recent articles and blog postings -- let us know if anything sticks

[Thom Haller]

Continued conversation on the fold:
http://fsm.bdconf.com/blog/the-fold-doesnt-exist?utm_campaign=issue1-2012&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_content=The%20Fold%20Does%28n%E2%80%99t%29%20Exist




Behavior Design Bootcamp with Stanford's Dr. B.J. Fogg
Buzzword galore.
"(...) it makes sense now to call attention to the distinction between Dr. Fogg's Behavior Theory ˆ the emerging discipline of behavior design ˆ and the widening concept of design thinking. In my mind, both occupy some similar space but are not mutually exclusive or competing thought architectures. BJ and I briefly discussed how design thinking and behavior design relate to one another, and he admittedly has not arrived at a definitive relationship, though he believes they are complimentary. I'm hopeful Dr. Fogg is willing to have an ongoing conversation with me about their relationship, and work with the design community to develop a framework in which behavior design and design thinking can be successfully leveraged together. Held in comparison, behavior design fits quite nicely into the larger Design Thinking or Human Centered Design process, and can be employed with great effect as part of a design thinker's arsenal."
(Ryan Wynia a.k.a. @ryanwynia ~ Technori)
http://technori.com/2012/10/2612-behavior-design-bootcamp/

MOBILE DESIGN
Designing for the Sense of Touch: A New Frontier for Design
Touchy feely.
"Camille Moussette explores how interaction designers can leverage and embrace the sense of touch to develop interfaces and experiences that go beyond traditional visual and form-based aesthetics."
(Science Daily) ~ courtesy of jeroenspiering
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121026084352.htm

UX
User Experience is Not Just Design, It's the Key to Innovation and Growth
It's Garrett, not Garret.
"It's not every day you have Jesse James Garrett stop by to talk about the state of user experience and its role in the future of business. But, we were fortunate to have him visit the set of Revolution to talk about the importance of people and experiences and how UX deserves the attention of the c-suite."
(Brain Solis)
http://www.briansolis.com/2012/10/user-experience-is-not-just-design-its-the-key-to-innovation-and-growth/

WIREFRAMES
Ditch Traditional Wireframes
Some still think they have value.
"Wireframes have played an increasingly leading role in the modern Web development process. They provide a simple way of validating user interface and layout and are cheaper and faster to produce than a final visual comp. However, most of the methods and techniques used to create them are far from being efficient, contradicting the principles and values that made wireframing useful in first place. While this article is not about getting rid of the wireframing process itself, now is a good time for questioning and improving some of the materials and deliverables that have become de facto standards in the UX field. To make this point clear, let's do a quick review of the types of wireframes commonly used."
(Sergio Nouvel a.k.a. @shesho ~ UX magazine)
http://uxmag.com/articles/ditch-traditional-wireframes

HCI
The end for keyboards and mice?
You ain't seen nothing yet.
"Apple's iPhone and its rivals may have introduced touchscreens to the masses, but now a raft of technologies promise to change the way we interact with computers forever."
(Paul Rubens ~ BBC)
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20121023-the-end-for-keyboard-and-mice

INFO DESIGN
Breaking Design Principles on Purpose
Rules and exceptions.
"Rules. They keep our designs clean, consistent, aligned, and focused. The core principles upon which good design is built are absolutely essential to the education of any designer. The great thing about design rules though is that they can and should be broken, granted that you know what you're doing. Read on to see some examples of effectively breaking design principles in order to improve a project."
(Jason Gross a.k.a. @JasonAGross ~ Design Shack)
http://designshack.net/articles/graphics/breaking-design-principles-on-purpose/

USABILITY
10 Benchmarks for User Experience Metrics
Metrics of Usability or CX, framed as UX benchmarks.
"Quantifying the user experience is the first step to making measured improvements."
(Jeff Sauro a.k.a. @MeasuringU ~ Measuring Usability)
http://www.measuringusability.com/blog/ux-benchmarks.php

INFO VIZ
The Diagram of Information Visualization
Even business graphics is on the horizon. And that's not clipart in PPTs.
"In the last ten years, the area of Information Visualization has witnessed an exponential increase in its popularity. Diagrammatic reasoning and visual epistemology are becoming readily accepted methods of research in many academic domains. Concurrently, information graphics and Infovis have grabbed the attention of a larger mainstream audience."
(Parsons Journal for Information Mapping Volume IV, Issue 4)
http://pjim.newschool.edu/issues/2012/04/index.php

DESIGN RESEARCH
The Importance of Knowing User Intent
Do you know what you want? I don't.
"Users don't always know exactly what they want. Sometimes they know only that they want help figuring out what they want. This makes figuring out user intent particularly challenging for marketers and product manufacturers."
(Jordan Julien  a.k.a. @thejordanrules ~ UXmatters)
http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2012/10/the-importance-of-knowing-user-intent.php

MOBILE DESIGN
Mobile Email Newsletters
Mobile newsletters, why not?
"Mobile use strengthens email marketing's benefits by offering ubiquitous newsletter access, but it also introduces new usability limitations for template design."
(Jakob Nielsen ~ Alertbox)
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/mobile-email-newsletters.html

