Insights curated by Experientia, the UX research and design consultancy
Insights curated by Experientia, the UX research and design consultancy
With the publication of the book “La condition inhumaine: essai sur l’effroi technologique” [The inhuman condition: essay on the fear of technology] by Ollivier Dyens, the French newspaper Le Monde published an interview with the author. Here is a quick translation: To adapt ourselves to…
Alice Rawsthorn, the design critic of the International Herald Tribune, chaired a debate last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, about the future of design. Other participants were Paola Antonelli, senior curator of architecture and design at the Museum of Modern Art…
The Wall Street Journal looks 10 years ahead and imagines how technology will change the way we shop, learn, entertain ourselves, get news, protect our privacy and connect with friends. The long article is structured in seven sections, each written by a different WSJ staff…
A new study overturns the common assumption that the ‘Google Generation’ – youngsters born or brought up in the Internet age – is the most web-literate. The first ever virtual longitudinal study carried out by the CIBER research team at University College London claims that,…
Putting People First regularly features the work of UC Irvine professor Paul Dourish, whose interest lies in the crossover areas between computer science, anthropology, ubiquitous computing, mobility, design and HCI. Here are some of the recent publications by this very prolific researcher: Brewer, J., Bassoli,…
ICT Results reports on an EU-funded research project on “palpable computing” (Palcom), led by the University of Arhus in Denmark. The ideas behind it seem similar to concepts developed by both Genevieve Bell (see here and here) and Adam Greenfield. “Palpable computing”, a term coined…
E-Consultancy interviews Sergio Falletti, director of mobile app specialists at Future Platforms, about the challenges and opportunities of mobile website design. Read interview
Nokia researcher Jan Chipchase reports on just published research from Microsoft Research India‘s Jonathan Donner that explores the practice of beeping – making intentional missed calls. The paper draws on field research from Rwanda in 2004, categorising three different types of beeping: call back beeps;…
Nokia announced today that it unveiled two handsets that offer a range of useful features and colours aimed at consumers in emerging markets. Interestingly they have each been designed based on extensive user research. Nokia 2600 classic for personalisation The Nokia 2600 classic allows consumers…
The American Statesman reports on how PC makers are not only investing in design but also adding the “user experience” to the style (and to what extent they are influenced in this by Apple Inc.). “Though the colors and exterior designs of their latest models…
Trendwatching.com’s latest report is devoted to the “expectation economy”: “The expectation economy is an economy inhabited by experienced, well-informed consumers from Canada to South Korea who have a long list of high expectations that they apply to each and every good, service and experience on…
The Usability Professionals’ Association is proud to announce the first European Regional UPA Conference. The conference will take place from December 4th to December 6th 2008 in the beautiful city of Turin, Italy – the 2008 World Design Capital. The conference theme “Usability &…
Demos, the UK think tank “for everyday democracy”, has published a new report on “self-directed public services”, entitled “Making It Personal“. Abstract his report advocates a simple yet transformational approach to public services – self-directed services – which allocate people budgets so they can shape,…
This morning I received a print copy of Interactions Magazine with the mail. Wow. It looks, feels, and reads exactly like a magazine for our profession should be. Why did no one think of this before? It contains a lot of in-depth articles by people…
Scott Weisbrod, director of insight & planning at Critical Mass, published a write-up on the four experience design trends he sees in online financial services: 1. Banks get serious about customer experience 2. Mobile banking still isn’t ready for prime time 3. Metrics drive experience…
Business Week reports on how the 21st century design environment trades individual stars for teamwork uniting designers, engineers, anthropologists, and others. “Just as forward-thinking engineering firms have worked to team up with design partners to offer a holistic output to clients, many design consultancies have…
Carl Alviani published an inquisitive article on the profession of the interaction designer on Creative Seeds, the blog of Coroflot, which is Core77‘s career and community site. “Anyone who’s been following the creative job market at any point in the last few years is probably…
About a month ago I announced the conference Changing the Change about the role and results of design research in the transition towards sustainability (see PPF and Core77). The conference will be held in Torino, Italy, 10 to 12 July 2008, in the framework of…
IBM just released a white paper entitled “How immersive technology can revitalize the shopping experience”. “Truly immersive experiences—which connect with shoppers on an emotional level through personalized dialogues and give them greater control over the shopping experience—are the new frontier in retailing. The immersive retail…
Steve Portigal is going after the hypocritical use of personas (“the Big Lie”) in the article he wrote for Interactions Magazine: “Personas are misused to maintain a “safe” distance from the people we design for, manifesting contempt over understanding, and creating the facade of user-centeredness…
Joe Nocera of The New York Times applauds Amazon’s Jeff Bezos tireless attention to the customer experience. Maybe, just maybe, taking care of customers is something worth doing when you are trying to create a lasting company. Maybe, in fact, it’s the best way to…
Stephanie Hanes, a correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor, reports on how Namibia’s plucky fix-it industry can handle all manner of disaster with your phone. “Cellphones are in the deepest rural areas in Africa,” says Saadhna Panday, of South Africa’s Human Sciences Research Council. “More…
“Integrative Thinking” is the theme of the current Rotman School of Management magazine. Three articles caught my attention: The second road of thought: how design offers strategy a new tool kit (page 46) In this essay Tony Golsby-Smith goes back to Aristotle, and argues that…
As most of you know, Experientia partner Mark Vanderbeeken also writes for Core77. Here is the list of recently posted contributions, meanwhile 70 items long.
