells us we need to leave.
- 741 PM: I tell Building Manager that we are miising 10 easels.
- 750 PM: We place all easels with signage throughout the trade show.
- 751 PM: I bribe the Building Manager with a t-shirt, free software.
- 752 PM: Building Manager likes XL shirt. He tells me that we can leave at 815PM
- 753 PM: I dismiss people from duties to focus solely on swag.
- 800 PM: BJ and I have got all signage done. Registration done. Book store done.
- 805 PM: Media guys are done. Sound check done. Video check done.
- 810 PM: Trade show check done.
- 814 PM: Dustin Askins goes to pick up Jared, Russ, and Nathan.
- 815 PM: Rest of us leave SMU. I am sweating profusely. And, I stink.
- 820 PM: Blasting the air in the HUMMER to cool me off.
- 835 PM: I put on deodorant and change shirts.
- 837 PM: Damn it, Russ Unger may have saw me without a shirt (I act non-chalant).
- 840 PM: I arrive at CoHabitat and find BEER.
- 845 PM: Chat with everyone I can. Jared Spool scares me. Russ Unger does, too.
- 900 PM: A wonderful chat with Nathan Shedroff (nice guy). I introduce Keith.
- 915 PM: A hug from Elizabeth Rosenzweig (nice lady). I introduce Lara.
- 930 PM: Video interview with Ben Smithee and Ryan Plesko. I say something.
- 1030 PM: I break away to call my wife. I need to do something nice for her.
- 1130 PM: Jeremy, Stormy, Dustin, and Burin want to go out to eat.
- 1230 AM: We end up by Magnolia Theater, eating burger.
- 100 AM: Stormy tells us the he might mover to Austin. Five other guys join us.
- 200 AM: I drive to my mom's house.
- 230 AM: I am asleep.
- 300 AM: z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z
- 400 AM: z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z
- 500 AM: alarm....hit snooze.....z-z-z-z-z-z-z
- 515 AM: I am up and ready to conquer Big Design Conference 2010 Day 1

Special Note on Day 1

I arrive at SMU 30 minutes before the student center officially opens. i was able to get into the building without the manager knowing it....but, that is another story.

Big Design Trailer: What to Expect

2010-04-15T17:43:00.000-07:00

Check out this video of Big Design 2009. It will give you an idea of what to expect this year.

Freewheeling (Generate, Generate, Generate)

2010-02-04T16:06:00.000-08:00

Freewheeling is about capturing and recording your ideas. You do not want to be concerned that something might be considered wild, crazy, or silly. In fact, you probably want to be playful and silly because you want to strive for uniqueness or originality.

Use your imagination.

It is not the first, second, or third idea you have that gets to that better idea. It is the ideas, where you engage your imagination that spawn a better idea. Your imagination must be used to effectively freewheel. Turn the "imagination" spiggot on full throttle.

Here are three games you can play to engage your imagination:

Force Fitting

Morphological Matrix

Ladder of Abstraction

I will explain each of these freewheeling methods below.

Force Fitting

People marvel at the iPhone and how fun it is to play on it. Personally, I think it is a joke to call this computer device a phone because it is really something more akin to a traveling computer that just so happens to have a phone feature. Anyway, the story of the iPhone development is a classic example of force fitting.

The story goes something like this: Steve Jobs was talking with some developers for the next version of touch tablets and touch tables. When he saw the touch iteraction of moving between pages of a book, Jobs wondered what it might look like to have this kind of interaction on a telephone.

Steve Jobs asked the question, "Wouldn't it be nice if we could have this touch screen on a mobile phone?" In short, he force fit this interaction on something new. Presto, the iPhone touch surface became a game changer.

Morphological Matrix

This method provides a structured way to identify and combine elements of a task in new ways. Follow these steps to create a morphological matrix:

State a problem or opportunity to address

Identify 6-10 parameters of the problem

List possible values of each parameter individually

Randomly select one value from each column to form a new combination

If you have 3 parameters with just 5 values. You have over 100 possible combinations (5x5x5). Here is an example for a possible movie:

Characters Setting Type of Story
Teenagers Present Love Story
Family Atlantis Science Fiction
Married Couple Heaven Horror
Monster Russia Western
Pirate King Future Super-hero

Randomly pick one value from each parameter (Characters, Setting, Type of Story). So, we could have a married couple from Atlantis in a super-hero story. Or, we have Teenagers from Heaven in a western story.

Your matrix morphs into different combinations quickly. You can freewheel and have fun with it.

Ladder of Abstraction

Laddering is a great tool.

You can search for more abstract, broad, and general concepts. If you go up the ladder, you will get to core emotional and spiritual responses. If you go down the laddrer, you will get more concrete, narrow, and specific.

The key to laddering is in the how you start each question, which is also called a "stem" statement. Stem statements are way to prime a sepcific response from someone. For example, if you want to go up the ladder of abstraction, your stem statement is the word "Why" followed by the phrase "Why else".

Let me illustrate....with an example from travel planning. Are key question is to try an understand teh reason people want take one day trips alone without their family.

Why do people take one day trips alone without their family? Answer: Stress
Why else do they take them? Answer: Work-related.
Why else do they take them? Answer: Affairs
Why else do they take them? Answer: Addiction

You can continue to branch up by asking "Why" question for each answer (stress, work-related, affairs, addiction). As you go up, the answers become more emotional and spiritual. You may be able to capture reasons for making your design tie into one of those emotions (such as Independence or Rebellion).

If you go down the ladder, your stem statement is "How" followed by "How else" questions. We'll take the same line of reasoning with one-day trips alone.

How do people take these trips? Answer: By car
How else? Answer: By boat
How else? Answer: By airplane
How else? Answer: By motorcycle
How else? Answer: With another person
How else? Answer: With a group

In this case, you go down to get more specific. You can continue a single branch to explore it. Let's take the boat branch now.

How do they take trips by boat? Answer: They rent them
How else? They buy them
How else? They borrow them
How else? They take a cruise
How else? They go with a friend
How else? They steal it

As you can see, you can generate and freewheel with these tools. It should be easy to come up with loads of ideas. Have fun with it.

Defer Judgment (Man, That is Hard)

2010-01-28T06:55:00.000-08:00

Trust me!!! Deferring judgment is hard. You are going to have a tough time doing it.

In the last blog, I explained about how when you strive for quantity you will get that quality idea, which is novel and unique. You will need to really fight off the urge to judge your ideas, as well as the other ideas that get presented.

As I said before, deferring judment is hard. Trust me.

Managing Your Daily Thoughts

I read a report from the National Science Foundation that estimated that our brains will produce between 12,000 to 50,000 thoughts per day. In some cases, deep thinkers will have as many as 60,000 thoughts per day.

As you already know, many thoughts can be pure non-sense, day-dreaming, fantasizing about future events, guilty thoughts about past mistakes, wondering about what you are going to eat, praying for something, and so on. Of these 50,000 thoughts, some researchers have estimated that we have 70-80% of these daily thoughts as negative.

The human mind does seem to be wired for negative thoughts and neuroticism. Here are some typical examples that you might hear mind say to your..........self:

You are dumb

You are too fat

You are ugly

You will not convince them

You talk funny

That is not the right word

My presentation sucks

Your ideas stink

We engage in this type of negative "self-speak" with more than 25,000 thoughts each day. This "self-speak"in and of itself is not a problem.

How It Impacts The Design Studio Method

You have to defer judgment as you create your ideas and other people present thier ideas. You do not want to instantly judge an idea as being good or bad. You must refrain from internal judgment and external signs, too.

