northtemple (+ comments)tag:2008:northtemple2011-10-25T15:11:00-06:00Ted Borentag:2008:northtemple-248222011-10-25T15:11:00-06:002011-10-25T15:11:00-06:00Managers are assigned; leaders ...Quoteleadership"Managers are assigned; leaders emerge." ~ From an interesting article by Kim Goodwin on the importance of developing <a href="http://www.uie.com/articles/ux_leadership">UX leadership</a> and taking initiative.Ted Borentag:2008:northtemple-248212011-10-24T11:23:00-06:002011-10-24T11:23:00-06:00Although short on details (he w...Blurbecommerceusabilityuser research<p>Although short on details (he wants you to buy his full reports after all), this post summarizing an <a href="http://www.useit.com/alertbox/ecommerce.html">updated e-commerce usability report</a> by Nielsen/Norman is worth reading if you’re building an e-commerce site.</p>Ted Borentag:2008:northtemple-248162011-10-14T10:11:00-06:002011-10-14T10:11:00-06:00Nothing could prepare me for my...Quotecontextual inquiryDesign"Nothing could prepare me for my first trip to Rome. It wasn’t anything like the pictures.
I think this is exactly the same feeling that designers have when they visit their users for the first time." ~ Jared Spool, extolling the <a href="http://www.uie.com/articles/teams_field_visits/">virtues of field visits</a> while introducing his most recent newsletter. (The quote is from his email and doesn’t appear in the article itself.)Angel David Lindestag:2008:northtemple-248152011-10-14T09:43:00-06:002011-10-14T09:43:00-06:00"Find the Twin Sumo" or "No, Your Client is Not an Idiot"Articleproblem solvingbad clientsclient relationships<p>You’ve been there. You’ve felt the knot in your stomach. You’ve tightened your grip on your iPad ever so slightly after hearing your client say “You know, on that header? I want our logo to be bigger. Way bigger.” And you think to yourself <i>Great. I just found me another do-it-yourselfer. He designed a newsletter for his student club twenty-seven years ago and now he’s ready to tackle his corporate website. He just needs me to run Photoshop for him.</i></p>
<p>The world slows down for just a moment. You stare down at your notes, half pretending you didn’t hear and half expecting your iPad to feed you your line or something. But nothing comes. Time picks up its lumbering pace again. The street noise outside your client’s office window wakes you up and you realize now you have to say something; something that acknowledges your client’s statement. Something that isn’t “You wanna do this thing yourself?”</p>
<p>But, what?</p>
<h3>Newton, Sumo Wrestling, and Design Iterations</h3>
<p>Newton’s third law of motion states that “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Of course the guy was talking about the physical world. You know, like the pull of gravity working against your overwhelming desire to dunk it, or the tension of your belt working against the fierce push of your expanding gut. But, of course, we can always twist his words to apply them to design. And it’s fun.</p>
<p>In the “very complicated act of faith” that is design, there are two main forces at work: the problem and the solution. Their relationship is a lot like the one between your beer belly and your belt: they mirror each other. One is the question, the other the answer. They’re twin sumo wrestlers in different-colored diapers, pushing at each other with tremendous force. They’re the yin and the yang: identical, but opposite.</p>
<p>This is a fact that designers the world over use to their advantage. Want to come up with a great solution? Understand the problem. Want to understand the problem? Come up with a solution. If you figure one out, you immediately understand the other.</p>
<p>The design iteration, then, becomes a nice, sweaty wrestle between problem and solution. A designer will do a bit of research on the problem, and then propose a solution. That proposal invites feedback (aka more information about the problem), which the designer then takes into account for the next solution proposal. Rinse and repeat. Slowly, the designer’s understanding of the problem and the solution grow together, until finally, <i>voila!</i> We’ve got ourselves a finished product.</p>
<h3>Clients Have Brains Too</h3>
<p>As designers, we’re comfortable with this relationship between problem and solution. In fact, we use it to make a living. We’ve come to accept the iterative synthesis of solutions as the best way to come to understand problems. And we love it.</p>