In a blog post, Danah Boyd (a Berkeley Ph.D student and a Harvard Fellow) relates the story of a mother who describes how her daughter’s approach to shopping was completely different than her own: “Using Google and a variety of online shopping sites, Mary researched…
Steven Bell of the blog Designing Better Libraries has authored an article for the January-February 2008 issue of American Libraries on how a design thinking approach can help librarians. “As a profession that mediates information from source to user—not unlike newspapers and travel agents—our future…
New Tech, New Ties – How Mobile Communication Is Reshaping Social Cohesion Rich Ling The MIT Press – 256 pages – 2008 Abstract The message of this book is simple: the mobile phone strengthens social bonds among family and friends. With a traditional land-line telephone,…
“The iPhone has pushed manufacturers to think again about usability”, says Jessica Sandin, the head of the mobile practice at Fathom Partners, a British strategic mobile consultancy in an International Herald Tribune article. “Many cellphone makers have lost their way as they crammed more and…
The Museum 2.0 blog explores the ways that the philosophies of Web 2.0 can be applied in museums to make them more engaging, community-based, vital elements of society. Just like Web 2.0 which is “a definition of web-based applications with an ‘architecture of participation,’ that…
Last week I visited Eataly again, a fantastic “experiential” supermarket, right here in Torino. Associated with the Slow Food movement, you can dwell in it for hours and feel constantly stimulated, intellectually, sensually and visually. But I had never written about in those terms. Mea…
A few weeks ago, I announced the new direction taken by Interactions Magazine under its new editors-in-chief Richard Anderson and Jon Kolko, and now the first issue is out. The content looks very exciting indeed and the editors-in-chief have done a great job at getting…
Jon Kolko, an interaction design specialist, went from consulting (2000-2002) to academia (Savannah College of Art & Design, 2002-2007) and then back to consulting (frog design, 2007-). So what has he learned from these transitions? Well, not what you’d think. Here’s a taste: “While teaching,…
For sure Ray Kurzweil (author of The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology) and Bruce Sterling (who coined the term “Biot” – an entity which is both object and person – in his book Shaping Things) will enjoy this: A scientist who successfully connected…
Adam Greenfield is self-publishing his next book “The City Is Here For You To Use: Urban form and experience in the age of ubiquitous computing”. “The City Is Here For You To Use takes everything explored in Everyware as a given, and a point of…
The increased zeal among copyright holders to clamp down on any hint of piracy by online video sites puts the notion of user-generated content at risk, according to a study from American University’s Center for Social Media, that the New York Times reports on. “The…
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A few weeks ago, I published a summary of a talk given by Donghoon Chang, vice president of Samsung’s Mobile User Experience Design Group, at the recent Mobile HCI conference in Singapore. The summary was originally published in Italian on the website of the Italian…
The December issue of the International Journal of Design has recently been published and is strongly focused on the experiential and sensorial qualities of digital products and services. It is the third issue of this peer-reviewed journal issued by the Taiwan-based Chinese Institute of Design…
User-Centered Design Stories: Real-World UCD Case Studies by Carol Righi and Janice James (Perficient, Inc.) Paperback: 560 pages Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann (Elsevier) Date: April 19, 2007 Intended for both the student and the practitioner, this is the first user-centered design casebook. It follows the Harvard…
Torino, Italy officially opens the World Design Year next week with an extraordinary New Year’s Eve, organised specially to celebrate Torino 2008 World Design Capital. The centre of events for 31 December 2007 is Piazza Castello [the “Castle Square”], the Baroque heart of the city,…