paper & pencil

The Marshmallow Challenge

Tom Wujec demonstrates the power of prototyping through the Marshmallow Challenge. Kindergartners fared better than recent business school graduates... which is funny & scary.

Good Reads Oct 19 - Nov 13

“Just add an egg” – Usability, User Experience and Dramaturgy
It's not just about ease of use and speed, it's also about the experience and even enabling the user to play a social role.

Jesse James Garrett | UX Week 2009 | Adaptive Path
"The user experience mindset is an acquired condition for which there is no cure."

The Myth of Usability Testing
The results are only as good as the tests. Use the right tool and design the test properly for the context and goals of the site.

A Plea to All Creatives: Stop Going to Work
"Balance = happy = creative = productive. Repeat."

Design - Exploring Options and Making Decisions
Jared Spool's summary of various workshops at User Interface 14.

How to Recover From Project Failures
Good ideas for recognizing, discussing, and resolving issues during a project.

Good Reads Week of Sept. 28

Forget "Shrink It and Pink It": the Femme Den Unleashed
Better thinking and design of products for women.

How Simplicity Can Help Creativity, Briefly
11 tips on simplifying to spark creativity.

Your Brain on Thousands of Products
Great examples of product filtering UIs. More examples in the comments too.

A Complete Guide to Finding and Using Incredible Flickr Images
Benefits of using Flickr images and a great overview of the different types of licenses from Creative Commons.

Photo by SplaTT.

Good Reads Week of September 1

http://www.slideshare.net/billder/designing-humanity-into-your-products
Bill DeRouchey's presentation to relax and be human. (via David Kozatch, IxDA list)

http://www.agileexperiencedesign.org/profiles/blogs/story-mapping-with-jeff-patton
Video of story mapping with Jeff Patton and David Hussman at Agile 09. (via Anders Ramsay, agile-usability list)

http://unify.eightshapes.com/efficiency-tips/8-tips-for-organizing-project-files-folders/
Helpful summary of organizing files when multiple folks work on the same files.

The Secret to Writing Well
http://www.thinkingandmaking.com/view/the-secret-to
(More) Tips for Writing Well
http://www.thinkingandmaking.com/view/more-tips-for
Tips on writing and editing well from Austin Govella. (via Google Reader)

(un)Synchronizing UX & Development
http://www.thinkingandmaking.com/view/agile-ux-un
Working through how much UX should be handled in an Agile fashion. (via Google Reader)

35 Excellent Wireframing Resources
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/09/01/35-excellent-wireframing-resources/
Links to articles, tool lists and other resources for creating better wireframes. (via Google Reader)

4 Lessons that Helped Me Optimize My Workflow
http://freelanceswitch.com/productivity/4-lessons-that-helped-me-optimize-my-workflow/

Getting up earlier, scheduled breaks, strict interruption management, take advantage of spare moments. (via Freelance Switch)

Mommy, where do ideas come from?
http://www.cooper.com/journal/2009/08/mommy_where_do_ideas_come_from.html
Exploring ways in which ideas come to be.

John Cleese on Creativity

John Cleese outlines the key elements of creativity at the Creativity World Forum.

• Sleep on a problem
• Rewrite from memory
• Eliminate interruptions
• Create proper mood

When we need to be creative we must create a "tortoise enclosure" - an oasis, a safe place - and we must "create boundaries of space and time".

(Via polaine.com)

How to be a Free Thinker

Scott Berkun writes on how to be a free thinker. Free thinking is a critical skill for a designer because it is our job to make something better; to improve products and services. That can't be done if we don't know how to ask questions and challenge assumptions.

Ready? You are wrong. You are wrong much of the time. I’m wrong too and some of what I write in this essay will be wrong (except for this sentence). Even if you are brilliant, successful, happy and loved, you are wrong and ignorant more than you realize. This is not your fault. None of our theories about the world are entirely true and this is good. If we had perfect answers for things progress would be impossible, as to believe in the idea of progress requires belief in the many ignorances of the present. Look back in time 100, 50, or even 5 years, and consider how misguided the wisest, smartest people of those days were compared with what you know now. Governments, religions, cultures and traditions all change, despite what they say, and there is not a one of them still standing that is exactly the same as it was when it started. The traditions that have remained may have value, but ask yourself: who decided what to keep and what to throw away? And why did they decide what they decided? Without knowing the answers to the questions, how can you know exactly what it is you are right and wrong about in what you believe? Especially if these traditions have been changing for 100s or 1000s of years? It’s ok to be wrong if you learn something and grow from it. In fact often there’s no way to learn without making mistakes.

Creative Thinking Hacks

Scott Berkun, back to writing essays, posted an energetic piece on creativity.

