Insights curated by Experientia, the UX research and design consultancy
Insights curated by Experientia, the UX research and design consultancy
Putting Citizens First Engagement in Policy and Service Delivery for the 21st Century Evert A. Lindquist, Sam Vincent and John Wanna Australian National University – Co-published with ANZSOG August 2013, 220 pages Free pdf (alternative link) This book explores the ways in which governments are…
Interactive Visualization: Insight through Inquiry By Bill Ferster The MIT Press, 2012 ISBN-10: 0262018152, ISBN-13: 978-0262018159 (Amazon link) Abstract Interactive visualization is emerging as a vibrant new form of communication, providing compelling presentations that allow viewers to interact directly with information in order to construct…
The Ericsson ConsumerLab TV & Media 2013 report (presentation) looks at how the explosion of connected mobile devices in the home has opened a whole new world of possibilities when it comes to viewing TV and video content. Consumer viewing habits now involve so much…
Some weeks ago the BBC announced the BBC User Experience Research Partnership, a long-term collaboration project between BBC Research and Development (BBC R&D) and leading UK universities in the fields of User Experience and Human Computer Interaction research. The academic partners are The University of…
Getting user research into agile teams in a way that is timely, relevant and actionable is a challenge that teams the world over are tackling. Working effectively in agile has recently been the driver of some fairly significant changes to the way researchers work at…
CLive Thompson used Google Glass for six weeks. He discusses the latest in high-tech eyewear in the New York Times Magazine. “With Glass, I eventually settled upon a midpoint. I wore it mostly when alone, or when working at my computer, or when hands-free photography…
As society becomes more networked, the information available to the Googles, Amazons and Facebooks of this world will increase exponentially. “As society becomes more and more networked, and as the so-called “internet-of-things” evolves, the amounts of data available to be “mined” will increase exponentially. And,…
The psychologist Abraham Maslow’s theory of human motivation is 70 years old but continues to have a strong influence on the world of business. What is it, and is it right? Maslow’s friend, management guru Warren Bennis, believes the quality underlying all Maslow’s thinking was…
The success of a mobile app – its high adoption rate and actual use – largely depends on the degree of involvement of the end user during the development stage. Mark Kamau, Kenyan web solution expert at the iHub UX Lab in Nairobi, believes a…
“Forget Big Data — right now, our bigger problem is fragmented data that comes from siloed user research teams.” Just as we favor the research tools that we find familiar and comfortable, large organizations often use research methods that reflect their own internal selection biases.…
The July 2013 issue of the Journal of Marketing (a publication of AMA, the American Marketing Association) describes the results of a comprehensive study (pdf) by Julian Cayla and Eric J. Arnould on the way various organizations use ethnography to better represent the customer’s lived…
MindShift, a service by KQED and NPR, has published a four-part series to explore the four dimensions of using tablets in educational settings, examining how teachers can take students on a journey from (1) consumption of media, to (2) curation, (3) creation, and (4) connection.…
UX consultant Thomas Wendt argues that the arguments in favor of invisible interfaces are making a few key mistakes, namely: Many are assuming that invisibility equates to seamless user experience There is an assumption that an interface can be either visible or invisible There is…
The UK’s Behavioural Design Lab is a new collaboration between Warwick Business School and the Design Council, uniting behavioural science with design-thinking. They help organisations transform a better understanding of people into innovative solutions that improve society. Our Belief The biggest issues in society, from…
Hannes Van Rensburg, founder and CEO of Fundamo, a VISA company based in South Africa, writes that there is enough research on empowering women with Mobile Money to support further investments. The industry have made big gains getting to understand the need and the benefits…
The best way to design successful digital products is by understanding how users’ behaviour changes according to their mode, according to MEX. Modes can be defined as the common ways people engage with digital products depending on their intent, environment, time and technology constraints. Where…
Being surrounded by data makes it easy to see the noise rather than the signal, and the trees rather than the forest, writes Andre Mouton in USA Today. “Nassim Nicholas Taleb achieved notoriety with several books written before the housing crisis, criticizing the financial industry…
IBM believes that all users have the right to an enjoyable experience when using a computer. They have therefore decided to share the knowledge they have acquired from their own practical experience to help others create hardware and software that is easy for everyone to…
Rethinking UX Formats: PDF, EPUB, Kindle (DRM-free) Pages: 62 Language: English Released: August 2013 Publisher: Smashing Magazine GmbH Abstract In “Rethinking UXâ€, various UX professionals share their lessons learned and provide practical advice from their very own personal experience. The eBook is packed with interesting…
CGAP (a World Bank affiliated but independent policy and research center dedicated to advancing financial access for the world’s poor) has partnered with Janalakshmi Financial Services, one of India’s largest urban microfinance institutions to implement customer centricity in providing financial services to the urban poor.…
