Designing for Inaccuracy?

I know it might come across as crazy, but I think there’s something to be said about designing for inaccuracy. And, of course, someone else has already probably thought of this and there’s a fancy (or simple) name for it.  That’s okay; it’s on my mind and I’d like to rattle it out.

The Back Story

The day before Thanksgiving, the family was all loaded-up into the (sigh) minivan and as I started backing out of the driveway, my wife punched the magical button on the GPS that would get the trip routing started.

We both looked at the estimated time of arrival and took deep sighs, knowing that we were in for a long trip with a 20 month old and a 6 year old in the back.  This isn’t the type of trip we look forward to as everyone gets restless.

Fast forward a few hours.  My wife and I both look at the GPS unit again, and we both kind of sigh out loud.  We both started to talk about the same thing at the same time–this damn GPS is accurate.

Accuracy is Good!

Absolutely.  However, in my Trailblazer’s GPS, it’s frequently (translation: always) not accurate.  So, after driving for a little while, the estimated time of arrival / length of time left to drive shifts enough to feel like we’re “making good time”.  In fact, I could argue that every time I (allegedly) (unknowingly) take some liberties with the speed limit, I feel as if I’ve accomplished something when the time shifts to my favor.

Who’s Fault is This?

At first, I wanted to blame Microsoft.

Why not, right? Everyone likes to blame Microsoft.

We’ve all seen that Windows file download / transfer dialog box that starts out telling you that you’ve got 18 years, 4 months and 12 hours remaining that quickly jumps to 45 minutes and then continues to shift as something magical happens to the various connections to your machine.

It’s annoying.

But, if I’m being honest, my Mac does the same damn thing. The various flavors of Linux I’ve used have done it, too.

So, it’s the fault of those who create operating systems?

Or, it’s the fault of those who simply create mathematic formulas. I think.

I’m not sure it matters, really.  It’s just that Garmin does one hell of a job in getting it right.

And that’s frustrating.

So What?

Exactly! So what does this have to do with anything?

Part of what’s been interesting to me about this is that I’ve been frustrated at not being able to beat the clock, or beat the game and arrive ahead of schedule. I looked forward to beating the clock and arriving “ahead of time”.

Look, it’s my quirk, but I highly doubt I’m alone here. We all like to win, even the little subtle victories like not stopping for restroom breaks so you can beat someone else’s best time.

Psychologically, each of us wants to win. We want to beat the machine. We want to be better and smarter than “that damn device in the dash”. We want to beat the computer at chess.

It’s how we’re wired.  Survival of the fittest? Kick the ass of SkyNet? All the above?

I don’t know, just yet.  I’m still pondering this, and I know it’s not new–the “winning” aspect is part of building engaging design.  We don’t want to dumb something down so much that it turns away our audience; instead, we want to provide them with enough stuff to figure out and learn along the way that they’re feeling successful and intelligent as they move through.  Perhaps this is part of what Stephen Anderson calls “Designing for Seductive Interactions”.

Perhaps it’s slightly different.  I don’t know yet, and like I said, I’m sure it’s already out there, so I welcome some direction and feedback here from the smart folks that you are.

Thanks!

IDEA09 Debts of Gratitude

I’m woefully behind on this, but it’s no less important that the people who propped-up the IDEA Conference experience get recognized.

Certainly, as chair of the 2009 IDEA Conference, there’s a bit of a light shone directly on me, but the reality is that there’s no way on earth that any conference could–or should, at least–be pulled off by a single person.

Without much more preamble, these fine folks let me lead and chose to follow–often challenging and questioning steps along the way, but always supporting the event and the community it is intended for.

I’m humbled to have been so fortunate to get to work with each of them.  Please take note of these fine individuals–and even if you didn’t get to attend IDEA, send them some love for the effort they chose to invest.

Jonathan Knoll
Affectionately known as Yoni throughout this little UX community of ours, he pulled all kinds of magic helping to integrate this pathetic little membership system knows as “Memberclicks” (and that’s in its politest form) into the IDEA website. But that’s not all–he also built the whole site from code line 0, with a ridiculous amount of speed, finesse and dedication.

As a community, we’re beyond lucky to have such a dedicated resource.  You don’t have to take my word for it–ask the IxDA, ASIS and just about anyone else with an idea or a need for assistance.  Thanks, Yoni. Thanks for all the help with IDEA, and thanks for being a friend.

Brad Simpson
Speaking of friends, from work to book-writing projects (Brad did my portion of the design prep for “A Project Guide to UX Design” and may be engaged again…) to the IDEA Conference, Brad has been there. When I first started working Brad a few years ago, I don’t think we liked each other very much.  Somewhere around 6 months in to the mix, we figured something out and there’s probably not a visual designer I’ve enjoyed working with more who has also had a great impact on my own work. He’s not “just a designer”; he’s thinker and wants to know the strategy and the story and then turns it all into something breathtaking.

Michael Leis
The man has a great ‘fro and a great ability to keep the ball rolling. Michael led the charge with sponsorships and marketing, and essentially became our primary copywriter.  We had more than double the amount of sponsorships from a dollars perspective and quite a few more than double from a numbers perspective based upon the previous year’s IDEA conference.  This was a huge success and we couldn’t have come close to touching it without Michael’s guidance, leadership and occasional “caw” noises.

Abby Covert
Abby’s a success story of the IAI’s Mentoring Program.  We began the program perhaps a year ago and when I had the opportunity to hire someone, I pinged her and was lucky enough to do so at just the right time in her life. Beyond that, she was a fantastic asset to our IDEA team, helping to keep things coordinated, picking up tasks along the way that needed an owner, and frankly, just helping to save me from a pile of daunting tasks.  And if you think this is all just me being kind to her, ask around. And look and see who’s the Producer for the IA Summit in 2010.  Abby’s great–and you’re going to see a lot more of her.

