Adaptive Path Blog

It’s National Bike to Work Day, and the Adaptive Path offices are filled with bikes of all shapes and sizes, from fixies to cruisers to racers. Some of us have been riding for years, other are more recent converts. One person even bought her bike this week.

One of the worst things to confront new bike owners isn’t city traffic, it’s the dreaded trip to the bike shop. What a miserable experience. You’ve just purchased your new (or used) bike and something doesn’t work right. You’re not happy. You walk in to the local shop and the guy (inevitably) behind the counter gives you a look that makes most people’s stomachs drop. Something like Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons, but with tattoos and three times the attitude (grease coating optional). You feel unworthy. You feel stupid. He unnerves you with the smug condescension that most shop guys have. This is what happened to Rachel. And she’s, um, upset. This scene is played out thousands of times a day in shops around the country. I’ve been hanging around bike shops for the better part of 15 years and this still happens to me all the time.

That’s a giant opportunity.

Over the last 10 years, most of the innovation in the bicycle industry has occurred in the supplier-retailer relationship. Integrated POS systems, concept stores, mass customization, etc. have redefined what’s available. The retail experience has remained stubbornly suck in the stone ages, and a lot of that has to do with the human element.

Why is this important in experience design?

People matter more than technology, process and systems. Something that we see overlooked by a lot of our clients is the impact of the person-to-person experience. It’s the same thing that the independent bicycle retailers of America have missed as well. No matter how good your shop, product or service, if the people staffing and supporting you aren’t focused (or able) to deliver good experiences, you’ll get the equivalent of the bike shop we all know and hate. Nothing is more poisonous. A bad human to human interaction can cut the best product or service design off at the knees.

Think about the human elements of interaction. Move past wireframes, flows and technology. Design not only for the end customer, but also for the people that will support your design. Create personas, tools and opportunities for the people them too. They’re critical and often overlooked factor in delivering truly great experiences. Do that and you’ll be on your way to delivering the “Long Wow.”

Share This

Recently I attended Startup School, a one day event put on by venture firm Y Combinator at Stanford University. Speakers included Jeff Bezos, Marc Andreessen, and a bevy of other Valley heavies. Videos of their presentations here. If you only want to watch one, make sure you check out David Heinemeier Hansson’s (funny!) presentation on how to make money. Easily the best and most entertaining of the group.

Generally, they day went much as expected; which is to say “how do we cash out as quickly as possible?!” What startled me more than anything else was the lazy lip service given to listening to users given in almost every presentation. Apparently mentioning listening to users is all you have to do. Term sheets? Check. Sustainable unfair advantage? Check. Iterate rapidly? Check. Listen to users? Check. I can haz fundz now?

Perhaps the only person who really got it was Paul Graham of Y Combinator, who told the audience “make something people want.” And in that company, that’s pretty sad.

Share This

As per annual tradition, a number of us are headed to the IA Summit to speak or just soak in all the IA goodness that we can. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that this year’s Summit is Miami. This time around, Leah Buley will tell us How to be a user experience team of one while Brandon Schauer will be talking about the Long Wow of user experience. I’m honored to be on the stage with Mags Hanley of WTG and Karen Loasby of the BBC where we will be talking about developing junior programs for user experience teams. Stop by and say hi!

Share This

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Peter Coughlan, the head of IDEO’s Transformation by Design Practice and MX San Francisco speaker about the ways in which organizations can fundamentally rethink their approach to things from a design-oriented perspective. Some highlights:

On making change tangible:

 One of my favorite examples comes from a hospital that wanted to help reduce their patients’ worry levels while they were waiting for (chemo) treatment. A very simple idea they had was to just go up to patients and ask them if they had any worries, any questions that they could address. It turned out that doing that — going up to patients and asking them questions — was very awkward and difficult to do. So they created an artifact to help them get over that awkwardness — a set of question cards that they shared with patients to help break the ice and provide something to talk about. It turned out to be a wonderful way to prompt new behavior on the part of patients and providers.

On the designer-client relationship:

I would say that the most important shift in the design profession will be for designers to get comfortable with the notion that it’s more important for a client to have a great idea than for the designer to have the idea. If the client organization has played a role in coming up with the idea, it’s way more likely to see the light of day.

Read the complete interview here.

You can still register for MX San Francisco, April 20-22 here. Enter the code FOHF for a 15% discount.

Share This

It is no secret that a lot of us were science fiction geeks growing up, so it was with sadness that we learned of Arthur C. Clarke’s passing yesterday. In our own ways we remembered his influence on our lives:

Jesse James Garrett:

Not the year, but the movie. Arthur C. Clarke died today — yes, but did you know he invented the communications satellite, complete with math, decades before it was technologically possible? — and I’ve seen this link in a few places about the creative process behind the film:

http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0073.html

As you probably know, I love hearing about the dead ends and abandoned concepts in any creative project, and this diary is rich with them: he describes their initial schedule as “hilariously optimistic”, recounts working through at least two Christmases, and the blow-by-blow accounts of directions considered and abandoned (and crucial last-minute rewrites) show that even the path to great work requires innumerable wrong turns along the way.

Jeff Veen:

His Three Laws are still inspiration to me, even if contemporary usage
has pushed them to cliche:

1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is
possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something
is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to
venture a little way past them into the impossible.

