Insights curated by Experientia, the UX research and design consultancy
Insights curated by Experientia, the UX research and design consultancy
Research in Motion seems to have commissioned a pair of videos envisioning portable technology in the not-so-distant future, writes PocketNow: specifically, they focus on interactions among employees, or between employees and customers, and how portable devices play a role in their day-to-day lives. Chris Velazco…
This bibliography – now published on Change Observer – was initiatied in early 2011 as an independent study project by Courtney Drake, a graudate student at the Yale University School of Management. It overlaps with William Drenttel’s work as a senior faculty fellow at Yale…
The Danish Alexandra Institute (see also previous post) published in 2009 an anthropological user study of needs, motivations and barriers in relation to energy consumption in the home. It was part of the MCHA project (Minimum Configuration – Home Automation) that focused on IT solutions…
The Danish Alexandra Institute has just released a comic book called “Inspiring the Internet of Things,” which explains the benefits of networking everyday objects – as well as the ethical issues – through 15 illustrated scenarios. The PDF version is available for free download. “We…
The organisers of the Ethnographic Praxis in Industry (EPIC 2011) conference have posted audio of the keynotes and most of the presentations. The conference took place in Boulder, Colorado on 18-21 September. Keynotes Opening keynote: On models Hugh Dubberly, founder of Dubberly Design Office Closing…
User-friendliness is the inevitable result of a smart design approach, not the starting point. Robert Hoekman, Jr lists three criteria to help you develop a useful design brief that will ultimately yield a great product. “User-friendliness is a result, not a tactic. Intuitiveness is a…
Elements such as social dynamics, communication styles, and creative inspiration deeply affect our experience of work and what we create. While most of us don’t have the authority to change the architecture of our work places, we do have the power to affect the conditions…
Games, Life and Utopia is a half-day event in Pottsdam, Germany on 11 November, that is all about gamification, serious games, learning and play. It’s a conference for service and interaction designers, for social activists, for artists, for developers and geeks, and of course for…
Today Philips presented its latest forward looking design project ‘Microbial Home’, which includes a group of design concepts that represent an innovative and sustainable approach to energy, waste, lighting, food preservation, cleaning, grooming, and human waste management. The Microbial Home project is a proposal for…
In a long interview, Matias Duarte, Android’s head of user experience, explains how Google conducted deep user ethnographic studies to understand how people were using their smartphones and other devices. What is the soul of the new machine? This isn’t a design or product question.…
When people expect to be able to access information in the future, they tend to have reduced memory for the actual information, but enhanced memory for where to find the information. A feature article on UX Magazine: “Researchers found that when we expect to be…
Last week, Cadillac launched its new “CUE” vehicle infotainment system. The name is an acronym that stands for Cadillac User Experience — the company’s refined and expanded approach to connected vehicles. Electronista took an early look at the new system before it arrives in production…
When UX designer Vanessa Carey read Susan Weinschenk’s article “The Psychologist’s View of UX Design” (published in UXMag last year), she decided to explore each of Susan’s ten points in more detail. “I will break down Susan’s post and further explain my understanding of each…
“Seamless, cross-channel experiences are the way of the future, as technology fades into the background and the personal, physical, and social context determine the methods we use to interact with information,” writes Tyler Tate on UX Matters. But, he says, “this isn’t a problem for…
Simon Rogers asks on The Guardian’s DataBlog if there is a backlash gathering steam against web data visualisations. “There has definitely been a shift. A few years ago, the only free data visualisation tools were clunky things that could barely produce a decent line chart,…
James Rock, the managing director and chief business designer for Cultivar Consulting Limited, a business and services design consultancy, talks about service design, its benefits and why it’s important for your business. “Service design is a relatively new discipline that asks some fundamental questions: What…
Sainsbury’s, Unilever and Forum for the Future have jointly produced Consumer Futures 2020 as a practical tool to help organisations throughout the global consumer goods industry to prepare for the future. The project explores how consumer expectations and behaviour will change, allowing these brands to…
Alex Knapp, Forbes Magazine contributor, talks with Intel futurist Brian David Johnson on what he take into account when planning the future: “The answer is both intriguing and quite unlike most futurists I know. Johnson’s first stop is the social sciences. He works with Dr.…
Ethnography, Ethnography or Ethnography? What Happens When the Same Word Means Different Things to Different People? is the title of a new paper on ethnography by Sasanka Prabhala, Daria Loi and Subhashini Ganapathy of Intel. This paper discusses how the notion and practice of…
dConstruct 2011, the 2 September event in Brighton, England, brought together leading thinkers from the fields of interaction design, mobile design and ubiquitous computing to explore how we can bridge the gap between physical and digital product design. Videos are now online. Don Norman –…
