Adaptive Path Blog

If you read one thing on experience design this week, make it Adam’s essay, On The Ground Running.

Todd’s talk from MX, The Transformative Power of Research, is up on IT Conversations.

Some of us didn’t need to be told of the domestic wonders of Post-It Notes.

Diabetic service dogs detect your blood sugar levels better than fancy monitors. And when’s the last time a medical device licked your face with joy?

CNN.com launches with a new ‘Web 2.0″ design.

Peter’s Core77 piece, The Experience is the Product, is now up in BusinessWeek’s “Innovation” section.

Many Eyes brings data visualization to the masses, with some social network software goodness thrown in.

We’re not sure we’re yet ready to digitize our life, but we’re still intrigued by those who do.

Do not visit Trulia’s Hindsight unless you have some time to spend!

We’re a Mac shop, and we use OmniGraffle. So Michael’s new wireframe stencils should be useful!

Would experience design methods arrive at this queue management solution at Whole Foods? (We think so…)

We, too, laughed at the Surface Computer Parody.

On our mailing lists, were discussing the new book Everything is Miscellaneous, and watching David Weinberger’s presentation at Google.

Scandinavian innovation has crossed our radar.

The New York Times article on the slowdown of e-commerce seemed interesting, until we read Jack Shafer picking it apart.

Like our very own Kate, the principal at Wieden Kennedy is intrigued (obsessed?) with slime mold.

Jared Spool shares thoughts on “Envisionment” and Apple’s Knowledge Navigator.

200 photos from last weeks UXI Amsterdam event.

Apparently the Internet’s structure represents something akin to a giant Tootsie Roll Pop. How many licks does it take to get to the center?

Alexa Andrzejewski discusses her blog post, “Life Online After Death” with the BBC’s Radio Five Live. Listen to the audio recording as Alexa discusses the growing trend in online memorials. Alexa starts at 45 minutes and 30 seconds into the program.

This morning, Yahoo!’s homepage featured a story on the most hated Internet words. It got me thinking about the terms that we hear abused all the time. “Blog”, “netiquette”, “cookie” and “wiki” have been voted among the most irritating words spawned by the Internet. Any additions to the short list?

An internal AP mailing list has been buzzing since Amanda Willoughby asked, “What are the top 10 books, papers, websites, or objects had the most influence on your work, inspired you, or made you a better person?” I knew that as soon as I answered, I’d end up kicking myself for forgetting to include someone or something that I’d be mortified not to have mentioned.

Wouldn’t you know, I forgot to list Jane McGonigal’s This Is Not A Game: Immersive Aesthetics and Collective Play, her seminal paper on the alternate reality game (or ARG) known as The Beast, it’s “players” and their methods of collaboration. It’s a delightful read, and it was at the front of my mind this weekend when I learned about something that can only be the emergence of another full-fledged ARG.

It seems that as both a political statement and a promotion for the upcoming Nine Inch Nails album “Year Zero”, Trent Reznor has orchestrated a full-fledged immersive game that spans from encoded messages on T-shirts to dozens of microsites to thumb drives with leaked tracks. It’s complex, potentially controversial and gaining a significant amount of press attention only two weeks after it first came to light.

I’ve already spent a couple hours perusing the 360+ pages of threaded posts on the message boards at Echoing the Sound, where (much like the original Cloudmakers group board) the game is being discussed and dissected as it unfolds. It’s all rather impressive, both in scope and in its message, which is strongly anti-establishment (these links come with a strong content warning: the game kicks off with audio from an alleged “sniper shooting”). As the Year Zero approaches its puzzles will be tackled, and I’m excited to see how this group of players works together to solve and experience the whole thing.

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!

I received an email the other day asking me about resources I would recommend for someone who is interested in learning more about writing for the web and the science of content management. I did a quick browse through my bookmarks and came up with these starting points. I like these resources because they are good aggregators of content, a way to keep on top of trends, or are communities to get involved with.

