Nabble - ixda.org - discussion list

Re: Need for Portal Design Guidelines?

2009-11-21T01:27:09Z

Paul,

You are right, there are patterns. Those patterns would be very
interesting and useful to portal managers. They should also
understand that simply copying portal best practices will lead to the
perfect portal, but for some other company.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=47479

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Re: Question on brainstorming personas

2009-11-21T01:21:05Z

Understanding what real people will do when presented with your design
requires data. If you don't have budget for research, I suggest
taking a weekend to go to a place where people do whatever activity
you are designing for, observe them for a few hours, and jot down
attributes and behaviors that you feel are germane to the overall
context and experience. How do charcteristics like age, affluence,
preparedness, experience in the topic, flexibility, hurry, etc.
impact what they do?

The list you create from this activity is a starter set of attributes
and behaviors that you can bring into your exercise that might carry
more weight than making it all up. It doesn't cost you anything
other than a weekend.

Our approach to persona creation involves the step I described above,
but a few more as well. It's described in some high level bullet
points in this article:
http://www.virtualfloorspace.com/2009/09/user-archetypes-vs-personas/

If you want a ready-made persona to participate in your design
activities, feel free to use this one:
http://www.virtualfloorspace.com/2009/09/using-personas-to-guide-web-design/

Paul Bryan
Usography (http://www.usography.com)
Blog: Virtual Floorspace (http://www.virtualfloorspace.com)
Linked In: http://www.linkedin.com/in/uxexperts

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=47562

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Re: Question on brainstorming personas

2009-11-20T15:00:14Z

Just to clarify, this is more of a concept piece, not an actual product. We are trying to roadmap features and integration points for the next 18 months.

________________________________
From: Bryan Minihan <bjminihan@...>
To: erpdesigner <erpdesigner@...>; discuss@...
Sent: Fri, November 20, 2009 1:04:59 PM
Subject: RE: [IxDA Discuss] Question on brainstorming personas

Oh, my favorite kind of project =]

One way to reduce the amount of brainpower to follow your methodology for a
global, every-man system would be to reduce the size of your first-run
audience.

That is, if you don't yet know what the goals, tasks and workflows are, why
assume the first launch will hit 7 billion people the first day?

Why not make the assumption now that the initial audience will be:
US-centric, easily reached folks who are already interested in the concept,
if not financially interested in the viability of the project.

That's who your first month's audience will be, anyway.

>From there, establish some basic caveats to prevent painting yourself out of
a global audience (localized, lacking obscure cultural references, etc).

Make the 2nd run your global audience, and if the 1st was successful enough,
you'll get the funding to research the folks you're looking for.

Executives/Marketing Folks/Wonks often want to fast track projects and cut
out all the paperwork required to really define it properly. Yet when you
state (very realistically) that no just-launched app has every achieved its
visionary audience the first month, they call you crazy.

Bryan

-----Original Message-----
From: discuss-bounces@...
[mailto:discuss-bounces@...] On Behalf Of
erpdesigner
Sent: Friday, November 20, 2009 2:26 PM
To: discuss@...
Subject: [IxDA Discuss] Question on brainstorming personas

Guys,

I have a question on the methodology for personas -

I'm doing a project right now that we are trying to fastrack and get off the
ground by doing some collaborative brainstorming with the product marketing
folks. We haven't done any user research, have no budget for such research,
we have no product requirements, etc. I'm supposed to have concept
wireframes by mid december. The users are global and across a wide spectrum
of socio/economoc strata and geographic locations.

So question, I'm following the following process for brainstorming around
the interface:

1) Brainstorm Issues/problems we are trying to solve
2) Brainstorm user characteristics and then turn those characteristics into
a couple of personas
3) From the personas, brainstorms goals, and user tasks.
4) Flow out the user tasks.
5) Start turning the tasks into a high level structure and either quickly
brainstorm on a paper some drawing around either a vertical slice of the UI
or a top level horizontal slice.
6) After the fact, go out and find users who fit the characteristics of the
personas and either create new personas, or validate the pretend personas.

The whole idea is to get the team to think about who the users are, think
about what the user's goals and tasks are, and create a personas that can
then drive the rapid paper prototype process.

When I've done brainstorming where we are quickly doing design and have
non-design stakeholders participating, I have used this technique several
times with good results. I learned it over 10 years from designers who
embraced the Inmates Are Running the Asylum Book by Alan Cooper. So some
other designers in the brainstorming session did not like the technique,
particularly around the personas, because they felt we were creating
stereotypes. In addition, the designers felt that we should brainstorm the
user goals and tasks first and have those drive how we create personas, not
the other way around, i.e. Personas drive user goals, tasks. I've always
done it the above way, and never had a problem with somebody question the
methodology. I think that one of the issues is that we were stretching our
knowledge a bit as we have users in emerging market countries, that we might
not necessarily be as familiar with as say a country in the developing
world, like
the US or the UK.

Obviously I'll admit I could update some of my methodology and learning- but
I'm wondering, does anybody else follow this process? What literature is
there out there that can validate this, other than the Inmates are Running
the Asylum? What are good articles/books that outline a good process for
generating personas, goals, tasks, and then interface designs in
collaborative brainstorming sessions? Ginny Redish's User and Task Analysis
come to mind, and The Bridge Method by Tom Dayton... Any ideas?

-Wendy Boucher-Fischer
________________________________________________________________
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To post to this list ....... discuss@...
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Re: Question on brainstorming personas

2009-11-20T13:04:59Z

Oh, my favorite kind of project =]

One way to reduce the amount of brainpower to follow your methodology for a
global, every-man system would be to reduce the size of your first-run
audience.

That is, if you don't yet know what the goals, tasks and workflows are, why
assume the first launch will hit 7 billion people the first day?

Why not make the assumption now that the initial audience will be:
US-centric, easily reached folks who are already interested in the concept,
if not financially interested in the viability of the project.

