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Microsoft catches a lot of flack for some of their user experience decisions, but one invention that received a lot of warm feelings from the community is the new Microsoft Office, featuring the Ribbon. Jensen Harris, who has been writing about the development of the new Office UI for years now, has just signed on to present his Story of the Ribbon at UX Week.
Don’t forget, if you register by Monday May 19th, $100 of your registration fee goes to support the LIVESTRONG Foundation.
Today is LIVESTRONG Day, the Lance Armstrong Foundation’s one-day initiative to raise awareness and funds for the cancer fight. This year more than 500 events will take place in communities across the country to raise awareness and funds for the fight against cancer.
Adaptive Path wants to support this cause by donating $100 from each UX Week and UX Intensive registration over the next 7 days. That’s right, if you register by next Monday the 19th then not only will you get an early bird discount, but you’ll also help to support those battling cancer.
We have a terrific line up of speakers this year for UX Week including…… Katherine Jones and Randall Macon presenting: Building Brands The Build Community: LIVESTRONG and Blanton Museum of Art!!!
So why wait? Register for UX Week and UX Intensive now, and use the promo code “blog” for an additional 10% off. Attend the premiere User Experience conferences in 2008 and support the Lance Armstrong Foundation.
In addition to the company’s efforts, Henning and I are cycling 100 miles in July and personally raising funds for the San Jose LIVESTRONG Challenge. If you’d like you can donate for he and I on our donation pages.
Are you a runner or a walker or a rider? Then you too can participate. In addition to the Foundation’s fund raising goals, there are goals to register people for the LIVESTRONG Challenge. If you register TODAY then you get 50% off your registration fee for the Challenge.
Just a quick note that after tomorrow, the registration prices for our UX Intensive Minneapolis and UX Week 2008 events goes up. UX Intensive offers 4 days of intense training on core user experience practice. UX Week mixes inspiration with information, offering sessions on a variety of essential topics, half-day workshops on subjects like storytelling and sketching, and field trips to museums to learn how experiences work in other realms.
Use the promotional code BLOG and get an extra 10% off!
Join us to celebrate the release of our book, Subject To Change: Creating Great Products & Services for an Uncertain World: Adaptive Path on Design. The party will be here at our offices:
363 Brannan St., San Francisco, CA
May 13th from 6-9pm
We’ll start off with some mingling, then the four authors will give a short talk followed by a book signing and more mingling. Adaptive Snacks will be providing light appetizers. Please join us! RSVP Here.
A little bit about the book:
To achieve success in today’s ever-changing and unpredictable markets, competitive businesses need to rethink and reframe their strategies across the board. Instead of approaching new product development from the inside out, companies have to begin by looking at the process from the outside in, beginning with the customer experience.
It’s a new way of thinking-and working-that can transform companies struggling to adapt to today’s environment into innovative, agile, and commercially successful organizations. Read more
Don Norman said he liked it:
“Short, but powerful. Easy to read, yet profound.
I’ve been searching for just this book: the one perfect book that summarizes the essence of modern product design. This is it. The lessons are as powerful as they are simple: The product is NOT the goal. Successful products are systems. Focus on the experience. This requires empathy, agile product management, real understanding of the target audience. This book practices what it preaches. I will use it in my courses for MBA students. You should use it for, well, for everyone. Short, simple, persuasive, and powerful.”
Don Norman
Co-Founder Nielsen Norman group
Author of “Emotional Design” and “Design of Future Things”
Buy the book on Amazon.
The schedule for UX Week 2008 continues to form, and with every update, there are amazing new speakers.
We have added a number of main-stage speakers. There is design critic, science fiction author, and all-around mindblower Bruce Sterling, the information architect for TheDailyShow.com Audrey Chen, and human-robot interaction designer Aaron Powers. Peter Samis, curator at SFMOMA, will discuss the design of the whole visitor experience for their upcoming Frida Kahlo exhibition. And Katherine Jones and Randall Macon from Milkshake Media, will talk about their experience designing brands that build community, including Lance Armstrong’s LIVESTRONG Foundation.
We’ve also added workshops. Adaptive Path founder and book author Indi Young will teach how to Unpack Stories to Serve People Better. CMU Design professor Mark Baskinger will follow up his excellent article in the latest Interactions magazine with a workshop on Drawing Ideas: Quick Sketching for Interaction Design.
The workshops are new to UX Week this year. On Day 1 and Day 2 we’re having seven of them run simultaneously — you’ll have to choose one each day. We are giving preferential choice based on when you register. The earlier you register, the better chance you’ll get your top choice! We will launch a workshop picker closer to the event.
Also, Sign up by April 30 and save $400 off the full registration price. Use the promotional code BLOG and receive an additional 10% off!
To give an additional taste of what’s to come, you should see Johnny C. Lee’s presentation from TED. It’s only 6 minutes long (we’ll have him on stage much longer.)
And here’s a recent talk by Bruce Sterling at an Interaction Design conference in Germany.
It’s easy to forget when hearing someone give a presentation that the talk is a product too. And like products, the designer doesn’t always know what’s going to happen when the talk meets the users (the audience). Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. And like a product, good designers go back and revise the beta. Put out a better version.
This is a long preamble to saying that Kim Lenox and me have taught the interaction design day at UX Intensive four times now: in Chicago, Amsterdam, Vancouver, and San Francisco and each time was different. We’ve spent the last year tweaking the content until we (and the audience) were happy with it. As it turns out, it’s tricky to teach interaction design in a day. We went from a nearly all-lecture day to one that is mostly a hands-on, activity-centered workshop that tries to create a studio environment. It even requires having a first-aid kit on hand! I’m really happy how the day has evolved.
If you are interested in learning (or brushing up on your existing) IxD skillz, we hope you’ll join us at UX Intensive Minneapolis in June. Use the discount code BLOG and get 10% off admission!
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:
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.
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!
We’re excited to launch our UX Week 2008 website. It’s still a little rough around the edges, but there’s a lot of great stuff up there if you’re considering the event.
We’ve recently received commitments from some new speakers:
There are still session slots open. We have leads for most everything, and will be announcing them as they commit.
Check out the schedule for the entire event. You’ll notice that in the afternoon of Day 1 and Day 2, there are 6 workshops running concurrently. We will give priority placement in workshops based on the order in which people register. The earlier you sign up, the greater likelihood you’ll get your most desired workshop!
Also, you’ll notice a field trip to the Exploratorium! Where we’ll learn how they plan and design their exhibits! And then we’ll get to run around and have fun! Yay!
Alrighty, that’s enough for now. Register by March 31st to get the current discounted price. Register with the promotion code BLOG for an additional 10% off! Register today!
I recently had the pleasure of chatting via email with Nathan Shedroff, experience strategist, author, and the Program Chair and founder of the brand new MBA in Design Strategy at California College of the Arts. Nathan will be speaking on Future Topics in Managing User Experience at our upcoming MX San Francisco conference on April 20-22.
MBA programs with a focus on design are cropping up in leading business schools. What’s behind this trend and what do these programs teach? In this conversation, Nathan lifts the curtain of the newest program to blend design and business.
But don’t just read the essay…come hear Nathan up close and in person at MX: Managing Experience Through Creative Leadership in San Francisco, April 20-22. Early bird pricing ends March 31st, so sign up today!
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