And We Go Marching On

As my last full time day at Happy Cog winds down, I am now available for work–project-based, workshop-based or even the right full-time opportunity–this is a pretty exciting time!

About a month ago, I made a decision to change my course: I resigned as a User Experience Director for Happy Cog West (San Francisco / Austin). The same “it was a difficult decision” standard rule applies here, as it does for any other person who leaves an employer that they’ve enjoyed working with.

I mean, I had the chance to work for Happy Cog, and that’s one of those dreams a lot of young geeks go to bed dreaming about.

I’ve worked with some of the caped crusaders of the Web, World Wide. Some of these folks you have seen or heard them online, you have read their books and their blogs and some of them you may have seen on bio pages. People like Drew Warkentin, a dangerous unicorn who is storming his way through the UX world, bringing a design and development strength with him that is rare to find, and I have been so lucky to spend the better part of the last year working closely with him. Stephen Caver who, despite his fondness for blazers with elbow patches (and to be fair, so do I) and a penchant for designing and developing like, well, like it’s his job, but with a passion about it that makes you think it’s his passion, instead of his job. I’d be remiss to not mention the incredible development stylings of Messrs. Matt Clark and Ryan Irelan who make it all look easy.

The offices of Happy Cog–New York, Philadelphia and what was San Fransisco and now is Austin, were all incredibly welcoming folks. They were as brilliant as you already assume, great at their jobs, and focused on building great experiences. This has been a feather in my cap, and one I’ll wear proudly for quite some time. I will miss them and the daily animated .gif attacks in Campfire.

And I will keep the experiences with me as I move forward down my own path. Time to get going on that!

Lessons Learned While Leaping

Back in October, I submitted my resignation to Happy Cog, and I felt that there was a pretty wide open road ahead of me. I had been talking to The Start-up™ since early August, and the “right fit” had been determined by both sides. The final words on the funding was really all that was being waited for.

I was excited. I had found myself in an opportunity that would allow me to work on the User Experience, focus on some Product Management, and put to good use many different Guerrilla Research Methods. For awhile, this was a bit of a dream come true. I was kind of itching with excitement!

As you read this, keep in mind that this is not about getting sympathy or whistle-blowing; it’s the way some things pan out. Sometimes, that is for the best, and I’m okay with chasing this adventure in a different direction now.

Frankly, had it not been for this curve ball, I doubt I would be moving in the direction that I currently am, with the velocity that I am currently moving at. Naturally, time will tell.

Now, shame on me, I should have been a lot more skeptical when The Founder™ pulled a bit of a focus flake-out on me in August. Rather than answer some specific questions about company operations, there was a lot of silence that ended some time in October. During that period, I was contemplating starting off on my own and making a go of things; it’s not an uncommon approach, but since The Start-up™ had shown back up and had enticed me with such things as:

good news – 1% has become 0.01%. will have some paper work for you soon.

Followed by, a day later:

i thought I had sent the message below to you yesterday! now 0.01% uncertainty has turned to 0.0%.

very excited and will have some paper work to you on monday.

A start date was determined as November 15, 2011.

This was followed by some freebie requests, like reviewing job descriptions, checking out some office space layouts, and things like that. And, of course, filling out that paperwork–the application form and the background check.

Funny thing about background checks. When your references (who you dutifully let know reference checks are coming) say “Hey, when am I supposed to provide a reference for you?”, the Spider Sense™ starts to tingle a bit. But, when you’ve got a start date in place, it can feel a bit like a formality–and let’s face it, some places don’t actually dive too deep into those things anyway.

On November 3rd, I did a check-in; I didn’t have an offer letter in my hands at this point and I’d been really diligent about getting my part of the bargain taken care of in a very timely fashion. There were some hints at the August-September flake-out happening, but I like to pretend I’m a positive person. Frankly, I was checking-in because if this bird was not going to fly, I needed to start doing some networking of my own and drumming up some work.