Internal judgment is something that only you can truly know at conscious level. Hopefully, your sub-conscious judging can be diminished with your conscious being open to new ideas. You want to be open to these new ideas because these ideas (no matter how silly or stupid) could spurn another idea from you or someone in the Design Studio session.

External signs of negative and positive feedback should not happen. For example, you could laugh at someone's idea that you think is silly or stupid. Your laughter can shut down the person presenting an idea and other people in the session will try to understand your joke and laugh (so they are closing their minds to that next idea).

If you show signs of positive feedback (smile, nod your head in agreement, or clap your hands), you risk getting people committed to one idea. You may even start to just iterate on the same idea, which can cause you to get caught up in the common response zone. Plus, it cuts off other people's ideas that might be just as good.

Trust me. You must defer judgment. When you defer judgment, you increase your chances of success. And, it is much easier to get alot of ideas presented to whatever problem you want to solve.

Man, it is hard. You have to supress over 25,000 thoughts. You have to re-focus your.....self.

Next Up: Freewheeling

Strive for Quantity (to Get Your Quality Idea)

2010-01-27T05:50:00.001-08:00

As I mentioned in my last blog called Thinking about Thinking, I talked about certain guidelines to follow when you generate and focus your ideas. These guidelines can help improve your project success rate. To review, the guidelines for generating ideas are:

Strive for Quantity
Defer Judgment
Freewheel
Piggyback

You probably already know that it takes alot of ideas to create that one really good idea. For this reason alone, the most important rule for generating ideas is:

Rule #1: Strive for Quantity

Quantity leads you to quality. In fact, innovation research supports this concept of quantity leading you to quality.

Decay Curve of Product Innovation

To creatively solve a problem, you must generate alot of ideas to come up with a solution that is novel and unique. Innovation scholar, A.L. Page researched the number of ideas you need to generate to come up with that one good solution.

According to Page, roughly 9 commercially successful products were developed from every 100 ideas. Page plotted his research in what has became known as the Decay Curve of Product Innovation, which is shown below.

Page's Decay Curve shows us several things:

You have to saturate the solution space with many ideas (Rule #1: Strive for Quantity).
You have to use a process to evaluate the generated ideas (weed out the bad ideas).
Quantity leads to quality when you are generating ideas.

How It Applies to the Design Studio Method

The Design Studio method is a structured sketching session where key stakeholders must come with a variety of sketches to solve a specific problem. To get out of the common response zone, the participants must each come with several sketches, especially on the first day.

Most participants want to use common design patterns. They will look at their favorite websites, visit a design pattern library, or already have one or two ideas they want to flesh out. In most cases, the rule about striving for quantity (which leads to quality) is something that people will follow.

Risk: Some people sketch the same concept.

I have seen some sketchers just sketch a slightly different version of the same concept. We have the classic example of a:

Yellow Horse
Red Horse
Green Horse
Black Horse

To solve this problem, you must review the sketches before they are shown. You can give the sketchers additional time to create some more sketches. The other participants can take a smoke break, check email, or make phone calls.

You do not want to risk get committed to one idea. You must saturate your problem space with a variety of solutions. You know that quantity leads to quality. So, you must enforce the rule to Strive for Quantity.

Next Up: Defer Judgment

Thinking about Thinking

2010-01-25T07:04:00.000-08:00

I have been doing alot of "meta-thinking" lately, which means that I am thinking about thinking. I took a class in my MBA program called Creative Problem Solving, which offers some really good techniques to improve your thinking. The process has been refined for the past 50 years.

The CPS process breaks down your thinking into two "thought" categories:

Generating thoughts (or ideas)
Focusing thought (or ideas)

In both cases, you have some fundamental processes to follow, which I will explain below.

Generating Ideas

When you generate ideas, you need to follow these guidelines:

Strive for Quantity
Defer judgment (both positive and negative)
Piggyback
Freewheel

Focusing Ideas

When you focus ideas, you need to follow these guidelines:

Use affirmative judgment
Consider novelty
Stay on Course
Be deliberate

Over the next few blogs, I am going to be explaining what each one of these guidelines mean and how you can use them to improve your thinking and your co-worker's thinking on different projects.

I have been using this approach for over 10 years now. Plus, we have been using these guidelines in the Design Studio approach for the last 2 years in the Usability Lab. In my mind, business can be improved by implementing a structured approach to thinking using the CPS model.

I think we can improve the usability of projects by helping teams to better think through their designs during the software development life cycle.

Book Review: Rocket Surgery Made Easy

2010-01-06T18:46:00.000-08:00

I ran a Usability Boot Camp about a month ago on discount usability testing. This full-day workshop virtually follows the same strategies outlined in Steve Krug's newest book "Rocket Surgery Made Easy." This book is a companion to the best seller "Don't Make Me Think".

Both books should be part of your library, regardless of whether you are a UX professional.

The Good

Steve's book is a quick read. I read the whole in about one hour (I am a pretty fast reader). Personally, I like the illustrations, quotes, and anecdotes that Steve references--Simpsons, Woody Allen, 2001 A Space Odyssey, and so on.

Steve also has a very casual style to his writing. The content is also spot on, too. My Usability Boot Camp in December covered the same topics.

The Not-So Good (Its Not Bad, Really)

Steve's book has a singular focus--discount usability testing. When Steve talks about discount usability testing, it should be known that it is "SUPER-SAVER" discount usability testing. Some usability professionals might be turned off by this approach.

I am, however, a huge fan of Steve's approach!!!

As a discipline, I think usability testing needs to embrace the type of approach that Steve advocates. I think the work by Jeff Patton, Adaptive Path, IDEO, and Ruth Noller should get embraced to change the traditional usability methods we have canonized in Usability texts.

Steve goes out of his way in this book to explain that he is only talking about discount usability testing, which I greatly appreciated. "Don't Make Think" is a gentle introduction, which sets up this book very nicely. "Don't Make Me Think" does stand on its own.

"Rocket Surgery Made Easy" is a great companion piece to "Don't Make Me Think". Personally, I really love Chapter 9 (if you know me, you will understand).

Preventing Usability Issues

2009-12-31T08:45:00.001-08:00

The IDEO Method cards (shown on the left) are an interesting assortment of techniques, which have been applied by IDEO on various projects. IDEO has greatly expanded my thinking on UX design for the past 10 years. Since it is the EOY 2009, I will look at the past and project into the future.

My crystal ball predicts some changes to some long-held usability philosophies. I hope the usability community will embrace these moves. Let's take a look at the past now.

Brief Review of Usability Methods

Usability engineering as a discipline tends to get defined by the usability lab. The usability labs are impressive and customers really do like to see their products tested with real customers. As Steve Krus has said, "Usability testing is the single best thing you can do for your product." I completely agree with him.

Usability engineers are very comfortable in the labs--talking with customers, evaluating websites, and so on. I hardly ever meet a usability engineer at a UX conference that does not LOVE to wear their lab coat. We are comfortable in our lab coat. Our methods showcase our comfort zone. The Methods Table (shown below) has many of the techniques, but these techniques primarily support one activity--the usability test.

You can find other UX techniques, where the focus is primarily to support a usability test (see http://www.usability.gov/ or look up the "Usability Methods Toolkit" on your favorite search engine). These different philosophies are in the area of diagnosis and treatment. They are reactive processes.

Looking Towards the Future

In my mind, the future of usability is (and has always been) in prevention services. It reminds me alot of the dental industry. There are alot of parallels, so give me some latitude (as it is my blog). Just stay with me for a few minutes, OK?

When the dental industry formed, dentists primarily analyzed patients and took corrective action. Corrective action was usually in the form of pulling your tooth or preforming a root canal. These actions are done in the sterile enviroment of the dental office, where the professional would use his tools, in his environments, and on his schedule.