Will Evans
In 2008, Will took a couple of pot shots at the IDEA Conference.  In 2009, I called him on it. He manned-up and became part of the solution.  Will was great for helping us IA the IDEA website and in helping me gut-check my feelings on some of my speaker selections. Sure, he can’t manage a passport, but he was a huge asset to IDEA and a welcome addition to the Information Architecture Institute’s board of directors.

Mario Bourque
Our man on the ground in Toronto, Mario helped us find our hotel, checked out the MaRS space for us, and kept things moving on so many different levels. The man is the king of the set-up and tear-down, managing all things on the ground and had a perfect address for us to ship everything to. Sure, that seems odd, but let me tell you what a pain it would have been without that, and without his willingness to be the packhorse and keep all things together for us locally.  Glad to have Mario as a friend and as a key part of IDEA.

Denise Phillipsen
Denise jumped in and helped us in creating some great interview questions for our speakers and manned our table at the conference like a champ.  From time to time, we even saw her acting as nanny!

Dennis Schleicher
Thanks to Dennis and UX Sears, we had a last minute sponsor that has a great interest in supporting the UX Community! Not only should you want to work with Dennis and have him put you through thinking exercises, but you also want to have Dennis on your side to do recon and support.  Dennis was, and is, awesome, and it was great to have him as a part of the conference–and to see him on stage with Matthew Milan during “Innovation Parkour”.

Austin Govella
Austin was behind the scenes humor and coordination, also helping with our speaker interview questions.  He seemed to pop up like a paintball assassin–spraying us with wisdom and humor and then disappearing back into the mist.  Probably working on some Pimpformation Architect stuff…

Greg Corrin
Greg worked with me to create interview question for our speakers, and these ended up getting published on Boxes & Arrows.  He did some great research and helped us to put some intelligent questions in front of the speakers.

Todd Zaki Warfel
Todd was instrumental in helping us locate some key speakers and helped in keeping me sane around some of my ideas for speakers. He was a great asset behind the scenes.  A guy like Todd knows conferences (he’s doing a lot of great work for Interaction 10) and has created enough workshops to be a great adviser.

Cindy Chastain
Cindy and I played tag for weeks, if not months, trying to work out some great storytelling speakers. Unfortunately, timing never seemed quite right or there were too many hurdles in the way that prevented us from ever landing one of her connections–but her willingness to help and the value of her connections were invaluable to me.

Melissa Weaver
Oh, Melissa. So often overlooked behind the scenes of the IAI and IDEA Conferences. Nearly anyone who has ever touched anything IAI-related knows of Melissa, but they don’t know how much she manages behind the scenes, and I doubt we’d be able to pull much off successfully without her.

Noreen Whysel
Noreen, like Melissa, is always doing something behind the scenes to keep things moving along smoothly. From timely updates to the IA Institute website to gentle reminders of things that need to get done (and that most likely would have been overlooked). The IA Institute and IDEA are lucky to have Noreen & Melissa!

The Information Architecture Institute Board of Directors
Everyone on the board was continually supportive and seemed to be pretty impressed with the event as I was giving status reports–none of this is or was easy, folks, and they were always positive, even in light of the downturn economy.  Andrew Hinton stepped-up and worked the IAI table at the conference and everyone was always willing to lend a hand. Great group of people to be associated with, for certain. Christian Crumlish & Livia Labate stepped-up and helped to make sure the payments were in place for the swag and the space and a/v that we needed, and they did so very timely.

The USB Party Crowd
At the very last minute, Livia Labate came through with the USB drives that we needed from Comcast Interactive as a sponsor, which helped us keep the conference affordably green.  Unfortunately, that didn’t give us tons of time to get everything together, so on Sunday evening before the conference, there were whole bunch of people smashed into my hotel room creating an assembly line production that mass-copied files on to 250 USB drives, capped them and placed them back into their handy little boxes.

In about an hour.

Amazing what you can do when you get that many IAs/UXers in a room at the same time and everyone just wants to help achieve a goal (and part of that goal, I might add, was to “get back to drinking”, but any motivation was good motivation!). Hopefully I won’t forget anyone, and those people, in no particular order were:

Gabby Hon
Joan Vermette
Andrew Hinton
Jen Bohmbach
Yoni
Mick Carvin
Jenn Carvin
Christina Wodtke
Livia Labate
Erin Malone
Gene Smith
Chris Palle
Abby Covert
Michael Leis

I’d be remiss if I didn’t make mention of Jorge Arango who politely provided encouragement during some down times of the conference–Jorge was the chair for 2008’s very successful conference in Chicago, and much of what I learned for 2009 came from working with him.

Of course, I’m certain I missed someone–I’m not trying to overlook the speakers nor the sponsors in this post; this post is about the people who put in so much effort and personal time to help our community, the IDEA Conference and the Information Architecture Institute.

And I’m truly grateful.

*I’m really hoping I didn’t miss anyone, and I’m truly sorry if I did. Please email, IM or send me a DM if I inadvertently left you, or someone else, off the list.

Solving the “Repeat Email Address” Form Issue. Maybe.

One of the mailing lists that I’m on had a question posed today about using “Repeat Email Address” in form validation.

I actually cringed as I typed that just now–that particular part of form validation is pretty annoying (to me, at least). I find it amusing that shift-tab, copy, tab, paste as a method for handling doesn’t cross anyone’s mind when creating these types of “validations” in forms.