That's who your first month's audience will be, anyway.

>From there, establish some basic caveats to prevent painting yourself out of
a global audience (localized, lacking obscure cultural references, etc).

Make the 2nd run your global audience, and if the 1st was successful enough,
you'll get the funding to research the folks you're looking for.

Executives/Marketing Folks/Wonks often want to fast track projects and cut
out all the paperwork required to really define it properly. Yet when you
state (very realistically) that no just-launched app has every achieved its
visionary audience the first month, they call you crazy.

Bryan

-----Original Message-----
From: discuss-bounces@...
[mailto:discuss-bounces@...] On Behalf Of
erpdesigner
Sent: Friday, November 20, 2009 2:26 PM
To: discuss@...
Subject: [IxDA Discuss] Question on brainstorming personas

Guys,

I have a question on the methodology for personas -

I'm doing a project right now that we are trying to fastrack and get off the
ground by doing some collaborative brainstorming with the product marketing
folks. We haven't done any user research, have no budget for such research,
we have no product requirements, etc. I'm supposed to have concept
wireframes by mid december. The users are global and across a wide spectrum
of socio/economoc strata and geographic locations.

So question, I'm following the following process for brainstorming around
the interface:

1) Brainstorm Issues/problems we are trying to solve
2) Brainstorm user characteristics and then turn those characteristics into
a couple of personas
3) From the personas, brainstorms goals, and user tasks.
4) Flow out the user tasks.
5) Start turning the tasks into a high level structure and either quickly
brainstorm on a paper some drawing around either a vertical slice of the UI
or a top level horizontal slice.
6) After the fact, go out and find users who fit the characteristics of the
personas and either create new personas, or validate the pretend personas.

The whole idea is to get the team to think about who the users are, think
about what the user's goals and tasks are, and create a personas that can
then drive the rapid paper prototype process.

When I've done brainstorming where we are quickly doing design and have
non-design stakeholders participating, I have used this technique several
times with good results. I learned it over 10 years from designers who
embraced the Inmates Are Running the Asylum Book by Alan Cooper. So some
other designers in the brainstorming session did not like the technique,
particularly around the personas, because they felt we were creating
stereotypes. In addition, the designers felt that we should brainstorm the
user goals and tasks first and have those drive how we create personas, not
the other way around, i.e. Personas drive user goals, tasks. I've always
done it the above way, and never had a problem with somebody question the
methodology. I think that one of the issues is that we were stretching our
knowledge a bit as we have users in emerging market countries, that we might
not necessarily be as familiar with as say a country in the developing
world, like
the US or the UK.

Obviously I'll admit I could update some of my methodology and learning- but
I'm wondering, does anybody else follow this process? What literature is
there out there that can validate this, other than the Inmates are Running
the Asylum? What are good articles/books that outline a good process for
generating personas, goals, tasks, and then interface designs in
collaborative brainstorming sessions? Ginny Redish's User and Task Analysis
come to mind, and The Bridge Method by Tom Dayton... Any ideas?

-Wendy Boucher-Fischer
________________________________________________________________
Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)!
To post to this list ....... discuss@...
Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe
List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines
List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help

________________________________________________________________
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Re: Question on brainstorming personas

2009-11-20T12:29:57Z

Okay, this is going to sound snarky, but I'm very serious. Does your company
have time to release a product that doesn't meet user needs, fails in the
marketplace, and then needs to be re-thought and re-built? Because from the
situation you describe, it sounds like your management is setting this
product up for failure. Big time.

More helpful feedback below.

On Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 1:25 PM, erpdesigner <erpdesigner@...> wrote:

>
> 1) Brainstorm Issues/problems we are trying to solve
>

That's a very good idea.

> 2) Brainstorm user characteristics and then turn those characteristics into
> a couple of personas
>

That's a less good idea... what I think would be more effective here would
be to interview the business stakeholders about who (they think) their
customers are, or at least who they are targeting. You indicated that you're
working with product marketing folks here, so this shouldn't be too
difficult.

Note that you are *not* creating personas here... at best you're creating
customer profiles. Personas evolve out of observation. These profiles that
you'd be developing here would be most appropriate for driving research
participant recruiting... you want to do research with people who meet this
profile in order to see what personas emerge within the groups you're
interested in.

There is a huge caveat here though... it's entirely possible that the
business has no clue who their customers actually are or who they want to be
their customers. For example, I'm working on a project right now where we
were originally targeting two of five audiences. We made three 15 minute
phone calls to people we knew in the main target audience and we learned
that they are not, in fact, customers. We learned that an audience we were
specifically told to ignore by the client is in fact a major factor in
making purchasing decisions. And we also learned of a completely NEW
audience.

Can your company afford 45 minutes of research time? : )

> 3) From the personas, brainstorms goals, and user tasks.
>

I would actually add two steps here... first, you're presumably working with
some sort of content... some sort of noun. Video, reviews, datasheets,
whatever. I would spend some time brainstorming about what VERBS could be
done to that content... what are the possibilities that are out there?

Then spend some time thinking (NOT brainstorming!) about the sorts of
situations in which people that match your target profiles would want to
manipulate/interact with your nouns.

Then from there, I might take those profiles and contexts and think (NOT
brainstorm!) about which verbs people that meet those profiles might want to
perform based on the contexts in which they may occur

> 4) Flow out the user tasks.
>

Sure... but again, you'll never know if you don't observe, and that's a huge
risk of re-work after development, release, & failure.