Fortunately, I got a response:

I just talked with my partners about that – they have been out this week at a conference and will be getting back to me before noon tomorrow with the specifics I need to include.

Sorry for the delay.

“The delay.” The Spidey Sense™ is a little more finely tuned for things like this, so when the “Do you have time to chat this afternoon” email came through next, well, I knew it wasn’t going to be offering me lots of options in the company. In fact, it was something slightly different:

Here’s the output of the call I just had with my partners.

We assumed that we would have our new contract signed by the end of last week and that hasn’t happened. There’s no indication that it won’t happen very soon, but the Nov 15 date I provided earlier was with the understanding that we’d be under contract by Nov 1.

All that said, my partners are asking me to put off your hire date until we are under contract.

Are you in a position to take additional project work through the end of the month?

My start date was bumped to December 1. This was with 2 weeks notice and right before Thanksgiving, so the timing wasn’t ideal, but it would be manageable. I don’t think this type of news puts anyone into one of those chaotically happy spirals; it’s a let down. Not a heartbreaking moment, just a slight twinge and, well, given the previous flake-outs, it was a big, big warning sign, too.

How big? Not that big, actually! Within 20 minutes, I received another email:

Just talked with [redacted] – they believe we will have an execution ready contract early next week.

Just trying to make sure you know this isn’t going to drag out.

Whew.

No problem, no worries, no need to pound the pavement–but just in case, maybe post to LinkedIn and Facebook that I’m looking for some project work to fill the gap. I mean, if I landed something that was a couple of weeks longer, it wouldn’t be a big deal, in my opinion, to ask them to slide back the start date a bit.

I did send back a note:

I would say that the timing for all of this is not ideal; it essentially leaves me with about a week to pull things together.

I understand the position that you and your partners are in, and I appreciate that you’re being straight with me. That means a lot.

I’ll try to fill this gap with something, and I’ll keep you apprised of what turns up for me and will assume you will be doing the same.

Everyone was trying to get along, and really remove the stress of the situation. I felt I needed to share that this was not an ideal situation for me, and I didn’t need to be coarse about it. Supportive response was quickly following:

I appreciate your understanding and promise we are making every effort to move things along as fast as possible. I am ready to have you on board.

A few more emails were exchanged about office space design and layout. Pretty normal “we’re on our way!” type of stuff, to me.

Until the following Monday came around, as I was en route to the airport to fly out to a client.

Do you have some time to catch up on the phone today? I have a 2-3 pm but am otherwise flexible.

If only I had been born yesterday, this would not have phased me. However, this was a very loud cup rattling against my cage. This was not the Really Good Email™ I was hoping for. This was the phone call with…

Our investors are making some mandates. You need to take a 1/3 pay cut.

This, of course, ended up being exactly one week before my last day. This is not a reality situation for me; I could have accepted these conditions, but I would have been trading in a lot more for it. I could have accepted the situation and started has a full time person who was also spending his full time looking for something else, and that is not the type of scenario I want to put someone else in, even if I felt they had pulled the rug out from under me.

I was offered contract work at a rate that I feel would have been pretty discounted. I understand the basis for the offer, as well as how that may have helped balance out the less-than-favorable handling of the situation. I mean, it was an effort–it was a try. I get that, and to some degree I respect that approach at trying to make sure there is some income, but I would still see it as a setting that I would not be able to truly commit myself to.

And, so, that is where we left it. I parted ways with The Start-up™ and my last day at Happy Cog is upon me. I have been fortunate enough that there are people that I have been having discussions with. They have been helpful in any number of ways, from networking to advice to leads to good conversations.

To be fair, I’d hate to be this founder. There’s a lesson about what kind of power/control you give up when you accept an investment from someone, too. Heck, there are many lessons, including the ones for me. That’s how it goes. I’ve gotten wiser, and it didn’t even take me a year.

I see this as a great opportunity. There is time now for me to work with any number of companies, in any number of scenarios. And that means that I have availability to partner with some great people and companies and identify the right opportunity/opportunities.