There were a number of responses to the thread, but Steve Krug (yeah, that Steve Krug) put out the notion that he suspects most of the email address typos may originate in hasty typing, and they end up getting submitted because the user doesn’t realize that they’ve made a mistake.  Krug identifies that it’s possible, from his perspective, that the font used in many forms is fairly small and that makes it so that errors don’t actually jump out at the users.

Krug also suggested that it may be possible to help users catch the errors by displaying the email address in larger, clear monospaced font–possibly next to the or below the field where the typing occurs.

This stuck with me, but I wasn’t quite sold.

I pinged my friend Jonathan “Yoni” Knoll to see if he’d loan me about 15 minutes of his time to prototype something.  Lucky me, he had just that much time to spare.

We (and by we, I mean Yoni) put together a really quick prototype form–it’s important to note that we didn’t put much more than 15-20 minutes into this, and this is only to see how the form “feels”.  It can grow a number of different ways, styles and placements of elements can certainly be shifted around to your heart’s content.

The form looks pretty, uh, form-y:

Note at the bottom of the form the tiny little text letting you know that you should check your email address. In reality, I’m pretty sure most of us wouldn’t read it.

Also note that there was no “Repeat Email Address” text field in the form.

Instead, once you fill out your email address and tab away from it…

Notice that now my email address appears right before the Submit button.  Krug initially suggested that the re-display of the email address might work best in a larger font next to the field where you entered in your email address.

The way this placement works now, in the prototype version that Yoni and I worked-up, the last thing you see before you submit is your own email address.  I think this works particularly well in longer forms–it gives you the opportunity to re-check the most important piece of information in the form (to marketers, at least) right before you hit submit.  The little “edit” link jumps you back to the field where you can make edits quickly and continue on with the submit action.

See this live in action here: http://infinityplusone.com/form-test.html

Remember: this is a prototype.  One of the reasons that the edit link is to the left of the email address is because, after a couple attempts at placing it, this made the most sense to Yoni since email addresses are variable and that could cause the placement of the link to not always be in the exact same place.  Your mileage may vary; something may work better for you.

The important piece of this prototype is seeing how it works in action, and how it potentially solves for having the “Repeat Email Address” field in your forms.

Tinker with it–and let us know what you think!

A Letter to my Lover Netflix

Dear Netflix,

I like you–a lot. The service you provide is pretty simple in concept, and it’s great–to a degree. I no longer walk through the video store and get distracted by all the extra stuff that’s be offered up, especially now that I have kids. That’s pretty great.

Maybe.

I miss taking a look at the video library in the store and the New Release Wall that generally surrounds the store.  I miss seeing the goofy employee picks and the random surprise flick I would have never found otherwise.

I don’t miss the realization on a Friday night that the new movies came out on Tuesday and I have to choose something else because all of the hottest pick is out.

Wait–there’s something else I miss:

I miss being able to EASILY FIND THE NEWEST RELEASES!

Really. Quite a bit, actually.

I Can’t Keep My Eyes on YOU, Netflix

Netflix, I get it.  I get that you make more money if I check out movies from your massive library. I get that you sometimes throttle your approach to certain customers depending upon how many movies they view in a month and sometimes I don’t get my primary picks because of that.  I get that you have to make some money. In fact, I’m cool with that, especially in these economic times when we’re all looking at the extras we can afford to do without.

But, see, here’s the thing.  I don’t like that, as of right now, the best way that I have found to track down new and upcoming releases is to open another tab in Firefox, browse to Amazon.com’s DVD section, click on “New and Upcoming Releases” and then browse through all of their lists and then tab over to your website and manually search for those titles that I’m interested in.

What a serious pain in my backside.

Yet, I do it to prevent me from making the obligatory trip to one of the few remaining dingy and dank video stores in my suburban area. Of course, there’s competition for those fun stores, too, now that Red Box has been littering the Chicago suburbs with their $1-a-night, uh, red boxes (and yes, they have a downside, too, as they are either located outside of a well-trafficked retail outlet, or even worse, on the inside).

Interesting, right?  I mean, here’s the simple summary for you, Netflix:

• I supplement my 3 Netflix DVDs at a time per month from you with Red Box—and probably to the tune of an extra $5 – $10 a month.
• I search for the movies that I’ll “rent” from the Netflix at a website that is probably going to be a competitor of yours (which for me might require the ability of getting my stuff out of the cloud as an option)
• I frequently end up making purchases from the other website while I’m browsing for New & Upcoming releases to check-out from Netflix
• I pay Netflix $15ish a month
• I feel that your browse-ability is painful, incomplete and manipulating me away toward the titles that I want–and instead toward titles YOU want me to watch. A healthy relationship involves a compromise that gives us what we both want, right?

Wow.

That has to sting just a little bit, right? I’m spending a lot of money getting some action in other places because you won’t put out content in a way that makes my life easier.

Doing A Lot of Things Right

Let’s face it, Netflix, you’ve got the mechanics down! Your automated centers with 250ish employees–including the stealth one in Carol Stream by my house–are awesome.  The people that work for you enjoy some great benefits–as seen in your HR presentation–and we could all learn from that.  I, along with so many others, no longer pay late fees, or make the 11:59pm dash to return a movie, and that’s pretty cool, too.

I think you’re doing great job with all of that.  It’s impressive; you’ve forced a lot of evolution in your industry, and I’d be lying if I said that I haven’t taken advantage of streaming online movies and TV shows on one monitor while I’m cranking away on some wonderful User Experience for clients, community and conferences.  Between that and the spiffy little Roku box I bought last year to bring us closer together, it’s made me rethink my relationship with my cable company on more than one occasion, I cannot deny.