> 5) Start turning the tasks into a high level structure and either quickly
> brainstorm on a paper some drawing around either a vertical slice of the UI
> or a top level horizontal slice.
>

Some super lo-fi paper prototyping will be your friend here. From what you
described, you know basically nothing... unsure about the users, no
requirements, nothing. That's the sort of situation that lo-fi prototyping
can be really useful in. It will help you determine whether you have
basically the right features and if the flows are right at a macro level.
It'll help you formulate an accurate overall structure. And it's real easy
to change once you learn stuff and iterate through multiple concepts. But
again, that's research, and you say your company isn't interested... man,
your management sure loves risk! : )

> 6) After the fact, go out and find users who fit the characteristics of the
> personas and either create new personas, or validate the pretend personas.
>

If you're planning to do this at this stage, why not do it at the beginning?
Yes, you say you need wireframes by mid-December... presumably that means
that people need to develop off of them. Why not make it early January and
then your wireframes will be a lot more accurate than if they're based on
"pretend" personas? If developers code off of inaccurate wireframes (no
fault of yours!) and you find that your personas, tasks, etc. are all pretty
wrong, then they'll have to go back & re-do what they just did and you'll be
at the same point in the schedule as you would if you'd done the research up
front.

> The whole idea is to get the team to think about who the users are, think
> about what the user's goals and tasks are, and create a personas that can
> then drive the rapid paper prototype process.
>

That's great and all, but it's frought with risk. Doing this is essentially
basing the whole structure of a design off of half-informed opinions. As
anyone on this list can attest to, that approach leads down a very dark
path. If you're planning to validate made-up personas with the target
audience anyway, you might as well do it first and save yourself a lot of
pain and heartache later on.

I think the best approach at this point is to seriously lobby your
management on this point: Research now or fail later and rebuild. Point out
the impact that this would have on customer loyalty. If you bought a big
software package that sucked, would you buy again from that company even if
they said they fixed it?

I really really hope you're able to turn them around. : )

F.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fred Beecher
Sr. User Experience Consultant
Evantage Consulting
O: 612.230.3838 // M: 612.810.6745
IM: fbeecher@... (google/msn) // fredevc (aim/yahoo)
T: http://twitter.com/fred_beecher
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Question on brainstorming personas

2009-11-20T11:25:32Z

Guys,

I have a question on the methodology for personas -

I'm doing a project right now that we are trying to fastrack and get off the ground by doing some collaborative brainstorming with the product marketing folks. We haven't done any user research, have no budget for such research, we have no product requirements, etc. I'm supposed to have concept wireframes by mid december. The users are global and across a wide spectrum of socio/economoc strata and geographic locations.

So question, I'm following the following process for brainstorming around the interface:

1) Brainstorm Issues/problems we are trying to solve
2) Brainstorm user characteristics and then turn those characteristics into a couple of personas
3) From the personas, brainstorms goals, and user tasks.
4) Flow out the user tasks.
5) Start turning the tasks into a high level structure and either quickly brainstorm on a paper some drawing around either a vertical slice of the UI or a top level horizontal slice.
6) After the fact, go out and find users who fit the characteristics of the personas and either create new personas, or validate the pretend personas.

The whole idea is to get the team to think about who the users are, think about what the user's goals and tasks are, and create a personas that can then drive the rapid paper prototype process.

When I've done brainstorming where we are quickly doing design and have non-design stakeholders participating, I have used this technique several times with good results. I learned it over 10 years from designers who embraced the Inmates Are Running the Asylum Book by Alan Cooper. So some other designers in the brainstorming session did not like the technique, particularly around the personas, because they felt we were creating stereotypes. In addition, the designers felt that we should brainstorm the user goals and tasks first and have those drive how we create personas, not the other way around, i.e. Personas drive user goals, tasks. I've always done it the above way, and never had a problem with somebody question the methodology. I think that one of the issues is that we were stretching our knowledge a bit as we have users in emerging market countries, that we might not necessarily be as familiar with as say a country in the developing world, like
the US or the UK.

Obviously I'll admit I could update some of my methodology and learning- but I'm wondering, does anybody else follow this process? What literature is there out there that can validate this, other than the Inmates are Running the Asylum? What are good articles/books that outline a good process for generating personas, goals, tasks, and then interface designs in collaborative brainstorming sessions? Ginny Redish's User and Task Analysis come to mind, and The Bridge Method by Tom Dayton... Any ideas?

-Wendy Boucher-Fischer
________________________________________________________________
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Re: EXTREMELY interesting e-commerce site (sort of)

2009-11-20T11:10:59Z

Truly bizarre! A lot of fun to watch but (and I'm making assumptions
because I cannot read Dutch), there are a few problems. Clicking on
the right-hand link after all the fuss is over leads me to a dialog
that I cannot get out of. Bad.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=47554

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Re: ANN: Warfel's book "Prototyping: A Practitioner's Guide" now available

2009-11-20T10:48:45Z

Hello all,

I just finished reading Todd's book. It's a great resource for learning how to use tools at hand to build interactive prototypes. (Catalyst and SketchFlow are a different conversation.) We might consider PowerPoint, Visio, Fireworks and the others (except Axure and HTML) for wireframing, but we don't usually think of them for building interactive prototypes.

We typically expect to use a book like this as a reference, to be picked up when we have a problem to solve, like figuring out how to prototype in PowerPoint. But the book is truly engaging. I read it straight through. I especially like the guidelines for the prototyping process and the eight guiding principles. These help us structure a method for prototyping. They all make sense and are points we already know (we say, yes, of course), but outlined like this they provide tangible direction and boundaries for the work.

With each chapter that describes a prototyping tool, I found myself saying, "Yeah, I can't wait to try prototyping in that," and I'd say it again in the next chapter. This even happened reading the chapter on HTML, and I'm no coder.

The GUI components, templates, and articles that Todd points readers to are worth the price of the book. Actually, they're worth more. I've often spent hours - sometimes days - trying to track down resources like these. Sometimes I find them, other times I don't. Having these references handy is a huge time saver.

One constructive observation: I think the section on Progressive Reveal should be pulled from Chapter 11 (HTML), as this is a general lesson in "best practices" for UI design, similar to the guiding principles. All readers would find this information valuable, but those that skip the HTML chapter might miss it.