I am doing just that. I would love to talk to you about whatever it is you are working on. Please feel free to send me a note and then we can have some good conversations about what is next.

On Emotional Inference

The Messages

ALL FIELDS REQUIRED (pretend it’s in red, if you’d like to)

Damned if I don’t dislike that message. It kind of pisses me off, if not makes me feel kind of stupid for overlooking something. It also pisses me off because it’s an interrupt in a process that I thought I was done with and ready to move on from.

We’ve all seen it, of this I’m more than a little certain.

I pose to you this question: Who is to blame for how we (as users/recipients of the message) for the emotional inference? Does anyone get a little angry or irritated or aggravated just by the inferred tone of the message?

I know I do.

I’ll flip this around. If you haven’t seen Michael Angeles’ (Konigi) 404 page, well, here’s an image:

“Oops. Sorry. It’s probably our fault. “

How does this particular message make you feel, when you compare it to the previous message?

Speaking only for myself, I find the error message a little cute–and a lot forgiving.

The Inference

I’m speaking only for myself here, but for the above messages, one made me feel angry, annoyed, embarrassed and probably pissed. The other made me feel a lot less embarrassed and pretty understanding of the situation that was probably my fault, anyway.

The difference, of course, is how these messages are being authored and what emotions they are trying to infer–or avoid, even.

So then, when it comes to emotional inference, I ask you this:

Who is responsible for the way messages are perceived, the author, or the recipient?

(Here’s my answer: As folks in the UX field (and I’m including the beloved Content Strategist folks), it’s our responsibility to also apply empathy to the written word. That’s my belief, and I do try to subscribe to this the best that I can, which is often why I don’t have enough time to write short emails, to borrow from a famous quote. If the users of any of our systems are inferring emotions into what we’ve written, well, I just don’t see it as their fault, in a majority of the cases that come to mind.)

Interview with Erik Soens [CrankyTalk]

On October 22, 2010, I’ll be working with Dan Willis, Dan R. Brown and Adam Polansky to put on the CrankyTalk Workshop in Washington D.C. In the meantime, I’m sharing with you the full interviews that I did with a variety of professionals who do a lot of public speaking / performance as part of their careers, in order to help me gain some insight into how others prepare for their craft.

We’re not taming lions here. Were talking to people just like you and me. People hopefully there to listen and experience something new. Or view the same in a new perspective.

Ric (Erik) Soens seems to have always been around, at least to me–from the local Illinois Valley band “The Craigs” (was it really 20+ years ago?) to the behind-the-counter guy at “Hear’n Their Records” to many different solo and group efforts, he’s just been there. Always good for some quirky humor or a lesson in music that you should be listening to but didn’t quite know about it yet, Ric’s been an amazing student of music, musicianship and of life. Ric is also one of those rare breeds who figured out how to turn his passion into his profession–something everyone dreams of–and he’s managed to do it quite well.

Have you ever been at a podium–done a presentation, a reading, played music, where you had to prepare in advance for it? If so, how do you create that presentation (song list, etc.), specifically in the conceptual phase? Maybe a better question is “how do you structure a new song when you’re starting from scratch?”
Starting a song from scratch is different than getting ready for a presentation. It’s method than craft. Songwriting, after the initial burst of creativity is craft and editing. Doing a presentation would be more on the lines of rehearsing ‘said song’ for public performance.

So, a presentation on songwriting (which I’ve done behind a podium in various high schools) consists of a set of notes that are numbered in order of appearance in the presentation. Most of this should be memorized, tho save some space for a little improvisation. For the complete beginner, they should stick to the notes they’ve memorized.

Then after the notes have been written and edited to a conversational tone, I rehearse my presentation, in silence at first, then in front of a mirror, then with the television blaringly loud so I can rehearse talking “through” a noise. Then I reflect on all of my physical actions…am I using my hands too much, am I boring? more body language, no body language, so this is a craft as well…

The basic rule of thumb is to be prepared. Know the conversation and if someone asks a question, KNOW where you left off in you presentation, notes are handy for that.

