Adaptive Path Blog

Sarah Nelson, our Program Chair of UX Week 2007, has lined-up some really great talks this year about designing for mobile. For starters, Day 3’s Keynote is Jan Chipchase of Nokia Research, and in the afternoon our very own Rachel Hinman will be giving a talk on Mobile Research Techniques. Also on Day 3, Barbara Ballard, who recently released the book Designing the Mobile User Experience, will be giving two talks back to back: Going Mobile: How to Choose Target Platforms and Devices? and Mobile Usability Testing. So Day 3 is a must for anyone interested in the Mobile space!

Recently, I had the pleasure of chatting with Barbara about the mobile space and her talks at UX Week. Check out the interview.

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With the launch of the iPhone, I’ve been hearing many grumblings from interaction designers who’ve worked for various, well known consumer electronics companies. We can all see in the iPhone aspects of our concepts from years past that were brushed aside or died prematurely. Our concepts are suffocating under the pile of NDA verbiage, never to see the light of day. What sets our mere concepts apart from this final product however, is a company with leadership who has the fortitude to take the risk, find the budget, and push the technology for the single cause of designing compelling user experiences. Apple got it right.

For my own concepts, the valuable lessons I’ve learned are that I could have done a better job navigating internal politics as well as communicating the advantages of the concepts. In some cases, I was unable to translate my passion and conviction about experience design into reasons to build the products. The accelerometer (portrait to landscape) my team wanted to include in one of our designs was killed simply because it cost $20 per unit. Playing with the iPhone, one can see that’s $20 well spent.

In the end, everyone I’ve spoke with are tremendously thankful for the iPhone’s release - this product launch has single-handedly raised the bar of what’s possible. Since the rumors of an iPhone began last year, there was a shift that happened within many consumer electronics companies. My hope is that this is only the beginning of change in the roll of interaction design within consumer electronics.

This is the opportunity for all the UX Managers, Directors, VPs, CCOs, and CXOs to push for more. For some it will be a new seat at the C-level, for others it will be to move the UX team into a visible location on the org chart — out from under Engineering, Marketing, Research or QA — and for others it will be creating an interaction design team from scratch.

If your company still needs convincing of the value experience design brings to your product and you’re in need of more funding for staff, training, etc., I encourage you to create a case study of the iPhone and pitch it to your CEO. With the rumored 1 million iPhones sold in less than a week, now is the time get what you need.

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So I’ve started this new job. Same title more or less, but new people, new computer, new systems; getting to know personalities, motivations and how things get done here at Adaptive Path. Overall my first 3 months have been positive and wonderfully fulfilling. I’ve drank the Adaptive Path Kool-Aid and really love the founding principles and philosophy of the studio.

As with starting anything new, here’s my opportunity to make changes to my behaviors. Not so much bad habits, those I fondly refer to now as character. It’s more that, with starting something new, I have this opportunity and desire to create new systems for:

Managing personal and work schedules — At my previous job we used Entourage’s shared project calendar for work and I used my Sidekick II and iCal for personal appointments — an imperfect system to say the least. Adaptive Path uses iCal pretty heavily, so now I can have my personal calendar at home and work. However, I’ve had to break out my personal calendar into 2 — the office needs to know when I’m traveling or at the dentist, but doesn’t need to know when I’m attending a baby shower or going camping with friends. And, as Brandon’s mentioned, iCal has its points of frustration too.

Gathering research for multiple, concurrent projects — Do I finally breakdown and try out Backpack or stick with my 1/2 paper, 1/2 digital un-method? What do I do with the information that I find interesting, but have yet to know how or where I’ll use it, you know, the non-project-specific stuff? I don’t want ideas getting lost in my analog notebook or in the browser bookmark abyss.

Taking notes during various meetings — I used to have a paper notebook for general studio activities, meetings, etc. and used my computer when I knew I’d have to share more formal meeting minutes with team members. At Adaptive Path we have an internal wiki for office related stuff, digital group calendars, basecamp for projects and many mailing lists that seem to capture most everything needed for recall later.

Here’s the clincher: Since starting at AP in January, I’ve had this desire to go completely digital in my research, notes, writing, etc. simply for the ability to search by keywords. However, I am finding that I *need* the tactile nature of a pencil and paper. Not just for storyboarding and wireframing, but even reading articles so I can highlight key phrases with a marker or flag a page with a postit. I’m realizing that what it comes down to is this: I’m of the generation where computers in college were in a classroom and only owned by computer science majors. I have managed to ride the digital wave fairly well and can thank my high school’s vice principal for purchasing the first school computer for the journalism class. But since personal computers arrived while in college and the internet didn’t become mainstream until well after graduating college, I’ve realized that there are certain things in my behaviors that are innate and visceral, these things are so deeply embedded in who I am that I cannot make the leap. So for now, I will stick with my imperfect system of bridging the analog and digital worlds because going 100% digital would feel like I’m abandoning a part of me.

What systems do you use? And what’s your ratio of digital to analog?

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I’m a sucker for top ten lists. I’m immediately drawn in, be they David Letterman’s, CNET’s, or anything in between. So when I read the headline “12 Podcasts for the Creative Class” I clicked the link without even thinking.

What I found was a short list of sites with serial podcasts that cover a broad range of interests (supposedly) of the Creative Class. Since everyone’s interests vary, take a look at the full list, but here are the ones to check out first:

“For the Web 2.0 worker: Podleaders” It’s an interview style of Web 2.0 personalities. Nice format on the blog that includes a request for questions a few days before the interview happens, then a written summary of questions with timecode stamps if you want to jump ahead. Very handy if you don’t have time to sit through the whole podcast.

“For the self-promoter: Duct Tape Marketing” I particularly liked the author interviews at Duct Tape Marketing and plan to go back for the next installment, since the books he’s selected are often bestsellers, but might not make it to my reading pile. This is a great way for me to vet the books or at least have an awareness of the subject matter.

Both the HBR (Harvard Business Review) IdeaCast and Knowledge@Wharton have tons of interesting topics related to trends in business, technology and management. “For the business owner: HBR IdeaCast” The HBR IdeaCast has 28 episodes so far, which are not just for the business owner. Most of the content is naturally educational offering strategies for business leaders as well as tips for career moves. The page includes rollover summary text which is very convenient and makes it worthy of repeat visits.

“For the strategist: Knowledge@Wharton” I have to admit, while I like the topics of the audio articles and book reviews at Knowledge@Wharton, I didn’t register this time around, but plan to keep an eye on them. The topics are very fresh, syncing in with the current business events of the day, like a January installment: “Peter Fader on the New iPhone and Matching Technology to Consumer Demand”.

I also like the idea of the art history dialogue “For the artist: smARThistory“, but they haven’t posted since November 2006 which is disappointing. Plus the artists they’ve chosen to talk about aren’t on the top of my list. However, this isn’t the only art history podcasting that’s happening. SF MOMA has podcasts for their exhibitions, as I imagine many other museums are doing too. It’s a great way to see and learn about an exhibition if you can’t visit the museum.

And “For the chef: ReMARKable Palate” is something I’ll share with my friends who enjoy cooking.

The other half dozen that didn’t make my list were interesting topics too, but there’s just not enough time in the day to absorb all the great content that’s out there!

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