Adaptive Path Blog

We can’t help but find this post flattering. When we send our ideas out into the big, bad world, there’s nothing better than discovering that people are listening and appreciate what we contribute. When I first came to Adaptive Path, I was impressed by how much people write and are willing to put their ideas out there. It can be damn scary. What I was also surprised at is why this works here at Adaptive Path: Sharing is an innate and encouraged part of our culture, even if the idea is half-baked, or…well…wrong. This doesn’t mean that we don’t have the usual fears around writing and sharing ideas. As part of my role, I help people flesh out their ideas and turn them into things like essays and R&D projects. In coaching people through that process, I have discovered that there are two main reasons why people don’t share their ideas:

• The ‘duh, everyone already knows this’

• Ahh! writing about ideas and sharing ideas with the world is scary

Here’s my sage advice for when I encounter these fears:

What’s obvious to you, probably isn’t obvious to everyone else. And if for some reason it is, it will just make them feel smarter about what they know — and who doesn’t like to help people feel smart? If it is something new, well, than someone just learned something new.

The worst thing that will happen if you share your idea, is that someone (or a whole bunch of people) will criticize it. The good news about that concern: That’s when it truly gets exciting. Take Todd Wilkens piece about Crackberry for example. If you read the comments, you’ll notice it was terribly unpopular with a lot of people. But once it took flight, it started an important conversation where people in various roles shared perspectives from several industries. It also got camera crews from three networks broadcasting from our offices.

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The shopping experience at clothing stores is much better than it used to be. The layout of the store tends to provide more open space for shoppers than it did just five years ago. Even in department stores, gone are the days of being squeezed in between the sale rack and some soulless sweater display with a half dressed mannequin. It seems there are more boutiques focused on one style or catering to a well thought out target audience than ever before. There are places for people to sit, often with those nice little tables with magazines. I’ve noticed this in nearly every U.S. city I’ve visited this year from Chicago, to DC, to Santa Fe.

Where most of these stores still sadly continue to fail is the real point of sale: the dressing room. It’s a terrible experience. The lighting is enough to compromise anyone’s self esteem. The fluorescent lighting not only makes me look bad, but the shirt or sweater that looked great on the shelf or rack, now looks different. And all too often, there isn’t anyone to help me decide if I’m about to buy something that will make me look like an idiot, stylish, savvy, or smart.

I recently learned that Anthropologie has a service where you can work with a stylist for free. (Sorry guys, no men’s clothes yet.) Having been less than inspired by my wardrobe lately, I signed up for an hour with Maria. First she sat me down and asked me several question: what did I like, what was I looking for, what colors did I hate? Then we walked through the store and she helped pick things out. We picked out probably 20 things — half of which I would never pick out on my own, but I was there to try new things.

The dressing room at Anthropologie isn’t amazing, but it’s better than most. The lighting isn’t enough to make me run, and it’s always well-staffed. This is the experience differentiator that Anthropologie offers: the support of someone that knows my likes and dislikes and how I want to improve my wardrobe. I tried everything on, ventured out and modeled it to her. Maria gave me her opinion and ideas for different things that I could do with the pants, shirts, or dresses, or as Maria referred to them ‘pieces’. While I didn’t quite feel like I was buying art, it was a lovely experience. I felt supported, confident, and even inspired.

Without the time with Maria, I wouldn’t have spent a dime at Anthropologie, but after an hour, I gladly walked up to the counter and spent a couple hundred dollars. I hope to go back a few times a year to meet with Maria. She even said I could bring old clothes from home and she’d help me work them into new outfits.

This experience struck me as an opportunity for a retail clothing store to transform how they think about their business, and specifically, how the business defines the job of the sales people. If a store made everyone that walked in the door feel like they had a stylist, I imagine that point of sale in the dressing room (hopefully with better lighting) would be a whole new opportunity.

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Social Networks are like nightclubs. When I worked at Bolt Peters, Nate Bolt and I use to discuss this a lot: They’re cool to hang out at for a little while, but eventually, they’re dull, there’s nobody new and people stop going. I was reminded of this with the slew of Facebook friend requests I received this week from friends, colleagues, UX Week attendees, and speakers. It seems like not long ago I was receiving MySpace invites from family, high school, and college friends — but these days, I get fewer and fewer. Perhaps I’m just not as popular as I thought I was, or perhaps the new nightclub is enjoying the equivalent of the line around the block, and the old one is losing its crowd.

I recently talked to a few people about this, and most of them said they couldn’t decide if they should join Facebook or Linked-in. My question to all the social networks is: Why can we only *be* at one place at a time on the internet? After all, the internet isn’t really like a nightclub. Wired has recently written about the need for social networks to open up. Why hasn’t someone created a social network aggregator where I can see, and be logged into all my social networks at once?

Right now it seems like Facebook is the new place to be. And right now I’m asking myself, “Why would I want to go anywhere else? This place is great!” My bet is that Facebook too, like any trendy nightclub, will fade out and there will be yet another cool online nightclub equivalent to join. Which begs the question, should social networks just do what nightclubs do every two years and just shut down and start over?

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We are looking for people to participate in a small research study related to hotels that we will be using in some of our workshop materials. If you are selected and participate, you will earn a copy of Dan Saffer’s book Designing for Interaction, or a discount to UX Week in Washington DC. The interviews will be conducted over the phone March 27-30 and will last 30-60 min.

We are looking for people who are planning business travel and personal travel. If you are planning business travel, to be eligible for the study you must have a choice about where you stay, and still be researching what hotel you will be staying at. If you are interested, please send the answers to the following questions to research[at]adaptivepath[dot]com:

Are you planning business travel or personal travel?

Do you have choice in what hotel you stay at?

Have you decided which hotel you will be staying at?

Will you be traveling with your kids?

Have you stayed at a boutique hotel before?

Are you interested in staying at a boutique hotel for this trip?

Will you be taking this trip in the next two weeks?

If you will be taking this trip in the next two weeks, will you be traveling with a digital camera?

If you will be taking this trip in the next two weeks, will you be available to do a follow-up call while you’re at your hotel?

Are you available for a 30-60 minute interview March 27-30?

What is your phone number?

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