…With Room For Improvement

Here’s the thing: I don’t think you’re doing quite enough.  You’re losing out on a huge opportunity to go from “just dating” me to becoming “totally engaged” to me.

And I’d be a bad friend if I didn’t come to you with a way that would help you surprise and delight me.  In fact, you might even say that I’m trying to get you to make the proposal–with a proposal of my own.

Here we go.

The movie industry spends bajillions of dollars advertising their new movies that are released every single weekend.  This sends droves of folks into theaters to view them–from the artsy talk-alongs to the big budget smashes with more special effects than dialog.

That’s also a bit of a risk for them, but I see an opportunity for you.  At least in my naive eyes as a consumer in this whole scheme.  Hey, the movie companies are spending some big bucks, and there’s no reason that you can capitalize on their ability to generate massive awareness, right?

Right.

But let me be clear about something before I tell you what I’m suggesting next–I hate SPAM and time-wasting emails.  I don’t want to feel like I’m being sold something—I’m already sold.  We’re good together.  I want us to be better, but I don’t want to feel like I’m always being asked to give more (without a really compelling reason, of course). I’ve quite a bit already, really.

Room for Improvement

You and me, Netflix, we’re friends—heck we’re more than friends—and I think you understand I’d like to make that relationship better, so as long as you can keep the SPAM bit in mind, I’d be willing to hear from you more.  No, wait.  I want you to do that–I would like for you to send me some really pertinent, timely information about movie selections.

So, how about this:

Every Sunday or Monday, you send me an email that tells me all the cool stuff that hit the movie theaters this past weekend?  Better yet–maybe even wrap in some sales figures so I can see who was top in the box office to help me make some decisions.  See, I’m a parent with two kids under 6, and going to the movies is a pretty rare treat for me.  In fact, most of my movie-watching time happens after the two lights of my life have but shut off for the evening.  And then, you’ve got to compete with my DVR-watching time.  Just saying.

So, I’m asking you to let me set my selections–and forget about them–without even having to remember to visit netflix.com to update my ever-dwindling queue.  Send me that email and base it upon movies that were just released, if not all of the movies playing in theaters RIGHT NOW so I can get to watch them in 3-6 months when they’re finally out on video and I don’t have to worry about it.

Or, I can keep on searching over there at Amazon, which almost always ends up in some sort of a purchase from them. There’s no reason that couldn’t be your money, right?  I’d love to give it to you, if there was a compelling enough reason. But, you know, right now there isn’t anything very compelling to upsell me in to. Oh, and Amazon also pumps content to that Roku box now, and I initially bought that so you and I could be closer.  Oh, and I’d certainly prefer not to go to the Red Box and see that the New Release movie I wasn’t aware of nor able to easily find on your site is available there.  I’d much rather we were in an exclusive relationship, you know?

Oh, and while you’re at it, you’re in the movie business. You really should surprise and delight me sometime by just sending along a cool bag of microwave popcorn or something to celebrate my continued commitment to you. Again, just saying.

I’ll summarize this for you Netflix, because you should be able to scan this blog post and get what I’m talking about:

• You send me an email that tells me about the new releases in the theaters so I can add them to my queue while they’re hot and on my mind.  I won’t have to wander around online or in the real world to other places to find these titles. I’ll rest comfortably that you’ll take care of me. (of course, there are some logistics to working out the interactions of managing what items go where in my queue, but you’re smart, you’ll figure it out–or hey, I can help you with that, too!)
• You gain some insights into the amount of new releases you’ll need to purchase to meet demand based upon figures that you get MONTHS in advance. We all like predictive maths, don’t we?
• Speaking of that queue, I might even pay you a premium to ensure I get those new releases the SAME WEEK when they come out! Oooh, money-making opportunity by selling an exit pass to get on a ride more quickly! (this is borrowed from Six Flags & Disney)
• You’ll show me you appreciate me by throwing me a surprise every now and then. You may not be able to buy my loyalty, but you can still appreciate me by doing small things, and that may just keep me from noticing the next guy who saunters up wearing his Ed Hardy hipster outfit offering up some cool new video service, for a little while, at least. You should probably do something like that now while you don’t have to, instead of later when you’re fighting to keep me with you. (just a thought)
• You’ll go visit Zappos in Las Vegas. Take the tour. Grab a copy of The Culture Book. Meet everyone and fully understand why they all are customer service people–many of whom have talents in other areas. Find out why going the extra mile is a part of THEIR culture and make a part of yours. Understand why your opaqueness could be a detriment whereas their opacity seems to serve as a huge beneift. There might just be an opportunity there for you.  Sure, sure, I just got back from Zappos and I’m under their magic spell–but they do a lot more right than wrong and they’ve got themselves positioned to do some pretty amazing things. You should be amazing-er, too.

Bring the Ring

I don’t think I’m throwing any deep science on you.  This is just simple stuff, and it’ll make me happier in our relationship. It’ll make me not think about the monthly fee that I pay you every month whenever I visit  Amazon and browse through their new and upcoming releases.  You should have my eyes on you during that time–or at the least, keep my eyes from wandering over there and checking out what they’re willing to show me.

We’ve been dating a long time, Netflix.

I’m ready to be engaged.

Love,

Russ

Where’s Russ? – Fall 2009

Things… have been busy. Busy is good! Busy is often exciting, too!

That said, I’ve got a few places I’ll be this fall, and if you happen to be in these areas, it’d be great to see you.