Ageing populations and budget cuts mean devising a new social contract. So why not use real designers – it’s worked in Finland, asks Justin McGuirk, design writer at The Guardian. “If a country has the best education system in the world, it could be forgiven…
Jemima Kiss examines plans for a digital public space with the British Library, the Royal Opera House and the BBC. “How can we preserve analogue culture in a digital world? Could something allow us to view, research & remix cultural items? Jemima Kiss examines plans…
The videos of the presentations at PICNIC Festival 2011 (14-16 September, Amsterdam) are now online. Jake Barton on Urban Collaboration and Storytelling What will inspire and connect cities of the future? At our core, we are linked together by the stories that we collectively tell.…
The market research industry is built for the 20th Century mass production model, which is rapidly disappearing, argues Sam Ladner. The “mass audience†is gone and a fragmented diverse populace has taken its place. This new “audience†defies the easy aggregation of summary statistics on…
Debbie Millman of DesignObserver.com interviewed design anthropologist Dori Tunstall on the insights that anthropology brings to consumerism and branding, and about the powers of transformation in design and designers. “Dori Tunstall is a Design Anthropologist, meaning she tries to understand how the processes and artifacts…
Fabian Hemmert will be one of the keynote speakers at Interaction 12. In this article on Johnny Holland, he reflects on “recent developments in the research field of Human-Computer Interaction [that] point to emerging styles of interaction that make use of our very abilities as…
Dana Chisnell reports on the importance of flow in UX design. Flow comes from focused attention, deep engagement, a feeling of mastering a challenge. The outside world ceases to exist and time fades away. Awareness heightens and senses are charged, increasing productivity and creativity. Read…
How will we react when a loyal humanoid robot that has served us for years suddenly fails? Will we genuinely grieve for no-longer working bots that have accompanied us through so much of our lives? And when bots die, will we treat them like cherished…
Ramesh Srinivasan methodically breaks down five ‘myths’ about social media in this Washington Post article: Here are his myths (which few in the UX community would flatly believe in, I think): 1. Social media gives power to the people 2. Governments easily monitor and censor…
The La Sapienza University in Rome is organising the first User Experience Master for students who already have a previous degree. Although a highly laudable initiative, this part-time programme points to an important gap, since Italy really needs a full-time, two year masters programme in…
“Shoes, cars and other love stories: Investigating the experience of love for products is the title of the doctoral dissertation (and a book!) by Beatriz Russo Rodrigues (Brazil) at the Technical University of Delft in The Netherlands. “People often say they love a product. What…
The digital revolution of the last decade has unleashed creativity and talent of people in an unprecedented way, unleashing unlimited creative opportunities. But does democratized culture mean better art, film, music and literature or is true talent instead flooded and drowned in the vast digital…
The internet is the greatest source of information for people living in the UK today. But the amount of material available at the click of a mouse can be both liberating and asphyxiating. Although there are more e-books, trustworthy journalism, niche expertise and accurate facts…
Finnish researchers Antti Oulasvirta, Pertti Saariluoma, Rebekah Rousi and Jaana Leikas discuss replacing using intuitive notions of emotions with systematic psychological knowledge. “Underlying the recent surge in interest in user experience may be the realization that consumers have increasing power over the fate of information…
Article by Experientia collaborator Irene Cassarino, with additional input from Jan-Christoph Zoels. How do you create community services and business models for a carbon neutral building block before the buildings stand? Thirty Finnish entrepreneurs came together last Tuesday (20 September 2011) in Helsinki to present…
In an article for Shareable, Caren Holzman presents trends that signal “a reversal in the way that consumers value and use products and services”: “A global culture of consumerism has firmly taken hold – the average British woman buys half her body weight in clothing…
Techcrunch reports on a recent set of rapid-fire presentations from Imagine K12, an incubator for education-related startups. On the one hand, the innovation taking place in the educational world is fascinating and possibly greatly rewarding for learners. Yet at the same time education is also…
Highly recommended read in The Guardian on the end of the golden age of motoring (or for non-Brits: car travel): “The most radical change [according to German entrepreneur Stefan Liske] is that “in big societies, there is a huge status shift happening, where we are…
Khoi Vinh reflects on the fact (and the user experience) that almost everything on all of his computers and all of his mobile devices can only be accessed with a password. “This is a big problem, and for lots of people. Over the past few…
Mobile First Luke Wroblewski A Book Apart October 2011 Abstract Our industry’s long wait for the complete, strategic guide to mobile web design is finally over. Former Yahoo! design architect and co-creator of Bagcheck Luke Wroblewski knows more about mobile experience than the rest of…