As musician, how do you get into the mindset of “playing live”? That is, as a presenter, I more or less “turn it on” when I’m presenting and know how I do it, but how do you get on stage?
Turning it on. Turn it on and never turn it off. The world IS  stage and you never know when or where someone is watching you. Watch your Ps and Qs…anyone could be filming it. Stay on.

What are your “pre-playing” rituals that help you get ready? What about during the performance that keep you in the flow?
I play guitar or piano or bass or banjo every day…I mean a lot! About 2 hours before gig time I give my fingers a rest. I take it easy and laugh with friends. I make sure all my gear is ready, (new strings, stretched well and tuned, I make sure all of my cables are good, very mundane things) if there are new songs in the set I rehearse the lyrics and changes in my head, then for the gig itself.

How do you recover from losing your “flow”–when you maybe choke in the middle of a song, or the moment, when you’re in the middle of a gig?
When regaining ones ground, humility is a far more powerful tool than most folks want to practice. The blatant stopping of a song is alright if you can make the next song so good no one remembers you stopped the last one. So in that regard, if presenting, and one loses their flow, a simple retort such as “Whew…that got away from me, let me reiterate” would work just fine, then a quick look at your notes should place back in the flow.

Regaining confidence isn’t hard to do if you’re already a confident person. The people without confidence don’t stand a chance doing this and may be better suited to the mail room.

Other things I’ve learned are to always have fun. If your listeners are not having fun they will leave. Be careful not to come off as cocky or arrogant; make eye contact with the ones you want to disarm, 5 seconds of it, no more than that though, and that should be enough.
  
The one thing that the others don’t have to do that I still have to do is my equipment setup. I have to set up my gear. My podium. My PA–all in public view. It’s not glorious. And people want to talk with you and drink with you and smoke with you and do every thing but help you set up. I don’t have quiet time right before a show usually; it’s very rush-rush these days, so I try to use that energy to propel me into the first song…then through the night. I don’t get dressing rooms or roadies or security guards or my Dad to watch my back or anything like that…I HAVE to stay on my toes, and be aware and present always. It’s not that I don’t trust people–I just don’t trust people who have been drinking.

I’m not bitching, either. I’m just saying there are not a lot of performers who wouldn’t or couldn’t do it like this–122 presentations a year. Introduce me to one and I’ll take back this whole paragraph.

It’s important to remember during the rehearsal stages one should speak aloud and from the belly. Practice phonics and syllabance. Over pronounce words so the when the presentation day comes your vocal confidence is up. One should start prepping the moment they find out about the mission!

How have you combated stage fright in the past and/or how do you combat it today?  What are the techniques you use–not the whole “see the audience in their underwear” stuff, but the real tricks that make it work for you.
I’ve never really experience stage fright. I get a little tired about a 1/2 hour before shows but try to occupy myself constructively.

We’re not taming lions here. Were talking to people just like you and me. People hopefully there to listen and experience something new. Or view the same in a new perspective. If I may repeat the importance of preparation and rehearsing your presentation, and you have it mostly memorized then stage fright shouldn’t even happen. Once again, they’re just people. Sometimes a lot of them, sometimes a few, but they’re still just people. That thought levels the playing field for me.

About Ric Soens
Ric Soens has played guitar professionally for 22 years. As a veteran performer he has fronted rock and country bands and also keeps up a strict schedule of solo performances. He has toured the country several times previous to settling down and raising a family.

He currently co-owns Valley Music in LaSalle, IL. and teaches guitar, bass, banjo, vocals and songwriting to 35 students a week. He has participated in poetry readings, eulogys at funerals, readings in church as well as given presentations on creative writing to high school students.

