Insights curated by Experientia, the UX research and design consultancy
Insights curated by Experientia, the UX research and design consultancy
Joshua Porter, a user interface designer, wonders whether simplicity is a bad design goal, and expresses his ideas in a thoughtful post. Most designers place simplicity above all else. We value simple things because they do all the things we need easily and none of…
Today I read Groundswell: winning a world transformed by social technologies (alternate site – amazon page) by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff (analysts at Forrester). [I was sent a review copy].   It is a book aimed senior managers in charge of marketing, pr, customer support…
Last year, The Economist published an article about ethnographic user research at Swisscom. One of the findings it highlighted was that immigrant workers are the most advanced users of communications technology: “It is migrants, rather than geeks, who have emerged as the “most aggressive†adopters…
A few weeks ago I attended the CHI conference in Florence, Italy. I was only there for a day and a half, and this being my first CHI conference, I am not in a position to give it a solid review. One thing that stands…
Here is my selection on emerging markets related papers presented at CHI 2008. (Papers are linked to their pdf downloads, if available) Re-placing faith: reconsidering the secular-religious use divide in the United States and Kenya [abstract] Authors: Susan P. Wyche (Georgia Institute of Technology), Paul…
Here is my selection on mobile banking related papers presented at CHI 2008. (Papers are linked to their pdf downloads, if available.) From meiwaku to tokushita!: lessons for digital money design from Japan [abstract] Authors: Scott Mainwaring (Intel Research), Wendy March (Intel Research) and Bill…
Here is my selection on mobility related papers presented at CHI 2008. (Papers are linked to their pdf downloads, if available.) A diary study of mobile information needs [abstract] Authors: Timothy Sohn, Kevin A. Li, William G. Griswold, and James D. Hollan (UC San Diego)…
Here is my selection on product design related papers presented at CHI 2008. (Papers are linked to their pdf downloads, if available.) Case study: using online communities to drive commercial product development [abstract] Authors: Sheena Lewis (IBM) Abstract: This paper demonstrates how human computer interaction…
Here is my selection on security related papers presented at CHI 2008. (Papers are linked to their pdf downloads, if available.) Love and authentication [abstract] Authors: Markus Jakobsson (Palo Alto Research Center), Erik Stolterman (Indiana University), Susanne Wetzel (Stevens Institute of Technology) and Liu Yang…
Here is my selection on papers related to social applications presented at CHI 2008. (Papers are linked to their pdf downloads, if available.) Ambient social tv: drawing people into a shared experience [abstract] Authors: Gunnar Harboe, Crysta J. Metcalf, Frank Bentley, Joe Tullio, Noel Massey…
Here is my selection on papers related to social context presented at CHI 2008. (Papers are linked to their pdf downloads, if available.) Celebratory technology: new directions for food research in HCI [abstract] Authors: Andrea Grimes (Georgia Institute of Technology) and Richard Harper (Microsoft Research)…
Here is my selection on papers on more strategic issues presented at CHI 2008. (Papers are linked to their pdf downloads, if available.) Empathy and experience in HCI [abstract] Authors: Peter Wright (Sheffield Hallam University) and John McCarthy (University College Cork) Abstract: For a decade…
Here is my selection on sustainability related papers presented at CHI 2008. (Papers are linked to their pdf downloads, if available.) A bright green perspective on sustainable choices [abstract] Authors: Allison Woodruff (Intel Research), Jay Hasbrouck (Intel) and Sally Augustin (PlaceCoach, Inc.) Abstract: We present…
Here is my selection on usability related papers presented at CHI 2008. (Papers are linked to their pdf downloads, if available.) Usability evaluation considered harmful (some of the time) [abstract] Authors: Saul Greenberg (University of Calgary) and Bill Buxton (Microsoft Research) Abstract: Current practice in…
Robert Scoble, managing director of FastCompany.TV, thinks the online world isn’t always user-friendly, and argues how it easily could be. “The Internet, which is shorthand for “interconnected network” and is one of the most significant achievements in the history of communication, is often broken because…
Clay Shirky, author of the book Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organising without Organisations (see also these posts), was one of the presenters at the Web 2.0 conference: Mark Ury, chief experience architect for Blast Radius, was there and wrote about it on his…
The April issue of the International Journal of Design has recently been published. It is the fourth issue of this peer-reviewed journal issued by the Taiwan-based Chinese Institute of Design (read more here). Three-in-One user study for focused collaboration by Turkka Kalervo Keinonen, Vesa Jääskö…
Business Week reports on how online aps such as Sports Tracker and Nokia Beta Lab, allow the Finnish handset giant to gather customers’ ideas from around the world, and virtually for free. “Sports Tracker is an example of how Nokia has begun experimenting with user-generated…
