User experience designer, technical writer, librarian. Expect much random insanity.

If you’ve never been to a design slam, it can be a pretty intense experience, especially if you sign up to be a design team member. I had no idea what I was in for, but it was worth it.

The rush to create deliverables and a cohesive presentation within a scant 40 minutes is like cramming for a comprehensive exam the night before. But it trains you to think on the fly (which is often what you’ll be doing anyway as a UX designer) and how to collaborate with people you’ve only met a half hour ago. The specific challenge we were faced with made me wish that I had read Nathan Shedroff’s book beforehand – we had to focus on sustainabilty and being “green,” not as a mere trend, but as the focus of the company. Among other ideas my team came up with, we thought of placing recipes on the online site, with links to the ingredients where customers could then place an order and pick up in person.

Alas, we lost. We think it was rigged by that guy in the red shirt…he owns the place where the design slam was held, after all.

Okay, so I said I would write a review of Subject to Change, but this book has floored me and I had to write about it. You know this book is good for UX designers if Bill Buxton offered his insights and reviewed the manuscript of it!

Roger Martin has written a much-needed call to arms to fuse analysis and intuition in our design thinking; too many have the tendency to lean towards one or the other, which often leads to either a lack of innovation (as seen when Nokia was knocked from its pedestal) or to impractical design. He writes at length about “abductive logic,” a term coined by Charles Sanders Pierce that essentially states that new ideas can only be validated through the unfolding of future events.

We should always “ask what could be.” (25) It’s the reason behind the success of the likes of Mike Lazaridis of Research In Motion and Guy Laliberté of Cirque du Soleil. Martin outlines the three things a design thinker needs in their arsenal: a personal stance, tools and experiences. It’s essential to follow this order so your design thinking can flourish. Be conscious of how you see the world and your place in it, and then develop a toolkit of sorts based on your stance, using the powers of observation and imagination, among other things. Accumulating experiences will then allow you to hone your sensitivity and skills. Martin likens it to being a chef: sensitivity is what allows a chef to determine if a dish is well-prepared, and skills allow them to determine when it’s not. (155)

Designers tend to run into and work with those who are either reliability-driven analytical thinkers or validity-driven intuitive thinkers. (168) While the personal goal is to have a balance of both, it’s possible to be a good mediator when dealing with both types. Much like learning a language, the best way to learn is to spend time among native speakers using it in native context.

LU makes some of the most delicious biscuits I’ve ever tasted, all the more so if you’re a chocolate lover. But I’m disappointed by one thing – they’ve recently changed their packaging.

Yes, they still taste wonderful, but the dark packaging threw me for a loop. Before this incarnation, the box was white with a blue stripe indicating that it’s milk chocolate (the dark chocolate had red and the hazlenut had green – check this website for the old style.) This new packaging makes it hard to distinguish between the different varieties, and had I not slowed down to look at what was printed on the box, I could’ve easily brought home a flavor I wasn’t expecting.

What was wrong with the previous design? The typography was legible and it was easy to distinguish from other brands on the shelf. I feel this is an example of change for the sake of change, which isn’t necessarily a good thing.

It’s ironic that I’m writing about this book considering there are already boatloads of reviews on other UX-related blogs. So I’m late to the party on this. It isn’t meant to be an in-depth analysis, but reading this has given me food for thought when it comes to designing.

This is not a book about UX design, but it certainly has some takeaway points. Schwartz isn’t advocating for no choice at all, but anyone who’s gone shopping for something as simple as a bottle of shampoo realizes that having too many choices can be just as oppressive. As designers, we need to be aware that there are numerous other aspects of a user’s life that require hefty thought – this shouldn’t be the case when it comes to visiting a website, as Steven Krug would say. If anything, Schwartz’s idea of making decisions irreversible is one that can’t be fully applied to interfaces, websites, etc. Surely we’re glad that we can remove an item from our shopping cart when we feel the need to. On the other hand, it’s nice to go to a website that doesn’t have a laundry list of links to scroll through and click on, or be able to pick and choose what icons we want to appear on the screen (if any) when we boot up a device.

We need to give users meaningful choices, even though Schwartz rightfully points out that “we don’t always know what we want.” (51) Nevertheless, we should try to strike a balance between a user being boxed into an option that may not be what they need or want, and having free reign to choose whatever, which may make the user not choose anything at all. The biggest point that really stood out to me was “Don’t be tempted by ‘new and improved.’” (228) If there’s a pet peeve I have about design it’s innovation for its own sake. Keep interfaces simple and consistent (I’m looking at you, Microsoft!)

Next review to come – Subject to Change by Peter Merholz. I’m sure there’s a ton of reviews already, but I’m writing one anyway. Because I can.

Apologies for lack of new content these days. Still plugging away at things with project Naan Map, and I’m prepping to be a judge for this year’s STC competition. On a completely random note, the lapsed writer in me is working on an outline for a novel-length manuscript. Whether it’ll turn into something that’s publishable or a hot mess has yet to be seen.

Here’s a list of links I’ve found to be informative and inspirational as I try to segue into UX.

