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Indian farming practices, Green Revolution, experience design

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 10:13:17 -0400

In the LBJ administration, the US pushed a “Green Revolution” on India. Basically, the Indians had generational (tribal?) agricultural practices, but droughts had taken their toll. The US introduced our farming techniques to the Indians, and success was realized. However, the practices are deomonstrating to be unsustainable and untenable as a result.

Price of bandwidth, price of flattered self

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 10:09:00 -0400

Need that Salon article from Adam Kmiec which broke down YouTube’s costs and highlighted lack of sustainability. Key quote - “User-generated Content is proving to be a financial albatross.” http://slate.com/id/2216162

The "new normal" and the $100 trash can

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 05:45:35 -0400

Need to look up NPR All Things Considered and dig out the listener feedback. “higher quality products, fair price point, initial expense ok rather than repeating purchases, longevity from purchase,

taxo validation

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 15:50:39 -0500

High emphasis placed on initial researc, maybe better explained as “pre-effort” research. Various post-effort research techniques exist, but taxo validation is deprioritized in favor of usability testing or other techniques.

Taxo validation could be IA/UX equiv of traditional marketing analytics - could bring IA/UX cred to marketing folks who don’t get it

Leaks are the new market research

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:35:55 -0500

Gears 3 in 2010? 3D Desktop/Finder for OS XI? Preemptive, premature info disseminated to pools of highly interested audiences. Feedback is willfully provided in enough time to adjust.

On presenting work product, be it IA, Creative or Tech

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 16:46:05 -0500

On presenting work product, be it IA, Creative or Tech

search, social, and the user experience

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 09:23:29 -0500

search, social, and the user experience

Qual and Quan - bricks and mortar

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 09:23:14 -0500

Qual and Quan - bricks and mortar

For consumer-oriented companies on Twitter, why not put an uncensored stream from search.twitter on...

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:56:52 -0500

For consumer-oriented companies on Twitter, why not put an uncensored stream from search.twitter on your homepage? Accentuate the positives from your customers and demonstrate attention and action towards mitigating the negatives.

DHL Commercial

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:26:32 -0400

Ugly wasteful American syndrome. Plates get shipped from Italy to America with instructions about fragille contents. DHL supports the brand’s value prop through commercial. American family gazes lovingly and amazingly at beautiful handcrafted plates - then proceeds to break one during the wedding ceremony.

Draft idea - helping companies who have either failed or not engaged in social find their way in

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 10:36:55 -0400

Draft idea - helping companies who have either failed or not engaged in social find their way in

Convenience

Fri, 09 May 2008 17:12:10 -0400

Convenience

draft: which-Centered Design?

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:42:00 -0400

Challenge is a shopping cart process, but for a rather specialized service in which the general public might not have the greatest of understandings. The business is seeing measurable dropoff across its web properties. UCD activities are being requested by the company to start stemming the tide.

So, is UCD the answer? Unless there’s a really compelling reason not to - and it’s difficult to think of any - yes, UCD will certainly get you farther with than without.

I’d like to consider an alternate approach for this, one which accelerates the UX process but doesn’t introduce their desired UCD activities until post-production. Regarding activity-centered design, Don Norman wote, “Understand the activity, and the device is understandable.” I’m replacing “device” with “process” for this exercise.

My sense from seeing the bail points and learnings from individual and group sessions last summer, is that the company isn’t doing enough to educate through the shopping cart process. They do use jargon, and apologize to me when I call them on it. They understand that their desired audience has a vastly different visceral sense of what their jargon is, and that it most certainly doesn’t relate back.

So the strategy is this:

speak to the prospect, in the language of the prospect - the prospect already cares about the process in progress
even though they’re of varying skills/life experiences/etc., strive to play up to their aspirations - make them feel smarter without them feeling that it’s been dumbed down.
make it short.

It would be wonderful if there were a Fitts’ Law equivalent for situations like this. Something like, “the degree of knowledge and skill required should be accompanied by a like amount of education during the checkout process,” and that would be helpful in considering ACD as a start point vs. traditional UCD.

Hallelujah!

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 21:30:03 -0400

steverubel Seems like there is no news from Web 2.0 Expo. That’s a good sign that maybe the Kool Aid hangover has ended.

I’ve dreamt of this day for so long.

"Sometimes, it’s hard to always take the high road. Too much up-hill walking."

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:58:45 -0400

“Sometimes, it’s hard to always take the high road. Too much up-hill walking.”

- Jared Spool, via Twitter

Some found this offensive. Me? Not so much so. But then again,...

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:56:56 -0400

Some found this offensive. Me? Not so much so.

But then again, I’m kind of an aristocrat.

Celebration Of Vintage and Retro Design | Monday Inspiration | Smashing Magazine

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 21:33:33 -0400

Celebration Of Vintage and Retro Design | Monday Inspiration | Smashing Magazine

"Don’t moan. Never be a victim. Either raise hell and change the game, or get out."

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 06:55:41 -0400

“Don’t moan. Never be a victim. Either raise hell and change the game, or get out.”

- Jack Welch, 2002

Alltop- Encouraging the Mainstream | chrisbrogan.com

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 21:32:51 -0400

Alltop- Encouraging the Mainstream | chrisbrogan.com

Field Usability Kit

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 15:30:00 -0400

Got the wet erase markers, multi-colored stickies, grid-lined and unlined index cards so far. Need to get the grid-lined paper for prototype templates, some acetate or laminate overlays and a nice binder to keep it all in.