Cheers,

David Scharn

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(Job) UI Designer-San Francisco-Recruiter-Contract 6+ Months

2009-11-20T08:59:46Z

We have a contract position that has opened up with one of our clients. It’s
a well established dynamic company with lots of potential for growth. They
are looking for a strong UI Designer with an outstanding portfolio. Strong
Web Design background with excellent HTML and CSS is needed along with
Photoshop or Dreamweaver experience. Creativity is a must! You will be
working on a new product that the client will be rolling out.

Best Regards,

Jay Ambler
650 265 2383
Recruiting Manager
Project Consulting Specialists
jay@...

Project Consulting Specialists - Trust us to deliver!
www.projectconsultingspecialists.com

Internal Virus Database is out-of-date.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.14.0/1046 - Release Date: 10/3/2007
10:08 AM

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Re: Question on brainstorming personas

2009-11-20T07:40:44Z

Personas are supposed to come out of your data and not the other way
around.
You observe users in their context, you conduct some interviews if
need it, your talk to all the stakeholders, and then you are in a
position to really understand your user goals and needs and build and
archetype that you can call persona. There are not short cuts here,
user centered design is about user centered problems. How can you
brainstorm issues and problems without user research?

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=47562

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EXTREMELY interesting e-commerce site (sort of)

2009-11-20T07:12:10Z

Apologies if you've already seen this, but if you have a minute spare
(or need cheering up) have a look at
http://producten.hema.nl/

(I have no interests in this site other than it is interesting<g>.)

Regards,

William Hudson
Syntagm Ltd
Design for Usability
UK 01235-522859
World +44-1235-522859
US Toll Free 1-866-SYNTAGM
mailto:william.hudson@...
<mailto:william.hudson@...>
http://www.syntagm.co.uk <http://www.syntagm.co.uk/>
skype:williamhudsonskype

Syntagm is a limited company registered in England and Wales (1985).
Registered number: 1895345. Registered office: 10 Oxford Road, Abingdon
OX14 2DS.

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[EVENT] IDSA Northwest 2009 Winter Social on 12/3 at BoConcept in Seattle

2009-11-20T06:10:16Z

The Northwest Chapter of the Industrial Designers Society of America
cordially invites IxDA Seattle to join our Winter Social at
BoConcept, Thursday, December 3rd from 7:00 to 11:00. Come party and
play with industrial designers, interaction designers and experience
designers from around the Puget Sound. Register today at
www.idsanw.org.
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Re: Question on brainstorming personas

2009-11-20T04:37:44Z

Rather than making up personas that you may validate later, I think
you'd do better to use User Roles - from the Usage Centered Design
approach by Constantine & Lockwood.

There is an in depth pdf on the subject here:
http://www.foruse.com/articles/rolespersonas.pdf

Good luck!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=47562

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Re: Interaction Design or HCI higher studies

2009-11-20T01:15:47Z

But I haven't seen many job openings for Fresh Grads in companies.

I may be wrong but I have seen job openings for Interaction Designers
and HCI guys who have some experience in this area.

Am I right?

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=47438

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User Experience Designer Needed for Nokia - Central London

2009-11-20T00:40:26Z

We have an excellent job on our site for a UX Designer for Nokia in
Central London.

Closing Date 09 Dec 2009.

http://creativepool.co.uk/employee/HAR/EN70752/JN0/User-Experience-Designer-for-Nokia-job-Central-London.php
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Re: Need for Portal Design Guidelines?

2009-11-20T00:24:12Z

Thanks to all for the additional comments and links.

Chris, your suggestion to emphasize practical guidelines make good
sense; I am perhaps using the term "best practices" too loosely in
this thread.

Tanya, I'm looking forward to reading through the ATG design process
paper.

John, thanks for the offer to provide further feedback; I may take
you up on it. Also, the Lamantia series on a portal framework is
excellent.

Paul

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=47479

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Survey regarding interaction design graduate education is still open.

2009-11-19T23:51:47Z

Hi folks,

If you can spare 20min of your time, I'd really appreciate a bunch
more responses to my survey on interaction design graduate
education.

While it is complex and long, I think it can help us all better
understand the needs of interaction design education. I plan on
making the data public later in the month of December.

Both educators and hiring managers can really benefit from this
information as interaction design matures and need for better trained
interaction designers increases.

You can find it at http://bit.ly/IxDEDU

Thank you,

-- dave

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Why the competition is for individuals?

2009-11-19T23:19:48Z

I have been asked by quite a few folks now, can there be exceptions
for X or Y group b/c that school only does group work?

The answer has to be "No" at this stage in the game. I realize that
a lot of great designs will be missed through this process and maybe
we have learned some lessons along the way as this is the first time
we are doing this. But the current structure of the competition
isn't just about the best designs, but also about the best designer.
And thus, group work would not aid us in determining who that might
be.

Further, it has been suggested that an individual submit on behalf of
a group. But this is not fair to the individuals who truly did
individual work as obviously group work should and would be more
impressive in scale and regardless of the objectivity of the criteria
the scale would definitely impact the jury.

Now, in my own classes I teach group work and individual work. I went
into this thinking that my current students were not going to be able
to submit anything. But as I was grading recent work I realized that
even small projects can "exemplify excellence in IxD" and have
encouraged them to submit that work as well.

I will be sequestering myself from judging all of my own students'
work, as would any of the other jury members.

Anyway, I thought it reasonable to put this information out here for
everyone. I encourage any educator or professional with interest in
education to contact me to discuss how we can improve the competition
for the next go around. As stated from the beginning this will be
evolutionary since unlike other design disciplines educators are not
so in sync about what is the right way to educate interaction design.
This is one of the reasons for the competition.

-- dave

Dave Malouf
Prof. Interaction Design
Industrial Design
Savannah College of Art & Design
http://iact.in/

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Re: Work in groups or as individuals in your IxD work

2009-11-19T23:08:32Z

I have a new question with group work in IxD.
How do we harness the power of the ego in our work?