Agile 2009 – Chicago, IL – August 24 – 28, Hyatt Regency

Todd Zaki Warfel and I will be presenting on “Guerilla Research Methods” on the User Experience Stage at the Agile 2009 Conference. More to come on this topic as discussions continue…

This hands-on session will cover a number of low cost, yet powerful research methods, like the “burrito lunch”, “crowdsourcing” and “hitting the streets” to help you make better data-driven design decisions. We’ll provide a number of techniques for recruiting research participants, creating better research questions, and what to do with your data once you’ve conducted your research.

ad:tech Chicago – September 1-2, Navy Pier

I won’t be presenting at this year’s ad:tech Chicago, but I will be attending to support my employer, Draftfcb, and the bright minds that we have speaking there this year.

• Kim Luegers will be speaking on:
  MobileMix: Mobile is Here—Integrating Mobile Marketing and Advertising in Today’s Economic Climate
• Chris Miller will be a part of an interesting workshop that is sure to get a few people talking:
  MasterClass Workshop: The Modern Agency
  (I’m guessing there won’t be any old fashioneds in this, but you can bet I’ll be there!)
• Akash Pathak will be on the panel:
  Social Media Industry Forum
  I’ve had the good fortune to work with Akash on a few accounts and internal projects that have been pretty high profile and very successful. His insights and strategic view will make this panel one to be at!

Private Event – Las Vegas, Nevada – September 3rd

I’ll be jumping on a jet plane to fun-filled Las Vegas for an overnight trip.  I’ll be speaking on UX processes, among other things. It would be great to catch up with any UX folks in the Vegas area prior to starting off a long holiday weekend.

IDEA Conference 2009

As the Director of Events and Marketing for the Information Architecture Institute, I am the chair of this fantastic conference this year. The theme is “Social Experience Design” and we’ve got presenters from a variety of backgrounds–from small business to experts in virtual worlds to product managers and more. On top of it all, we’ve got great sponsors who not only get the space, but get this community and are proud to be a part of this event.  Putting together this conference has been no small task, and I certainly haven’t done it alone–nor could I have done any of this without the heavy lifting support I’ve gotten from Michael Leis, Brad Simpson, Jonathan “Yoni” Knoll, Will Evans, Mario Bourque, Abby Covert, Denise Phillipsen, Austin Govella, Dennis Schleicher, Jr., Greg Corrin and the IAI’s own Melissa Weaver.

Great people helping to make a great event even better. Thanks!

It’s a busy time of year–I’m excited at all the things coming up, and every bit as excited to see what’s coming next.

IDEA 2009 – Social and Experience Design in Toronto, September 15-16

As Director of Events and Marketing for the Information Architecture Institute, I’ve been more than a little busy diligently working with a fantastic team of people to put together this year’s IDEA Conference, which will be held at the MaRS Centre in Toronto.

Everyone–and I do mean everyone–on this team of exceptional individuals–has been burning the midnight oil to bring you an outstanding program at a gorgeous facility.  Oh, and at a price that is reasonable given our economic climate.  I am more than a little proud of this conference, and I really hope you’ll join us!

IDEA 2009 runs September 15 and 16 in Toronto where the world’s foremost thinkers and practitioners will share big ideas that inspire and practical solutions that improve the way people’s lives converge with technology.

Whether you’re a designer, strategist, writer, UX professional, IA, or working in anything interactive, you should attend IDEA 2009.

Create the future now

You see it at Starbucks. People gather, but they don’t talk with each other. They communicate with their networked public. Facebook could be considered the fourth largest country in the world, yet it’s dwarfed by the over 300 million Chinese who use Qzone.

IDEA 2009 explores how to design these experiences. From the psychology to create more loyal users, to the design strategies and practices that bridge the physical and virtual world. This new world is already becoming a reality for your clients, employers, and customers.

Speakers you need to see

Social and experience design isn’t your typical design issue. IDEA gathers leaders from a multitude of disciplines and perspectives to provide inspiration and practical take-aways on creating valuable experiences. Some of the speakers include:

• Jeff Dachis – CEO, Dachis Group, cofounder of Razorfish
• Christina Wodtke – Principal Instigator at LinkedIn
• Mary Newsom – Associate Editor, Charlotte Observer
• Michael Fassnacht – Executive Vice President, Worldwide Chief Strategy Officer, Draftfcb
• Christian Crumlish- Curator, Yahoo! Design Pattern Library (and co-author of the forthcoming Designing Social Interfaces)
• Luke Wroblewski – Director, Product Ideation & Design, Yahoo! Inc.
• Stephen P. Anderson – Product Strategy and Design Consultant
• Leisa Reichelt – Design Researcher & User Experience Designer working with Drupal’s open source community on Drupal 7
• Thomas Malaby – Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
• Erin Malone – Principal, Tangible UX (and co-author of the forthcoming Designing Social Interfaces)

Beyond the speakers, many of today’s brightest minds will attend and share what they know. In the intimate setting of the MaRS Centre, you’ll have the opportunity to exchange ideas and connect with leading practitioners from all over the world.

Built for today’s economy

IDEA presents the greatest combination of accessible industry leaders, valuable topics, and companies looking for professionals in the social and experience design space. You can talk directly to representatives from Critical Mass, Mad*Pow, Sapient, Usability Matters, Rosenfeld Media, and more.

All the information you need to know about the program, speakers, and sponsors can be found at the IDEA 2009 conference site. Hope to see you there!

Peachpit Interview Transcript – A Project Guide to UX Design with Russ Unger

Peachpit did a podcast interview with Carolyn Chandler and myself a couple of weeks ago, and I was fortunate enough to be able to transcribe my parts it. Below are my answers to the questions that were asked of us.