<p>Well, it turns out our clients are often doing just that when they blurt out an unsolicited design suggestion. They may see a problem with our design, but instead of describing the problem by saying something like “You know, the home page just doesn’t feel ours enough. It still feels a little generic to me. I don’t think it reflects the personality of our company quite yet” they propose a solution and say “I think the logo should be bigger. Way bigger.”</p>
<p>This is because clients have brains too, and they understand that problems and solutions are like bellies and belts, like crooked teeth and braces, like moobs and manziers. So, perhaps involuntarily, they blurted out a proposed solution instead of a description of the problem.</p>
<p>So why are the solutions they propose rarely great? Because they’re not trained designers. But that doesn’t mean they’re bad clients. They may be diagnosing a legitimate problem, but because they did so by prescribing a lousy solution, you think they’re dumb.</p>
<p>Take a step back. Breathe.</p>
<h3>Find the Twin Sumo</h3>
<p>Now it’s back to you in your client’s office, iPad clenched in agony. You need to say something. <i>What to say, what to say, what to say?</i></p>
<p>Well, if you understand that your client’s lousy design suggestion is really the mirror image of a problem he’s trying to diagnose, all you have to do is find the twin sumo. Take the proposed solution and turn it into the problem you think it was designed to solve. Then shoot it back at your client. <i>Hmmmm…bigger logo…what could he be talking about?</i></p>
<p>“So, what you’re saying is that you think the current design doesn’t really feel like it belongs to your company, like it’s really you?”</p>
<p>Whew! You made it. Now, relax. Wipe your brow and get rid of the poker face. The conversation is ready to go somewhere.</p>
<p>Did you nail the problem on the head? Maybe so, or maybe not. But when you translated your client’s proposed solution into a diagnosed problem, you did something priceless. You let your client know that his input does matter, but you did it without compromising the integrity of your work, or your role as the design expert in the room.</p>
<p>Now you can work to refine your understanding of the problem the client is trying to diagnose. And your client? Not an idiot. Not a deadbeat. Just a guy with a brain trying to tell you something’s wrong. So listen up. You just might learn something.</p>Ted Borentag:2008:northtemple-248102011-10-10T09:28:00-06:002011-10-10T09:28:00-06:00Mobile Content: If in Doubt, Le...Quoteconcisenessmobile"Mobile Content: If in Doubt, Leave It Out" ~ Title of <a href="http://www.useit.com/alertbox/mobile-writing.html">Jakob Nielsen’s latest Alertbox.</a><br/>I like.Ted Borentag:2008:northtemple-248092011-10-07T09:54:00-06:002011-10-07T09:54:00-06:00Get the company to see what the...Quoteuser centered design"Get the company to see what the customer sees. If the executives inside the company could just “see through the eyes of a customer,” it quickly would become clear how to improve the experience." ~ Great post by Mark Hurst in <a href="http://goodexperience.com/2011/09/customer-experience-p.php">Good Experience</a>. I am experiencing this right now on a project, and it’s exciting when key stakeholders are committed to “seeing through the eyes of the Church member.”Ted Borentag:2008:northtemple-248052011-09-21T15:19:00-06:002011-09-21T15:19:00-06:00There are many recipes for grea...Quotepersonasrequirementsuser centered design"There are many recipes for great personas, yet the teams decide to take shortcut, skip steps, or just plain do something that doesn’t make sense. They don’t follow the recipe. Then they complain when the project doesn’t turn out well." ~ From a great article by Jared Spool titled<br/><a href="http://www.uie.com/articles/persona_value_suck">5 Ways To Suck Value Away From Your Persona Projects</a>.