I know there is a long tradition of squashing the individual designer
in UX/HCI, but as IxD transitions more towards a traditional arts
design discipline (pendulum swing of the moment so to speak) how do
we encourage, harness, and catalyze the power behind the individual
ego that makes other traditional design disciplines so compelling,
moving and soulful?

Recently through a great group project here at SCAD, I noticed that
we had some amazing egos in the room. They are industrial designers
after all, but the project's success even as a group project seemed
to be based on the reality of the vision truly being owned by an
individual (or two) and then that vision being pushed through,
assimilated by the team, so that by the end of the project, the
ownership really seemed to fall back onto the group again. (not 100%,
but spread enough that the individual got lost again; in a good way).

-- dave

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=47452

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Re: Survey design

2009-11-19T21:25:25Z

Depends on the degree of confidence you want to have that your results
are representative of the larger population. If you want to have a
high confidence level and a small margin of error, then I agree the
comments about statistical rigor above.

If, on the other hand you are trying to discover concepts, variables,
motivations, etc. for further processing, and the survey is the only
means you have to reach the people you're interested in, then treat
the survey like a mini-interview and gather semi-structured data to
bring into other exercises to develop more fully. These results are
not representative in terms of percentages of the larger population.
Many would say that is an improper use of the survey technique, but
people do non-statistical surveys all the time to suit their
purposes. You just need to know what you're getting out of it so
that you don't misrepresent the results.

Paul Bryan

Usography (http://www.usography.com)
Blog (http://www.virtualfloorspace.com)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=47480

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Re: MS in Interaction Design, Usability, User Research, User Experience, Information Architect

2009-11-19T12:38:59Z

Yes Kristen, I will go through them.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=47423

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JOB: Connection Planner, Seattle, FILTER (Recruiter), Direct-hire, Full-time

2009-11-19T12:16:18Z

FILTER has a unique direct-hire opportunity for someone who is
interested in developing creative ideas and fostering meaningful
interactions between people and brands. We're seeking a Connection
Planner to work at an innovative, creative company located in Seattle.

The Connection Planner will influence how brands interact with people by
taking visionary ideas and turning them into functional media plans.
Working closely with an interdisciplinary team, the Connection Planner
will articulate the role of media planning activities for assigned
accounts and ensure overall quality and accuracy in execution.
Responsibilities will range from monitoring competitive activity and
assisting with major proposal evaluations to contributing to client plan
development and overseeing optimization.

If you have experience managing online media, plus your analytical
skills are boast-worthy, then we'd love to tell you more about this
position. Contact FILTER.

WHAT YOU'LL BE DOING

* Collaborating with staff to develop media strategies and
tactics that support the connections plan and strategy

* Identifying and recommending opportunities to improve
infrastructure and processes

* Oversight of data gathering activities for major media plans

* Monitoring of trade publications for new media trends and
developments

* Attending appropriate local and national industry events

* Monitoring of competitive activity, report developments and
points of view to relevant stakeholders

* Developing media insights based on available data (client,
third party, campaign data and observed behaviors)

* Contribute to client plan development and oversee
contributions by junior staff

* Oversee negotiation and execution of media buys while being
capable of stepping in to negotiate/execute as needed

* Lead and contribute to client status meetings

* Oversight of optimization and post buy analysis activities

* Maintain strong relationships with media sales managers and
sales representatives, both locally and nationally

* Communicate relevant materials to agency/client stakeholders
verbally and in written form clearly and with precision

* Mentor junior staff on best practices related to research,
planning, buying and stewardship

SKILLS YOU'LL NEED

* 3-6 years experience managing media (online or offline), with
at least 2-4 years experience managing online media

* 2 year degree in advertising or related field preferred

* Strong analytical skills

* Advanced knowledge of MS Excel

* Experience managing staff a plus

* Comfortable with online tools such as @Plan/ComScore,
AdRelevance, Hitwise, Third Party Ad Serving Technologies, Ad Exchange

* Familiar with offline tools such as Scarborough, Simmons/MRI
and SQAD

* Proactive, solution-oriented demeanor

* Innovative, creative thinker

* Strong interpersonal skills

* Excellent organizational and campaign management skills

* Proven ability to work with intra-departmental teams across
the organization

A BIT ABOUT FILTER

FILTER is a full-service creative resources company that connects
industry-leading companies with the very best creative talent throughout
the West Coast. Offering both creative staffing services and interactive
media design and production, FILTER helps clients to make their ideas a
reality and complete their projects with more speed, flexibility and
cost efficiency. The company is headquartered in Seattle and has branch
offices in Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles. FILTER has been
serving the creative community, including top consumer brands and
technology companies as well as leading design, advertising and
interactive agencies, for the past two decades.

To apply, please register at www.filtertalent.com and complete a
personal profile in order to express interest in this position:
http://www.filtertalent.com/Professionals/Search_Jobs.aspx?m=j&id=303

We will review your resume and portfolio and contact you if your skills
and experience appear to be a good fit.

FILTER is an equal opportunity employer.

........................................................................
.............................................