CMS Watch [ http://www.cmswatch.com/ ] is a great place to learn about the industry, what products are out there, trends and what not. There’s a lot of good stuff in their information architecture section, even if IA isn’t directly in your realm of control.

The Content Wrangler [ http://thecontentwrangler.com/ ] is also a great source for news in the industry, as well as collected articles published elsewhere. They also have a great list of upcoming conferences and events.

There is also the CMS Pros [ http://www.cmprofessionals.org/ ] which is an organization focused on content management.

The Information Architecture Institute [ http://www.iainstitute.org/library/ ] has a library of resources — both online, books, presentations, and blogs — that cover CMS and writing for the web. If you become a member (it’s not that expensive) you get access to their great mailing list of professionals all over the globe.

Boxes and Arrows [ http://www.boxesandarrows.com/ ] is an online publication that focuses on information architecture and the user experience. There are a number of articles on CMS, and how content can be better created and organized on the web.

We’ve got some links saved up from over the holidays!

Can Big Old Media compete with YouTube? (Probably not.)

Deaf communities on YouTube. (This is wonderful.)

The story of Audion. (An early Mac MP3 player.) Instructive.

Surprisingly insightful interview with the authors of Citizen Marketers.

Two from Grant McCracken — B-school vs D-school, and no blue oceans!

Disney.com’s impending redesign — Interesting look at the struggle between business units and a centralized Internet group for control of the company’s online strategy.

Kodak makes fun of itself.

Video demo of One Laptop Per Child’s interface.

Templates for creating your own comics scenarios.

The past’s version of games of the future: So close, yet so far off.

From last year: Did you know Christmas was up for a rebranding effort?

On retail experiences and strategies: The Apple Store’s beating of Best Buy and Tiffany’s on sales per square foot is reminiscent of Trader Joe’s formula for success.

All links taken from UX Week presentations.

Ryan talked up some uncommon collaboration tools:

• Vyew (free web conferencing)
• VNC (screen sharing for geeks)
• Thumbstacks (web-based presentation software)
  
• Google Spreadsheets
• SubEthaEdit (real-time collaborative text editing)
• Chandler (open source personal information manager)
  

Jan Chipchase is a field researcher for Nokia, and he takes great photos.

Play the ESP Game, and make the web smarter.

The Usability of Ajax.

Mike Migurski shared some infoviz sparklies:

• Newsmap (Google News visualized)
• Fundrace (2004 presidential campaign contributions)
• Phyllotaxy (Flickr photo fun)
• Flickr Related Tag Browser (more Flickr photo fun)
• Gapminder (UN data visualized and animated)
• Digg Labs (under the hood at Digg.com)
• OpenStreetMap (it’s your world, map it)
• Trixie Tracker (digital crack for Type A parents)
• Week in Review (hand-drawn news visualization)
• Tableau Software (visualize your own data)

Matt Webb’s brilliant insightful post, thinking through making.

Green Wonders of the World

Flickr had some unexpected down time last week, but spinned it into a positive as a contest. The handling of the situation and the contest results got plenty of praise (just one example).

Adaptive Path pals nForm launch PaidPOV, “where market research meets Web 2.0.”

Luke Wroblewski provides an interface design skill-set diagram.

A handful of interviews with designers.

Does the process matter more than the outcome? John Maeda ponders.

Why Englishmen do it with their socks on.

Heidi Adkisson on Defending Design Decisions.

Browse through the Flickr group “Everyday Information Architecture,” pictures of “personal design solutions for organizing and structuring everyday life and environment: bookshelves, movie-collections, mind-maps, workplaces, toolboxes, garages, photoboxes, filing cabinets etc.”

We’re a Mac shop, and many of us have a deep and abiding love of OmniGraffle. Graffletopia should be of help to folks like us!

At 37Signals’ Signal vs. Noise, Adaptive Path emeritus Jeffrey Veen chats with Khoi Vinh about the move from a small organization to a large corporation.