Ric plays bass and sings for the rock band The Craigs, a popular Illinois Valley band that has released two albums. In addition, Ric has released several collections of music and is currently performing with The Ric Soens Band who will be releasing a collection this year titled Hard Truths In Soft Denim.

Ric Soens is available for solo acoustic performance, electric rock-n-roll with a band or even to talk to groups of students about creative writing.

Ric can be found online at:
www.myspace.com/ricsoensband
www.myspace.com/ricsoens

Live shows can be found at:
http://www.archive.org/details/RicSoensBandLiveInConcertWaterStreetPub07.03.2005
http://www.archive.org/details/RicSoensBandLive08.14.2009

Interview with Alex Dittmer [CrankyTalk]

On October 22, 2010, I’ll be working with Dan Willis, Dan R. Brown and Adam Polansky to put on the CrankyTalk Workshop in Washington D.C. In the meantime, I’m sharing with you the full interviews that I did with a variety of professionals who do a lot of public speaking / performance as part of their careers, in order to help me gain some insight into how others prepare for their craft.

My first interview is with actor and musician Alex Dittmer, of New York City. Alex and I happen to know each other from some community college days and have shared a stage for the musical “Godspell”. Many years have since passed, and Alex is a full time professional actor. I hope you learn from his insights.

I don’t really have stage fright anymore. The only time I get nervous or rattled is when I am unprepared. I subscribe to two mantras when performing. The first is, “Repetition is the key to mastery” and the second is “Nervousness (fear) is caused by lack of preparing”.

Have you ever been at a podium–done a presentation, a reading, played music, where you had to prepare in advance for it? If so, how do you create that presentation (song list, etc.), specifically in the conceptual phase?
All of my work comes from being prepared, even if it’s during an improv show.  You prepare the basic tenants of improv, the guidelines if you will and the structure builds itself. If it’s an acting gig, my job is to bring as much to the character as possible.  In my business we call that “homework”.  An actor has to do his homework and delve into his character and bring that to rehearsals so the group can share that and grow.
 
To prepare for the role conceptually can be as simple as reading the script several times. I tend to go over board.  I read the script and any history on the author or productions.  i also do a name search to see if there is significance to the name.  Also location history is important as is time the play is set in and the date the play was written in.  All of these factors offer a broad range of colors that the actor can use to paint the canvas of the character.
 
As an actor, how do you get into the mindset of “acting”? That is, as a presenter, I more or less “turn it on” when I’m presenting and know how I do it, but how do you become the character?
My answer may sound kinda silly or untrue, but it’s honestly how I feel.  I love acting.  There is nothing on earth that I have found anywhere that I feel more comfortable and confident doing. There is such a wonderful symbiotic relationship with the audience- a shared energy- that even if I were down, I couldn’t be once I crossed into the lighted stage.  So to give anything less than 100% would be like cheating on a spouse or loved one.  
 
I grew up in a blue collar home with blue collar parents and the work ethic they instilled in me still continues.  I realize that while my job is different from the 9-5 grind or factory work, I still have a job to do and I try to approach it that way.  Someone is paying me decent money to do something I would probably do for free because of my love and passion for it. So if I cash that check, I better deliver on what they are paying me to do.  So, in a long round about way, I guess I am always “on” once I walk into the theatre.  It is a kin to the reverence some people feel when they walk into Cathedral.
 
What are your “pre-acting” rituals that help you get ready? What about during the acting performance that keep you in character / the flow?
I have some pre-show things that I always do.  First I always stretch and get physically warmed up.  I do no less than 25 push-up prior to getting into costume and then the same amount when fully in the opening costume. I also vocalize.  My favorite thing in working the vocals is working on diction.  There is this consonant exercise that I learned in grad school that incorporates all the vowel sounds and the majority of consonants. It takes a little concentration and was something that I struggled with early on in Grad school.  So to do it in warm up reminds me that I always have room to improve.  I also re-read all of my lines in all of my scenes before the stage manager calls “places”. I do this in costume and sit in front of the make-up mirror.  I also always go pee when they call “five minutes to paces”. I’m not sure how I started that habit, but it seems to relax me.
 