All great creative ideas, inventions, and theories are comprised of other ideas. Why should you care? Here’s why: if you want to be a creator instead of a mere consumer you must see ideas currently in the world as fuel for your mind. You must stop seeing them as objects or functional things: they are combinations of ingredients waiting for reuse.

Before he gets to the"hacks" he outlines some key ingredients:

• Combinations
• Inhibitions (overcoming them)
• Environment
• Persistence

Manifestos on Creativity and Growth

Hugh MacLeod lists a number of ideas on how to be creative, supplemented by very interesting cartoons sketched by the author. Some of my favorite tips include:

6. Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten.

25. You have to find your own schtick.

30. The hardest part of being creative is getting used to it.

In a similar vein, Bruce Mau listed out about 43 statements that form "An Incomplete Manifesto For Growth." Some favorites from this list...

1. Allow events to change you. You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you. You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth: the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them.

9. Begin anywhere. John Cage tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. His advice: begin anywhere.

16. Collaborate. The space between people working together is filled with conflict, friction, strife, exhilaration, delight, and vast creative potential.

33. Take field trips. The bandwidth of the world is greater than that of your TV set, or the Internet, or even a totally immersive, interactive, dynamically rendered, object-oriented, real-time, computer graphic–simulated environment.

43. Power to the people. Play can only happen when people feel they have control over their lives. We can't be free agents if we’re not free.

moll on creativity

Cameron Moll has this to say on creativity, from an interview in Digital Web magazine:

My take? Creativity knows no borders. It often ignores mediums. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if most Web designers are also talented in the fine art of paper airplane folding. Continuing with Brian’s language analogy, I’ve found that once you learn a second language, learning a third comes much easier, as you become familiar with the intricacies of language patterns and sentence structure. But you’re still challenged to understand the how to turn all that into meaningful communication. It’s much the same with music and Web design. There are notes you follow, practices you adhere to. But then there’s the blue note—the unconventional layout. Things that require an innate sense of creativity. Things, dare I say, that require thought.

emotional design

don norman posted drafts of the prologue, chap1 & epilogue to his new book Emotional Design

the prologue (pdf) centers around 3 teapots he owns - 1 that is completely unusable, 1 that is beautiful, and 1 that is both functional and beautiful. these represent 3 aspects of design:

Visceral design concerns itself with appearances.

Behavioral design has to do with the pleasure and effectiveness of use.

reflective design considers the rationalization and intellectualization of a product. Can I tell a story about it? Does it appeal to my self-image, to my pride?

The surprise is that we now have evidence that aesthetically pleasing objects actually work better. As I shall demonstrate, products and systems that make you feel good are easier to deal with and produce more harmonious results. When you wash and polish your car, doesn’t it seem to drive better? When you bathe and dress up in clean, fancy clothes, don’t you feel better? And when you use a wonderful, wellbalanced, aesthetically pleasing garden or woodworking tool, tennis racket or skis, don’t you perform better?

chapter 1:

We have long known that when people are anxious they tend to narrow their thought processes, concentrating upon aspects directly relevant to a problem. This is a useful strategy in escaping from danger, but not in thinking of imaginative new approaches to a problem. Isen’s results show that when people are relaxed and hamore imaginative.

this is interesting - the need to design for a negative affect at times:

It is tricky to design things that must accommodate both creative thinking and focus. Suppose the design task is to build a control room for operators of a plant -- think of a nuclear power plant or a large chemical-processing plant, but the same lessons apply to many manufacturing and production facilities. The design is meant to enhance some critical procedure or function -- say to enable control room operators to watch over a plant and solve problems as they arise -- so it is probably best to have a neutral or a slightly negative affect to keep people aroused and focused. This calls for an attractive, pleasant environment so that in normal monitoring, the operators are creative and open to explore new situations. Once some plant parameter approaches a dangerous level, however, then the design should change its stance, yielding a negative affect that will keep the operators focused upon the task at hand.

How do you design something so that it can change from invoking a positive affect to invoking a negative one? There are several ways. One is through the use of sound. The visual appearance of the plant can be positive and enjoyable. During normal operation, it is even possible to play light background music, unless the control room is located where the sounds of the plant operating can be used to indicate its state. But as soon as any problem exists, the music should go away and alarms should start to sound. Buzzing, ringing alarms are negative and anxiety producing, so their presence alone might do the trick. Indeed, the problem is not to overdo it: too much anxiety produces a phenomenon known as “tunnel vision”: the people become so focused that may fail to see otherwise obvious alternatives.

epilogue:

closes (and opens) the book with a quote from William Morris:

If you want a golden rule that will fit everybody, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.