<br/>Very timely as I gear up to train a team on creating personas.Scott Schlegeltag:2008:northtemple-248032011-09-13T17:01:00-06:002011-09-13T17:01:00-06:00If you find that your company b...Quote"If you find that your company buys expensive enterprise software instead of putting your A-team engineers on making awesome internal tools, then they don’t understand what the word ‘leverage’ actually means, and you my friend, likely have a serious and systemic problem." ~ From John Hitchings, engineer at wealthfront on the importance of <a href="http://eng.wealthfront.com/2011/02/write-internal-tools-business-in-front.html">internal tools</a>Scott Schlegeltag:2008:northtemple-248012011-09-06T18:19:00-06:002011-09-06T18:19:00-06:00The art challenges the technolo...Quote"The art challenges the technology, and the technology inspires the art." ~ John Lasseter in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1059955/">The Pixar Story</a>. In his honor, I have decided to start calling all Hawaiian shirts, “Lasseters”.Ted Borentag:2008:northtemple-248002011-09-01T09:32:00-06:002011-09-01T09:32:00-06:00Fewer than one-third surveyed b...Quoteuser centered design"Fewer than one-third surveyed by Tealeaf cited low priority as the reason for struggling to understand the customer, so it would appear that there is a disconnect between knowing what needs to be done and overcoming funding constraints." ~ Discussion of how ecommerce companies know what they need—better customer focus and understanding—but don’t know how to get it, or aren’t willing to pay for it. Seems to me <strong>they haven’t adequately measured the cost</strong> of having a bad user experience…<br/><a href="http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1008570">Via eMarketer</a>Ted Borentag:2008:northtemple-247982011-08-29T09:34:00-06:002011-08-29T09:34:00-06:00We need fewer technologists and...Quoteuser centered designtechnology"We need fewer technologists and more customerists." ~ I like it! But maybe “Customerologists”? <br/>From <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/markhurst">Mark Hurst, on Twitter</a>Scott Schlegeltag:2008:northtemple-247972011-08-26T08:03:00-06:002011-08-26T08:03:00-06:00Nobody in life gets exactly wha...Quote"Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen." ~ —Conan O’Brien. Words to live by.Alan Bloodtag:2008:northtemple-247952011-08-22T14:46:00-06:002011-08-22T14:46:00-06:00Wim Crouwel, the legendary Dutc...VideoDesign(flash video content)<br/><p>Wim Crouwel, the legendary Dutch typographer and graphic designer, when asked about design in today’s world, had this to say: “[for young designers], the stimulus is coming from the new techniques, from the new wonders, from the freedom of life – and that makes it difficult I think. ...What I say to young designers is to keep your radar turning, and pick up everything that you love, but in the same time, be very sure that you find your own way in it, but not be brought off your path by all the things that happen in the world. You need to find out what you love yourself and try to stick with it and try to find your own way” – great advice.</p>Ted Borentag:2008:northtemple-247922011-08-17T13:48:11-06:002011-08-17T13:48:11-06:00Cool bookshelf design on Design...PhotoDesignreadingbooks<img src="http://www.photos.northtemple.com/081111-054314PM_Branch_Oliver_Dolle_7.jpg" class="type-img" /><br/><p>Cool bookshelf design on <a href="http://designspiration.net/image/62119/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dspn%2Feveryone+%28Designspiration+-+Everyone%29">Design Inspiration</a> (via Cameron Moll).<br/>Love the idea—though a little high for the average reader in my family!</p>Scott Schlegeltag:2008:northtemple-247912011-08-16T15:35:00-06:002011-08-16T15:35:00-06:00ifttt.com is my new favorite siteArticle<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/AdNbR.png" alt=""></p>
<p><a href="ifttt.com">Ifttt.com</a> is an app to manage and automate all my social profiles. I love it for three reasons. First, it’s based on the dead simple concept that if I do <em>something</em> then it will do <em>something else</em> for me. So if I post on flickr, it will send that image to facebook. If a stock hits a certain price, I’ll get an email. If I publish a blog post, it will tweet about it. Each “task” is completely customizable, so I can set it up exactly the way I want. Second reason I love it, is the UI. It makes a 7-step process feel completely effortless. I wanted to take a video of it, but then I got tired and gave up. Last of all I love the sheer number of apps & services that it works with. Below is a screen shot of <em>just</em> the popular applications.</p>
<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/JYbD9.png" alt=""></p>
<p>The app is in private beta, so you have to sign up. Additionally I have 5 invites, so if you want one and are quick feel free to reach out.</p>Scott Schlegeltag:2008:northtemple-247892011-08-15T14:11:00-06:002011-08-15T14:11:00-06:00 10 things I’ve never heard a successful startup founder sayArticle<blockquote style="margin-bottom: 0;">#3. “I wish we had spent less time talking to prospective customers before designing interfaces and writing code.”</blockquote>