ALEXIS CALL EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT
T 206.682.6005 D 206.708.8921 F 206.682.5830

<http://www.linkedin.com/in/alexiscall>
<http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Seattle-WA/Filter-Seattle/32502
939538?ref=ts> <http://www.filtertalent.com/Connections/Blog/>

FILTER CREATIVE RESOURCES FOR BUSINESS

FILTERTALENT.COM <http://www.filtertalent.com/>

SEATTLE PORTLAND SAN FRANCISCO LOS ANGELES

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[JOB] Interactive Lead - Philadelphia, PA | Agency M | Full-time

2009-11-19T10:06:56Z

If you're passionate, creative, smart, detail-oriented and fun, come join
our young, entrepreneurial creative boutique. We're bursting at the seams
and looking to make a mark in digital marketing and interactive web
development. This is a tremendous opportunity for a zesty individual with
strong leadership skills to jump into the frying pan and help us grow our
interactive department. Get your Hands Dirty

As the Interactive Lead you'll need a strong base of technical wherewithal.
The role will alternate between execution and management, so you will
absolutely need to have what it takes to realize interactive projects from
soup to nuts.
Required skills include:

- Experience in developing database-driven web 2.0 using the latest
technologies including DHTML, JavaScript, CSS, AJAX, and XHTML.
- Experience in hand-coded, cross-browser/platform development, and clean
code is a must!
- Ability to address UI concerns such as standards-based development,
semantic markup, cross-browser and browser degradation techniques, visual
design, usability, accessibility, localization, and content management.
- Strong understanding of server maintenance and DNS administration.
- Experience with PHP/MySQL based CMS systems such as Drupal,
Silverstripe, Mambo/Joomla, and Wordpress.
- Working knowledge of MySQL, database design and SQL required.
- Familiarity with server-side scripting languages – PHP preferred;
experience with ColdFusion/JSP/ASP.NET and others is advantageous.
- Experience working with JavaScript libraries (Scriptaculous, Mootools
JQuery) is advantageous.
- Working knowledge of Flash (Timeline animation and basic Actionscript)
is required.
- Strong working knowledge of the entire Adobe Creative Suite (CS4) is
also required.
- Diagramming know-how with tools such as OmniGraffle and InDesign is
highly desirable.
- Strong understanding of Video Production (After Effects), Codecs,
Compression, and Online Video Delivery is also desirable.

Be the Glue

As a Department head, you will be responsible for coordinating resources
across other departments, and ensuring they are reaching their full
potential on everything Interactive.
On a daily basis you will be expected to:

- Bridge the gap between our Interactive, Account Management, and
Creative Teams
- Work closely with Account Management and Clients to develop Estimates,
Timelines, and Project Plans
- Work directly with Clients on Needs Assessments & Requirements
Documents
- Collaborate closely with the Creative Team to develop design concepts
- Empower the creative team to execute sound principles of IxD &
user-centric design methods
- Have a strong understanding of Content Strategy and work closely with
our copywriters to develop killer content

Be a Big Thinker

As the Interactive lead, you will be the face of everything interactive at
M. You must posses excellent communication skills written and oral with
ability to engage clients. You should have big aspirations, and the skills
to help us realize ours.
Some of your responsibilities will include:

- Bridge the gap between our Interactive, Account Management, and
Creative Teams
- Defining and expanding our Interactive offerings
- Managing and growing development partner relationships
- Managing client relationships in tandem with Account Managers
- Participation in New Business Meetings as the face of our Interactive
offerings
- Improving and innovating on our internal work flow and web process
- Thinking analytically and asking the right questions to understand
client needs
- Making informed recommendations for project implementation
- Executing independently the roles of Content Strategy, Information
Architecture, and UX Design for larger-scale interactive projects

Be Creative

M is devoted to creating magical experiences. You will be an essential part
of this, as much so as every member of our creative team.
Some of the things we're looking for in an ideal candidate include:

- Participating in creative exploratories and creative executions on both
interactive and non-interactive projects
- Manage and support design workflow, including production support in
Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Flash
- Advanced Animation skills in Flash and After Effects are highly
desirable

The ideal candidate will have experience working on intermediate scale
websites and/or prior interactive agency experience. All applicants for the
positions should provide a resume, and URLs/code samples of relevant work.
Please apply at ideas@... – No phone calls, please.
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Participate virtually in the 2009 U.S. National Design Policy Summit

2009-11-19T10:05:16Z

Please see the invitation from Dori Tunstall below. I will be attending
next week, representing IxDA.

thanks,
Janna DeVylder
President, IxDA

------------------------------------------------------------

The 2009 U.S. National Design Policy Summit is two weeks away.
While limited space means that only 30 design leaders can attend
physically, we invite you to virtually participate in the Summit
in two ways:

01
You can watch and interact with the Summit live on December 1st,
from 9:30am-3:3pm EST via
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/us-design-policy. The social
stream will be connected to our Facebook page, Twitter account
@usdesignpolicy, and YouTube page,
http://www.youtube.com/user/USDesignPolicy.

02
During the breaks in the Summit, we will answer your comments
and questions on the social stream about what you have seen and
heard at the People's Q&A, moderated by Change Observer's Brad
McKee.

Program

09:00am–09:30am
Breakfast reception (Sponsored by IIDA and SEGD)

09:30am–10:15am
Greetings, introductions, overview of 2009 accomplishments

10:15am–10:45am
Guest speaker via video, David Kappos, Director of the U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office and a policy adviser

10:45am–11:45am
Design policy activities assessment exercise

11:45am–01:00pm
Lunch and the People’s design policy Q&A (Sponsored by
IIDA and SEGD)

01:00pm–02:00pm
2010 Design policy activities prioritization exercise

02:00pm–02:15pm
Break and the People’s design policy Q&A

02:15pm–03:15pm
Sharing of triple bottom line design case studies

03:15pm–03:30pm
the People’s design policy Q&A

03:30pm–04:30pm
Discussion of activities stewardship and commitments (Closed
session)

So sign up at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/us-design-policy. We
hope to see you at Summit 09.
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Re: Functionality appearing below the mythical "fold" - what to do?

2009-11-19T07:38:15Z

Just a thought (and probably a bad one because it may change your
scheme) is that the menu isn't too dissimilar from the main content
background. If the menu was more distinct, it may offer more of a
clue that it continues below the fold.

>From my own experience, most users are happy with scrolling and use
the scrollbar as a visual cue of the document's length; some
however, still scroll almost as a last resort after reading the
viewport's content. Testing might help out here if possible.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=47522

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[JOB] Interaction Designer, Chicago, gravitytank, Fulltime

2009-11-19T07:06:07Z

If youre an interaction designer whos passionate about creating
compelling digital experiences, gravitytank is looking for you. The
ideal candidate is driven, resourceful, and eager to work in a
fast-paced, collaborative design environment.

