things I have created

Notes from UXCamp Ottawa - October 13, 2012

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 22:13:21 -0400

Over the weekend I attended UXCamp Ottawa 2012 and had a great time learning, sharing and meeting new people. Here are my notes from the day. It was a stellar line-up and I’m full of ideas!

It’s a great time to be a UX designer - Jared Spool

Slides: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1086584/It’s%20A%20Great%20Time%20To%20Be%20A%20Designer%20-%20R1.2.pdf

Apple stores sell far more per square foot retail than even Tiffany’s - retailers attempt to copy the whole experience - JC Penney, fake Apple stores in China, Amazon Nook, etc.
design can be revolutionary - look at Kickstarters that get $10 million+ invested without even a real product - just a design
design is making the ordinary extraordinary, e.g. Square credit card processing, Nest thermometer
the difference is design
designing for whole experiences is no longer a lUXury that’s nice to have - it is now mission critical
Fortune 2000: if each decides to spend $2 million on their design that’s 20 designers per company - 40 000 designers - demand is insane
iPhone changed cellphone industry - it was no longer about features, it was about experience and design
60% of newspaper revenue was from classifieds for the longest time - Craigslist changed everything - then AirBnB built up on that - features -> experience
the drive for designers is coming from the shift from features to experience - mobile is forcing companies to adapt to this shift
waiting in line doesn’t have to be a crappy experience - need to consider the whole - look for the little gaps
app to take a picture of your tax form and sends it straight to the IRS
extraordinary design is about filling in the gaps in the experience
lean UX - “are we getting closer to a better experience? Is this what our customers will pay for?” - get something out and quickly
information architecture, design process management, copywriting, user research practices, interaction design, visual design, editing & curation are all parts of experience design
specializing vs. compartmentalizing, need to be flexible and willing to leave your “speciality”
frustration in design results in: missed sales/lost revenue, additional support costs, unused feature development and support costs
designers need to use the language of executives: talk about increasing revenue, decreasing costs, increasing market share, increasing business, improving shareholder value
there is a revolution happening and design is at the forefront of it, we need to cross train and focus on communicating our value
spend 2 hours every week watching users use your design, whole team needs to see it

Deconstructing delight: pleasure, flow and meaning - Dana Chisnell

Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/danachisnell/deconstructing-delight

financial company created calculator to help take scariness out of retirement to sell annuities
simple, beautiful, cute interface that set high expectations then led to a heavy math focused back end inconsistent with front end - no amount of cute script will hide a broken experience like this one
making something useful is one thing but making it delightful is something entirely else - it can be hard!
compare Swackett app to official weather information - which one is more delightful to use? same info, different design
we need to infatuate our users, be thoughtful and considerate of our users - TripIt - aware of user, understands their value and adds treats for the user
TripIt anticipates the needs of the users from start to finish,extra goodness
Virgin America inspires “love” from its customers - they learned from mistakes and use iterative design to refine their product
every release is an experiment
in flight entertainment is different, treat customers as guests not troublemaker, great general tone and attitude
Virgin America safety video does everything it has to to meet regulations but it goes beyond - it adds humour and design and attitude to what could otherwise be mundane
OmmWriter video is another example
flow: immersive, empowering, behavioral automatic, plays on mastery and control
subtle motivation cues, psychological cues, language or lack of, social cues, reinforcement
you get what you need when you need it but no sooner
frictionless paths, supports serendipity, tangents are useful and meaningful, feeds curiosity and plays on user’s strengths
ask ourselves: what would happen if I took care of my user?
example of ZipCar giving its cars names, reinforces attachment, accountability and responsibility
meaning: flourish through purpose, connectedness, making a difference, belonging, virtuousness
plan the emotional effects and behavioural effects, focus on clarity, simplicity, funneling, modelling
its not just about the digital experience - its about the whole experience, from the call centre to the CEO
Kiva another example of meaningful design
meaning is design with purpose, from mission to fulfillment, not just touch points