<p style="margin-top: 0; padding-top: 0;">The other nine quotes can be found <a href="http://blog.asmartbear.com/quotes-startup-founders.html"> here</a>.</p>Ted Borentag:2008:northtemple-247882011-08-11T09:42:00-06:002011-08-11T09:42:00-06:00Check out Do Lectures. Looks li...BlurbCSSDesignmobilelayout<p>Check out <a href="http://dolectures.com/">Do Lectures</a>. Looks like some interesting content (kind of like <span class="caps">TED</span> Talks), but that’s not why I’m posting. Take a close look at how they handle re-sizing the window. As you change width, the screen goes through a series of at least 4 seamless transformations to adapt to the new format—hiding secondary elements, re-sizing things, re-positioning. Very impressive flexible layout. <cite>(Via <a href="http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2011/07/28/dan-rubin-css3-for-everyone/"><span class="caps">UIE</span> podcasts</a>.)</citation></p>Scott Schlegeltag:2008:northtemple-247842011-08-09T08:00:00-06:002011-08-09T08:00:00-06:00
A lesser known feature in Chr...Photo<img src="http://www.photos.northtemple.com/Screen shot 2011-08-05 at 2.42.15 PM.png" class="type-img" /><br/><p>
A lesser known feature in Chrome that I love, is the ability to directly search only in a given site <span class="caps">AND</span> end up on that sites’ search results page. To enable it, do the following:
<p>
1. Go to youtube and do a search. This is a one time step that teaches Chrome how to search.</p>
<p>2. Then, in the location bar, type youtube.com and hit the “tab” key</p>
<p>3. Type your search query</p>
<p>This will dump you onto youtube’s search results page. So far I’ve got it to work on Facebook, LinkedIn, Craigslist and Amazon, among others. From what I can tell it “learns” as it goes. </p>
</p>Ted Borentag:2008:northtemple-247862011-08-08T12:51:00-06:002011-08-08T12:51:00-06:00Be careful listening to cheerle...Quote"Be careful listening to cheerleaders. They’re on the sidelines, not in the game – and they’re cheering for the side paying them.<br><br>Where you find the point of resistance is exactly where you have a chance to make a change.<br><br>Newton’s third law predicts that somewhere, recently, Google Minus was born." ~ Love these quotes from <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/markhurst">Mark Hurst’s Twitter stream</a>.Scott Schlegeltag:2008:northtemple-247832011-08-04T12:50:00-06:002011-08-04T12:50:00-06:00Why don't all companies buy the best hardware?Article<p>Great question. Here is a quote from stackexchange on the topic that is pitch perfect:</p>
<blockquote style="padding-top: 10px; margin-top: -15px;">“So suppose you can save $2000 every three years by buying cheaper computers, and your average developer(or designer) is making $60k. If those cheaper computers only cost you 10 minutes of productivity a day, not at all a stretch, I’m sure that my machine costs me more than that, then over 3 years the 125 lost hours would add up to a loss of $7500. A loss of 1 minute a day ($750) would give a net gain of $1250, which would hardly offset the cost of poor morale”</blockquote>
<p>Would a contractor ask his carpenter to cut with a dull saw? Full thread <a href="http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/93983/why-dont-all-companies-buy-developers-the-best-hardware">here</a>.</p>Alan Bloodtag:2008:northtemple-247812011-08-03T13:14:47-06:002011-08-03T13:14:47-06:00 Want to make the world a bette...VideoDesigncreativity(flash video content)<br/><p><p>Want to make the world a better place? I think Ghandi said “You must be the change you want to see in the world.” Anything worth doing is worth doing together. Right?</p>
<p>Sometimes as creatives we lose our bearings and wonder what the point is. With so much raw awesomeness, illusion, tools, and effects all around us all the time, it’s helpful to remember a few things:</p>
<p>We need more story and less special effect.</p>
<p>We need more character and less manipulation.</p>
<p>We need more connection and less fortification.</p>
<p>We need more solutions and less technology.</p>
<p>We need more reality and less simulation.</p>
<p>We need more friends and less acquaintances.</p></p>
<p>We need more teams and less heroes.</p>
<p>We need more neighbors and less celebrities.</p>
<p>We need more face-to-face friendly speaking and less facebooking.</p>
<p>We need more substance and less superficiality.</p>