You can also listen to this online, or download a copy of the interview from Peachpit Author Talk.

What is user experience design?
In the book we define it broadly as “The creation and synchronization of the elements that affect users’ experience with a particular company (or product), with the intent of influencing their perceptions and behavior”.

That’s true–but I think that most people today tend to focus on the more digital aspects of user experience design; websites, software applications. But really, it gets down to considering all the pieces of the whole. That includes business goals and objectives, user expectations, desires and needs–oh, and what can be done within technical, time and budget constraints. All of this wrapped in the context in which the users would be interacting with it.

That’s not to say that we’re making trade-offs, per se, but that there’s rarely an environment without some degree of friction that presents you from doing what you’d do in a “perfect world”. It’s not just boxes and arrows, mind you. There’s a lot of thinking in the work that user experience designers do.

It’s almost never a perfect situation, but then again, that’s what makes it interesting!

What are some of the problems that arise when considering UX design? What challenges might other team members present?
The biggest problem that I see is when aspects of UX design aren’t considered necessary. In many cases, clients want an “expert on user experience design” to make all the decisions for them, and when they don’t agree with the proposed solutions, they sometimes may strongly suggest that a design behave a certain way–against the advice of the UX Designer. Good UX Designers know what opinions are like, so they’ll recommend that designs should be tested with users–and that step may get overlooked, resulting in a design that is either ill- or uninformed.

As far as other team members, the most frequent challenge that I’ve seen and hear of is lack of collaboration. User experience design doesn’t end when a designer is handed a wireframe, a developer is handed a functional spec and design files–it evolves. User experience designers know this, and they need to be engaged throughout the rest of the phases of the project–we’re flexible and we’re working toward the best end result, not laying down the law in document format. Collaboration helps us improve the experience and presents opportunities for us all to continue to learn from each other.

Who do you think really “gets” user experience design? Who is doing it right?
At the risk of seeming like a fanboy, I’d say that Jesse James Garret and Jared Spool really “get it”. I’ve been fortunate enough to speak to both of them over the course of the past year or so, and if nothing else, they really help me understand how far I have to go.

Jesse and Jared both have spent a lot of time observing and sharing information outward–if not pushing it to us–to pay attention beyond what’s directly in front of us. If you’ve been fortunate enough to see presentations from either of them, not only will it blow your mind, but you’ll find your way of approaching problems a bit different. Jesse and Adaptive Path have put together some pretty fantastic, well-thought and forward-thinking prototypes of web browsers and medical products and Jared has shared the findings of years of research to help us understand “real” behaviors, and the real value of research in the user experience design process.

For good measure, I have to throw in Stephen Anderson, who has given some pretty fantastic presentations around the influence and persuasion of design. He’s also a speaker at the IDEA Conference in Toronto in September this year.

You know who else? Dr. Temple Grandin. She’s written a few books that deal with her experience with Autism, but also how she puts into practice her visual thinking in order to be able to “test run” anything she’s designed. She has a great ability to put empathy into practice, and that’s something user experience designers should all strive to emulate.

Finally, Paul Arden, author of “It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be“–it’s a quick and easy read and has so many tenants that are so simple and that just sort of smack you upside the head.

What is one of the most common errors people make when designing for user experience?
There are a couple of things here–for me, when I first started out, I spent a lot more time opening a tool and getting started and then revising the heck out of the product. Now, I’m notorious for walking around with pencils and paper–I sketch everything, several times, prior to even opening up a digital tool and getting to work. And, even then, I find that I make enhancements from my sketching when I’m transferring to digital.

I also think that we tend to forget that our work isn’t about US, but it’s about the work–that is, we should not be taking offense at criticism, but taking feedback that drives us to better designs for our users. I’ve been saying it a bit more lately, and Peter Merholz mentioned it a few years back: The crit–being very critical of our designs, beating them up, taking no prisoners and attacking them, these are the things that will make our designs better in the end. We also get to be the gatekeepers of what we do with the critiques, but there’s a lot of value in even the most negative of comments. We’ve got to be able to face those head-on, and get to the point to where we request, if not require, the feedback prior to putting anything in front of a user or a client.

What advice would you offer others who are just beginning to tackle user experience design?
I believe that all user experience designers are “rotten with imperfection”–every time we get something we lust for, we choose something else to want. User experience design is similar; it does NOT end–once you’ve turned over a great finished product… well, it’s not finished. It’s time to evaluate, update and repeat, because users are pretty “rotten with imperfection”, themselves.

Embrace the rotten-ness. Don’t look forward to the end of a project, look forward to the next opportunity to improve.

Tackle the things you’ve not done before–Robert Hoekman, Jr. asked me what I think “we” are, and I said, “adaptable”. User experience designers need to be just that–it’s a young field. There’s always going to be something you’ve not tried before. Dive in. Fail, fail well, and hopefully fail in the right direction, but don’t stop asking questions and don’t stop learning from your mistakes.

Oh, and get involved in the user experience design community–the Information Architecture Institute, Interaction Design Association, UX Net, Usability Professionals Association and a whole slew of UX Book Clubs are all great organization and are all continually looking for volunteers to support their efforts. Volunteering is a great way to get experience and work with some of the top minds in the field. I can assure you I wouldn’t be where I am today without them, and I doubt I would have found my way to writing a book without being involved.

###

Video Interview at SXSW with Russ Unger

Wow.

Feels so very vain to type that.

