With a mobile phone, you can watch movies/videos/TV programs online anywhere at almost any time. That ubiquity has brought tremendous convenience to our lives, but on the other hand, the value of them has been diminishing. We don’t very much/at all care about where we can get a clip or if we miss a drama episode. What if, however, we have a movie that can be watched only when certain conditions are met? … »
I love the TV show Myth Busters because it challenges what I think is true. In the show, popularly held myths are tested in an entertaining and somewhat scientific way. My favorite part of the show, other than the explosions of course, is when my beliefs turn out not to be true. This always keeps me open minded, and focused on reality. I also enjoy being on the other end – exposing myths as unfounded. This is the perspective I am taking for this article. Specifically, I will be highlighting five common myths related to online (unmoderated) usability testing, and explaining why I think these myths are not true. … »
In 1973 the renowned author and member of the so-called ‘Big Three’ of science fiction Arthur C. Clarke decided to put his opinions of successful predictive storytelling into law. Behold his third and most famous law: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Now, I’m going to go out on a limb here and modify Clarke slightly to read “Any sufficiently designed interaction is indistinguishable from magic.” … »
We’ve been hearing a lot about privacy the last couple of years. And with the advent of Google Street View, GPS and location tracking, and growing social-media communities, we’re going to be hearing a lot more. What most folks don’t understand is that the concept of “privacy” is incredibly different depending on which side of the Atlantic you live. Yet in an increasingly globalized world, it’s becoming more and more important to acknowledge these divergent points of view.
As interaction designers, we’re keenly aware of the explicit meanings in words and images. But how many of us also focus on the what is suggested by our words and images?
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In last month’s Johnny Holland column, I made the radical recommendation that UX professionals stop making recommendations to their clients. … »
It’s hard to look back at 2009 and ignore the rather sudden blooming of augmented reality. What was it that made AR suddenly so popular? The rise of ‘mobile’ apps helped. But was that all there was to it? I don’t think so. … »
Nathan Shedroff is a leading author in experience design and the increasing value of design. His book subjects have included experience design (the 2001 experience-in-itself-book Experience Design 1), design thinking (Making Meaning, 2006) and sustainable design (Design is the Problem, 2009). He is currently the head of the Design MBA Strategy at the California Institute of Arts (CCA).
Shedroff spoke to me about the difference between businesspeople and designers, his upcoming foray into sci-fi, and what designers wanting to get involved in sustainability can do.
If interaction design really is the business of behaviour change I believe this must apply two ways. While it’s true that design can influence users and engender cultural change, this is always a product of our more tangible work: changing the behaviour of technology. As a user-centred designer of technology my goal is simple: to make its behaviour humane. But how should I approach this? … »
In our last article on Johnny Holland we talked about the ‘interpret’ stage of the Social Life of Visualization. This was where a visualization can be tweaked so that the meaning of the data can be seen in a different way and annotated on so that the individual insights that users create can be displayed. The final stage in the shared storytelling process that will be explored in this article is where the tweaking and annotations made to the visualization are captured so the insights can be communicated to others in the community.