The part about keeping in character / flow is a great question.  I think you may have meant about keeping in character in a two hour show.  That’s easy, the thing that I found difficult is doing the same show, twice a day for 6 – 8 months.  There was a time around the 2 -3 month period where I was saying the same dialogue, the same way and I felt I wasn’t being as fresh to the audience as I would have liked.  So I told the other actor (it was a two person show) that I am going to change the intention of some of my lines and let’s see where it goes. While the lines were exactly the same, the intent changed the dynamic of the scene which in turn changed the dynamic of the show. We would do this, from time to time, without telling each other.  That way we were forced to listen and it made the show fresh and alive for us and for each audience….even after 8 months.
 
How do you recover from losing your “flow”–when you fall out of character, or the moment, when you’re in the middle of a presentation or character or gig?
In acting we call it “going up”.  Everyone has a horror story on this.  Everyone has done it and everyone has been in a show that someone else has gone up and t affected the show.  My favorite on I’ve ever heard involves an older gentleman, but a community legend  who was playing the Friar in Romeo & Juliet for a summer stock professional show.  It was the scene where he was supposed to tell Juliet about the poison and the antidote.  He completely forgot his lines.  He looked at the actress playing Juliet.  Looked out at the crowd.  Looked back at the actress, and with abject fear on his face he yelled to her, “I’m going up!”.  The trained actress, fed him his lines by asking him questions and the scene was soon put back on track.
 
This is what should happen if there is an interruption in “the flow”.  If you know where the scene is supposed to go, even if you start going up you can usually find your way back.  It’s when you start to panic as an actor and not trust the work that you’ve done, that problems come along.  Mistakes happen, but problems are there when we focus on mistakes. Mistakes can be overcome in a second, problems can require a whole new set of tools. If I make mistakes I tend to push right on through and, if time permits, run back to my dressing room and write down the line or scene or moment that I F***ed up on.  This way I can go back and figure out what happened and reduce it for the next time.  I try my best to make any brief mistake appear smooth to the audience by not drawing attention to it. However, there are times that the audience wants in and it makes the moment more communal and the audience goes crazy.
 
I did a show where, in the final few minutes of the end of the play, one of the actors was to burst on and  improvise a line and then correct himself and say the real line.  This actor was pure genius and the improved lines were always hysterical. On the final night he ran in and blurted out his improved line which was, “Improv line!” the majority of the actors onstage just started cracking up, as we were waiting for some real line. The audience saw we were laughing and started laughing with us.  It was like a Carol Burnett moment. I honestly don’t remember how we ended that show, but I remember the audience waiting for us at the stage door and thanking us for such a fun time.
 
So if you go up, see how the audience reacts and don’t EVER fear. Just go with it, where ever the moment takes you and know where the story ends.  In the meantime, enjoy the new route that you took getting there.
 
How have you combatted stage fright in the past and/or how do you combat it today?  What are the techniques you use–not the whole “see the audience in their underwear” stuff, but the real tricks that make it work for you.
When I was younger I used to run around and try to get all the energy running through my body, out of my system.  I thought that this way, I would be able to perform better…to have more focus.  I used to get a case of the nerves when friends or family were coming to the show I was certifiable if I knew there was a reviewer in the house. Theatre folk tend to enjoy the histrionics. They thrive on the buzz of nerves and anxiety.  Nowadays, I can’t stand to be around those kind of people.  It’s wasted and unfocused energy.