But, if you’re interested in seeing my ugly mug and listening to me talk about the book, “A Project Guide to UX Design” that I co-authored with Carolyn Chandler, please, check out the video!

Click here to see the video interview.

Feel free to lob tomatoes at your monitor as you deem necessary.

Chicago Interactive Design & Development Group – May 19, 2009

May 19, 2009, Carolyn Chandler (my co-author for A Project Guide to UX Design) presented at the Chicago Interactive Design & Development Group’s monthly meet-up. We presented our joint presentation (which is really Carolyn’s that we worked me in to), “Learning to Love Tension, Disruption & Chaos” that we had presented a couple of weeks ago at the Voices That Matter Web Design Conference in San Francisco.

It’s amazing what a difference 2 weeks can make! It’s also pretty amazing that we each only knew 1 person in the room–quite a few people less than we knew in San Francisco, and Chicago’s our home town! Not only that, I think we both were recovering from being a bit rattled from our presentation in San Francisco.

To be honest, the room was a bit flat–and that’s not to blame anyone, but it was a room with people in the web design space, on the last day of a conference and 2 fairly unknown authors.

Right after the always entertaining Jared Spool, too.

Hey, Jared’s one of those wicked-awesome, keynote-giving type of guys.

Hey, I’ve been hitting the stage and giving a handful of presentations this year and Jared’s been doing this for… let’s just say a bit more than I have. But, you know, sometimes the room can make a lot of difference.

That’s not to say we fell flat on our faces–there were some pretty good questions at VTM, but it felt dry. Regardless, I felt much better about my own abilities as a speaker (and a few people have been twittering my talk from the IA Summit on Heuristic Analysis for the Pitch Process in a positive light and that’s been a welcome boost to my own morale). Back to the local Meetup…

The room was pretty packed–it looked like around 50-60 people showed up, counting the late stragglers. We gave our presentations, felt the room was a bit more alive–and it was pretty nice to be in a room where everyone wasn’t staring down at a laptop. We also had some really great questions and genuinely interested people.

My portion of our discussion was on disruption, and Steve Portigal has been kind enough to work through this discussion. He provided some pretty good insights around how to re-frame problems, and that really helped me provide anecdotes that help others understand the value of disruption. Disruption can be something as simple as performing design testing with users, forcing very critical internal design reviews of your own work, or even getting your butt out of your chair and experiencing the environments where your end result will live (I give some examples using AMC’s touch screen kiosk and shower knobs that tend to paint the picture pretty clearly). We shouldn’t be afraid of someone knocking us off course–we should embrace it! We should be heading it off at the pass and encouraging it early on so we can get knocked out of our comfort zone and force us to be a bit more creative in the way we design. Disruption can be your friend.

Carolyn did a great job of talking about Chaos and Tension and how to work with them within the design process–there were some great questions around how to reign in chaos and how to wrestle with the tension to keep it balanced.

This group was outstanding–and it’s important to note that it’s been around for quite awhile. Judi Wunderlich, of Wunderland Group, has been setting up the local meetups. I’ve yet to be able to attend, and I can tell you that it’s been entirely my loss. The large group was attentive, interested and engaged and it was absolutely my pleasure and privilege to be asked to present to such an awesome audience.

Without Judi’s efforts, I’m not certain we’d have this type of meetup, and it’s important to recognize how lucky we are to have her support in our interactive community. Thanks, Judi!

This is been a rare local appearance–I’m really happy that I was able to take part, and look forward to getting more locally engaged. Support your local scene–they’re support is pretty fantastic!

If the User Can’t Find the Error Message, It Doesn’t Exist

Alternate Title: If a user can’t understand your message in 6.5 seconds, you’ve failed. If a user can’t understand an error message in 6.5 seconds, you’ve failed a lot worse.

The past weekend, I took my family to the local mega-movieplex to take in the latest in animated 3D family fun.

It’s rather established that I’m a bit of a geek–I love the interactive world, and frankly, if it wasn’t for the visual stimulation of seeing many products combined together, I probably would do all of my shopping online from the comfort of my home office.

This is serious.

I once purchased tickets to a movie in a remote location in Iowa.  From my iPhone.  While driving.

Because I could.

And, I twittered the experience, too.

Look, I might have a problem.

In preparation for the family outing, I did the usual routine (for me):

• Visit movie theater listing website
• Find earliest times that coincide with the 1-old’s nap time (experience tells me this is the best possible option for movies)
• Find the “purchase online” option (we’ve got 2 kids; the aforementioned 1-year old and a 5-year old–Avery & Sydney, respectively, if you were interested. They’re pretty adorable, but they also tend to be the single greatest factor in tardiness for our family)

The Experience
This particular Saturday was not much different–we were running late.  I was holding the baby bag and the hand of Sydney while my wife was carrying Avery as we scuttled (while looking left-right-left at every roadway) into the theater.  As per usual, I spotted the ticket dispensing kiosk and made a bee line to it, along with a handful of other adults.

I saw the AMC kiosk touch screen above and quickly tapped into it.  I found our movie and swiped my credit card–even though it didn’t ask me to do the latter.  It’s pretty infrequent that we go to movies as a family (the kids’ movies only come out so often), but in general, the pattern is pretty easy to figure out.

Nothing happened.

I looked around me, and sure enough, the whizz-click-whirr of the other kiosks seemed to be coupled with the adults fishing around for tickets and receipts in the slots below the kiosks.

It was a pretty big “WTF” moment for me.

Naturally, I tried again.

I failed.  Again.

Oh, and I’m no quitter, mind you.

I tried again.

More failure.  Not quite EPIC, but it was failure.

