TibetanTailor

On Friday Feb 26 we are going to do a bodystorming exercise. We will be doing it in just two hours. To help the participants get more out of it, they will get a “homework” assignment.

The following is some homework that can help you get the most out of this exercise. It isn’t mandatory, but will help get the participants to get in the right stance.

Go buy 4 things.
As you go about purchasing these things think about what the object means for you. Also think about who you are buying it for.
1. Buy buy some stamps for mailing your bills, or a monthly transit pass.
2. Go buy your kids some pens, pencils, erasers, or notebooks for school, or
when your some needed underwear or socks for your partner.
3 Go buy some of your own favorite music or if you collect things, something that you can add to your collection.
4. Go buy some wine or food that you can share with some friends.

These are items which represent 4 shopping ecologies and can help us start to think about about feel our way through different kinds of experiences that people can have with buying things.

After you buy each of these things write a sentence or two down about each one.

If you would like to read more about shopping ecologies please go to

References

http://argus-acia.com/white_papers/ethnography.html

IxDA Local Event

On February 26th. 2010 at 5:45pm.,thirty participants from around Chicagoland will come together to do a Bodystorm, a physical brainstorm that will result in solutions to problems facing retail in the future.

And we very much need the gift of your participation.

This will be an activity in which we learn about and then do a bodystorming exercise. A bodystorm is a live presentation (think: a short play) in which participants improvise several scenes and the audience asks questions.

Is it really possible to change the world simply by exchanging ideas with those who appear to have little in common with you?
We look forward to showing you how.

Sincerely,
Dennis Schleicher, uxSears and Byron Stewart, Dramatic Diversity, DD+D

Limited # of spots. First come-First Serve
To RSVP and for further details please email byron@dramaticdiversity.com We will email you with logistics.

For more info.on Bodystorming please visit:
projectbodystorming.blogspot.com
tibetantailor.com
dramaticdiversity.com

What is good design? A combination of aesthetics & ethics and exhibits virtues writes Marty Nuemeier in The Designful Company. Here are the virtues as they break out for good and bad designs.

Good Design

• Generosity
• Courage
• Diligence
• Honesty
• Substance
• Clarity
• Thriftiness
• Wit

Bad Design

• Selfishness
• Fear
• Laziness
• Deceit
• Pettiness
• Confusion
• Apathy
• Wastefulness
• Stupidity

Based on the above here are 3 things I need to do or build

1. Write a virtue into a creative brief. Choose 2 or 3 good virtues from the list that a particular design should go for & write it in the creative brief. Choose 1 bad virtue & write that in as a one to avoid.
2. Build Issue Boards that pull from these virtues as concepts in the structured diagram.
3. Use this language in critiques.  Beyond just using the basic principles of design learned in my design 101 class (balance, unity, focus, rhythm, proportion) bring these good and bad virtues into the discussion.

References

Adapted from page 78 of The Designful Company: How to build a culture of nonstop innovation
by Marty Neumeier

Issue Boards

Justice as a Design Virtue

Beyond Duty and Virtue in Design Ethics

Humanistic Virtues in Information Graphics

When a company uses the products that it makes it is called “eating one’s own dog food.” The intent was a way for a company to demonstrate confidence in its own products.  MillerCoors has done that a step farther. They have a “bar” located in the HQ in Chicago. Yesterday I was invited their with Michael Leis to meet up with Rob Saker who works there.

It was a great space. The bar is located right next to a couple conference rooms. There were numerous tables for small gatherings and conversations. What a great way to experience what you sell. I kept thinking that that is why I love working above a Sears Department Store. It offers a similar benefit. Having easy access to “experience” your brand. Now the MillerCoors bar isn’t for the public so the employees aren’t shouldering up to regular customers, but its a great idea and speaks to knowing your products and services on an personal level.

References

Video of The MillerCoors HQ Bar

Here is a an example of a setting analysis I did this for the myford experience.

