Real-time Case Study: Follow AP’s Research in Second Life
Chiara Fox and Andrew Crow are about halfway through the in-world user research interviews for the Linden Lab Second Life project. Follow their adventures on the AP blog to discover what Chiara and Andrew, and their respective avatars, have learned.
Titles so far: Our Second Life Begins: An introduction to the project and what we hope to get out of it; Shadowing, In-World: The new abilities of working in a virtual world affect how we can do our job; Dress for Success: How a virtual world gives you the opportunities to customize your appearance for each scenario; I Am Not Target Audience: How personal experiences are not a replacement for actual user testing; Please, Have a Seat: Initial reactions to the differences in social interactions when greeting research subjects; Interviewing In World: How real-world research methods can be used in virtual worlds.
Check It Out: A Flight of AP’s Top Influences
In honor of the upcoming UX Intensive in Chicago, we put our heads together to create a list of the things that influence the way we work most. As it turns out, what intrigues our palate originates outside the domain of user experience. Here’s a sampling of our top influences.
Design Strategy:
The History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides: The roots of conflict and the strategies used to address it have not changed in 2400 years. — Henning Fischer
The Modern Firm: Organizational Design for Performance and Growth, John Roberts: John Roberts is a Professor of Economics, Strategic Management and International Business at Stanford. He brings rigorous economic reasoning to his argument that to be effective in today’s business climate, organizations must focus on developing cultures where strategic influence is exerted on distributed decision makers. The concepts and frameworks throughout the book assume a far more complex and dynamic human that homo economicus. — Amanda Willoughby
Slime Mold: Not an animal, not a plant. When food is plentiful, it/they spores out into separate organisms. When food is scarce, they/it glob back together into one organism (not a colony…one, single entity) and crawl on to better pickin’s. They self-organize, collect to survive and disperse when they can. It’s the perfect cycle of life, and the best example (and metaphor) for creative emergence I’ve ever found. — Kate Rutter
Information Architecture:
The staff at the CH Booth Library in Newtown, CT: My first job was at this library, and it was my first experience with helping people find information. That team inspired me to get my MLS. — Chiara Fox
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, First Edition, Peter Morville: This was the book that convinced me that yes, this is what I want to do, and that there was more to an MLS degree than just working in a library. — Chiara Fox
The Seattle Central Public Library: This is a building that embodies the concept of information architecture. Where it succeeds (the Book Spiral), it’s stunning, and where it fails, it fails in very interesting ways. — Peter Merholz
Interaction Design:
Making Connections: Readings in Relational Communications, Kathleen Galvin & Pamela Cooper: This collection of essays on interpersonal communication is a good, solid foundation for designing for interaction. — Alexa Andrzejewski
The Wii: In a scene I’m sure was repeated a million times on Christmas night, I witnessed people who “haven’t played a computer game since Pac-Man,” people who can barely send email, experiment with cutting-edge interaction design in the form of the gestural interface of the Wii. It’s like magic, and it points — literally and figuratively — toward an UbiComp future that blends easily learned behavior with digital results. As I tried it out myself, I was reminded of the first time I used an iPod and was like, “Oh! This is…delightful.” How clever! As a bonus, the Wii also gives us something in the popular consciousness besides the iPod that we can now point to as an example of good interaction design. — Dan Saffer
Wusthof’s Classic Ten-inch Chef’s Knife: The way an object — be it an ornament or implement — feels in the hand can have a tremendous influence on the way you relate to it. I have no more favorite tool than my knife — it is the most versatile item I have ever owned. It also has sentimental value: My brother gave it to me in 1995, and now in my mind it’s become a forged silver wishbone. — Ryan Freitas
Research:
Professor Liz Sanders, Design Research: I was fortunate to be able to learn design research from Ms. Do-Say-Make herself! If it weren’t for Liz, I wouldn’t go around saying things like, “We need to tap into people’s unspoken aspirations to uncover their unmet needs.” — Alexa Andrzejewski
Maya Design’s Case Study for the Carnegie Library Project: When Aradhana Goel showed Maya Design’s work at UX Week a couple years ago, I knew I needed to organize a field trip to Pittsburgh. Watching their case study, and then actually visiting the libraries that have been improved by Maya Design’s experience-based approach to space design, was phenomenally inspirational. They have made their presentation decks freely available, and they are crazy-chockfull of goodness. — Peter Merholz
The Future Perfect: Jan Chipchase, a researcher working for Nokia, blogs in his spare time about technology and people. “Future Perfect is a pause for reflection in our planet’s seemingly headlong rush to churn out more, faster, smaller and cheaper.” I find his photos and comments inspiring, funny and enlightening. — Amanda Willoughby
The Marginalia:
Johnny Cash’s American Recordings: I’m inspired not only by the absolute perfection of the entire exercise, but by the design, the liner notes…everything that went into those sessions was grade-A. — Ryan Freitas
UX Intensive in Chicago, April 23-26: Register Today!
Join Adaptive Path’s team of experts (including Dan Saffer, Chiara Fox, Brandon Schauer and Todd Wilkens) as they examine the four key elements that contribute to a successful interactive experience — Design Strategy, User Research, Interaction Design and Information Architecture — in this four-day intermediate to advanced workshop series.
Dan Saffer Takes on The Cult of Innovation in BusinessWeek
Congratulations to our own Dan Saffer, whose editorial on The Cult of Innovation is now gracing the prestigious pages of BusinessWeek. Here’s a quick excerpt:
“Innovation is traditionally understood as a combination of insight and invention, with insight being the ‘Aha!’ moment and invention being the company’s muscle to make it happen. This is all well and good, but one crucial aspect of the definition is missing: The ability to judge the inspiration and determine whether it is worthwhile to spend the company’s resources on the invention. Without this judgment, innovation is just The New, and new isn’t always better. It’s a louder sizzle, not a juicier steak. For innovation to be truly important, it needs to resonate with consumers. Insights need to be derived from the unmet needs and desires of people, not simply the company’s feeling that it needs to innovate.”
The rest of the article is available online (subscription required) or at your local newsstand. Look for the March 5, 2007 edition!
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