What everyone needs to know about designing for women - Jessica Ivins

Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/jessicaivins/on-shrink-it-and-pink-it-designing-for-women

Della fail on Dell’s part to market to women: classic “pink it and shrink it” reflex
content based on assumptions really missed the mark
rather than solving problems we often jump to extremes when marketing to gender
we need to make products and experiences that work for our users, not just “appeal” to our assumptions about them
Holly Buchanan: Marketing to Women Online blog
two approaches: visible design is clearly targeted to one gender, must be sure product is one gender or the other (e.g. Venus razor)
transparent targets one gender but isn’t overt about it and doesn’t alienate other gender, make it work especially well for one gender (eg endura scrubs)
consider spectrum of femininity and where your product might fit
realistic personas help drive vision for marketing - forces you to consider real people not a stereotypical aggregate whole
facilitate sharing given women’s propensity for social media
don’t stereotype your audience - get to know them

Accessibility as a design tool - Derek Featherstone

Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/derekfeatherstone/accessibility-as-a-design-tool-14714388

we need to learn how to integrate accessibility into typical workflows for specific audiences - devs, project managers, scrum masters, designers
there is some lack of awareness but many people think its too hard
many struggle to understand benefits of accessibility - it benefits everyone not just the blind or deaf
accessible design is better design, period
accessibility is not a binary all or nothing scenario - how you view accessibility affects everything we understand about it
the majority are the middle - and you have outliers at either extreme, 95% fall in the mean but the extremes help us understand the needs of the whole audience
ideo video series: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M66ZU2PCIcM
meeting the needs of the extreme ends of our spectrum of users will help us meet the needs of everyone falling in between
accessibility often comes in at the design and development stages but it needs to be considered from inception to launch
issue of describing city boundary expansion for non visual users - had to consider why do people care? Tax purposes - so why not help users determine that - what is the purpose of the map?
everything from auto complete to errors plays into both accessibility as well as overall usability
multiple paths into info can help meet accessibility requirements as well as enhance usability
floating menu bar with skip to heading and main content - love it - brings screen reader techniques to all users

Citizen experience design and you - Jess McMullin

Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/jessmcmullin/citizen-experience-design-and-you

we need to redesign government
the workforce is changing - aging, shrinking
what happens when nwe think about citizen experience rather than customer experience?
citizen exp bell curve: politics and voting -> community and civic involvement -> programs and services -> failure demand (when the system becomes its own enemy) -> civic action
how do we change the citizen experience? We need to thinks about design
design is style and aesthetics (related to delight), function, problem solving
reframing and redesigning the problem might help fix the problem more than applying patches and fixes to the existing problem as it is understood
policy is the decision DNA of organizations - you can’t change the world without changing that decision DNA
citizen experience design can’t only impact service delivery but also policy
the power of design is to give confidence in the face of uncertainty and to help make the right decisions faster
citizen experience design makes common maps for everyone to use as they move forward
celebrate the power of possibility - look at what could be instead of what was - the power of seeing systems, networks, the real world
prototyping and visualizing and making
iteration is important - experiment small - incremental improvements let us explore options without massive policy shifts
power of codesign/collaboration - model of reality leaves our heads and ends up shared with others
make meaning for people - if we meet needs we can make a difference in people’s lives
BC Public Service Dragons’ Den
City of Vancouver transportation 2040
Edmonton had citizens come and build their vision of the future through Lego - competition and winning ones were displayed and used for planning
citizen experience is a focus, it helps us stay on target, it’s a bridge that ignores politics, it’s a compass and a map
put design to work - lets make the right decisions faster, improve outcomes and rediscover a culture of optimism and opportunity
citizen experience is a new frontier - go there