I don’t really have stage fright anymore.  The only time I get nervous or rattled is when I am unprepared.  I subscribe to two mantras when performing.  The first is, “Repetition is the key to mastery” and the second is “Nervousness (fear) is caused by lack of preparing”.  They both pretty much mean the same thing. I only get nervous or concerned if I know I didn’t prepare properly.  As an actor, the majority of the time we are auditioning for a job. Sometimes we are told what to prepare and those are the gret auditions .  you can bring whatever you like from your prepared arsenal and blow them away.  Other times they send you (via your agent) parts of the script to memorize and want to see you do it in two days. You may have plans during those days, or a day job to pay the bills, but time will be working against you and you’ll want to act those scenes fully and only have a few hours to really focus on it.  It those auditions that make me nervous.

The key to getting through them is to make a mental deal with yourself that you will do the absolute best you can for that day and that moment. One of the things I’ve found most helpful was some advice one of my instructors gave me during grad school.  She told me to learn something from every audition and to make sure you take something positive away from it.  All too often actors, most people it seems, beat themselves up over moments like these when they are not at their best. They relive it in their minds a hundred time playing out the most damaging moments.  The perspective is where the difference is.  It the difference of saying, “Shit, I totally blew that line!” or “They never laughed when they were supposed to!” instead of, “Well that monologue doesn’t work well, I can dump it and learn something that works”. 

I realize this isn’t about nerves so much as perspective, but to me they go hand in hand.  If you prepare and approach it from a “win” standpoint, then nerves really don’t play into the scene.

About Alex Dittmer

Alex Dittmer is a native of rural Illinois but a recent transplant to New York. He received his BA in Theatre from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, IL and received his MFA in Acting from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. He has been seen onstage at the Tony Award winning CINCINNATI PLAYHOUSE IN THE PARK and has worked at the OBIE award winning PEARL THEATRE COMPANY and has had the honor and pleasure of sharing the stage with Tony and Emmy Award winning actress Julie Harris. He has been seen onstage throughout the midwest and parts of the East coast. Visit Alex’s website at www.alexdittmer.com.

The Right Way to Wireframe – My Video Explanation

Preparation for “The Right Way to Wireframe” workshop at Interaction10 involved a healthy bunch of problem solving from myself, Todd Zaki Warfel, Will Evans and Fred Beecher. Our client, Lend4Health, has a great design challenge and Gabby Hon was kind enough to step in and provide us with business requirements and a creative brief that enabled us to get to work pointed in the right direction.

Brad Simpson was the creative genius that I worked with to come up with the stunning visual design you’ll see in the video.  The music was licensed for use online and is by Jami Sieber, titled, “Red Mood” from the album “Hidden Sky”. She’s awesome–buy her music! Mr. Dave Shelleny was kind enough to offer some light editing support and cool enough to recommend the track by Jami Sieber.

I used Balsamiq Mockups as my wireframing tool, and it was new to me. It was fun, too! I encourage you to give it a try for sketching and wireframes.

The video above shows my work. If you’ve got 3 minutes, take a look.  If you don’t, well, when I return from Savannah, I promise to do a version that’s about half as long.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank Nick Finck for the inspiration from his blog post “Creating Wireframes” from August 26, 2009.

For more information, see The Backstory.

I hope you enjoy the video.

Also #1: Go check out Will Evans’ version: The Right Way to Wireframe (YouTube)

Also #2: Go check out Todd Zaki Warfel’s version: The Right Way to Wireframe (YouTube)

The Right Way to Wireframe – The Backstory

In April 2009, I was reflecting on my conference experiences–I’d been pretty fortunate to present at both SXSW and the Information Architecture Summit (IA Summit) in a variety of different formats.  One of those formats was a panel, and I wasn’t ultimately all that satisfied with what had been put out to the audience.  That is, we had a message, but I wasn’t sure that a message was enough without providing a course of action.

In addition, Jesse James Garrett‘s closing plenary had a couple of points in his closing plenary that I’d been noodling on for awhile, but hearing them vocalized really helped me.  Jesse said (paraphrased) that we all believe he’s a good Information Architect or User Experience Designer, but we’ve never seen his work. We may have read his book (Elements of User Experience), but is his work really out there, readily available for the rest of us to see? Do we really KNOW if he’s good at this stuff? Do we really know if we are, or for that matter, the people on the left or right of us?