<p>We need more creativity and less critical passive-aggressiveness. </p>
<p>We need to exercise more faith and not be driven so much by “fear of offense” or “lack of control”.</p>
<p>People matter more than business, innovation, or invention.</p>
<p>What needs to happen will happen. What innovation is needed will occur when the time is right. When it unfolds, were we part of it? Or, when a great thing is invented, will we despise it because it was not forcibly willed by us according to our own timeline?</p>
<p>“To become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them.” -Charles de Montesquieu</p>
<p>“Let’s fight together and make history” (1:32)</p>Scott Schlegeltag:2008:northtemple-247782011-08-01T16:54:00-06:002011-08-01T16:54:00-06:00Web Development Survey ResultsArticle<p>First off thanks to all those who particpated in our survey. The data points included some surprises that I hadn’t expected. I’ll let the results speak for themselves. As for the schwag, we’ll announce that soon too!</p>
<p>
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<p><a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/61401019/North-Temple-Webdev-Survey-2011" style="background-color: #467276; border: medium none; color: #fff; cursor: pointer; font-size: 13px; padding: 5px 25px; -moz-border-radius: 2px; -webkit-border-radius: 2px; -ms-border-radius: 2px; border-radius: 2px; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 0 !important;">View survey results on Scribd</a></p>Scott Schlegeltag:2008:northtemple-247702011-07-18T14:14:00-06:002011-07-18T14:14:00-06:00Help! 11 Question Web Development SurveyArticle<p>Annually <a href="http://alistapart.com">alistapart</a> has a web design survey which is jam-packed of interested data points about our industry. Their survey is built around the people, how they work, and how they learn. I enjoy reading it each year, but I’ve always wanted to know a little more about the technology behind it all. To that end, here is our first annual web developer survey. Each year we’ll solicit feedback from folks in and out of the NorthTemple community, then pool together the results and post them here.</p>
<p>As a thank you participating, we’ll randomlly send a few lucky readers some NorthTemple/FamilySearch swag.</p>
<p><a href="https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dEkwUjUwaVZYUzhiT0tyUnN2cUZYU3c6MQ" style="background-color: #467276; border: medium none; color: #fff; cursor: pointer; font-size: 13px; padding: 5px 25px; -moz-border-radius: 2px; -webkit-border-radius: 2px; -ms-border-radius: 2px; border-radius: 2px; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 0 !important;" class="btn-primary">Click here to take the 11 question survey</a></p>Scott Schlegeltag:2008:northtemple-247682011-07-15T11:47:00-06:002011-07-15T11:47:00-06:00In a great example of practical...Photo<img src="http://www.photos.northtemple.com/Screen shot 2011-07-15 at 11.46.53 AM.png" class="type-img" /><br/><p>In a great example of practical living thru great design, the founder of Etnies shoes is building a <a href="http://www.fastcodesign.com/1664495/air-architecture-builds-a-skateboarders-dream-house-in-malibu"> dream house</a> where every surface – even the furniture – is skateable or grindable.</p>
<p>Best. house. ever.</p>Ted Borentag:2008:northtemple-247662011-07-12T10:10:00-06:002011-07-12T10:10:00-06:00All designers should think of t...QuoteDesign"All designers should think of themselves as Ambassadors of good ideas." ~ Love this quote from Scott Berkun’s <a href="http://www.scottberkun.com/blog/2011/5-dangerous-ideas-for-designers/">5 Dangerous Ideas for Designers</a> presentation at the <span class="caps">DMI</span>’s “Make It Happen” event, citing either himself or someone he heard that day.<br/><br/>It’s not always about having the briliiant idea yourself—it’s about recognizing it, regardless of the source.Scott Schlegeltag:2008:northtemple-247652011-07-12T10:09:00-06:002011-07-12T10:09:00-06:00Eric Rise: "The Lean Startup"
...Videoleanstartupsusers centered design(flash video content)<br/><p>Eric Rise: “The Lean Startup”</p>
<p>If you haven’t watched this, do it now. it is a great introduction to the lean movement. Designers should be clamming to build products under this approach. Here’s the abstract, which was clearly written by a publicist.</p>