The work ranges from creating next generation interfaces to animating
scenarios of future design concepts.

All of our work will require your creativity and ability to work
with a multi-disciplinary team of strategists, researchers and
other designers to realize a compelling experience. As an
interaction designer at gravitytank, you will: create and rapidly
iterate design concepts within a team structure; actively
participate in design critique sessions; demonstrate a clear
passion for the latest innovations in digital media and a desire
to bring these opportunities to client projects.

IF YOU HAVE...

// 5+ years designing compelling interfaces with an emphasis on
design for small screens (mobile and device)

// Outstanding visual design skills (color, composition, typography,
iconography, etc.)

// Significant experience throughout the entire process of an
interactive media project: ideation; information architecture
(task flows, wireframes); visual design; prototyping (interaction
demos, scenario animations)

// Strong skills with design technologies and tools such as
Flash, After Effects, Illustrator, Photoshop and demonstrated
practical understanding of current and emerging technologies across
digital media

// Experience conducting/participating in a variety of forms
of user research (ethnographic field research, focus groups,
usability testing)

// Ability to clearly communicate conceptual ideas and
design rationale to other members of the design, project
and client teams through critiques, working sessions and
presentations

Send us an e-mail with your resume and examples of your work to
careers@...

Please include Interaction Designer in the subject line.

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Re: Survey design

2009-11-19T06:03:37Z

This is good advice. I like to ask people doing surveys to list
business and user experience (or other goals) explicitly and then link
any question directly to those goals. There should always be a link
between business goals, user experience goals, and specific questions.
It is useful to create a matrix before you do detailed survey design
that list that connection.

As Runar said, avoid the tendency to "tack on some interesting
questions that others may have".

There is some research (I'll see if I can dig it up) about the effects
of location of general satisfaction questions - do you put it early
because you ask specific questions about a product or service or do
you put it at the end when you have asked questions that will likeliy
evoke more critical thinking about a product?

One of the principles that I push on survey designers is to put
demographic questions (that are not explicit screeners) at the end of
any survey since these questions - to the respondent - are not
interesting or relevent (though they are to the survey lead). This
was advice by Dillman in several of his books on survey design.

I wrote a short essay in the ACM journal Interactions related to this
topic: Designing useful and usable questionnaires: you can't just
"throw a questionnaire together" It was in the May 2007 issue of
interactions and available in the ACM Digital Library.

Good topic. Thanks to those who responded.

Chauncey

On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 7:48 PM, Runar Normark <runarnormark@...> wrote:

> My general advice is to make it short and relevant as pointed out by
> others here. Go through the questions and ask your self, what will
> you use the results of this question, and remove all nice-to-know
> questions. You do not say what the purpose is, but I guess it is to
> improve the site. In general make sure all questions are relevant for
> the participants and for your purpose. If you want to repeat the
> survey after the changes, you should include questions that target
> the purpose of the redesign.
>
> In general, I would include an overall satisfaction question E.g.
> "How satisfied are you with the site overall?" and then go into
> details.
>
> Group questions according to theme and end it with an open ended
> question to let the participants comment or give you suggestions.
>
> Here is a short checklist that could be helpful:
> http://www.questback.com/outside/check_list_before_sending_out_your_survey.html
>
> Regards
>
> Runar Normark
> Logica UX Norway
>
>
> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
> Posted from the new ixda.org
> http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=47480
>
>
> ________________________________________________________________
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Re: Functionality appearing below the mythical \"fold\" - what to do?

2009-11-19T05:19:09Z

The problem with this specific functionality being below the fold with
regards to usability
is that the primary purpose of the functionality occurs out of sight
for the user.
If it was a full page redirect, for example, that would be more
obvious to a user, or if the
portion of the page affected by the functionality was somehow kept
within the visual field,
it'd at least address the issue.

Select menu-type elements, smaller elements, an accordion style
configuration, spacing
and location all come to mind - it's not a catastrophic problem,
obviously, but merits some
reworking just as while I assume the lower portions of the filter
links are less important or
used, but just because the air conditioner isn't crucial to the
driving of my car doesn't mean
I want its controls outside the window.

Cheers,
Scott

On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 12:37 AM, Nick Sergeant <nick@...> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I'm working on a filtering system that employs filters on the
> left-hand side of the results screen, much like rentals.com and
> newegg.com.
>
> Our client is concerned that since the lower filters on the left are
> hidden for folks with smaller screens that they won't be found.
> Their proposed solution is to collapse the filter options so that
> just each individual filter title is shown. I believe that this is
> far less usable. Here's the actual page:
>
> http://pmw.dumbwaiterdesign.com/products/flooring
>
> I've compiled a list of articles for them to review, but realize
> that much of the articles focus on *content* below the fold, not
> functionality.
>
> Any thoughts on alternative approaches to the functionality? If the
> functionality is solid, any resources out there on the topic of
> functionality below the fold?
>
> Thanks!
>
> -- Nick Sergeant
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--
"You always have the carny connection." - Clair High
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[JOB] UX Designer, Falmouth, ME, Tyler Technologies, Fulltime

2009-11-19T05:14:53Z

My employer is hiring!

Come join a growing group of UX Professionals at Tyler Technologies
who are designing the next generation ERP software used by
municipalities, local government and schools. Were located in
Falmouth, Maine, just outside of Portland, which recently received
accolades as Bon Appetit's Americas Foodiest Small Town and Forbes
Most Livable City. Tyler has been listed in Forbes Americas 200
Best Small Companies for the last 3 years.

Position Objective:

The user experience designer will help define the vision for Tyler
software products by conducting an iterative design process following
a user centered design methodology that includes using personas and
mental models to create user scenarios, and rapidly creating
interactive sketches and prototypes.