Microsoft UK is developing a “senior PC”, which will have a simple interface and be aimed at older users, writes Jane Wakefield on BBC News. The machine will come software that allows users to manage prescriptions as well as simplified tools for everyday use, such…
Nokia press release (dated 29 April 2008): Nokia’s advanced design team today shared “Homegrown”, a long term research project looking at how Nokia can help people make more sustainable choices. The team is exploring specific environmental and social issues including recycling, energy and how to…
Buongiorno commissioned a qualitative research in November 2007 to understand mobile internet behaviour of 18-34 year olds in the UK — what role it plays in their lives, key themes shaping their behaviour, and what’s in stall for the future of mobile content. A deep…
The (UK) Times reports on the successful networking site for tweens. The features of Club Penguin, one of the most successful virtual worlds aimed specifically at children, may defy logic – and gravity – but they represent the new frontier of children’s entertainment, where the…
A group of researchers from the University of Southern California and University of California at Berkeley presented their first findings from one of the largest ethnographic studies on kids in digital environments. Kids’ Informal Learning with Digital Media: An Ethnographic Investigation of Innovative Knowledge Cultures…
Earlier this week, Linden Lab, creator of the well-known virtual world Second Life, announced a new CEO: Mark Kingdon, currently CEO of digital marketing firm Organic. He will be taking over in mid-May. Technology Review assistant editor Erica Naone spoke with Kingdon earlier this week…
The IA Summit was held in Miami, FL from April 10-14. Boxes and Arrows captured many of the main conference sessions. Keynote: “Journey To The Center of Design” – Jared Spool Jared enlightens and entertains with his keynote address. It now seems the foundations of…
Rick Poynor, a writer and critic based in London specializing in visual culture, wrote a provocative essay (published in I.D. Magazine), tackling contemporary indulgence with design thinking and innovation: Design is now so important, it seems, that designers can no longer be trusted with it,…
The Future of the Internet–And How to Stop It by Jonathan Zittrain Yale University Press April 2008, 352 pages Abstract This extraordinary book explains the engine that has catapulted the Internet from backwater to ubiquity—and reveals that it is sputtering precisely because of its runaway…
The Times comments on a report on the significant digital divide in the UK, despite widepsread broadband and mobile coverage. One in five adult Britons is unable to open a word processing document on a computer, and just under 20 per cent still cannot use…
Design Flanders and Flanders In Shape organise a one-day conference and intensive training on user-centred design in the Flemish Parliament in Brussels on 22 May. Experientia’s Jan-Christoph Zoels and Mark Vanderbeeken (the author of this blog) are in charge of the afternoon workshop on ethnography.…
The German government just announced a high level initiative for universal and transgenerational design to archive world leadership in the production of innovative products for the elderly including innovation strategies, product and service development, design school projects, and a universal design network. As stated on…
IBM press release: At the 10th anniversary commemoration of IBM’s India Research Lab, the company this week unveiled a new initiative to bring even more features and functions to mobile devices as they continue to rival the PC as the primary tool for Web-based business,…
iTunes U is an area of iTunes that lets universities in the US share – for free! – audio and video from their lectures, talks and events. The contents are globally accessible. By clicking on Power Search, you can easily limit the regular iTunes search…
A two-day conference this week will bring together scholars, developers and participants in virtual worlds to discuss the emerging cultures being created from a range of online communities. Event organizers theorize that virtual worlds can be studied by researchers in the fields of humanities and…
Stu Card, manager of the user interface group at the famed Palo Alto Research Center and Ted Selker of MIT’s Media Lab discussed human interfaces for mobile computers at the recent Sofcon 2008, and just how differently engineers have to treat these devices than their…
Network World reports that “a handful of universities, including the University of Toronto and the University of California, Berkeley, is working to build a software architecture and reusable components that can make Web applications easier to develop and use. The Fluid Project‘s work focuses on…
Knowledge@Wharton has published an article on the blurring boundary between consumer and corporate technologies. Apple CEO Steve Jobs says the iPhone’s latest software tweaks due in June will make the device more palatable to corporate America. Oracle on March 11 launched an on-demand customer relationship…
Mark Ury contacted me the other day. He is the chief experience architect for Blast Radius and has a very good blog, entitled “The Restless Mind“, that features the kind of “slow” insightful writing that I really enjoy. Take a look at some of his…