<p>“The Lean Startup movement is taking hold in companies both new and established to help entrepreneurs and managers do one important thing: make better, faster business decisions. Vastly better, faster business decisions. Bringing principles from lean manufacturing and agile development to the process of innovation, the Lean Startup helps companies succeed in a business landscape riddled with risk.”</p>Ted Borentag:2008:northtemple-247612011-06-30T10:47:00-06:002011-06-30T10:47:00-06:00Follow our rules, or get out an...Quotefocusrules"Follow our rules, or get out and don’t come back until you can." ~ <a href="http://goodexperience.com/2011/06/to-create-a-great-cus.php">Mark Hurst</a> claims counterintuitively that this blog entry is “one of the most pro-customer experience posts I’ve seen in awhile.” He then makes a persuasive argument for one of the hardest but most important principles in design—your product probably can’t please everyone. Try to please everybody and you end up pleasing no one. Find your target and aim true.Scott Schlegeltag:2008:northtemple-247602011-06-29T11:03:00-06:002011-06-29T11:03:00-06:00 Pushing code 50 times a dayArticle<p>Last week at FamilySearch, <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/eishay" style="color:#333; border-bottom-color: #333">Eishay Smith</a> came to talk to our org about Continuous Delivery. His company <a href="https://www.wealthfront.com/" style="color:#333; border-bottom-color: #333">wealthfront.com</a>, which manages a quarter of a billion dollars in an <span class="caps">SEC</span> regulated environment, pushes code from commit to production in less than 10 minutes, about 50 times a day. Full talk <a href="http://www.infoq.com/presentations/Continuous-Deployment-50-Times-a-Day">here</a>. Imagine how this would impact your work, if you could test features against a subset of real users at this pace.</p>
<p>If that sounds good, we’re working on it. <a href="https://www.familysearch.org/careers">Come help us.</a></p>Ted Borentag:2008:northtemple-247582011-06-17T10:00:00-06:002011-06-17T10:00:00-06:00The Best Design Is InvisibleArticleDesigntypography<p>Former colleague August de los Reyes pointed me to a 1932 typography article by Beatrice Warde posted on <a href="http://www.designhistory.org/CrystalGoblet.html">Design History</a>:<blockquote>Imagine that you have before you a flagon of wine. You may choose your own favorite vintage for this imaginary demonstration, so that it be a deep shimmering crimson in color. You have two goblets before you. One is of solid gold, wrought in the most exquisite patterns. The other is of crystal-clear glass, thin as a bubble, and as transparent. Pour and drink; and according to your choice of goblet, I shall know whether or not you are a connoisseur of wine. For if you have no feelings about wine one way or the other, you will want the sensation of drinking the stuff out of a vessel that may have cost thousands of pounds; but if you are a member of that vanishing tribe, the amateurs of fine vintages, you will choose the crystal, because everything about it is calculated to reveal rather than to hide the beautiful thing which it was meant to contain.</blockquote></p><p>Even a tee-totaling Mormon like myself can appreciate the point: the best design is invisible. Warde applied it to typography specifically, but the same applies to design in general. Often, our goal in design should be to get out of the way, so that people can consume the content or perform the task that they came for. I think too often we get caught up up in the decoration and adornment of our own particular golden goblets, and don’t pay enough attention to the content and tasks that are so central to the experience.</p>Ted Borentag:2008:northtemple-247572011-06-15T11:55:00-06:002011-06-15T11:55:00-06:00What do Al Jazeera, the US Stat...Blurb<p>What do Al Jazeera, the US State Department, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints all have in common? They were the three finalists nominated for “<a href="http://blog.brightcove.com/en/2011/05/announcing-finalists-brightcove-online-video-innovation-awards">Best Live Video Event</a>” by Brightcove!