Usability engineers are alot like dentists. They analyze pateients, while they use a product, in their environment, and on their computer. The usability engineers report results back to the team, which the team can take corrective action. Usually, the team is so far down the development pipeline that "low-hanging fruit" is all that gets worked on. In short, it is a reactive process.

The detnal industry metaphor still holds true. The detnal industry made the switch towards prevention services and products. For example, we had an entire group of professionals created known as the dental hygienst. Floss, adding flouride to toothpaste and water, mouthwash, whitening stripes, electric toothbrushes, and more are examples of products that have embraced prevention.

Where Do We Find Prevention Services and Products

Ironically, I think we can see them in some existing areas. The IDEO Method cards use plenty of techniques for preventing usability issues. The IA Institute released some very good cards via nForm design that provide many good techniques. The Human Factors Center at Sabre uses a form of the Five Sketches Technique (from Jerome Ryckborst) in its prevention services now.

Imagine a new UX Method that includes these types of techniques:

- Bodystorming
- Scale Modeling
- Conceptual Landscaping
- Collage association
- Role Playing
- Camera Journals
- Literature (Blog) Reviews
- Ladder of Abstraction

Finally, I foresee some tools used in other models that get introduced into the UX landscape. in particular, I am interested in the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) Model. These creativity tools can be used to make sure everyone is working on the same problem, before any code gets developed. Thankfully, most of the CPS methods are prevention methods, too.

Usability Testing Workshop = Big Success!!!

2009-12-07T07:28:00.000-08:00

We raised over $2,500 on December 5th with the Usability Boot Camp. The money was a fund raiser to help out a local basketball team with some costs. Coach Scott Cortinas has used the money to help buy his team uniforms, get some equipment, set up a camp in December, and offset some tournament fees.

A special thanks to all participants of the Usability Boot Camp. I have attached the presentation here.

Usability Testing Workshop

View more presentations from bunky34.

We are looking at doing another workshop in the Spring. We have not decided the topic, yet. It might be more developer oriented.

Why Names Really Matter

2009-11-21T07:54:00.000-08:00

Source: Color Path

As many of you know, my wife, Susan, and I are going through a major remodel of our home. We are remodeling our kitchen, hall bathroom, Master bathroom, and replacing all the tile in our home. We are painting about 50% of our home, too. Today, we have an abject lesson in naming of paints (or how to turn off some customers).

We are a working with a Certified Green Professional, who brought us over one of those paint sample sleeves. The paint sample sleeve has hundreds on paint samples on it with the various names of the paints on a sample of the color. When you get a chance, check out the neat little interaction on the Color Life site. Spend a few minutes on their site to check out how they have named their paints.

My wife was offended by names! Here are some of the more offensive ones:

Androgyny
Opium
Old Dishwater
Gravel
Pink Hippy
Mexican Tan
Yak Skin
Pussytoes
Big Mable

With the notable exception of "Pink Hippy" and "Mexican Tan", you probably don't know the EXACT color being represented by the name. As fate would have it, the color that most closely matches the towels in our Master Bath is called (drum roll, please).....Trotting!!!

How do I tell my sister that we have "Old Dishwater" on our walls?

Truly, naming something matters in shopping, buying, and word-of-mouth. I think we will choose another product.

Usability Informs Sustainable Design for Consumers

2009-10-16T14:33:00.000-07:00

You just watch and see how sustainability takes off now with designers and usability professionals focused on it. The current trends in sustainable design has been to focus solely on the supply-side of things--reducing your carbon footprint, recycling programs, reusing different products, and so on. Reduce, reuse, recycle. Designers and usability professionals would also add one more word:

RETHINK

Designing thinking has been a buzz word for many years now. The real application of design thinking will be the next wave of sustainable design. We are already starting to see designers and usability professionals performing design thinking about sustainability. Take a look at the convergence of design thinking and sustainability in this video. Check out how people's behavior can be influenced to become more "green."

While we can celebrate the victory of the piano stairs, which makes sustainable design fun, interactive, and interesting. The importance of this design is that it influenced the behavior of consumers (ie the demand side). Designers and usability professional play in the demand side of the sustainability proposition.

You have to consider your users. Sustainability must consider users to see widespread adoption of sustainable products. We cannot expect consumers to act and/or make a green choice. Below is an idea introduced known as the Square Milk Jug:

As you can see, the primary goal create square milk jugs, so stores no longer needed to carry the plastic bins used to load milk jugs on traditional pallets. As it turns out, these redisgned milk jugs actually allowed for more milk to placed on pallets, which further reduced the need to order more milk for dairy departments at stores.

Sounds great, right?

The problem is the design of the milk jugs only looked at how the new design would impact the supply-side of this sustainable product design. The demand-side (or the consumers) did not really like the new milk jug design.

As reported by the New York Times, consumers could not figure out how to pour their own milk. The stores provided lessons on how to pour milk!!! One mother complained that the new design is almost impossible for her children to pour their own milk using the square jug.

We are entering a stage in Sustainable Design, where we will end up depending more on the design thinking of usability professionals and designers to solve problems for consumers. Let's hope usability and design is up to the challenge of serving the demand-side of the sustainability proposition.

The Story of David: A Life Changed by WUD

2009-10-07T17:18:00.000-07:00

This is the story of David. There is no Goliath in this story. But, you will see how his life changed after the first World Usability Day.

I am lucky. I got to witness it.

For those of you that do not know about World Usability Day, it was founded five years ago by Elizabeth Rosenzweig to be a single day where designers, developers, and usability professionals come together to raise awareness, educate, and celebrate usable design. In 2008, there were events in over 40 countries. Elizabeth's dream (http://worldusabilityday.org ) is still running strong in its 5th year.

This is not Elizabeth's story. It is David's story. Elizabeth does not know David, but she changed his life. Here is David's story. It begins on World Usability 2005, its first year.

I opened the WUD event at Sabre at 9AM, giving tours of the usability labs. My co-workers and I had stationed 15 booths, where we got to spotlight several products that had gone through usability. We had 300 people visit our usability labs. I had booked a conference room to show the Accessibility Channel webinars.

I gave tours to about 40 groups of people, as they came in waves. David was in the first group. He asked lots of questions. He told me that he took the day off to learn about usability and accessibility. He asked if he could stay in the Accessibility room to watch videos. Needing some help, I asked him to run the room for me.

Even now, I can see David's big grin, as he said, "Be glad to, amigo!" He stayed for the entire day (from 9Am-6PM). David took notes during the various presentations on Accessibility.

In the months that followed the WUD event, David and I struck up a nice friendship. David would visit my desk and borrow books. David and I took walks together, as we tried to lose weight. We talked about our families, hopes, dreams, and aspirations.

Like Elizabeth's dream for a World Usability Day, David had a similar dream. David wanted to teach people about technology--computers, digital cameras, social media (which was emerging), and more. David wanted to open a coffee shop, where he could also have a training space to teach people about technology.

The assistive technology that David has learned about from the Accessibility Channel had really sparked his interest. Some people said it lit a fire.

David scouted various locations in Fort Worth. Eventually, he did find a location. David opened a small business called Computers Made Easy in Forth Worth, Texas.

David's dream continues today. David has used the assistive technology and employs blind people in his store. David's company has received the following awards:

Texas Governor's Award - Small Employer of the Year (2008)
Easter Seals of North Texas - Small Employer of the Year (2008)
ARC of Greater Tarrant County - Professional of the Year (2008)
DARS Division For Blind Services - Business of the Year (2009)
Texas Advocates (ARC of Texas) - Employer of the Year (2009)

Five years ago, David went to World Usability Day. He stayed, learned, and dreamed.