Job Responsibilities:

* Design the behavior and interfaces for Tylers Munis ERP software.

* Collaborate with product managers, developers, ux researchers and
other designers to gain domain knowledge and to design solutions that
meet customers goals and needs.

* Work closely with developers throughout the design and development
process in an agile manner.

* Help define user scenarios and requirements based on provided
research and specifications.

* Create interactive sketches/wireframes and detailed prototypes
using Expression Blend to explore alternate solutions and convey
final design specification.

* Contribute to the product pattern library.

* Assist ux researchers to conduct usability testing.

Position Qualifications: (Job Related Skills, Abilities, Education &
Experience)

* BS/BA in Industrial Design, Interface Design, Interaction Design,
Human-Computer Interaction or equivalent is preferred, but not
required.

* Minimum 3 years of design experience desired. Experience in
ERP/Business solutions is desired.

* Experience designing for Silverlight or WPF platforms and creating
prototypes using Blend is desired. Other prototyping experience is
acceptable as well.

* Experience with user centered design methodologies and working
within an iterative design environment that involves early user
testing is desired.

* Must have good visual design sensibilities.

* Excellent written and oral communication skills.

* Demonstrated ability to work confidently and effectively with
diverse teams (e.g., Product Management, Development, Support,
Implementation and User Research) required.

For more information and to apply goto:
http://www.tylertech.com/about-us/careers/falmouth-me/user-experience-designer

Thanks,

Kevin

Kevin Silver
IxDA Director - Local Groups

e: kevin@...
w: www.kevintsilver.com
t: ksilver

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Re: Functionality appearing below the mythical "fold" - what to do?

2009-11-19T04:50:13Z

Some really great suggestions here. Thanks, all!

We're going to toy with some of these suggestions.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=47522

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Re: Survey design

2009-11-19T04:32:49Z

Hello,

To add to what Caroline said, if you have room, add a couple of control
questions.
These should be inserted pseudo-randomly, and should be copies of the most
important questions in the survey, but with different wording. This will
give you
a tool to double-check the answers and make sure the respondent is
consistent
in her opinion (you can compare and remove the respondents that give very
different answers to the real item vs the control item).

As for the sample, you said this is for existing customers. Well, take a bit
of
time and pick a sample that's representative to the entire population of
users,
and email them, asking to complete the survey. Maybe offer them a coupon to
spend on-site, or some other incentive.

Other than that... limesurvey 2 is really good, but it's only in alpha. Keep
an eye out for it!
The current version can be used, try
*http://www.limeservice.com/*<http://www.limeservice.com/>
* *for a free account.

Also, I think wufoo.com might be a solution. You can quickly design any form

you like, and the reports are very useful.
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Re: Functionality appearing below the mythical \"fold\"- what to do?

2009-11-19T04:32:30Z

Nick -

They could do it horizontally as shown here (on the Zappos site) -
http://bit.ly/2eqro6

One thing I don't like about this design, though, is that it tends to
capture the mouse since the filters appear across most of the page.
Using a mouse wheel to scroll the page, you suddenly come to a halt and
are scrolling one of the filters instead.

Regards,

William Hudson
Syntagm Ltd
Design for Usability
UK 01235-522859
World +44-1235-522859
US Toll Free 1-866-SYNTAGM
mailto:william.hudson@...
http://www.syntagm.co.uk
skype:williamhudsonskype

Syntagm is a limited company registered in England and Wales (1985).
Registered number: 1895345. Registered office: 10 Oxford Road, Abingdon
OX14 2DS.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: discuss-bounces@... [mailto:discuss-
> bounces@...] On Behalf Of Nick Sergeant
> Sent: 18 November 2009 5:37 AM
> To: discuss@...
> Subject: [IxDA Discuss] Functionality appearing below the mythical
> \"fold\"- what to do?
>
> Hi all,
>
> I'm working on a filtering system that employs filters on the
> left-hand side of the results screen, much like rentals.com and
> newegg.com...

Re: MS in Interaction Design, Usability, User Research, User Experience, Information Architect

2009-11-19T03:27:47Z

MIT Media Lab? Is MIT not worth going to? ;)

On Nov 18, 2009, at 3:50 AM, dave malouf wrote:

> GRE's are almost always required by graduate programs. It is usually
> required by accreditation bodies. So even non-academic programs like
> our Interactive Design & Game Development (which also might fit your
> needs, of which I'm not a professor) would require GRE's TOEFL and
> Portfolio.
>
> I can't imagine a school worth going to in the US that wouldn't
> require them.
>
> -- dave

Re: MS in Interaction Design, Usability, User Research, User Experience, Information Architect

2009-11-19T01:20:43Z

I think only you can answer that question, Sourabh. Each program has
a different focus with different courses. You'll have to go through
them, look at the course descriptions and figure out which one is
right for you.

It's not like a Bachelors degree where no matter where you go, the
courses are relatively similar. This field is still developing and
therefore there is no set curriculum across institutions.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=47423

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Re: MS in Interaction Design, Usability, User Research, User Experience, Information Architect

2009-11-19T00:27:04Z

As suggested in blog, I have sent an email request to solve the
curiosity, whether or not GRE is necessary for graduate application.
I agree with everyone, but on the other hand those who have English
their first language with work experience, it is obviously good for
them because they are aware about most of the things (it can be
anything). Other than that, the one whose English is not a first
language, they might have to prepare for it to attend course classes.
GRE, may be a reason but I think it will help them scoring more in
college, courses which they applied. So, it is better to wait for a
year, get a decent score in GRE / TOEFL, and I can apply anywhere.

But, the next question is, everyone came from different background
with creativity and they may be connected with social sites, blogs,
emails and understand that there are many colleges and universities.
If I ask everyone who were here, choose one or two colleges that
everyone agree with, which would it be?

Sourabh

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=47423

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