</p>Ted Borentag:2008:northtemple-247562011-06-15T10:49:00-06:002011-06-15T10:49:00-06:00Good practice focuses on the pr...Quote"Good practice focuses on the process, while work focuses on the outcome. When doctors, musicians, and pilots are practicing, they are not doing the entire job. They are looking at the process of the work, often repeating the same step multiple times." ~ I was a little skeptical about how I could truly “practice” user research techniques, but Spool’s article on <a href="http://www.uie.com/articles/ux_practicing">Developing a UX Practice of Practicing</a> actually had some great examples of that… Sounds fun! Now, can I make space in my schedule for this… ?Ted Borentag:2008:northtemple-247552011-06-09T16:22:00-06:002011-06-09T16:22:00-06:00People should get their informa...Quoteinformation overloadinformation overloadlife hacksproductivity"People should get their information from the smallest number of sources that will keep them informed. Everything else in the universe—blogs, magazines, podcasts, Twitter streams, etc.—you just ignore, and you don’t feel guilty about it. You have to say “no” to the infinity of media sources out there while saying “yes” to a chosen few—<strong>very</strong> few." ~ From an interview with Mark Hurst on <br/><a href="http://www.thehiredguns.com/blogs/2011/06/02/qa-ux-guru-mark-hurst-on-staying-focused-and-avoiding-info-overload/">Staying Focused and Avoiding Info Overload.</a><br/>Advice I need to apply…Ted Borentag:2008:northtemple-247532011-06-01T21:41:00-06:002011-06-01T21:41:00-06:00Looking forward to the free The...Blurb<p>Looking forward to the free <a href="http://www.scottberkun.com/blog/2011/free-webinar-the-myths-of-innovation-live/">The Myths of Innovation</a> webcast by Scott Berkun on June 9. Enjoyed an earlier version of this talk at <span class="caps">UIE</span> a year or two ago.</p>Ted Borentag:2008:northtemple-247512011-05-25T11:32:00-06:002011-05-25T11:32:00-06:00I’m going to begin with a pro...QuoteCSS"I’m going to begin with a provocative claim: I believe <span class="caps">CSS</span> is one of the most difficult-to-master computer languages we have. … Simply put; it’s a styling language. A language for designers, not developers. Some of the most experienced programmers I’ve worked with struggle to comprehend <span class="caps">CSS</span> for this very reason." ~ Having just had to explain the concept of “specificity” to an experienced developer, this quote resonated with me. From an article by Chris Sealey on <a href="http://designfestival.com/better-semantics-with-css-combinators-and-selectors/">Better Semantics with <span class="caps">CSS</span> Combinators and Selectors</a>.Ted Borentag:2008:northtemple-247502011-05-23T08:38:00-06:002011-05-23T08:38:00-06:00Swipe Ambiguity...Quoteusabilitytabletsipad"Swipe Ambiguity" ~ One of several common usability problems for iPad apps identified in usability testing by Jakob Nielsen in an interesting article on the<br/><a href="http://www.useit.com/alertbox/ipad.html">current state of iPad usability</a>.Ted Borentag:2008:northtemple-247492011-05-17T11:17:00-06:002011-05-17T11:17:00-06:00There are many things I love ab...Photoflowerstemplesservice<img src="http://www.photos.northtemple.com/SLC-TEMPLE-FLOWERS(600).jpg" class="type-img" /><br/><p>There are many things I love about working for the <span class="caps">LDS</span> Church. Being able to walk through Temple Square on occasion is one of them. (That doesn’t happen as often since our department moved to Riverton, but I still get downtown now and then, and others can go more frequently.)<br/><br/>This photo was taken with my phone at the conclusion of a service project and team building day, spent helping to landscape the grounds adjacent to Temple Square. (That’s another thing I love about working here—the emphasis on service.)</p>Ted Borentag:2008:northtemple-247472011-05-11T15:26:00-06:002011-05-11T15:26:00-06:00Essential UX Layers—an in...Blurbagileexperience designux<p><a href="http://www.uie.com/articles/ux_layers_agile">Essential UX Layers</a>—an interesting model from Jared Spool for tying together your vision, design principles, personas, scenarios, and user stories (or feature designs or use cases or whatever). He presents this as a way to help user experience design fit into an agile development world, but the layers would work well in traditional dev methods as well.<br/><br/>An important point that might be lost on some readers—many of the layers (all?) are rooted in user research; you don’t just make stuff up and expect to solve real problems for real people.</p>Emmy Southworthtag:2008:northtemple-247462011-05-06T16:30:00-06:002011-05-06T16:30:00-06:00
Communicating the UX Value Pr...Blurb<p><img src="http://uxmag.com/uploads/dillworthmillervalueprop/step4.png" />
<p><a href="http://uxmag.com/strategy/communicating-the-ux-value-proposition" target="blank">Communicating the UX Value Proposition</a></p>