I looked over to see a pretty impatient family, and my frustration intensified.  I started to go through the process again, but reminded myself that I work in the “(User) Experience Design” field, and that if something wasn’t right, surely I’d find a way to let the frustrated father know what was wrong.

I started over.  Clean slate.

I looked at the screen above, and nothing stood out to me.  it was damn near maddening, to be honest.

Deep breath, Russ.  Deep breath.  The movie will still be there.

“Please touch screen to begin.”

[Logo / Branding]

[Some text that is probably promotional; it's small, not relevant]

The Sidebar with Historical Relevance (Maybe)
Then I remembered this quiz that a teacher gave me in 5th grade, I think.  The teacher passed out full sheets of paper. Two-sided, in fact.  The paper had a series of questions, the first of which was to “Read all the instructions before taking the quiz.”

Remember this quiz?

The last item, on the back side, at the bottom read something like this:

“Don’t answer anything in this quiz; do not mark up your paper. Please return it to the teacher.”

I remember doing a lot of erasing.

I also remember the teacher explaining that it was an exercise in reading instructions, which, apparently, 5th graders aren’t very good at.

Apparently, neither is a 39-year old father of two trying desperately to get into Monsters vs. Aliens 3D before the seats are all filled-up and the previews have started.

But, really, is that my fault?  Is it AMC Entertainment’s fault?

Somewhere along the line, it’s a healthy combination of both.

The Hidden Message (and Not-So-Hidden Meaning)

The message at the bottom of the screen reads:

“You may only browse the current schedule at this kiosk.
The printer ticket cutter experienced an error”

To be honest, the identification of the “printer ticket cutter” error is fairly impressive.  Heck, I didn’t need to know that much, but it was good to be so well-informed, and the notion of that error message alone kind of makes me think that someone was trying to make me understand that there was a hardware failure and it wasn’t the “stupid kiosk”, but the connected peripheral instead.

However…

The placement of the status of the machine and the error message are what caused my repeated failures.

I couldn’t see them.

I couldn’t find them in the 6.5 seconds–or less–that I actually paid attention to the screen.  And it was a lot less than 6.5 seconds, to be honest with you–as I mentioned, I’ve had some experience with these kiosks.

The failure occurred because the placement of the message was in the last possible place that I would think to look.  An error that prevents a device from functioning as expected needs to be displayed in a way that makes you understand that the core utility is unavailable.

This kiosk was a “browse only” kiosk.  It certainly wasn’t going to make AMC any money on this day–so why keep a very similar display available?

Instead, why not change the view to make people aware that this particular kiosk is out of commission?  Why not highlight–perhaps in different messaging or a different screen altogether that makes the “broken” kiosk stand out in some fashion?

A kiosk that appears different than all the others can be quickly scanned–and avoided–leaving the adult (me) not feeling like they’ve just wasted 5-10 minutes of a fidgety, anxious family.  Not only that, it prevents us from losing a spot in line and helps us to inform other victims/parents quickly.

What to do, what to do?

There’s a really simple solve for this–and I’m sure that mine is not the only one, but here goes.  Change the main screen–in fact, make sure people know that the kiosk is unable to do anything transactional.  Movie times are already posted everywhere; there’s no need for a person to browse through this kiosk, and it’s not going to make anyone any money until it’s fixed.  It only has potential to add frustration to a scenario that is generally perceived as an escape (hey, suspension of disbelief is a great way to get away from reality!), and that’s something that should be avoided.

Let’s change this screen–in a big way.  Instead of the standard “White on Red”, let’s consider reversing that.  Instead of the big logo and instructions, perhaps we should instead say:

“Currently Unavailable
Use other kiosk for ticket purchases.

We’re truly sorry for the inconvenience. Please use one of the other kiosks until we are able to fix the problem.”

That’s pretty simple.  Pretty easy to see, assuming a large enough font.  The obvious inverted color display should be enough to help inform users that something’s different, draw them in for a quick moment to understand what’s wrong and move on.

Without wasting any time standing in the wrong line or tap, tap, tapping the screen of a kiosk that cannot provide them any useful benefit–such as the tickets that they’d purchased online hours ago (and also paid a surcharge for–for the convenience).

So What?
It’s easy to forget that there’s a bigger experience than the screen we’re building or the moment that we think people are in.  A focus group wouldn’t uncover the frustration that I felt (or at least I doubt it would), so it’s important for designers to understand the environments that people are using whatever it is that they’re building.

As a father with kids, I doubt I’m a corner case.  I’m sure that I’m not nearly as popular as the tweens-through-teens and “date nighters” that are out there, but mine is a very reasonable segment.  When there is an additional cost to purchase the item for “convenience”, we damn well better make sure that we’re building something that is, after all, convenient.

Look at your user segments and your personas.  Talk to those people–either dive into your research and get a deeper understanding of their lifestyle or pick up the phone and call someone that you know who fits the mold.  In my case, I know a lot of parents who can never meet an arrival time, no matter how hard they try.  It’s probably a reason why no one shows up at 3p for a child’s birthday party.

That said, parents are the only ones who will get frustrated.  Anyone who is unable to locate your error message AND understand it is a likely candidate to become added customer service expense.  Every time something “self serve” is introduced, it really means “let us spend less on customer service by empowering the users”, or something a little less marketing-y than that.

The problem with that is basic. If you fail on an experience that does not require engagement with a human, it increases your engagement with humans and/or has the potential to subtract from your ability to sell.

Keep it findable. Keep it simple.

(There’s another lengthy blog post in here about how automated devices can lead to lower call center costs which can, in return, take away from operational costs, but that’s something else entirely.)