--Engage!
The core purpose of design is to "engage" ... If you solve someone's problem, make it easy for them to achieve their goals, satisfy their motivations, entertain and entice, and otherwise hold their attention, then you have engaged your audience. Let's figure out how to do just that .... ENGAGE!
Teaching SmartExperience.org class starting end of May
I’ll be teaching a longer reprise of the course I taught last year on Interaction Design for Rich Internet Applications for SmartExperience.org.
Course detail and registration information is here: http://smartexperience.org/classes/ixd-ria/
What I can tell you I’ve changed is:
1. A clearer course outline and instruction format
2. A defined project that every student is going to do
3. Clear outline of student responsibilities (Yes! there is homework!)
This is a 1/2 seminar, 1/2 studio course with lots of discussion. I’m looking for students who WANT to learn about IxD, engage their teacher and who are passionate about the work they do.
If you are a designer, IA, BA, developer, etc. interested in learning about both interaction design and the intricacies of Rich Internet Applications this course is for you.
And for reading my blog you get 15% off by using the code, “Synapse” (no quotes)
Enjoy! and Engage!
Oh! spots are limited class 1/2 full (18 spots total available)
Special thanx to Victor for arranging and for Chris Fahey and the crowd at Behavior Design for hosting the course.
Shared Google Reader
I’m not posting as much as before, but what I do do now is share a lot of what I find interesting in my daily readings using Google Reader.
To see the latest, just look at the ride sidebar that says “Interesting”. But if you want to you can go to my Google Reader Share page. There is a subscribe link there.
Enjoy!
Creativity: Allowing beautiful accidents to unfold ... AKA Serendipity
When I think about what makes design so special I often get stuck, but today it was loudly pronounced to me as a process of purposeful accidents leading to serendipity.
Today, while I was working on the visual design for a desktop application, I was “happy” with the design. Then by accident I hit the wrong layer in Fireworks and removed an element I had not planned to remove. The result? Well, I LOVED IT without that element and the design got pulled together after that on so many levels, I can’t really believe I ever went any other direction before this.
This event actually happened twice today while working on a comp design for my internal client so he can review it. Will he notice the difference in this case? Probably not. But for me, this subtle change makes the entire design hold together.
Related to this, one of my peers, an industrial designer, and I were speaking about a recent meeting with a vendor we are using to do some exploratory design work for us. It was the first time I had the chance to be at a review like this, and the total experience was great. I was really jazzed about what I saw, and after the weekend when I was able to reconnect with the industrial designer, I expressed my delight at our meeting.
His response surprised me. He was quite upset about it. What he said was, “They crafted the story too early in their process and this limited the breadth of their explorations.” It took me a while of back and forth to really internalize what he was trying to say. Ya see, as an interaction designer, we spend soooo much time trying to tell the story before we start the design process (research and what not) that I was taken aback by his comment and I tried to counter it. But in the end I really think I understand his point. ...
… The ability to sketch, to explore, to think unboundedly, without judgement is a key driver of what is the design process. Without this element, we are really only engineering solutions to fit the story and we can’t ever take advantage of our greatest tool—the accident.
So I encourage you all to try to create moments early in your design process where moments of serendipity can occur. Even when crafting a story (our main job as interaction & interface designers), there are lots of accidental pleasures we can take advantage of. Creating moments that allow you and your team to be open to those accidents is key.
Ok, I hope I'm back!
So I think I stopped the re-direct problem I was having. what a horrible world we live in when people have to hack sites like mine (I mean what! I have like under 1000 viewers) to try and increase their spam to really unethical sites.
Well, no one wants to read this, but I hope to be back blogging soon.
I’m very disappointed that the commenting feature isn’t working, nor is the talk to me link off the left sidebar. Just email me directly.
What I really want to do is find a way to move to a new piece of software. I’d like to move to WordPress. I generally like it better. My problem is that I don’t want to loose my content.
If there are some technical blogging heads reading this who want to make a few bucks and help me move from pMachine to WordPress (or similar) then shoot me an email.
Thanx!
-- dave
Interaction08 | Savannah is close to selling out
With over 315 attendees registered for Interaciton08, this 1.0 conference for IxDA is going to tear it up in beautiful and historic Savannah, GA. Our many sponsors saw the light and put their money where their mouth is, after we announced our tremendous program.
So … you better sign up quick before all these spots disappear and you are stuck just reading slides after the fact. Of course, you’ll also miss opportunities to argue with the likes of well, ME!!!! … ;)
You can get a taste of the community buzz in our "Connect" section hosted by Crowdvine--the conference social network guys.
I hope to see you in Savannah
Buzzword vs. Google Docs
If this was just about ONLY writing docs, Buzzword is the best online rich internet app for composing documents I have used to date.
Let’s just start there. The level of graphical presentation, fluid transitions, great communication design, wondering discovery of advanced features, paper centric features, amazing spell check (yup, they upped the ante on spell check even), and wonderful iconography make for a much more enjoyable compositional experience.
Then there are the collaboration features. Unlike Google Docs which really only allows you to edit (in real time synchronously which is nice) , there are reviewer features that are ultimately much more useful and usable than anything that Google Docs has.
