Seeing the world from the East
Last week I was in Seoul, South Korea. My third visit. And it struck me again how fast Asia, and South Korea in particular, is moving economically, and hence also in the design field. Being in Seoul, you don’t notice…
Insights curated by Experientia, the UX research and design consultancy
Insights curated by Experientia, the UX research and design consultancy
Category Design (general)
mobile + africa
A contingent of Stanford University d.school students recently returned from Kenya, where they spent two weeks working with Nokia Research Africa, and the University of Nairobi, developing health-related mobile applications. The trip was the culmination of months of work in…
Experientia supporting Flemish applied research on mobility and sustainability
Experientia is excited to be working on two applied research projects for Flanders InShape, a Flemish design promotion agency that supports and advises small and mid-size companies in Flanders, Belgium on matters related to product development and design. The ASSIST…
Donald Norman on design without designers
In his latest Core77 contribution, the acclaimed Donald Norman reflects on the role of testing versus creativity in design and innovation. “There is a trend to eliminate designers. Who needs them when we can simply test our way to success?…
Depth of field: Film in design research
Timo Arnall and Einar Sneve Martinussen have published the article “Depth of field: discursive design research through film,†which discusses the role of film in interaction and product design research, and the use of film in exploring and explaining emerging…
Mobile Monday Amsterdam on design
Every other month Mobile Monday Amsterdam organises a network event with visionary speakers and practical cases. The most recent one, on 6 September, was devoted to design and had a couple of top-level speakers. See the videos for yourselves. Matt…
Values in technology design and use: ethnography’s contribution
A couple of months ago former Nokia ethnographer Tricia Wang gave a talk at the Nokia Research Center in Palo Alto, CA, and she just posted the slideshow and the abstract on her blog. “My talk today is about how…
The impact of design ethnography and WordPress
Kristina Krause has recently finished a master’s degree in social anthropology at the University of Kent, with a thesis titled: The impact of design ethnography and WordPress | Client – web designer relationships in the nonprofit sector. “The increasing rate…
Finland’s user-driven innovation policy
The 2010 Finnish National Innovation Strategy contains an important section on demand and user-driven innovation, with user-driven innovation being described as: “User-driven innovation makes use of information on customers, user communities and customer companies. It engages users as active participants…
Designing for the loss of control
The people at frogdesign have posted two long articles (the first one is really an essay) that we consider a recommended read: Openness or how do you design for the loss of control? Openness is the mega-trend for innovation in…
Gender differences in web usability
Frank Spillers thinks the User Experience community has not fully tapped the potential of gender-specific design aka Woman-centered Design. According to Spillers, gender as an audience sensitive criteria (differentiation) is barely present in North American technology product design (where it…
Design for social change and the museum
From April 12 through April 14, 2010, 22 designers, historians, curators, educators and journalists met at Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center on Lake Como, in Italy, to discuss the museum’s role in the 21st century in relation to design for social…
On the design process, consistency and product development
Three new articles have been published on the UX Matters site: Design Is a Process, Not a Methodology By Pabini Gabriel-Petit In this installment of On Good Behavior, I’ll provide an overview of a product design process, then discuss some…
People-focused innovation in healthcare
Philips Design has published a downloadable paper on how it uses qualitative research and design thinking to support development of solutions for the ever-changing healthcare landscape. “Our lifestyles are increasingly out of balance and we are placing our health at…
Sensemaking
Jon Kolko was one of the speakers yesterday at the Design Research Society conference in Montreal, Canada. His presentation addressed Sensemaking – the manner in which we make meaning during the design process, and arrive at insights and new design…
Glen Cove conference on strategic design and public policy
Ever keen to expand the boundaries of their practices, design professionals have been moving in the direction of public policy for some years, writes Lucy Kimbell (blog). But what designers, or multi-disciplinary teams using “design†approaches, can also bring to…
The product of a healthy relationship
The relationship between researchers and product designers can be a rocky one. Paul Golden looks at how market research can make sure it promotes creative thinking rather than obstructs it. “When handled properly, [the initial exploratory phase of the research…
The huge challenge of Nokia’s head of design and UX
The acclaimed Italian journalist Luca De Biase recently interviewed Marko Ahtisaari (blog – wikipedia), Senior Vice President, Design and User Experience of Nokia, for the Italian business newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore. Here is what happened these last few weeks:…
Why we desire, display and design
Humans around the world wear clothing and accessories to hide their bodies, to emphasise them, even to evoke magic. Indeed, personal ornaments appear to be among the first forms of symbolic communication. US psychologist Nancy Etcoff linked fashion to psychology…
On ethnography and balance scorecards
Three new articles have been published on the UX Matters site: Ethnography in UX by Nathanael Boehm, user experience and social interaction designer for the Australian Government, Canberra, Australia “In this article, I want to look at ways in which…