Today, everyday is World Usability Day to him.

Elizabeth's dream inspired David to fulfill his dream. The world is a better place for it, too.

Initial Sketch from Design Studio

2009-10-01T07:08:00.000-07:00

In early August, DFW-UPA had its first UX workshop, where we raised $1,000 to help set up a UX scholarship program (see my last blog entry). We had over 30 professionals sketching out the user experience.

After going through over 50 different designs, we saw a convergence around 7 different designs. Ryan Plesko went ahead and created a mock-up that mashed-up several different concepts, which is shown below:

Eating Our Own Dog Food

As usability and design professionals, we decided to go ahead and eat our own dog food, which means that we decided to do some additional research on this concept from the Design Studio. With the help of Theresa Wilcox, a Chalkmark Survey was created.

If you are not familar with Chalkmark, I am going to encourage you to check out their tool. It has a free demo version you can use to ask three questions for some quick feedback. Sam Ng (who helped Adam Polansky on a recent card sort) is one of the company founders. He would be glad to talk to you. Check them out at http://www.optimalworkshop.com/.

Task 1 - What is this Year's Main Topic?

Thankfully, we see a clustering of clicks centered around the Sustainability label in the top header. We do see some clicks in random areas. But, the main topic area was understood. Again, thankfully, we got that right in the component.

Task 2 - What do you click to see impact of changing out a bulb?

Here we see clusters around the images and the sliders. In both cases, the participants would be correct. The change in the sloders would show changes to the bulbs in the second row. It does make sense that users would cluster to these main topics.

The low clusters also make sense, too! These smaller clusters would take the users to a secondary page, where they would learn more about how changing out a light bulb can have a significant impact.

Task 3 - What do you click to get more information?

Again, we see two predominant clusters--one cluster around the label (which is OK) and a second cluster around a More Info icon (which is OK, too). Jeremy Johnson is going to work with our light bulb supplier to work out the details on the secondary page.

Task 4 - What number best represents your energy savings?

Again, we see predominant cluster around the Money savings, kW Hours number, and LED bulb count pics. These clusters all make sense. We do have some clicks to more information (which is OK, but a stretch). I am not sure what to make ot the click on the secondary slider.

Overall, it seems like we have an intutuive design. We had over 30 people respond to the survey. The results are basically what we wanted to see, too.

Big D Workshop = Big Success!!!

2009-08-10T08:35:00.001-07:00

On August 8th, DFW-UPA hosted its first UX Workshop at CoHabitat. Cone Johnson and I put together these workshops to help fund a UX scholarship fund. We were able to raise $1,000 for the UX Scholarship fund.

The first workshop was on a new UX method known as a Design Studio, which is a systematic approach for saturating the design space with ideas. This UX method was introduced at UPA 2008 by Jerome Ryckborst. The Design Studio Workshop presentation is included here.

DFWUPA Workshop: Design Studios

View more presentations from bunky34.

The goals of these workshops include:

1. To fund a UX scholarship to students at local DFW universities
2. To have quarterly checkpoints with Big (D)esign Conference attendees
3. To educate the UX community in DFW, using local talent (primarily)
4. To provide more opportunities beyond monthly meetings and the annual conference

At the first workshop, we used the Design Studio method to actually create some sketches for an Energy Calculator for exchanging a light bulb, which will be used on the World Usability Day site (see www.worldusabilityday.org). Ryan Plesko, Chair of DFW-UPA, will be creating the design.

A very special thanks to all attendees for making it a wonderful event. It was great to also go to lunch with basically 1/3rd of the class after the workshop.

Questions That Lead to Your Answers

2009-07-31T14:22:00.000-07:00

For usability experts, the best results are often uncovered by how you frame a question. Any question will yield an answer. To get the results you want, must frame (or ask) the right question. Today, I am going to give you some examples of questions that you can ask based upon what you want to truly have answered.

Clarity

Could you elaborate further?

Could you show me how?

Could you illustrate what you mean?

Accuracy

How would you check on that?

Is the data accurate? Is the data complete?

How would you find out if that is true?

Precision

Could you be more specific?

Can you provide me with more details?

Could you be more exact?

Relevance

Does all of this information belong?

Would you add or remove anything?

Did this match your expectations?

Logic

Does this all make sense together?

Is anything missing?

Are the steps in the right order?

Hopefully, you can see how each question is framed to help focus the user's thought to a specific value (e.g. clarity, relevance). Framed questions are not leading questions. Leading questions are asked to guide user to a very specific answer.

Card Sorting: Strategies

2009-07-24T07:57:00.000-07:00

Recently, I had lunch with Adam Polansky and Stephen Thomas to discuss a card sort of our corporate Intranet. With the opportunity to design more usable categories, a cross-functional team has volunteered to do a card sort within the next few weeks. Our lunch was about the card sorting strategy for this project. We talked about a book, broke some bread, and created our strategy. Here is what we talked about.

Card Sort Strategies

We started our lunch with a brief chat about Donna Spencer's Card Sorting: Designing Usable Categories from Rosenfeld Media. In my humble opinion, this book is the definitive guide on how to perform a card sort, especially in various strategies outlined for each stage of a card sort project. Adam knows Donna, too. He told a funny story about Donna's IA Summit card sort.

Anyway, Spencer's book is refreshing in its step-by-step approach to card sorting. Tips and tricks are speckled in its chapter. At each step of the card sort process, Spencer provides real-world examples of card sort projects, where a lesson was learned (sometimes, the hard way).

My favorite real-world example was a card sort project, where Spenser prepared the project, but she handed it off to another person, who was ill prepared to execute the project. The results are both comical and tragic. The results were not usable. They had to repeat the card sort.

According to Spencer, a card sort strategy revolves around three key things: type of card sort (open or closed), participation strategy (individual vs team), and execution strategy (manual, software, or combination). We used this framework to make decisions on our project.

Type of Card Sort

As we all know, card sorts basically come in these two flavors:

Open card sort--where users group conent, then name the content bucket.
Closed card sort--where users place content into an already named content bucket.

The advantage of an open card sort is that you get to see how people would actually group the content together. The advantage of a closed card sort is you get to see how people place the content. It is an important distinction.

A frequently used strategy is to perform an open card sort to see how people group the content, then you analyze the results. In a few weeks, you can perform a closed card sort to verify if your content categories are correct.

Optimal Workshop's Treejack software provides a nifty alternative to doing a closed card sort. Users can actually drill into the category buckets seeing other choices, menu items, and groupings. It gives alot of context that you would not see in a closed card sort.

For our project, we decided very quickly to do an open card sort. The current Intranet categories are very shallow and old. As content had been added, it was placed in arbitrary places as the company expanded. Adam and Stephen already knew they wanted an open card sort. We still are not sure on whether to follow-up with a closed card or to use Treejack.

Participation Strategy

Basically, you are going to need to choose on how to execute the card:

Team sort--3 or 4 people discuss, decide, group the cards, and name the categories.
Individual sort--each person (working alone) peforms the card sort.

Team sorts can be very important in a number ways. For example, collaboration areas are ideal for matching content organization and category names used by a group. Spencer recommends that you take alot of notes during team sorts because the discussion of the group yields alot of insights (sometimes, the discussion is better than the card sort iteself).

Individual sorts are great when you want a large number and variety of results. In other situations, it is just impossible to get everyone together to perform a team sort. For the card sort of the Intranet, the team decided to use an individual sort (striving to get global locations included for a greater variety of input).