The main structure of the setting analysis is based on Space, Actors, and Activities.  Spaces have Places and Objects. Actors have Feelings and Goals. Activities have Act, can coalesce into events, and different kinds of time.

One of the most important implications for User Experience Designers is the Actors and their feelings.  Too often we just put in the goals of actors.  The two feelings area does get into branding and sometimes interaction design or information architecture doesn’t yet have the tools to go there, but diagrams like this help step in that direction.

Now a setting isn’t an experience.  And the truth of the matter is that we can’t create experiences, but we can arrange settings in which people have experiences.

References

How to do a setting analysis

myford navigation OR Global Navigation for World Domination

Your job title is User Experience Architect, or User Experience Designer, or Information Architect. One question on your mind is probably when will I get to be a senior? What do I have to do to get promoted to a senior?

Getting promoted or moving companies into a new position as a senior is a big step. It means that you are experienced, skilled, and a leader.

A Senior User Experience Architect

• More than 5 years experience in UXA
• Can lead a small temporary team, including external people
• Well experienced with all the skills of UX
• They have the skills and experience to support almost every one of the UX values. There might be one or two they are learning.
• They teach and inspire others in supporting the 8 UX values.

Before you start on your journey to be a senior you need to make sure you have mastered all inner circle things. You need to then start to master the 4 things below.

Knowing the large – This means knowing what you competitors are up to (both direct and indirect) as well as how your customers are changing.  Even larger context issues such as twitter, something that just 2 years ago was just starting which is now a major force.

Discussing the different – This is the respectful voice that allows the senior to build experiences that are owned by all stakeholders. It is a difficult role, but we need to facilitate the conversation. These conversations can include external stakeholders and executive clients.

Dreaming the better – This is the ability to generate great ideas, collect them, and have them at the ready for other projects or later phases.  These is related to service design, product roadmaps, white-papers, business modeling, vision prototyping, and conceptualizing.

Measuring the impact – Seniors need to be able to predict the impact of our different recommendations.  This means watching the different metrics. Omniture, Customer Satisfaction, Search Logs, etc.

Here are the details for the Manager – User Experience Research position.

User Experience Research Lab Manager
Business eCommerce – ALL
State/City IL Chicago – Downtown
Job Description Sears Holdings is seeking an experienced Research Lab Manager to join our User Experience Team.
The Manager is responsible for managing the research team. The ideal candidate should be able to creatively envision, evaluate, and contribute to the design of successful user experiences.

The Research Lab Manager will receive and review all requests to use the Usability Lab. The Lab Manager will decide if the request fits within the guidelines of our policy and can be accommodated in the schedule. If a conflict arises, the Lab Manager will involve the User Experience Managers to resolve the issue. The Lab Manager will also be responsible for ensuring that appropriate training and use of the Lab occurs.

Additionally, the Lab Manager will determine what type of support the requestor will need, such as a usability test facilitator, notetaker(s) and recruitment of users for testing. The Lab Manager is responsible for the Testing Room and the Observation Room as well as the hardware and software support them.

As an integral part of the User Experience team you will work closely with multidisciplinary teams, including user experience architects, product managers, visual designers, and front-end developers to conduct the research and support development of features to be studied through surveys, card sorts, task-based findability and goal-oriented studies, as well as rich interactive prototype testing.

Your responsibilities will include making informed recommendations on design strategies, leveraging best practices, accurately estimating and tracking your time across multiple simultaneous projects, as well as working with the User Experience Management Team to develop and document methodologies, standards and best practices for the lab.

Currently, we are interested in candidates with 5+ years of demonstrable experience and who have had a background involving large scale web initiatives or software. The ideal candidate will have exceptional communication and analytical skills, be well versed in user-centered design research practices, and familiar with the day-to-day operations of running the lab.