Lessons from evil ad men - Shai Idelson

Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/shaidelson/UX-lessons-from-evil-ad-men

right beats easy - the flying experience started from the terminal until you arrive - its everything - and it doesn’t need to suck, it can be engaging and fun
but to change the experience ads were not the way - had to change the experience, then advertise that
do the right thing even if it’s hard - not the easy thing
we are good with the things we are comfortable with. When a problem arises, think about the need, not what we know
Perdue chicken: sold experience (Perdue) rather than just the product
it worked because of trust - without trust the data is useless - need both
crazy works - e.g. Meow Mix, Isuzu Joe
hate it? change it - just remember that sometimes change needs a little helping hand
UX can help change culture by changing behaviours - advertising changes culture by changing attitudes
changing behaviours can change attitudes

Big picture UX - Nick Fincke

we’re thinking too small
we need to get beyond the notion that sales are won or lost in a single channel or through a single aspect of our business
we need to look at the cross channel experience - mobile and physical shopping experiences need to become seamless - embracing technology can bring in more customers (reach)
it’s not just retail - way beyond that - it’s the nature of how we experience things, how we work, think, play
Uber town car type service - app lets you pick where to be picked up - locates driver nearby and dispatches them and shows them driving to you - no cash or credit card, all handled through online
star rating given to driver and client, receipt is emailed, trip history, maps, mobile, email, online all work together to provide a unified experience
REI - shop online, then find bike in store - salespeople knowledgeable and helped narrow selection and they had a track to test ride it on
web product staff and retail working together to increase sales
what is the brand experience? how does the cohesive whole combine - its not “just the web” anymore - think beyond what you’re tasked with - UX designers job is to improve the experience, not just the channel

Creativity: the missing link between data and common sense - Jeff Parks

Slides: https://speakerdeck.com/u/jeffparks/p/creativity-dot-dot-dot-the-missing-link-between-data-and-common-sense

we need to start valuing the person who shares an idea - appreciate the idea for its own merit
why-how-what : basic framework applicable across disciplines
ability to get to fundamental truths through questions has been lost - we spend too much time arguing over data - we don’t often ask why we are doing this, we need to focus on the purpose
too much data = makes it hard to decide, tech makes it harder to share and connect genuinely, not just online but IRL too, being online does not make us remarkable
focus in housing used to be porch now it is often the garage - social skills being hurt and discourse as a result - technology, weaker social ties, multitasking all impact our ability to communicate with each other
we need to take a global view of ideas - we need to design for human experience not just digital experience - need to take a broad global view of design and life
we need to understand the people we’re trying to get buy-in from
people are the foundation of every organization - stop arguing over where ideas are from and more about the merit of the ideas themselves
we need to interact in communities not pose in them
its not about problems anymore it’s about people - we need to shift the conversation from what we could be doing to what we should be doing
we need to appreciate ideas regardless of where they come from

Building Chameleon - Gabor Vida

it’s all about solving someone’s problem - and the smaller and more detailed that you can define the problem the more likely you are to create something great
look at Shazam and Instagram - they solve small problems
content is king, context is god
used video to launch, gauge interest, Kickstarter launch and to keep them updated
usability can be cool - auto adjusting contrast widget solves usability issue and adds real wow factor
started designing for 10 inches, then had to adjust for 7, then for the phone
radical transparency, picture is worth a thousand words but video is worth a thousand conversations, get it in the wild early
cool isn’t cool when nobody gets it <- need to communicate value

The power of bad ideas - Steve Portigal

bad is not the absence of good - they can elicit a very strong responses
bad ideas can almost always be good in the right circumstances - it requires reframing the problem
we need a safe place to enable bad ideas, laugh at ideas not people, trust and listening foster collaboration, if we don’t create safe places for each other this creativity won’t happen
support both deliberate zany ideas and tentative unfinished ideas - they both need support and recognition
combinatorial creativity is a vector that combines ideas - product of brain wanting to reorient and redesign dissonance - bad idea is valuable because it’s a trigger to generate next (possibly good) idea
process words are insightful, need to respond with positives, throwing an idea and accepting offers - like improv - it doesn’t work if the group isn’t open to it
expose implicit beliefs about what the criteria are for bad vs good ideas
bad ideas make great batting practice, we build up understanding of insights from working with them - just translating insights into solutions, even bad ones, is a win - if you can translate the bad you are in an even better idea of how to translate the good
Breaking Bad and Cow Clicker sound like awful ideas on paper but have been huge hits - Wired article on Cow Clicker: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/12/ff_cowclicker/ - outcome and intention don’t match: supposed to be satire but was huge hit
appsurd: apps that started as jokes: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303505504577404284117534706.html
marketplace is where the ideas are judged - e.g. mobile wifi homeless at SxSW, chain ankle shoes
consider your context, engineers say if it’s stupid but works its not stupid, be open to surprises, listen to your audience, consider your criteria for success

Really like this recent picture I took while at my...