For the Intranet project, we decided to perform an individual sort, as the scope is to focus on the high-level content areas. Plus, we are not really looking into any of the collaborative areas of the site. Team sorting did not make sense for this project.

Execution Strategy

You can execute a card sort in one of three ways:

Manual sort--where you create index cards that your partipants manually use
Software sort --where you load the content into a software program that people use
Combination sort--where your sample includes a manual and software component

Manual sorts are low-tech, fun, and interactive. Spencer includes a wonderful Excel template for compiling results on the Rosenfeld Media site. Spencer provides a useful tip to number each content card. On the category label, you just enter the number of the content card. You can put the group to the side, if you need to continue working with your users.

Software card sorting tools have really improved. Some low-cost tools are now available that will help you to crunch the numbers. Most of the software exports results to Excel, where the number junkies and statisticians get to work their magic. Software-based card sorts are great because you can distribute quickly to large number of people. Plus, the software-based card sorts really do not take that long.

Combination card sorts occur when you send out an online card sort to one sample of the population and you perform a manual sort with another part of the population. You can get statistical significance with the online card sort, while you have the opportunity to listen and/or ask questions to manual card sort participants.

For our Intranet project, we decided to strive to do a combination card sort. We need to reach global locations, but we also want to hear some of the conversations. A software-based card sort does not give us the interative compenent of listening and watching. Plus, we may want to ask follow-up questions.

Conclusion

Spencer's book is an invaluable book to include in your library. We often think that card sorts are very to execute. Any card sort project needs to develop a strategy around the type of card, team/individual execution, and manual/software-based/combination style. Each card sort is going to be different. Let Donna Spencer's book help you to develop your strategy for your next card sort project.

DFW-UPA Launches Quarterly Workshop Series

2009-07-22T07:51:00.000-07:00

DFW-UPA announces quarterly workshops given by its members to provide in-depth half-day and full-day tutorials on a variety of topics, such as:

New Research Techniques
Best Practices in Heuristic Inspections
Latest Review of UX Technologies
Hands-on Workshop on Mobile Design

Seating is limited in all workshops to just 40 people.

Details of the First Workshop: Learn a New UX Method

Topic: How to Perform a Design Studio: A New UX Method for Design Ideation
Presenter: Brian Sullivan
Date: Saturday, August 8, 2009
Time: 9:00 am - 12:00 pm
Location: CoHabitat (2517 Thomas Street, Dallas TX – map on EventBrite page)

To register: http://bigdworkshop01.eventbrite.com/

You will learn in this workshop:

Obtain an overview of the Design Studio method (introduced at UPA 2008)
Learn about the communication protocol used for decision-making
See a real-world example of a Design Studio project
Perform hands-on exercise where you will go through the entire process
Work on a live website, where your feedback will determine its future design

CoHabitat offers us free wireless service (very laptop friendly). Attendees will not need to bring supplies for this workshop.

About Brian Sullivan: Brian is the President of DFW-UPA, Usability Principal at the Sabre Human Factors Center, one of the organizers of the Big (D)esign Conference, and World Usability Day Theme Chair (2008, 2009). Brian has been involved on panels at UPA 2008 and UPA 2009, presented at the Big (D)esign Conference, and presented at the Poster Revolution at UPA 2007 on Building a Usability Community.

Brian has been involved in the IT industry for over 20 years. Brian has held numerous positions including Content Management, Training Development, QA, Customer Support, and Usability. Brian holds an MA in English Literature, MBA in Management Information Systems, and CUA from Human Factors International.

Logistics: The event is hosted at CoHabitat. Donuts and coffee will be provided. Attendees are encouraged to go to lunch at a local eatery near CoHabitat, after the workshop is over.

Costs: Members cost is $40. Student cost is $20. Day of the event is $75.

NOTE: Part of the money collected for the quarterly workshops will go to a student scholarship program, which we will announce soon.

Bad Twitter Experiences = Bitter, New App

2009-07-17T07:04:00.000-07:00

Repeat none of the following: I am really not too keen on Twitter because of some recent, bad experiences. During a recent Social Media Panel, I asked the following question:

"Have you ever had a BAD twitter experience?"

Sadly, none of these social media experts could relate any bad twitter experiences, publicly.

To my surprise, some of the panelists did admit privately about bad Twitter experiences. I am going to relate a few of my bad experiences here because it may be time to introduce a new tool...called Bitter, a Twitter application designed to alleviate my bad Twitter experiences.

Here are a few examples of bad twitter experiences that might be better served on something like Bitter.

Example #1: People Create Masks on Twitter

I had several very bad experiences, where someone publicly acted one way at a social event, then they act completely different on Twitter. Personally, I think it is related to having a safety net on Twitter. Anyone can take on a persona on Twitter.

They will not use their real name as their Twitter name. They might have two or three account, but they are still the same person. People will use avatars rather than real picture. I am pasting a "Simpsonized" version of a friend of mine here (no, it is not me!).

On Twitter, you have the ability to assume an identity, doing things that you would not normally do, saying things more outrageous than normal. There is a cool distance with Twitter. You do lack that human element of touching and feeling. Instead, you get small snippets of insights, almost like gossip or water cooler talk.

Deep meaningful connections are made so much more effectively when you have to look the other person in their eyes, see their body language, and make that HUMAN connection. Twitter lacks the human component. Sure, you can be playful (like the Simpson character), where is that real, HUMAN component.

In some cases, people will insert a logo (Coke or Pepsi), load a picture of a random object (like a dog or a tree), or creatively alter a real picture of themselves.

Typing out a set number of characters, posting a picture, or putting a link to some website is NOT a deep, meaningful HUMAN connection. While all of the above seems playful, it does lead to a certain distancing from other people (you do not reach out and touch someone). Instead, you have a persona, logo, random object, or something else representing you.

In short, your persona is not you. So, you have a safety net. You are enabled to act differently on Twitter. Who is that masked man? Or random object? Or whatever?

You can develop your own name, which isn't your name, too. I have not checked, but I think a cool name on Twitter would be @Not4Any1. It might be taken, though. A different name, a different picture....a false identity. Assume the role playing. Yes, it happens.

On Bitter, role playing, wearing masks, and acting out is simply understood. It is the primary reason for going there. No more confusion on Twitter. Have fun it is Bitter.

Example #2: WTF Doesn't Mean "Wow, that's funny?"

In the real world, it is crazy people and criminals who where masks. So, caveat emptor--let the buyer beware. You see on Twitter you have the ability to privately scorn someone with a direct message, then publicly claim that you were victimized!

Direct Messages can be used by people to be flat out mean, cruel, and evil. Yes, I wrote evil.

I have had some conversations through direct messaging occur, where the other party decided to start swearing and cursing. Here's the scoop: We started out having a normal, adult disagreement on a specific subject. This person starts with WTF in his direct messages. After 10 minutes, I starting to get the following words in his direct messages to me:

F-bombs,
MF-bombs,
A-bombs,
D-bombs,
And alot more.

NOTE: From a CREATIVE standpoint, this person used as a swear word as an ADVERB. It was a first for me!

After another 5 minutes, this person stopped following me (so no more direct messages-which is OK with me), then he starts to PUBLICLY send out messages to everyone about our PRIVATE conversation. Effectively, this person ended the conversation, tried to drag other folks into the discussion, and decided to no longer talk maturely, to not have a crucial conversation.

By crucial conversation, I am referring to the book by the same name (Crucial Conversations). I highly recommend it. As the authors state in this book, people sometimes fall into a victim/villain mentality. In the public conversation, he portrayed himself as a victim/I was the villain.