I really recommend it for anyone who is doing serious composition of documents like articles you want others to review and comment on before exporting to paper. It does have its bugs, but it really shows that you can do a full screen application in Flash/Flex that is more poweful and obviously more dramatic than you can with AJAX. It also really underscores to me the difference between a well engineered application and a well designed one. Google docs just doesn’t touch you at the emotional level the way that Buzzword does.
Here’s the catch. “If this was just about ONLY writing docs,” was how I started this post. But it isn’t ONLY about writing docs. I have a host of spreadsheets and presentations and email that are all interconnected through Google. And that interconnection or eco-system is designed well-enough that it has some tremendous tie-in value.
Google though is starting to annoy me mainly because of inconsistencies in the designs between the 3 applications and them with email & actually with Reader as well. Not enough to send me running to Zofo or anything like that, but enough to just make me keep an eye out for something better like Buzzword and for me to use it for specialized needs like larger compositions and where I think I might be printing at some point.
Mommy, mommy! I'm a co-chair of Interaction08 | Savannah!!!
So yesterday, due to my really really hard work on help Dan Saffer bring Interaction08 to life, I have been given the title of co-chair of the conference. Yea!!!! Resume fodder for everyone!
This is a really big deal for me personally (so sorry if I came across as light in the above paragraph). Dan and I have been working closely together on Intearction08 | Savannah since the very first time we both got the board of [url=http://ixda.org/]IxDA to agree to doing this conference. Some thought it might be too soon for us. Dan and I felt that it was not only the right time, but the right thing for IxDA and we couldn’t have been more right.
As to why the hard work. We are 100% volunteer driven. There is not 1 paid staff member of IxDA and we did not outsource anything for this conference. This has meant that volunteers like Dan and myself, the Board itself, and others like Dani Malik and Vishal Iyer have been pouring blood, sweat and tears into making this conference experience exceptional. At this point I’m confident we are going to nail the execution on this conference setting a new standard for how UX organizational conferences should be designed.
Have we got everything perfect? Of course not!!! We are poor, so we buy what we can and build what we can when we have the time. We have gotten tremendous support from some outstanding sponsors: Microsoft, Intuit, Cooper, SAP frog design, Axure, Tandem Seven, Apogee, FatDUX, Motorola, AvenueA-Razorfish and Coroflot. With their support we have been able to afford our amazing new social network site (hosted by Crowdvine). We would also be NOWHERE without our host Savannah College of Art & Design. Lastly, we have 2 great media partners: Boxes & Arrows and Core77 who will be covering the conference for their respective communities.
But it is all about the content and we are so proud of the line up we have for you across just 2 days. From Deep in the weeds of IxD to tangential topics related to industrial design, architecture, game design, design research, information architecture, and more.
Anyway, yup, I’m a co-chair … I’ve been killing myself for this conference and really believe it is worth all the sweat I’ve ever put into IxDA. It is exciting that we are close to selling out. There will probably be a rush come Jan 2nd when new budgets open up, so register while you can.
Hey! I've been podcasted - Foundations of Interaction Design - in voice!
Listen to me talk about interaction design’s foundations on Boxes and Arrows.
RIA? - Who cares?
I mean really? It’s been almost 3 years since Jesse James Garrett coined the term AJAX (even longer since Macromedia [now Adobe] started using the term RIA itself) and in so doing set us off on our parade down RIA lane. … Why is htis still considered a separate area of design and technology?
Seriously, I just read the title of a blog entry about RIAs going mainstream. I mean name me a GOOD mainstream site that doesn’t use some sort of richness. Amazon, Google, Yahoo, etc. Ok, my bank doesn’t use RIAs (and it is NOT good UI/IxD and so it really doesn’t fall under the GOOD category anyway).
Maybe we need to stop talking about RIA as something novell and just start taking about it as a normal part of producing networked based distributed applications--thick, thin or otherwise.
Can we move on please?
NYC UXNet Holiday Party Announced
As I mentioned in my blurb about why I am excited about Interaction08, there is going to be a UXNet Holiday Party in NYC where I’ll be buying anyone a drink who registers for Interaciton08 while at the party. I’ll have an iPhone to register with.
Here is the announcement for the party. See you there!!!
Hi Everyone,It’s hard to believe that December is upon us again! It’s a season for everyone to get together and remember the year, and you can bet the NYC-UX community is celebrating! There’s also a great registration offer for the Interaction ‘08 Conference, but more on that later.
Details:
Tuesday, December 11th from 6:30pm to 9pm (or until someone tries to define IA again)
Eight Mile Creek
240 Mulberry Street (btw Prince and Spring)
http://tinyurl.com/2h8h9gNow here’s the good part: Find Dave Malouf during the evening, register for the Interaciton ‘08 conference right on his iPhone, and get a free drink! If you don’t recognize Dave, just ask around (or just look for a group of huddled thirsty people illuminated by an iPhone) .
Conference info (check out the lineup and try not to pass out!!) : http://interaction08.ixda.org/
See you there, and Happy Holidays from NYC UXnet!
- Nasir
NYC IxDA