**Please note – this is not a design position. However, the Lab Manager is expected to participate and collaborate with the User Experience Architecture team on recommended design solutions.
Country United States
Responsibilities/Skills/Experience Requirements Qualifications:

• Have an attention to detail and a passion for improving the user experience.
• Experience conducting user research and competitive analysis using industry standard practices.
• The User Experience Research Manager will also be responsible for managing our in-house usability testing lab, including lab equipment, software, policies and procedures.
• Be comfortable working in a fast-paced environment. Familiarity with iterative design-agile environment a plus.
• Work closely with user experience managers, product managers, business analysts, user experience architects, visual designers, and front-end developers to understand business requirements, user goals and objectives, in order to define tactical solutions that improve conversion rate and enhance the customer experience.
• Continue to improve our research process for testing product changes and gathering user feedback throughout the product development lifecycle.
• Advise and guide project teams in planning user research activities that inform and support product development; help teams determine best research methodology to use in order to meet business objectives.

Key skills:

• Experience managing test recruiting, partnering with vendors to recruit external test candidates and recruiting external/internal users when necessary.
• Help product teams plan and execute external user-research and usability tests with research vendors as needed.
• Supporting and conducting usability studies both in the lab and remote sessions– preparing test plans, recruiting participants, facilitating test sessions, collecting and analyzing data, and preparing reports.
• Developing, prioritizing, and documenting recommendations.
• Tracking usability issues from discovery through resolution.
• Presenting usability results to various levels of the organization.
• Experience with Morae.
• Experience with Tobii a plus.
• Experience with survey construction and online surveys a plus.
• Experience with Omniture Web Analytics a plus.

Requirements:

• Direct experience managing an in-house testing lab and basic A/V knowledge.
• 5+ years experience designing and conducting user-centered design research and usability testing for e-commerce and/or software.
• Ability to work collaboratively on multi-disciplinary teams.
• Excellent communication skills (verbal and written).
• Manages time well, and is very organized.
• Ability to manage overlapping assignments.
• Works well with others.
• Adept at handling change and shifting priorities
Requisition ID 74634BR
Preferred Minimum Education Bachelors Level Degree
Years Experience 5 – 10 Years Experience
Travel Requirements On Occasion (Less than 5%)

A recenter article in the NYTimes talked about how abstract thoughts prompt literal physical responses.

This is the basic idea behind of the magic of bodystorming. Natalie writes “participants’ bodies subliminally acted out the metaphors embedded in how we commonly conceptualized . . . ” and this is exactly what happens with bodystorming.

But because bodystorming is done as a group with more than one person, there is “communication” that occurs at the level of body language, kinestics, gesturing and promemics. It is a very high context communication. And people talk about the death of powerpoint because it is a low context communication method.

The result is not just faster and better collaboration with participants, but faster and better communication to your clients. And if those clients are VC funders, this is the fastest way to get your ideas across in a rich and high context way.

Reference
“Abstract Thoughts? The Body Takes Them Literally” By Natalie Angier
Feb 1, 2010, NYTimes

Yes, I am looking for a Manager, User Experience Research.

Forget that title – I need a Manager of “How we are doing”

This is more than just usability testing.

I like questions. I’d expect this person to be good at asking questions and even better at figuring out ways to answer those questions.

The most basic question that I need this person to ask and answer is “How are we doing?”

Now, I know the financial numbers and every hour I get my reports as to what is selling and what people are searching for. But I need this person to be about to ask “How are we doing?” from an experience point of view. Listening to our current customers of course. But also seeing if those customers and their lives are changes and how we might need to change with them in order to stay relevant. Even looking for new types of customers that we might be able to earn the right to serve.

I want this new manager to be able to lead their team forward in any way necessary to answer that driving question. If it is focus groups, usability tests, remote interviews, card sorts, ethnographic-like observation, surveys, in-store intercepts,
Did we get better over the last month?
What do our users want?
What is the job that our experience needs to do for them?

This person should make it easier for me and my managers to earn their bonus, get promoted because we will know how the experience is doing and how it has changed since last month, last quarter, last year.

Is this too much to ask? Am I just desiring too much insight? Yes, I would like a combination of a mind-reader, cultural anthropologist, private investigator, time-motion studier, analyst and talk-show host.

Here are all the nitty gritty details