Social scientists say that tech companies are showing an increased interest in their skills, especially with the rising importance of social networking and big data, and that their roles within those companies are changing. A report by Janet I. Tu, the Seattle Times technology reporter.…
Who wouldn’t delight in hearing Lincoln at Gettysburg in the same way we can go back and witness President Obama on the campaign trail? But with so much data capture and storage, which is preferable for our hearts and minds, the theater of politics or…
Our technologies are designed to maximize shareholder profit, and if that means distracting, confusing or aggregating the end-user, then so be it. But another path is possible, argues Alex Soojung-Kim Pang in his new book The Distraction Addiction: Getting the Information You Need and the…
Under the title “Content re-framing: A digital disruption survival kit“, Bas Evers and Peter Bogaards have launched a manifesto to connect experience design with content thinking. New challenges are upon us content people. The era of digital disruption requires adaptation at many levels by anyone…
At the core of a People Powered Health approach is collective ownership of health and wellbeing. Professionals need to start from the position of not necessarily knowing the right answer, which is a significant challenge. Creating a health system driven by the people within it,…
Lean UX: Applying Lean Principles to Improve User Experience by Jeff Gothelf (Author) and Josh Seiden (Editor) O’Reilly Media February 2013 (Amazon link) “The Lean UX approach to interaction design is tailor-made for today’s web-driven reality. In this insightful book, leading advocate Jeff Gothelf teaches…
Cliff Kuang writes in Wired how designers are working on their most ambitious challenge yet: weaving the digital world into our everyday lives so seamlessly that we don’t even notice. “Over the past 30 years, as every facet of our lives, from our shopping to…
Customers are increasingly choosing products and services based on the quality of the experiences they have with them. These experiences often break down when they span multiple channels. As a result, organizations need a holistic, human-centered view of the experiences they create. In short, they…
Juliette de Maeyer kicks off this month’s edition of EthnographyMatters which focuses on Ethnographies of Objects, with a response to two questions posed to her: ‘Why is the hyperlink an interesting object of journalism?’ And ‘What’s the best way to approach this object methodologically?’ Her…
Design can be used to introduce users to the future now, so they can act in ways that will benefit them in the future, writes Nikki Pfarr, researcher and strategist at Artefact. “What [designers] don’t often do, is think of the future as a tool…
Why We Fail: Learning from Experience Design Failures By Victor Lombardi 248 pages Rosenfeld Media Why did Twitter succeed while Pownce plotzed? Why has “to Plaxo” become a verb? And Zune: great product, but are you using one right now? More and more, products succeed…
Service designer Bill Hollins shares his thoughts on why service design makes business sense and argues that more businesses should invest in employing a service designer. 1. Good customer service + quality product = brand loyalty 2. Rising consumer expectations 3. Integrating technology 4. Maximising…
Brian Solis met up with Jesse James Garrett (author of The Elements of User Experience and Co-Founder of Adaptive Path) to talk about the state of user experience (UX), its role in the future of business, and how UX deserves the attention of the c-suite.…
t’s time that we expand the role of User Experience beyond execution, beyond output, and yes, even beyond design, writes Christopher Grant Ward, Director of Product Strategy and User Experience at SUBTXT. “The most important thing I’ve learned in my career is that User Experience…
Oracle recently conducted some research into the shopping needs and expectations of shoppers in Brazil, China, Germany, Japan, Russia, the UK and the US – in an effort to better understand the role and importance of service to the retail experience. Here are some of…
Applying ethnographic methods to digital experiences can yield myriad benefits that go beyond simply validating that something works or identifying opportunities for improvement, write Jessica Weber and John Cheng of AnswerLab. Ethnography reveals how digital and physical processes work together to help businesses address gaps…
A few days ago Experientia’s latest collaboration with Korea’s Design Center Busan wrapped up, as 21 South Korean students completed a summer study program in Turin. Experientia ran a creative workshop for the students, titled “Barely legal, but very nice! Smart interventions in public spaces,…
This month’s edition of EthnographyMatters is dedicated to education. Says editor Morgan G. Ames, “ethnography is unique in being able to dig below the surface and uncover the complicated processes and contingent effects of education and education reform.” Some personal highlights: Why digital inequality scholarship…
No matter what attempts are made to impose order and predictability on cities of the near future, a messiness will inevitably arise, argues Usman Haque. “Grub City citizens recognise it’s through the activity of measurement, not passive interpreting of data, that we understand our environment;…
Rob Egerton and Jeanette Kaye of HRW write on why research needs to go beyond the individual’s perspective to get closer to the reality of behaviour. “Two important theories – which many of you may have heard of – shed new light on how we…