<p>Great article from <a href="http://northtemple.com/designers/john">John Dilworth</a> and <a href="http://northtemple.com/designers/matt">Matt Miller</a> published in UX Magazine.</p></p>Ted Borentag:2008:northtemple-247442011-04-26T08:23:00-06:002011-04-26T08:23:00-06:00Knowing that the name would be ...QuoteDesignworkflow"Knowing that the name would be widely displayed and not just used as a login credential would prevent people from being stuck with unfortunate names like SuperStud on a professional site." ~ From <a href="http://www.useit.com/alertbox/workflow.html">Workflow Expectations: Presenting Steps at the Right Time</a>, an Alertbox from Jakob Nielsen. Good article on the importance of holistic design and good timing.Ted Borentag:2008:northtemple-247432011-04-25T12:18:00-06:002011-04-25T12:18:00-06:00Holy Donkey Kong! SurveyMonkey ...Blurbsurveys<p><a href="http://wufoo.com/2011/04/25/wufoo-surveymonkey-acquisition/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Big+Announcement&utm_content=Big+Announcement+CID_91cdec2ed9fe42078c9a687d3b0ae5f7&utm_source=Email+marketing+software&utm_term=announcement+on+our+blog">Holy Donkey Kong! SurveyMonkey Acquires Wufoo!</a> I hope this doesn’t kill what has been a really great, easy-to-use survey app…</p>Emmy Southworthtag:2008:northtemple-247422011-04-21T15:45:00-06:002011-04-21T15:45:00-06:00How can UX professionals work t...Blurbuieusabilityjared spool<p>How can UX professionals work to become indispensable team members and not just another cog in the machine?</p>
<p>Grady Kelly, an interaction designer on our team, ask this question on Jared Spool’s <span class="caps">UIE</span> Podcast, <a href="http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2010/07/14/userability-podcast-19-be-a-linchpin/">Userability Podcast #19 – Be a Linchpin</a>.</p>Emmy Southworthtag:2008:northtemple-247102011-04-18T13:32:00-06:002011-04-18T13:32:00-06:00Something that has been on my m...BlurbDesignhiring thinkers<p>Something that has been on my mind lately as we have been interviewing for interaction designers – there are a lot of designers out there, but not enough thinkers.</p>
<p>This article from Eric Karjaluoto @ smashLab is an exceptional read on what we should be trying to achieve with the title of “designer”.</p>
<blockquote>The point I’m trying to make is that there’s a lot of opportunity for us—as thinkers—to provide great value to our clients. We won’t, however, do this if we continue to hold tightly on to the notion of designers being purely visual practitioners. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: design is about facilitating outcomes, not selecting colors. <em>Selection from</em> <a href="http://www.ideasonideas.com/2011/04/put-down-your-crayons/">Put Down Your Crayons, April 11th, 2011, Eric Karjaluoto</blockquote>Ted Borentag:2008:northtemple-247002011-04-14T10:04:00-06:002011-04-14T10:04:00-06:00Every project and set of interv...Quotecontextual interviewhuman-centered design"Every project and set of interviews reveals surprises, personal revelations, confessions, and sometimes, even tears. It’s key to wallow in and celebrate these moments, not as exceptions, but as important beacons that empower design teams and strategists to transcend confined objectives." ~ Conclusion to a truly eye-opening article by Julie Norvaisas and Steve Portigal on <a href="http://www.uie.com/articles/expect-the-unexpected">the value of ethnographic, contextual research in product development</a>, and the importance of realizing that those we interview, test, and serve are first and foremost People, and only secondarily “users”.Ted Borentag:2008:northtemple-246992011-04-13T14:26:04-06:002011-04-13T14:26:04-06:00Sunrise just before work. River...Photosunrisemountainsclouds<img src="http://www.photos.northtemple.com/sunrise-mountains.png" class="type-img" /><br/><p>Sunrise just before work. Riverton, Utah.</p>Ted Borentag:2008:northtemple-246982011-04-13T11:22:00-06:002011-04-13T11:22:00-06:00Walmart didn't pursue the quest...Quoteresearchsurveyscustomer-centered design"Walmart didn’t pursue the question of what customers wanted. Instead, Walmart came up with the answer first, then asked customers to agree to it. [They] ignored customers while attempting to fool stakeholders into thinking that the strategy [was] customer-centered." ~ From an interesting <a href="http://goodexperience.com/2011/04/ignore-the-customer-e.php">critique by Mark Hurst of a survey gone awry</a> to the tune of a billion dollar cost of research misapplied.