So you wanna be a user experience designer – Step 1 – resources

Starting a career in user experience design

Finding an IA job, idea #1: Practice

Hiring the next generation of interaction designers (video from Interaction ‘09 featuring Jared Spool and others)

While not UX-related, this is a great article for those who struggle with networking, introverted or not:
Networking for introverts

When it comes to wireframes, I’ve had the tendency to create them directly with a program such as Visio or Balsamiq. But for the review submission wireframes I’m working on for Naan Map, I did sketches on paper first. Now I see why so many do it this way – it allows ideas to flow more freely and consider adding or changing things that would be difficult to do when using a program.

The two things I wish to improve on are making sketches as quickly as possible (since it’s good to have something to work with ASAP, and more than likely things are going to be changed anyway) and improving the quality of detail. Personally I am not satisfied with these, but we’ll see what the higher-ups think.

This is the first version of the review submission wireframe.

This may prove to be a little too bland, since it doesn’t give the reviewer much leeway as to what information they could add that may be useful to others.

Hence, version number two.

It has more details, but it may not cover all the bases.

The seventh session of Whit Hour this past Sunday was the absolute best so far (I’ll post a link as soon as she uploads the text and video.) It was inspiring and gave me much hope. As an introverted and shy person, it’s hard integrating into something new. I’ve been in libraries all my working years, but it’s no longer something I feel passion and enthusiasm for. When I discovered IA and in turn UX, I was unaware that there were people responsible for making websites – among other things – easy to use. I’ve certainly had my share of bad user experiences, so what’s not to love about an entire field dedicated to weeding these out?

In my efforts of taking very, very scary first steps, you may notice that this site can now be Googled. Whitney makes a good point that there’s no point in keeping things under wraps if you want to be a part of the UX community. Hence I have also made my tweets public.

For fellow introverts and shy people, check out Whitney’s slideshow. Listen to the audio for extra tips and ideas.

As I’m working on self-designed IA projects, I was mulling a bit over the overall process. While ultimately it’s better to have these in my portfolio than nothing at all, it bothers me since they’re really no substitute for real life experience. You’re not working with actual clients or with other IAs in person. I feel like I’m just shadow-fencing at the moment – I may be learning how to parry and thrust, but my full potential as a fighter is not being realized since I’m not learning from and testing myself against seasoned fencers.

Thinking at random, I’m not sure if this already exists, but if it does there aren’t any in my area:

Perhaps there could be full-day workshops for those who are new to IA/UX design and want to get started in the field. It would randomly assign 2 or 3 students with an experienced professional to collaborate and produce deliverables on a fictional project. This is something I would gladly pay for. It would give a new person experience with working with others, get a feel for the general process, and have something to put in their portfolio and on their resume. I think this would be much better than just creating wireframes and sitemaps in a vacuum.

The wireframe phase of Project Naan Map is complete! Now we’re going to be working on personas. This is new territory for me, so there will be much to learn. I’m scouring around for ideas, and may even post on IxDA to see how other people develop theirs.

Whitney Hess has an online chat session on Sunday nights, answering questions about IA. It’s really helped me, and I’ve recently gotten in touch with someone who’s willing to introduce me to some people in order to further my goal of getting into the IA door. This field has been a bottomless source of inspiration for me, and I also like its international focus. I’d give my left eye to be attending the upcoming IA conferences and conventions dotted over the globe. It’d be awesome to talk to IAs from other nations, see how they do things and what their thinking patterns are like.

End of rambling. Just needed to put up something new since it’s been nearly a month since the last update. And while juggling all this I’m still trying to design my own WP theme since this is clearly not cutting it.

It’s official – project NaanMap is underway!

Right now we’re in phase 1, deciding on search terms (what we’re calling a “verb list”) and developing wireframes for the home page, search results pages and details pages. Hopefully we can wrap this up around three weeks. I met up with my IA mentor for lunch today and he gave me great feedback and advice, bringing up things I previously hadn’t considered or had even overlooked. Among the things I want to remember:

The latter really hit home with me. After lunch, I had mentioned in passing that I’m considering getting a CrackBlackberry, and that I preferred it over an iPhone. He asked why; I said it’s because I don’t like touch screens (they’re too reminiscent of ATMs to me, and you can only imagine how much germs and what not are on those….) And he rightfully pointed out that that is not a valid reason. What is it specifically about touch screens that I don’t like? Personally, I have a hard time typing with them – for me the feel of actual keys is better, and I often make mistakes with touch screens (another reason why I don’t like to use ATMs unless absolutely necessary.)

This also had me thinking about other things when it comes to my personal preferences. I chose the PS3 over the 360 and Wii because I can handle the controller better. I like Stuart Weitzman shoes because he’s one of the few designers who realizes that women with wide width feet want pretty shoes to wear as well (I cannot fit into Jimmy Choos or Ferragamos, among others, and I’ve only encountered one pair of Manolo Blahniks that fit me…I own those, of course.)

Articulating why it’s best to place something here and not there, or using this instead of that…. These are things an IA needs to convey to clients to justify the decisions and subsequent changes they make. This is something I want to extend beyond IA. Doing this kind of gruntwork – almost like having a Socrates Café session – will not only help get the bills paid when it comes to one’s profession, but it’s a good thing to do in one’s life overall.