When people assume a victim/villain outlook, crucial conversations cannot occur. One person attacks, while the other defends. How can a crucial conversation occur by using Direct Messages to privately act one way, then publicly act differently? When he took the private conversation public, how can a true dialogue continue to exist? He really should read this book.

By its very design, Twitter enables this kind of behavior. where a person can pretend to be a thoughtful and respectful PUBLICLY, then they PRIVATELY are abusive and demeaning. In some ways, I think it goes back to creating a public and private persona.

To me, it is like an abusive spouse or parent that puts on front, but they do the most heinous crimes behind closed doors. Again, this feature allows for pure EVIL. It is an enabler.

A Side Note: Not Following Someone Can Be Childish

By not following someone, so no Direct Messages can be sent, a person is effectively putting their hands over there ears like a child. I am not listening to your private conversations. Instead, I want to throw a public tantrum for everyone to see. Ya, that's mature!

Then, they will call you names (but, they will say they are exposing you). Sorry people, my 10-year old knows better! Of course, he was raised by my wife and me.

Again, we really need Bitter. You could have a place for people to vent privately, where they agree to act in a certain way. On Bitter, it is socially acceptable to be....well...bitter. Let the ranting and lunacy begin. Let the childishness be embraced!!!

Throw a tantrum, stomp your feet, cry, beg, cajole, spit, eat paste, and more! Bitter is better.

Example #3: Wait a Minute....A Truly Dark Side

A few years ago, there was a PBS Special about how any new technology that gets developed usually sees some of the early cash returns made through adult entertainment.

Sadly, we do have this truly dark underbelly to Twitter. Traditional media does not talk about it. Social media will not acknowledge it, but it does exist. And, we all know it is there.

I am not truly sure how people find me on Twitter. I just know that I get people that will randomly start following me. I do not always follow them back. As a 44-year old man, I seem to always get random twitter followers (folks, I truly do not know) trying do three things:

1. Refinance my existing mortgage or tap into my home equity
2. Buy some Viagra
3. Selling some form of adult entertainment

Seriously, I have no idea how these random Twitter followers find me. I don't want any of this stuff. I no longer auto-accept followers because of this very reason.

Recently, we have seen examples of young girls sending bad pictures of themselves to so-called boyfriends. Vanessa Hutchins of HSM fame is someone we have all heard about. With camera phones, young girls are taking pictures and sending them out. It is a dark underbelly that affects the youngest people in our country.

At lunch two weeks ago, I was eating more McAllister's sandwich, drinking some sweet tea, and talking all things UX with someone I greatly respect. He received a random tweet with a picture of a young girl who took an extremely revealing picture of herself. We both found it degrading as professionals, parents, brothers, uncles, and fathers.

In my mind, it is the technology and its ease of distributing content that ENABLES this type of bad twitter experience.

Can we just have Bitter, a place where people can go to do these activities with other like-minded people? Can Bitter have an age requirement?

Twitter would be freed up. Bitter could be a one-stop shop, where you know what you are getting into. Plus, no more followers trying to sell me a reverse mortgage, Viagra, or adult entertainment.

Final Thoughts

I know several people will probably comment about how Twitter is just a tool, neither good or bad. I actually agree with this statement. And, I think we should recognize that a gun is just a tool for hunting animals, until it gets in the hands of a terrorist, criminal, or madman.

Twitter is an ENABLER....period.

It enables people to do good and bad things. It enables people to assume a different persona, wear masks, act childishly, be deviant, and more. Do people have bad Twitter experiences? You bet they do!

It is too bad we cannot create an application called Bitter to separate out some of the bad experiences described above. I am not the person to create this application. I have already had too many bad experiences with Bitter....I mean, Twitter.

So, I will post this to my blog. Send out a tweet. It is probably how you got here, anyway. Please do not mistake me for being a man who is old, tired, and (yes) ........bitter.

Coming Soon -- Examples of Creative Writing on Twitter!!!

Big (D)esign Video (from Jeremy Johnson)

2009-06-05T08:02:00.000-07:00

Jeremy Johnson is a true Renaissance man. I am so glad that he was part of the planning team. Jeremy created this video to give you a feel for the conference. You will see many familiar faces--Bill Scott, Stephen P. Anderson, and Todd Wilkens. Within the pictures, you will also see may of the conference planners, including Lara Becker and Cone Johnson. Two thumbs up. Check it out.

Big (D)esign 2009 from Jeremy Johnson on Vimeo.

Norm Cox Opening Plenary

2009-06-02T19:36:00.001-07:00

Norm Cox gave his opening plenary on "Confessions of a Design Therapist" to a packed house in the theater at SMU's Hughes-Trigg Student Center. Norm always teaches me something new, whenever I hear his talks. Plus, he is such a great gentleman.

Confessions Of Design Therapist

View more OpenOffice presentations from Norm Cox.

Micah Laaker's Presentation at Big (D)esign Conference

2009-06-02T19:33:00.000-07:00

Micah came out from Yahoo to visit us in Texas. I had some great chats with Micah and look forward to talking with him some more. Check out his slides from the conference.

Exposing the Web’s Biggest (Free) Billboard

View more OpenOffice presentations from Micah Laaker.

Erica O'Grady's Presentation at Big Design Conference

2009-06-02T08:29:00.000-07:00

After the Big Design Conference, I had the pleasure of eating some dinner with a great group of people--Jeremy Johnson, Dustin Askins, Ben Smithee, Dr. Christina Wasson, and Erica O'Grady. As luck would have it, I got to break bread next to Dr. Christina Wasson and Erica O'Grady. (Actually, I called dibs on the chair, so their was no luck at all!)

Anyway, I heard that Erica's speech was something that everyone enjoys. Erica confessed that she loves to give presentations with a movie theme. I know she is already preparing another preso using a different movie. Check out this Van Wilder presentation from the Big Design Conference.

Write That Down! Van Wilder's Guide to Social Media

View more Microsoft Word documents from ericaogrady.

Adam Polansky Presentation at Big Design Conference

2009-06-02T08:25:00.000-07:00

Adam Polansky is a former President of DFW-UPA. He was nice enough to give his presentation on how to present your self and ideas at the Big Design Conference. Also, Adam basically created the President Panel, which consisted of several local presidents (past and current). This panel included Dr. Paul Sherman, Jim Carlsen-Landy, Adam Polansky, Erika Orrick, and Elisa Miller. Adam's presnetation on "It Ain't All About the Powerpoint" is below.

Presentations - It Ain't All About The PowerPoint

View more OpenOffice presentations from Adam Polansky.

Thor Muller Presentation from Big Design Conference

2009-06-02T08:22:00.000-07:00

We sent waves of people into Thor Muller's presentation on "Work Like the Network" at the Big Design Conference. It was a rousing presentation given to 200 people. The attendees really loved it! I know you will like it, too.

Work like the Network

View more Microsoft Word documents from Lane Becker.

Bill Scott Presentation at Big Design Conference

2009-06-02T07:28:00.000-07:00

In planning the Big Design Conference, you end up having these moments of sheer joy. Outside CoHabitat, before the pre-conference mixer, I ran into Bill Scott. He thanked me for the opportunity to speak at the conference. To my surprise, he handed me one of his newest O'Reilly books. Then, he gave me a hug.

Here is an earlier version of Bill's presentation for those who missed it:

Designing Web Interfaces Book - O'Reilly Webcast

View more Microsoft Word documents from Bill Scott.

Conference Planning Lesson #1: Get Commitments

2009-03-24T12:00:00.000-07:00

Over the next few weeks, I am going to talk about some lessons learned, while I have been planning the Big Design Conference (http://www.bigdesignconference.com). In my mind, the first lesson learned is to get commitments from people. Tom Robbins, an American novelist, once wrote:

"Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.”