UX
UX design for startups: The age of user experience design
Startups being the fertile ground for UX design. That's 'users' as in 'customers'.
"Like many of my contemporary UX Design peers, I started my career as a so-called usability specialist. Fascinated by ergonomics and cognitive science, I was working to make sure users were able to actually use interfaces. Armed with user research, heuristics and a little bit of prototyping, I was trying to find my place in the 'developer-oriented' world. This wasn‚t easy."
(Marcin Treder a.k.a. @uxpin ~ NET Magazine)
http://www.netmagazine.com/features/ux-design-startups-age-user-experience-design

INFO DESIGN
The Catch Behind Design Thinking
Has Design Thinking lost its glory?
"Connecting design thinking with the broader context of problem solving has lead to the growth of two equally harmful myths: the guru designer and practice as a process, emphasizing on subjectivity or linearity where empathy, empowerment and divergent thinking are needed. Design thinking isn't saving the world or revolutionizing business, for sure, mostly because of these two illusory paths."
(Thierry de Baillon a.k.a. @tdebaillon ~ DeBaillon)
http://www.debaillon.com/2011/05/the-catch-behind-design-thinking/

CX
User Experience v. Customer Experience
Here we go again. DTDT.
"Customer experience is always a little tricky to explain. It‚s just so darn big. What doesn‚t it cover (not much) and who is responsible (good question). Often, customer experience is translated into user experience ˆ the front-end digital experience of users."
(360 connext)
http://360connext.com/user-experience-v-customer-experience/

PROTOTYPING
Bring Mockups to Life with Real Content
Content, the 80-90% driver of transformational user experiences.
"How do you create the perfect pitch for your new product or service? With a bunch of screens filled with Lorem ipsum? We don't think so! Here we share our experiences creating mockups for some tough presentations."
(Antun Debak a.k.a. @adebak ~ UX Passion)
http://uxpassion.com/blog/ui-design/bring-mockups-to-life-with-real-content

INFO DESIGN
The Languages of Design
Language, the tool of communication.
"It's common in design to discuss the "language of things", the language expressed by physical objects and digital systems. We often consider the visual layout of a website ˆ how it guides a user; what the hierarchy of fields in a form might suggest; or what the look and feel of a product says about a brand or company ˆ but what about that company's words; how do they fit into all this?"
(Angus Edwardson a.k.a. @Namshee ~ UX Booth)
http://www.uxbooth.com/blog/the-languages-of-design/

DESIGN RESEARCH
The Power of Networks
Network, the underlying concept of the 21st century.
"We often take decisions by using the wrong or outdated tools and theories. Network science and tools are readily available to inform decisions in different sectors and organizations. Their adoption for decision-making should be further promoted."
(World Economic Forum)
http://www.weforum.org/sessions/summary/power-networks

HCI
Modelling is not the answer!
A model is what it is: a model.
"In HCI we have witnessed the rise and fall of conceptual modeling in general. The 1980s focused on changing human behavior, which was captured in models to inform designs. Around 1990 a second wave of HCI questioned the usefulness of this type of approach, pointing out how human behavior is contingent and situated, and that human beings actively work around whatever technical solutions exist. In more recent years, this has been supplemented with a focus on emotion and experience. More than ever, this research points away from conceptual modeling."
(Susanne Bødker, Niels Mathiasen, Marianne Petersen ~ ACM Interactions Sep/Oct 2012)
http://interactions.acm.org/archive/view/september-october-2012/modeling-is-not-the-answer

UX
Lean Strategy for UX Design
The perfect mixology: strategy, lean, UX, and design.
"Lean strategy in UX design means getting to a simple, actionable statement about what problem we are going to solve for the user as soon as possible, so that the design process can proceed. In fact, lean strategy often happens in concert with design, enabling us to be more adaptive and to more easily apply our thinking to our designs. It's about being less precious and profligate with our decks and deliverables, freeing us up to bring greater clarity and focus to our ideas. It's strategy in motion, pressing us forward rather than holding us back until everything has been figured out and proven with mathematical certainty."
(David Gillis a.k.a. @davegillis ~ UX Magazine)
http://uxmag.com/articles/lean-strategy-for-ux-design

UX
The Age of User Experience Design: Infographic
The numbers - if true - are amazing.
"The growth of the User Experience Design field is breathtaking, but well deserved. Thanks to UX Designers all over the world, the quality of products has increased dramatically. Design really does matter now. It‚s a user centric world in which there‚s not only Apple on the scene anymore."
(Martin Treder a.k.a. @marcintreder ~ UXPin)
http://blog.uxpin.com/1176/the-age-of-user-experience-design/

SERVICE DESIGN
Introducing the storygraph
Service design deliverable galore.
"The storygraph is a deliverable I made to visualize the user needs/touchpoint matrix. (...) Let's think about the customer's journey. As designers we can't have control over the path our customers walk. They can approach us from any possible touchpoint: our website, some else's website, phone, friend advice, our headquarter or any other physical location, remote help desk, social media etc. They use whatever they will to get informations or complete a task. From the customer‚s point of view, they're just interacting with our brand. And they don‚t care about what channel or system or device they're using. That's exactly why we have to."
(Raffaele Rainwiz)
http://www.rainwiz.com/2012/10/13/introducing-the-storygraph/


Compiled by
Peter J. Bogaards -- @BogieZero
http://about.me/peterbogaards