3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke’s_three_law

Kate Rutter:

That last one [Law #3] is still my favorite. During one recent project, the similarities between what we were designing and the World Of Harry Potter kept me up at night.

As for me, books like the 2001 series, The Songs of Distant Earth and short stories like “The Nine Billion Names of God” have remained with me in many ways. Last weekend I unpacked my books after my 14th move in 12 years. Arthur C. Clarke’s books have been with me for every one of those moves. They remain some of my favorite stories and they even got me through college astronomy. Not only were they factually correct on the particulars of our solar system, they were way more entertaining than the stuff the professor assigned.

Share This

Brandon, Sarah and I had the pleasure of speaking with Jeff Parks and the I.A. Consultants podcast after our mini-workshop at the VizThink conference. In our discussion, we discuss five elements which “illustrate” why pictures are a powerful way to communicate with multi-disciplinary teams, including:

1. Disambiguation
2. Efficiency
3. Emotion
4. Telling a Story
5. Leadership

Check it out on the web here. It’s also available via iTunes.

Share This

The weather in San Francisco is especially atrocious today. It’s the kind of cold rain that makes you wish it were summer. We’re looking forward to it not only because it means more sunshine and a vague increase in temperature, but also because it means we will be joined by this year’s interns.

Over the past few years Adaptive Path has hired a few rockstars for a 10 week summer internship, and this year is no different. We’re looking for people that have expertise, experience and passion for one (or more) of the following: interaction design, information architecture, design strategy or design research.

Summer isn’t the only time we host interns. We also offer 3-6 month internships to individuals with the aforementioned qualifications. These positions are on an ongoing basis.

For complete internship details, head over here.

As part of a project team, you will work alongside project leads, project managers and practitioners on client facing projects. We work hard to place you on projects that match their expertise, experience and interests. In addition, interns may participate in Adaptive Path research and development projects. Past projects have included Charmr and Measure Map.

Summer internships begin June 2 and go through August 15. The end of the summer internship will coincide with UX Week, August 12-15, which interns are invited to attend.

We’re looking forward to hearing from you.

Share This

Chris Conley of Gravity Tank and the Institute of Design spends his time educating young designers as well as clients the finer points of design, business and the process of building a creative and sustainable culture. I had a chance to sit down with him and talk about what it takes to grow and sustain creative excellence within organizations. Here are some highlights:

There is a tacit assumption that making is a production activity rather than a critical, informative one. Anyone who has ever been a part of a productive R&D team realizes that trying things and doing experiments is the fastest way to break into new territory. By putting a priority on thinking and talking (through email, meetings, and PowerPoint) our work activities and environments have become sterile and devoid of the tangible aspects of what were in business to create! You can’t tell by going into the offices of most companies what business they are actually in! Consider how challenging that inherently makes it for new people in the organization to understand and contribute creatively….

The “new” way of working is to re-train the organization. I put scare quotes around it because it is exactly how we used to work. You remember photos from the 50s of all of our great companies like General Motors, Lockheed, IBM? The photos were of folks in rooms full of prototypes, drawings on the tables, and walls that were blackboards with sketches and drawings. They were building the businesses. That’s gone. Somehow, we’ve convinced ourselves that tangible things don’t matter.

Check out the entire interview here. Don’t forget, when you register for MX East, use the promotional code BLOG for an additional 10% off.

Share This

I’m anxiously waiting for a package to be delivered by FedEx. Part of the fun of receiving a package from one of the major delivery services these days is the ability to track it. My new backpack began its journey in Enfield, Britain yesterday, passed through Stansted before making the hop across the pond to Memphis. At the moment it’s sitting in the back of some truck driving through the streets of San Francisco, on its way to me. It’s fascinating to watch the process of a global logistics company at work.

FedEx’s package tracking is only the tip of the iceberg. Last week’s New York Times business section rightly pointed out that most imnportant processes that make for a great user experience are hidden. These are the enabling technologies and processes that deliver great experience and incredible business value. Think of Google’s search algorithm and vast computing centers, or Intel’s chip manufacturing processes. You can bet that a lot of the processes that FedEx is using to deliver my order are secret.

Yet none of these companies tout process or technology when speaking to customers. Google delivers search results, Intel makes your computer faster and FedEx delivers your package on time. These companies are smart enough to know that what’s happening under the hood isn’t as important as the experience. Others aren’t. To channel James Carville: it’s the experience, stupid.

So leave the technology and process, no matter how dazzling, under the hood. By all means, work on it like mad. Plow resources into it. But on the surface, remove the underlying complexity and deliver the experience that people want. It’s good business strategy and it delivers the protectable IP that gives you a real edge.

Now if only FedEx could work on how they handle “delivery exceptions.”

Share This

Two years after it launched, the New York Times pulls the plug on TimesSelect. Their rationale?

“Since we launched TimesSelect in 2005, the online landscape has altered significantly. Readers increasingly find news through search, as well as through social networks, blogs and other online sources. In light of this shift, we believe offering unfettered access to New York Times reporting and analysis best serves the interest of our readers, our brand and the long-term vitality of our journalism.”

I’m happy to see the Times reconsider its poor decision making. It’s refreshing to see an older, more established organization begin to question fundamental assumptions about its business and brand. What continues to mystify me is that it took two years to see the writing on the wall.

Share This