“Make it easy to be happy”

A great candidate for an ‘epiphany of the day’ found at a blog of Jesper Rønn-Jensen who gets at the heart of what User Experience is. I found this and other excellent UX links through Stephen Pautz’s site, who has inquired on our job posting and is a voracious reader of all things UxD.

http://justaddwater.dk/2006/06/21/user-experience-revisited/

Excerpt: (originally sourced from the excellent blog of Thomas Baekdal)

Focus on making it easy to be happy, and usability, user-experience and greatness will come all by itself.

Also, from the blog, check out this excellent User Experience chart (and also Poster!)

Apple User Experience Library

From the Apple Developer Connection, UX guides for Mac OSX, iPhone, etc.

http://developer.apple.com/ue/

About Consistency…

I read a great little post by Jason Fried at 37Signals about the placement of the iTunes icon on the iPhone. Instead of putting the new button in the next open slot in the grid (lower left), the icon, while still in the grid, was placed closer to the iPod icon in the lower right. The author was delighted that this was a great example of “Context over Consistency”. The rules may seem to have been broken, but upon closer inspection, you see that it was a balancing act between competing logic opportunities: consistency of the grid read vs. proximity to related major function (iPod).

I agree with this approach, however, in this case it is daring because if this is the new ‘consistency’, it will have challenges ahead as the UI fills up with icons (three slots left!). At some point, associations with the four major functions along the bottom will be lost on the user as icons compete for proximity. Add in right and left-handedness, and you’ve got quite a balancing act! But with context already a driver, maybe it will introduce new methods to accommodate a growing family of icons (see ‘Spaces’ or ‘Stacks’ in Leopard).

As designers, we all know that you have to know the rules and when to break them. If a ‘rule’ was apparently broken, you may be called on it. But as the author put it, “Consistency is the easy choice. Context is the thinking choice.” (Comments poster goes further and adds, “Performance above all”).

UPA – The Usability Professionals’ Association

Association for Usability encompassing many disciplines

http://www.upassoc.org/

UPA is also a LinkedIn group that you can network within (adds logo to your profile).

Top 100 User-centered blogs…

Comprehensive list of top 100 UX Blogs if you have the time to dig.

Recruiting Resources

This is a link to a Carnegie Mellon design recruiting event
We can e-mail Sonjala Allen sonjala@andrew and get put on the mailing list for events like career days (linked above)

37Signals Job Board for programming and design positions
37 signals is a great IA blog – incidentally by the folks that bring you Basecamp.

Post UX jobs on the Adaptive Path email list. Adaptive Path Alumni List <alum@adaptivepath.com>
Example: Subject: [ap-alum] Job: Information Architect, Chicago

Job Description (Solution Architect)

Here is the last version of a Solution Architect job description we prepared last fall – need to revise for XD.

What is a prototype?

When we say prototype, are we saying visualization? Most of the time the answer is yes. I think there are 3 types of prototypes at 3 different places within the diamond process.

1. Interactive Concept – Reality = 0%

• To show proof of concept
• Lots of ideas, need to visualize to see what works
• Very thin and quick to create
• Sales tool to sell an idea
• Early first diamond

2. Design Validation – Reality = 50%

• To allow user feedback
• Many ideas narrowed to one or a few
• End of first or start of second diamond

3. Pre-production – Reality = 99%

• Technical foundation leading into implementation
• Maybe an evolution of an early prototype, maybe not
• End of second diamond before implementation

Adobe XD Team

The XD Best practices session at Max was quite interesting. A member of Adobes XD team spoke. Their framework broke things down into 3 areas: Team; Process and Principles. Go to their site at xd.adobe.com.

Team
1. Emphasis Making
* Deconstructing
* Generalist over Specialist
* Wholistic
2. Promote Trust and Freedom
3. Have Fun
* Personality and Fit are critical

Process
1. Communication is Critical
2. Process isn’t that important
3. Five ways to work (rules)

• Simplify the problem
• Trust your instincts
• Share everything
• Fail Fast (to succeed sooner)
• We are peers before the Object

Principles (How to Work):
Useful -> Usable -> Desirable (eg. washing machines)

4 Cornerstones:
What is the Point?
* Have a clear design objective
* Task first
* Keep it simple
* Focus and Emphasis

Content is King
* Content before Chrome
* Provide flexibility
* Enable direct manipulation

Create an Experience not an Interface
* Create a spark
* Make it personal
* Just enough is more
* Respond, don’t dictate
* Respect design objective

Choreograph, Sequence and Flow
* Design is a whole
* Establish hierarchy
* Motion has meaning
* Guide and orient
* Preserve context
* Be consistent

Team collaboration tools

Team communication and project management tool options…

pbwiki – Free means to create a wiki: collaborative website workspace that multiple people can edit together and share files and documents
This would be a great way to document projects and also log wisdom that would otherwise be trapped in a head (How to set up CVS, etc.)

Basecamp – $ Project mgmt/communication

Chat client aggregators
Trillian Basic/$Pro – PC (Mac beta)
Adium – Mac

SubEthaEdit – collaborative document creation
Looking for a text editor that is designed by people actually caring about Human Interface Guidelines? A nice way to edit your HTML files? Or a way to work together on code, texts or notes?

Google Docs – Shareable online word and spreadsheet apps.

Twitter – Broadcast texting to/from group via mobile/chat/web site

Please post other suggestions in the comments.