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 20:39:15 -0400

Really like this recent picture I took while at my boyfriend’s convocation at the Ottawa Convention Centre!

“Curiosity” (I just love the contrast in this photo...

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 18:48:07 -0400

“Curiosity” (I just love the contrast in this photo - between light and dark, hard lines and fuzzy lines, human and animal…)

“Self / reflection” (self-portrait)

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 18:46:02 -0400

“Self / reflection” (self-portrait)

“The Door” (this is probably one of my favourite...

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 18:14:15 -0400

“The Door” (this is probably one of my favourite photos I’ve ever taken)

This is a small ad for print that I did for Ecology Ottawa....

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 18:08:30 -0400

This is a small ad for print that I did for Ecology Ottawa. It’s pretty basic but I think it turned out well!

This is just a little something I did to help my boyfriend with...

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 18:06:00 -0400

This is just a little something I did to help my boyfriend with a project. It’s a mock logo for a web content company… I like the colours a lot.

These are a couple concepts for a thank you card for Ecology...

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 17:03:00 -0500

These are a couple concepts for a thank you card for Ecology Ottawa. We ended up going with two versions - the two designs on the left. The inside matched the outside in design. This was a really fun project!

“Bloc Party, Olympic Island” I really love doing...

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 23:38:00 -0500

“Bloc Party, Olympic Island”

I really love doing event photography, such as concerts! It’s challenging, knowing that you (usually) only have one chance to get the shots, but fun too!

Presentation: British Pubs

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 20:01:00 -0500

Presentation: British Pubs:

This is a Google Docs link to a .ppt presentation I put together in Keynote for a fourth-year history seminar on British leisure from 1700-1950. I presented for about 30 minutes, followed by a group discussion centering around questions I came up with (listed at the end of the presentation). I received a mark of 96 for this presentation.

“Home is Where Your Friends Are”

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 19:57:00 -0500

“Home is Where Your Friends Are”

“Serenity”

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 22:03:00 -0500

“Serenity”

Freelance web content work: Karine Thibault

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 21:58:00 -0500

Freelance web content work: Karine Thibault:

I helped Karine Thibault redesign her artist portfolio website. I assisted with content renovation, QA and metadata. I helped target her website towards exhibitions as opposed to commissions. This project was very challenging but very fun!

This was a project I worked on for Ecology Ottawa. I designed...

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 21:50:00 -0500

This was a project I worked on for Ecology Ottawa. I designed the ticket (this was the concept that won; I will post others later) as well as the program for their fourth annual dinner.

“Underneath the Offramp”

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 19:25:14 -0500

“Underneath the Offramp”

“Twiggy” - desktop wallpaper

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 18:57:29 -0500

“Twiggy” - desktop wallpaper

“Sushi à Montréal”

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 18:54:00 -0500

“Sushi à Montréal”

Blog entry: Users experienced good times at the first-ever UXCamp Ottawa

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 18:49:00 -0500

Blog entry: Users experienced good times at the first-ever UXCamp Ottawa:

At the end of November, I attended UXCamp Ottawa. Working together with a variety of notes from volunteers under a tight deadline, I helped pull together this article for popular Ottawa blog Apartment613.

“Mykonos”

Sun, 12 Dec 2010 19:52:00 -0500

“Mykonos”

“Seasons” - desktop wallpaper

Sun, 12 Dec 2010 19:50:00 -0500

“Seasons” - desktop wallpaper