The San Francisco division of the IxDA recently held a “redo” of the recent Interaction 09 Conference in Vancover. The slide that left me most moved was the one below:
This slide opened my eyes to how vital it is that we define user experience. After all if we do not define what we do then we risk not being heard, understood, or taken seriously. With standards and definitions then we can pass down our knowledge to younger practitioners and build credibility in the marketplace.
Other images from the IXDA Redux are found here
Feng-GUI – a neat little app that will show you with a heat map how users are viewing and using your site.
The more I think about my project the more I think it’s about data visualization and social networking based around solving a small part of the knowledge management/tacit knowledge problem in organizations.
However, how does this play into my considerations for the Thailand project?
My IA teacher said something very valid yesterday when I wandered over and chatted with him. He basically said you need to focus on the merge of the creative and business. I really think that’s what you started with and that’s where you could really build yourself a niche.
True. Valid Point.
However, moving into the knowledge management area isn’t moving away from the original focus; it’s just narrowing it down. But what is the end goal? Build a system? Or put myself in a role as a consultant with specialized knowledge?
“…Of all methods for analyzing and communicating statistical information, well designed data graphics are usually the simplest and at the same time the most powerful…”
Graphical displays should:
- Show the data
- Induce the viewer to think about the substance rather than about methadology, graphic design, the technology of graphic production or something else
- Avoid distorting what the data have to say
- present many numbers in a small space
- Make large data sets coherent
- Encouage the eye to compare different pieces of data
- Reveal the data at several levels of detail, from a broad overview to the fine structure
- Serve a reasonably clear purpose: description, exploration, tabulation, or decoration
- Be closely integrated with the statistical and verbal description of the data set
“Why waste the power of data graphics on simple linear changes, which can usually be better summarized in one or two numbers? Instead graphics should be reserved for the richer, more complex, more difficult statistical material.”
An old journal entry dated Oct 2001… Can’t believe I was thinking about this for that long.
Balancing Design and Information: Why did you choose this topic?
I chose it because striking a balance between information and graphic design is a daily tug-of-war for me.
:This is so true!
Somewhere along the Internet timeline, designers have been asked to wear two hats. I don’t fully understand how this happened because it seems counter productive to the creative psyche. Information design is such an undefined job description. Some people define it differently than I do, but for the sake of clarification, I’ll attempt to define it in light of the role I’ve assumed in my current position:
Information design is the breakdown of information, in a database or raw format, rebuilt for Internet use with an infrastructure that lends itself to a navigation system that others find intuitive.
: think about this further. How is it Intuitive? What is expected on a site? How do people think about a site? How do they find their way around a site? What specifically is intuitive about it? (ask people in the industry about it)
The description makes my head spin. I’m visually-oriented. I create with the right side of my brain. Yet my job asks me to use the left side of my brain; the side that requires the formulation of words to describe a picture that I already have in my head.
: As a designer how do you work with this? around this? What would help in getting your visual images into words or onto the computer screen?
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I was doing some reading online about design and came across this article about balancing information and design. I believe it was written by Danielle Hull.
On Typologies of Situated Interaction (McCullough)
“Design that recognizes how these activities occur ‘habitually and in a state of distraction’ has a better chance toward usability, assimilation, and getting out the way.”
McCullough argues that we need a “more human centered approach to physical computing” which is a similar argument to Donald Norman who says we need to think more about how humans think and would use any form of technology.
Dourish is addressing computer scientists… philosophies…
Ubiquitious Computing seems to relate not only to everyday computing being everywhere but it has a similar form of thought to Fashion Technology… where is it being placed? What is the function? etc…
Context is vital… What are the needs and requirements?
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CRM Metrics – Tool Metrics vs. People Metrics {LINK}
Forrester Research interviewed 50 executives responsible for CRM and found that CRM projects failed to deliver as expected because “functional, ROI-driven efforts add little customer value. Firms expected CRM initiatives to accomplish a lot, but few put the customer first – because most companies use internal metrics like ROI to measure CRM success…”
…Customers who were willing to invest time in a satisfaction study were those who had loyalty to the brand. Ignoring observed dissatisfaction soon results in loss of loyalty and loss of customers, i.e. lost efficiency. Attention to customer satisfaction is important to the enterprise trying to improve overall efficiency. It is equally important to the overall efficiency of those selling efficiency improvement tools to heed their customers’ dissatisfaction
Understand how your behavior relates to customer behavior – it will directly impact your profit….
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