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Upcoming 2012-2013 UX Conferences

The 2012-2013 conference calendar is lining up and I've been starting to track the upcoming events as tickets start to go on sale. I've omitted those that are already sold out. Here's what's looking interesting on my radar, listed in date order. Am sure I'm missing quite a few. This is a good start.

Published on Friday, Aug 31, 2012 in blog

The tragedy of the design commons

Designers prune.

Left to its own devices, the mob will augment, accessorize, spam, degrade and noisify whatever they have access to, until it loses beauty and function and becomes something else.

It seems democratic and non-elitist to set it and forget it and let the users take over. But the tools we use (Wikipedia) and the brands we covet (Nike or Ducati) resolutely refuse to become democracies.

-Seth Godin

Note: @brennen takes issue with the Wikipedia example when it comes to feature selection, and convinced me that it's not the best example to make. Although I think maybe the point is that Mediawiki implementation on Wikipedia is controlled, but whether or not the decisions about what is used in Wikipedia is democratic or not, I don't know.

Published on Monday, Aug 27, 2012 in blog

Link Drop (week 34 of 2012)

Light drop this week because I was out camping for most of it. Little tidbit about the Link Drop name. I like it because it reminds me of a record needle drop.

  • Keeping the goal in sight while designing component flows - (Ryan Singer) Ryan Singer looks at a product component that fails to deliver on satisfying a user's core need, and reminds not to design and reviewing components in isolation. Every build and iteration requires review and circling back to evaluate the component in terms of the need identified in the use case scenario. Put into action, he says:
    How do we integrate the components back into a context for review? Ask the question: “What is the user trying to do here?” The job the user has in mind is the best integration point because the user’s mind doesn’t tidily follow the boundaries of implementation.
  • Why Does Interaction Design Matter? Let's Look At The Evolving Subway Experience | Co.Design: business + innovation + design Robert Fabricant looks at the ways interaction design has had an impact on the MTA/NYC subway system from the Metrocard kiosks and turnstiles, to the signage and app ecosystem that enable better wayfinding and information use in what can be an overwhelmingly complex system to navigate. Also touches on the IXDA awards.
  • Everything in its Right Pace This is a terrific essay on considering the pace of delivery of information in web products, and how in a world of constant delivery, sometimes a slower pace, selective or scant data delivery, and better signal to noise is more appropriate and valuable in a given context.
  • Visually Reinforce Your Credit Card Fields (89% Get it Wrong) - Articles - Baymard Institute "It’s fortunately a relatively simple procedure to lift the perceived security of sensitive fields in your form – simply encapsulate the fields with a border or background and place your security badge nearby."
  • Apple Literally Designs Its Products Around a Kitchen Table "Longtime Apple industrial designer Chris Stringer testified that the company has a small team of 15 or 16 people that fashion all of the company’s products. The group meets frequently, literally sitting around a kitchen table, to debate all products under development. “We’ll sit there with our sketch books and trade ideas,” Stringer said, appearing as the first witness in the Apple vs. Samsung trial. “That’s where the really hard, brutal honest criticism comes in.”
    From there, the group puts the sketches into a computer-aided design program and, if warranted, creates a physical model. “Our role is to imagine products that don’t exist and guide them to life,” Stringer said. There could be 50 designs for a single button, he added. “We’re a pretty maniacal group of people,” he said."
Published on Saturday, Aug 25, 2012 in blog