Experience maps have become more prominent over the past few years, largely because companies are realizing the interconnectedness of the cross-channel experience. It's becoming increasingly useful to gain insight in order to orchestrate service touchpoints over time and space.

But I still see a dearth of quality references. When someone asks me for examples, the only good one I can reference is nForm's published nearly two years ago. However, I believe their importance exceeds their prevalence.

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You're about halfway through your project. You've done everything right. The project plan is going swimmingly and you've entered the design phase. Fast forward a few weeks later and you are slowly losing interest. Creativity is ebbing. Your attention span starts to wane. The wind has left your sails—you've hit the project doldrums.

I've worked on some looooong projects, some with one- or two-year long cycles. Anyone who's worked on an operating system would probably put the smackdown on my definition of long, but you can hit the wall on any project, no matter how much time it spans. For me, there is always one surefire method for breaking through—Do more work. Yes, more. Just not on this project. Take on something totally new and unrelated.

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In the past six months, I've been leading design teams of twenty, sometimes thirty people. Some of these people are designers, but the majority are managers, business strategists, front-line workers, and P&L owners. Most of my team members come from my client's organization. Together we have been solving big wonky strategy and design problems that matter deeply to how our client will continue to support and grow relationships with their customers in the future.

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The permeation of software in society has given everyone the opportunity to do what only professionals were capable of in years past. The web has only accelerated its progression. There are whole new segments of the population who are now frequently publishing their writing, editing video, and processing photos, among other things. The problem, however, is that to meet the needs of this new untrained audience, the methods of interaction have been over-simplified in the process. Instead of bringing everyone up to a higher proficiency, this is dragging everyone down, including professionals, to a lower state. Superficially designed products create superficial understandings of the subject matter. Expect more of your audience, give them a good reason why it is worth their time, and you will have a better audience as well as a better product.

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I recently participated in The Sketchbook Project with the goal of rebooting my personal creative practice.
I wanted three things out of it: inspiration, outside accountability and connection with others. What I got was much more: a new understanding of my working process and insights about the role of personal projects in everyday creativity.
I asked around, and it turns out there are a lot of folks here at Adaptive Path who have done personal projects and who had insights to share.
So keep reading for observations, inspirations, tips and tools for reconnecting with your passions and building your creative…

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The conversation around design is changing. It’s more welcomed by business, and it seems more generally accepted that design has a greater role to play than merely adding aesthetics. To emphasize this broader scope, terms like user experience, or simply, experience, have been attached to design. The trouble with adding a fuzzy term like experience to the already fuzzy term design is that it does not bring clarity for either the person seeking experience design or those providing it. At least, this has been the case for me working as a designer both within a larger organization and…

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It’s a New Year’s tradition around here that the first newsletter of the year is penned by the newest members of the Adaptive Path staff. Sort of a hazing ritual where nobody gets hurt or humiliated.

We were thrilled to welcome so many new faces in 2010. Here, a few of them share their wishes for 2011, like being a better trout, upgrading less, building more, being an advocate for empathy, and getting inside your head.
 
What are your plans for this upcoming year?

Jump to: Adaptive Path News | Selections From Our Blog | What We’re…

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My name is Jared, and I am a junkie. Wandering across the city, searching for the best product. Standing in the rain, down urine soaked alleys, waiting for my turn. Doing what it takes to get a fix. Scoring as many as fifteen times a day, emptying my pockets and skipping meals in favor of a buzz. I’ve scored thousands of times and forgotten most, but you always remember your first.

The first step is admitting you have a problem.

In a warehouse in Rochester, New York. It was dark and cold, and I remember my feet were wet from the snow. My father and some of his friends were standing in a circle talking, while I was hiding off to the side. After a few minutes, the men parted with handshakes and my father came over to me. He put his hand on my back and we walked into a small office. I stood in the doorway as he walked over to the coffee machine and dropped in some change. I watched him, waiting for the cup to drop, listening to the sputter and spitting of the machine. He pulled the cup from the machine, took a sip and walked back over to me. I'm not exactly sure what happened but the next thing I remember is my father pulling the cup from my lips. My eyes wild, the taste of milk and sugar, and the want for more. From that moment, I was hooked — heavy as lead.

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In 2008, Peter Merholz wrote a blog post outlining the Adaptive Path Advocate program, which is the support structure for members of the Adaptive Path staff. He mentioned that it was an experiment and that we were still tinkering with it.

It’s now two years later, the Advocate Program is going strong, and we’re still tinkering with it. Since it’s an unconventional approach to managing people, I thought I’d refresh the conversation and share how the program has grown and evolved over time.
 
A is for Advocacy

In the beginning
The Advocacy…

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This autumn semester I was lucky enough to be asked to help teach the service design module to second year students at the School of Visual Arts in New York as part of the MFA in Interaction Design course.
I've been particularly struck by the way thinking about the design of interacting with a service seems like a completely natural extension for the students in their design work. In recent discussions at Adaptive Path and in the wider design community, the questions I’m hearing around how people take their first steps toward designing services made me realize…

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