At World Usability Day 2008 at Sabre, we held an event, where we had 500 people visit our interactive booths. Microsoft had a Sync specialist on site. Chris Koenig held us to get Ford Motors out with three of their vehicles.

On this day, I met a Ginger Williams from the Art Insitute of Dallas. I had toyed with the idea of presenting a confernece for DFW. In my mind, DFW was ripe for a conference because Web Master Jam left for Atlanta in 2007. While DFW had some minor conferences and meetups, there was not a major event.

I explained to Ginger that SxSW and IA Summit were early in the year. I wanted to have the confernece in May 2009, which was before the UPA International Conference. So, the schedule seemed good in May 2009.

Ginger asked me to send a proposal to her, so she could present it to the Executive Board at the Art Institute of Dallas. So, over the weekend, I created a proposal and sent it to Ginger, who cleaned it up considerably. She presented it to the Executive Board in mid-December. We were accepted on January 5th (which is my brother's birthday).

The conference needed some goals, so I talked about them wth my wife. From these conversations, I came to these goals:

1. DFW has great organizations (UPA, DSVC, IXDA, Refresh) that do not work together.

2. A conference allows these organizations to work together.

3. DFW-UPA needs to reach out to students and universities.

4. A conference is a perfect opportunity to reach out to students and universities.

When I got the news from Ginger that Art Institute of Dallas would love to have conference at their facility, I reached out to all of the related organizations in the DFW area within the design and usability community. These organizations included:

- DSVC
- STC Lone Star Chapter
- IDSA Texas Chapter
- Dallas Refresh
- IxDA Dallas
- DFW-UPA
- HFES Texas

All of the organizations agreed to help us out. Refresh Dallas and IxDA really wanted to help plan the conference.

Here is where I had to be "flexible" to the decision to plan a conference. Again, the quote from Tom Robbins:

"Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.”

I had originally envisioned a conference with just a Design and Usability Track. It would fall into something of a mix between UPA and IA Summit. I thought we might have a small Exhibit Hall.

Candy Bernhardt, IxDA Dallas President, wanted to do a 'Free Form' style of confernce, where people come and present various topics and work on projects, if desired. I said, "Why not both? We have a traditional track with design and usability with another track for 'free form' topics."

We were at lunch with the other conference planners. People looked at me. We all ended up saying, "Yes." Candy wanted to take on the 'Free Form' track, so she was assigned.

We had a second conference call. During this call, Stephen Anderson from Refresh Dallas said, "It feels like we could have tracks for Design, Under the Hood (Development), Social Media, and Strategy."

"What about Usability?", I asked. His answer, "Brian, it is in all of the tracks." I liked the four tracks with a free form tracks.

In my mind, these decisions made the conference much better. It was not my original vision. It was something better with commitments. In the end, we had Refresh Dallas, IxDA Dallas, and DFW-UPA working on the conference planning together. Tom Robbins was right about "staying flexible in your approach" to you commitments.

The conference planning was up and running.

Next Lesson: Asking for Sponsors in a Down Economy

In Defense of Eye Candy

2008-07-24T06:53:00.000-07:00

Stephen Anderson presented at the July 2008 DFW-UPA Chapter meeting. His presentation was called: Eye Candy is a Critical Business Requirement. The presentation is available on slideshare.

There were 45 people in attandance at the DFW-UPA meeting hosted at Improving Enterprises. In this talk, Stephen covered a diverse set of topics including:

- Aesthetics
- Universal Design
- Shadowing
- Rounded Corners
- Reflections
- Usability Testing

If you ever get a chance to hear Stephen speak, I highly recommend you go. his presentations are entertaining and educational. Stephen's blog is the poetpainter.com, where Stephen shares his musings about design, usability, and other assorted topics.

As a former English teacher, Stephen enjoys presenting with lots of relevant examples. He also enjoys to push the current limits of conventional design thinking. You can see some of Stephen's designs at his new company, which is www.viewzi.com.

Past DFW-UPA Presidents Meet at UPA 2008

2008-06-30T20:13:00.000-07:00

I just got back from UPA 2008 Conference in Baltimore. The World Usability Day (WUD) theme for 2008 of Transportation, so I tapped Adam Polansky and Jim Carlsen-Landey to be part of the WUD 2008 Kick-off meeting. Adam and Jim are both past presidents of the DFW-UPA chapter. Our only missing president was Erika Orrick.

We met up with Paul Sherman the founding president of the chapter for some drinks on Wednesday night. We talked about a few things with regards to UPA, in general. Then, we had a few drinks. We hoisted a cold one to our missing president, Erika. We hoisted another cold one. Anyway, you get the idea.

In some future blogs, I will be adding some information on the sessions that were interesting to me.

Revised Formula for Annual Productivity Savings

2008-05-14T06:38:00.001-07:00

Last week, I was able to slightly alter one of the usability formulas most commonly used to cost justify usability studies. The usability formula to show annual productivity savings is:

# of users

X # of uses per day

X # of days per year

X Average hourly wage of user

X Increase efficiency (in hours)

Annual Savings in Productivity

In my study, I tested with 20 users on two different websites. To account for first preference bias, I counterbalanced the designs. I timed the users as they performed basic tasks on these sites. I averaged the time on task numbers to see the following results:

Design A took users 3:59 minutes to complete a new reservation
Design B took users 8:00 minutes to complete a new reservation

Yes, it was virtually twice as long to use Design B. We did not see any outliers in the data.

If we use the formula shown above, the cost savings get pretty staggering:

# of users	1,000 users
X # of uses per day	5 uses/day
X # of days per year	240 days*
X Average hourly wage of user	$25/hour
X Increase efficiency (in hours)	0.067/hours**
Annual Savings in Productivity	$2,010,000.00

* Assume 240 work days because of holidays and vacation.
** Calculated as 0.067 because: 4 minutes saved per hour or 4/60 = 0.067 minutes/hour saved

To make the formula more "usable" to our diverse set of clients, it needed to be slightly revised. So, with a few computations, we see the following is also true:

Opportunity Cost = Average Hourly Wage of User X Increase in Efficiency

Using the above numbers, the opportunity cost could be calculated as:

Opportunity Cost = $25 per hour X 0.067 = $1.68 per usage

The Opportunity Cost metric (which is a fixed number) allows for a company to put the usability savings into their own context. For example, a company using Design B, which is 4 minutes longer than Design A at booking a new reservation, might spend $80,000 booking new reservations with Design B.

The Opportunity Cost for using Design B is:

$80,000 x $1.68 = $134, 000/year

Each customer can put the usability savings into their own context by slightly modifying the Annual Productivity Savings formula.

Enjoy!

Performing a Call for Usability Projects

2008-05-12T19:39:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in my last post, preparation determines success. One method of planning for usability is to use a Master UT Plan. The Master UT Plan is a TACTICAL planning tool. The following diagram illustrates how a call for usability projects can solve many of the STRATEGIC issues associated with getting usability work budgeted and planned in large organizations.

A call for usability projects will help educate your customers, stimulate demand, help managers get budget for usability projects, and help your team get integrated into the projects you will serve. The following lessons learned will help you prepare for calls for usability projects.

Lesson #1: Do the Call During Budget Season

As with any sales pitch, timing is extremely important for your annual Call for Usability Projects. Since one of the primary goals is to secure budget for the following year, the annual Call for Usability Projects should occur during your company’s budget season. Budget season is an extremely busy time for managers, who must react to current problems and plan for the next year. Most managers appreciate bringing the topic of usability testing to their attention because it gets them thinking about what they can do for the next year, which is schedule usability services and budget for them.