I made a very conscious effort while writing my parts of “A Project Guide to UX Design” to reach out to others in the field and show examples of work, and provide examples for people to work with as starting points (and in some cases even more advanced points) in order to put more deliverables “out there”.

But what do the deliverables really mean?

What do wireframes really mean? How do I know if I’m doing it right, if my tool is right or if doing them at all is right when I’m just one guy in a Chicago suburb who works at a large company in a big city for a variety of clients doing work that I mostly can’t show?

I didn’t have the answer.

So, I did what felt to be right.  I called up Todd Zaki Warfel, Will Evans and Fred Beecher–people that I know and respect in the design field and know that their particular approach to solving problems via some sort of wireframing and/or prototyping methods are somewhat different than mine–and I talked them through all the things rattling in my head.

In less than a couple of hours, we took a seedling of an idea and turned it into a presentation–and thanks to Bill DeRouchey and Jennifer Bove at Interaction10–we also turned it into a workshop.

If you attend any of these sessions, we’ll walk you through a process for creating the right wireframes–and we’ll show you ours, including the process each of us went through to come up with the work that we did.

We created a project. We worked with Gabby Hon to create some great requirements and Lend4Health as a great client with a great need and then we isolated ourselves from each other and set out to solve the design challenges in front of us.  We went from ideas to requirements to sitemaps to sketches to wireframes to prototypes to creative design.

And we documented every step along the way.

Now, it’s time to show you my process and my work.

(see next blog post)

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.

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.)

Praise for A Project Guide to UX Design

I’m down in Austin, Texas, for SXSW and have finally had the chance to see copies of the book! Things are hectic and there’s more information overload and internet underload (seems all connections down here are pretty sluggish from the growing masses of people all trying to be connected at the same time–go figure!),

We’ve heard the books have started shipping and we’ve received some copies of our own, so we felt it was time to share some of the praise and feedback that we’ve received:

“If Russ Unger and Carolyn Chandler were magicians, the Alliance would be after them for revealing their best secrets. Fortunately for you, they’re not. Russ and Carolyn have collected up sage wisdom previously only known to the most experienced UX project leaders and codified it for all to see. Now you can learn the secrets necessary to running great user experience projects.”

Jared M. Spool, CEO and founding principal of User Interface Engineering

“Is there one book that can tell you everything you need to know about designing user experiences? No. Is there a book that get you most of the way there? There is now. Carolyn and Russ have laid a solid foundation for planning and managing design projects. This is an essential handbook for anyone mired in the competing methodologies, the endless meetings, and all the moving parts of user experience design.”

Dan Brown, author of Communicating Design

“This book is a fantastic introduction to how to design great products for real people. But it covers much more than just design—it also includes all the things around design: managing projects, working with people, and communicating ideas. A great all-rounder.”

Donna Spencer, author of “Card Sorting: Designing Usable Categories”

“This is a practical, accessible, and very human guide to a very human activity: working together with people to make great things for other people.”

Steve Portigal, Portigal Consulting

“If you’ve heard of Wil Wheaton the author, you understand why I hold Russ Unger in such high regard. Russ’s experience and guidance was fundamental to the construction and design of Monolith Press, and he’s been one of the most valuable collaborators I’ve ever worked with.”

Wil Wheaton, author of Dancing Barefoot, Just a Geek, and The Happiest Days of our Lives

Some of the kindest and most generous words from people we genuinely respect. We hope you find the book a useful and valuable addition to your UX bookshelf!

On top of all of this wonderful praise, I was able to pass along a copy to Austin Govella, co-author of Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web, 2nd Edition, with Christina Wodtke. Later in the evening, Austin sent me one of the best, most succinct direct messages I’ve ever received on Twitter:

The book is great.

I don’t believe Austin’s one to throw praise around willy-nilly… and I’m completely flattered that I got that message.  Thanks, Austin!