Along with globalization/globalisation, we increasingly see folks insist on standards (or more often beat each other over the head with standards). But have we actually “standardized” what we mean when we talk about “standardization”, “rules”, and “best practice”?

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The first day of Interaction 10, hosted by SCAD in the wonderful city of Savannah, Georgia, kicked off without a hitch. Though eventually everyone was plagued by spotty, windy rain storms, the general pulse of the conference was positive and uplifting. Attendees were still talking about some of the great workshops from the day before, and they carried that energy over into today’s sessions. If one thing had to describe the overall theme of the first day it would be the importance of providing meaning in the work that we do. Below are recaps of the opening and closing keynotes, as well as some of the sessions from the day. … »

People love statistics, especially about themselves. With the rise of personal informatics we see the question “How am I doing?” getting ever more popular. I was wondering if we could use this to create a game out of email that would make life easier and happier at the same time. … »

Over roughly the last 10 years, China and India have given way to a huge rise in technology outsourcing. Jobs are outsourced from companies like Microsoft, Google, T-Mobile, Honeywell, and many others. In Microsoft I’ve worked with teams in both India and China developing software for a variety of uses. Having our headquarters in the US, I usually work with small satellite teams in these countries. I couldn’t help but wonder why these countries who had become huge in the area of software technology, struggled so much in the area of user experience and UI innovation. … »

I currently work at a very small company, less then 20.  But compared to the other stories I’ve heard lately from interaction designers like myself, our company gets surprisingly consistent results from our developers in regards to design.  Following are 12 lessons I’ve learned that have helped me get better results from our in-house developers.

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If there is a future for designers and marketers in big business, it lies not in brand, nor in “UX”, nor in any colorful way of framing total control over a consumer, such as “brand equity”, “brand loyalty”, the “end to end customer journey”, or “experience ownership”. It lies instead in encouraging behavioral change and explicitly shaping culture in a positive and lasting way. … »

In our previous article, we focused on the first step to developing a User Experience (UX) strategy by presenting how user stories are generated, themed and prioritised, as a means of helping us to understand the shape of the project (what) and its purpose (why).  In this article we focus on the use of scenarios and paper prototypes to support a rapid and collaborative exploration of potential implementation approaches (how). … »

When I was checking some statistics a week ago I realized Johnny was reaching a special day: his first birthday. Since it is our child, we would love to have a small party for him. So let’s start of with the speech and see what goals we reached in the past year. … »

You know what needs to be designed. You’ve listened to your business stakeholders and to your users. You’ve made models of the strategy and of the design research. And now you are staring at a blank piece of paper or screen. You have to, well, design something. This is where ideation has to happen. … »

Given just a bit of information, we naturally crave more. Given a puzzle, we have to solve it. So, as interaction designers, how are we using this bit of insight into human behavior?

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