Lesson #2: Build a Contact List

Just as timing is important to an annual Call for Usability Projects, the people who listen to your presentation are equally important. In most situations, you want to give your presentation to managers who control the budget. The person who controls the budget, however, may not be the most influential person on a product team. In this respect, you will want to identify and/or include the “Very Influential People” in your company. These VIPs will build your usability influence throughout the organization and persuade others to do usability projects, especially the managers that control the budget.

NOTE: Use the Contact List as your distribution list for an email about your Call for Usability Projects. The email will stimulate some interest, but you will probably need to follow-up with individual emails to key managers. Your company’s organization chart is a good place to start for determining which high-level managers that you need to send individual emails about scheduling 10 minutes in their staff meeting.

Lesson #3: Create a 10-minute Pitch

From my experience, perform the annual Call for Usability Projects in three parts:

1. 10-minute pitch for strategic managers

2. 30-minute pitch for tactical managers

3. 30-minute individual planning meetings

The 10-minute pitch for strategic managers is really a “pitch” about the 30-minute pitch. Create the 10-minute pitch from the longer 30-minute pitch. For 2007, I had a goal to move into usability prevention rather than treatment mode (performing more upfront work rather end of the SDLC UTs, so I already had one theme for our presentation. The other theme was to get commitment and budget from the teams. The 10-minute presentation consisted of these topics:

Usability is Good Business
Three Usability Disciplines – User-Centered Analysis, User-Centered Design, Usability Testing
Usability is a Mature Field – UPA, SIG-CHI, HFI, HFES
Usability Examples at the Company
Usability Services and the Team
Usability Costs
Usability Scheduling

The 30-minute pitch covers the same topics in greater detail with more relevant examples.

Lesson #4: Pitch at Manager Staff Meetings

After creating the 10-minute pitch, you will need to practice the pitch until you can perform it within the allotted time. Schedule the 10-minute pitch meeting based upon your Contact List. If possible, invite the VIPs who influence decision makers to meetings.

NOTE: At these meetings, you are informing higher level managers what you are going to present to their mid-level managers and product owners. The basic goal is to obtain top-level support.

A secondary goal is to get the mid-level managers to get on your schedule for the 30-minute meetings with their staff.

Lesson #5: Create 30-Minute Pitch for Mid-Level Manager Meetings

As soon as you start getting appointments from mid-level managers, revisit your 30-minute pitch. You may want to update the message to include more relevant examples to the business supported by the mid-level manager and their staff. While the basic message stays the same, the content changes to be more suitable to your audience.

NOTE: By keeping the basic message the same, you will NOT have to practice the 30-minute pitch as much as you did the 10-minute pitch.

Lesson #6: Schedule Mid-Level Manager Meetings

Mid-level managers conduct different staff meetings than higher-level managers because they are just closer to the work, the customers, the products, and so on. The mid-level manager staff meetings can occur at all hours of the day. Be considerate of the team’s schedule. As a general rule, try to get the schedule moved to the morning, so people are alert. Meetings that occur late in the day will have workers thinking about their daily issues rather than your presentation.

Lesson #7: Perform 30-Minute Pitch at Mid-Level Manager Staff Meetings

As previously notes, the 30-minute pitch is basically an expanded version of the 10-minute pitch. While the goal of 10-minute pitch is to obtain organizational buy-in and budget, the goal of the 30-minute pitch is to stress the importance of doing the right usability work and getting it scheduled.

In some cases, the usability projects for the following year may already be somewhat known. At other times, you will need to schedule a planning meeting with a mid-level manager’s staff because they have not done usability work in the past or may not know the type of usability to do on their projects for next year.

In both cases, a planning meeting is needed with this employee. The planning meeting is where you can determine the proper method, review the associated costs, and develop a strategic plan based upon each project’s needs. So, the primary goal of the 30-minute pitch is to get the mid-level manager’s scheduled for planning meetings.

NOTE: A secondary goal is to identify contacts for projects, which could be put on you VIP list.

Lesson #8: Create Master Usability Test Plans

In most Quality Assurance departments, Master Test Plans are built that describe in great detail how a test will be executed. We have developed Master Usability Test Plans for a single project and multiple projects. The Master Usability Test Plan is critical for product teams that will be going through multiple usability tests during the year.

We developed the Master Usability Test Plan to give customers a vision of how the usability team could collaborate with their product team in the early stages of User-Centered Analysis, during the User-Centered Design, and through to Usability Testing. Since we wanted to move more into prevention mode, the Master Usability Test Plan became a tangible way to show this vision.

NOTE: The Master Usability Test Plan should be a collaborative experience. The customer knows their product and the deliverables. You are the usability expert. The Master Usability Test Plan provides a means for individuals to get into sync.

Also, the Master Usability Test Plan provides a document that a worker can show their manager. The manager, of course, will go a get the budget for you.

Tips and Tricks

We have learned to build enticements into our pitches to get responses out of people. For example, to motivate people to get on our schedule, we have learned to say, “By December 10th, our department traditionally has 70% of its business for the following year, so please schedule a meeting with us as soon as you can.” To get buy-in, we ask for stories about product failures within the company and how they envision usability could have helped them. When we talk about our team, we show our education, certifications, experience, and so on.

While building the Master Usability Test Plan, we show a 12-month wall chart that has our usability projects for the next calendar year. When clients see 20 projects on the wall chart, they really get motivated to get scheduled and see their names on the wall chart.

RESULTS

The results actually speak for themselves:

Netted 45 Projects for 2007
Hired Additional Contractor Due to Increased Demand
25% of Projects in Early SDLC
Engaged 2 New Business Units
Educated 40+ Managers
Received $50,000 from One Team
Slotted 40% of 2007 Projects in 2006

Again, the goal of this poster is to provide the viewer with a framework for stimulating and managing demand of usability projects for their company. The framework can be adjusted to suit their needs.

Building Master Usability Test Plans

2008-05-08T18:57:00.000-07:00

Before I became a Usability Lead at Sabre, I worked as a QA Engineer for over 6 years. I performed system level testing, user acceptance testing, and implementation support. During this time, I learned the following lesson:

Preparation determines success.

As a Usability Lead, I adapted the concept of Master Test Plans into the usability practice at Sabre to build end-to-end usability testing into our usability projects. QA Engineers use Master Test Plans to set the scope of any QA effort.

Master UT Plans will contain the following information:

Define the project stakeholders
Define the project and its delivery dates
Show a schedule with of multiple usability projects for the product
Explain contingencies and expectations
Define roles and responsibilities

In many respects, the above information may seem straight-forward to some people. In my role, 100% of our projects were coming into our Usability Labs solely for usability testing services with an occasional heuristic inspection. Simply put, we were reactive.

By implementing the Master UT Plans, we started a process easily understood IT professionals because it resembles the Master Test Plans seen in QA departments. Plus, we get the added benefits of educating clients and getting integrated into their projects earlier.

As shown below, we ended up being involved in the planning stages of many projects, leading to alot more usability opportunities.

Master UT Plans helped us to set expectations with teams, get additional resources, set reasonable deadlines. In once case, our team received an additional $50, 000 based solely on the Master UT Plan.

Now, we perform roughly 40% of our projects in pre-design stages (competitive analysis, field studies, and so on), 20% during the design stage (formative usability, design walkthroughs), and 40% during latter project stages (summative usability, heuristics).

The Master UT Plans helped us to become more proactive with teams, inserted us into the project lifecycle earlier, and had project teams beating a path to our door. In many cases, we were involved in all stages of the product lifecycle.

Truly, preparation determines success. Use these plans to manage your work.

Enjoy!