(cross-posted)

(some of you may have seen me mention this event last week, via
@uxbri, here are the full details)

When: 11 May, 6:00 for a 6:30 start
Where: icrossing, Moore House, 13 Black Lion Street, Brighton, UK, BN1
1ND (top buzzer, next door to the Jamie Oliver restaurant) (Map)

In yet another change of format, this month Rob Phillips has agreed to
run a workshop covering a number of hands-on design games. These
techniques help make design more accessible and fun for clients, and
lead to greater creativity and a broader range of unexpected ideas.

Details: http://uxbrighton.org.uk/design-games/

--
Danny Hope
User Experience Design, Brighton UK
http://dannyhope.co.uk
+44 (0)7595 226 792

(cross-posted)

*I know some of you have had difficulty getting to the ticketing page
for this event. Try again now, it should work fine and sorry for the
inconvenience.*

When: 11 May, 6:00 for a 6:30 start
Where: icrossing, Moore House, 13 Black Lion Street, Brighton, UK, BN1
1ND (top buzzer, next door to the Jamie Oliver restaurant) (Map)

In yet another change of format, this month Rob Phillips has agreed to
run a workshop covering a number of hands-on design games. These
techniques help make design more accessible and fun for clients, and
lead to greater creativity and a broader range of unexpected ideas.

Details: http://uxbrighton.org.uk/design-games/

--
Danny Hope
User Experience Design, Brighton UK
http://dannyhope.co.uk
+44 (0)7595 226 792

--- Agile Roots "Building Great Software" ---

Come spend two days with your fellow passionate Agile leaders, teachers, and
practitioners. Spend time listening to, questioning, and sharing ideas with
Agile thought leaders.

Discuss Agile Usability with Jeff Patton and speakers from Pivotal Labs, Menlo
Innovations, Adaptive Path, and others. Play Innovation Games and discover the
synergy between Agile values and Product Management/Marketing with Luke Hohmann.
Hear about the next Agile methodology from Alistair Cockburn. Explore the
dynamics of Agile teams with Diana Larsen.

And this is just the beginning of this year's Agile Roots program.
(http://www.agileroots.com/program)

With the early bird discount, this 2-day conference is only $200! Register 5 or
more from the same company and save even more money. Early bird discount ends
this Saturday, May 15, after which regular registration is $250.

This low price is only possible because of our generous sponsors:

VersionOne (http://www.versionone.com/)
Rally (http://www.rallydev.com/)
Xmission (http://www.xmission.com/)
Verio (http://www.verio.com/)

Agile Roots is June 14-15 in Salt Lake City, UT. More information, full
conference schedule, and registration open at http://www.agileroots.com.

-Kay

--
Kay Johansen
Agile Roots - "Building Great Software"
June 14-15, 2010
Salt Lake City, UT
www.agileroots.com

Hi all,

For the last two years I have been pouring my heart and soul into a book that
just went beta with the Pragmatic Programmers called The Agile Samurai.

It's been a two year labor of love that contains all the harsh lessons, war
stories, insights, and tricks of the trade myself and many others have gathered
over the last ten years.

If you are new to agile, or you know someone who is just about to start their
very own agile project, please consider sending them to the URL below

http://www.pragprog.com/titles/jtrap/the-agile-samurai

and give them the tools and insight I wish I had when I started my journey 10
years ago.

Cheers - Jonathan Rasmusson

agilewarrior.wordpress.com

--- In agile-usability@yahoogroups.com, William Pietri <william@...> wrote:
> If it's 100% ready to ship, it's done. If something remains (QA,
> design cleanup, code cleanup, minor changes, anything) then it is not
> done.
>
> William
>

+1

This is my definition of done too. Not all teams get there but it's where I like
to start.

With regards to testing spilling over to the next iteration, try doing less. Do
less until you have time for both development AND testing.

Cheers - JR

Workshop on Accessible Search Systems

    in conjunction with the 33rd Annual ACM SIGIR Conference
                  Geneva, Switzerland, 23 July 2010
         http://personal.cis.strath.ac.uk/~ir/accessiblesearch

AIMS

Current search systems are not adequate for individuals with specific
needs: children, older adults, people with visual or motor impairments,
and people with intellectual disabilities or low literacy. Search
services are typically created for average users (young or middle-aged
adults without physical or mental disabilities) and information
retrieval methods are based on their perception of relevance as well.
The workshop will be the first to raise the discussion on how to make
search engines accessible for different types of users, including
those with problems in reading, writing or comprehension of complex
content. Search accessibility means that people whose abilities are
considerably different from those that average users have will be able
to successfully use search systems.

The objective of the workshop is to provide a forum and initiate
collaborations between academics and industrial practitioners interested
in making search more usable for users in general and for users with
specific needs in particular. We encourage presentation and participation
from researchers working at the intersection of information retrieval,
natural language processing, human-computer interaction, ambient
intelligence and related areas.

INVITED SPEAKERS

The organisers are pleased to announce two invited speakers who will
present at the workshop:

Dr. T.V. Raman, Senior Research Scientist at Google Labs. Dr. Raman
leads the project "Google Accessible Search", helping users with
impairments to find accessible Web content.

Dr. Allison Druin, Director of the Human-Computer Interaction Lab at
the University of Maryland. Since 1998, Dr. Druin has led an
interdisciplinary research teams looking for ways to improve
information access for children and understand their search behaviour.

PAPERS AND POSTERS

The conference language is English. The workshop will be a mix of oral
presentations for long papers (maximum of 8 pages), a session for posters
(maximum of 2 pages) and a panel discussion. All submissions will be
reviewed by at least two program committee members. Workshop proceedings
will be available at the workshop.

SUBMISSION DETAILS

Please, submit papers in pdf-format, using the ACM SIG Proceedings style
(http://www.acm.org/sigs/pubs/proceed/template.html ) using EasyChair:
http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=accessiblesearch2010

IMPORTANT DATES

4 June:  Paper submission deadline (previous deadline: 23 May)
16 June: Notification of acceptance
23 June: Camera-ready papers due (provisional, awaiting confirmation
          from the SIGIR conference chairs)
23 July: Workshop in Geneva, Switzerland

TOPICS

The workshop welcomes contributions on any issue concerning accessible
search, for instance:

  * Understanding of search behavior of users with specific needs
  * Understanding of relevance criteria of users with specific needs
  * Understanding the effects of domain expertise, age, user experience
    and cognitive abilities on search goals and results evaluation
  * Non-topical aspects of relevance: text style, readability,
    appropriateness of language (harassment and explicit content
    detection)
  * Development of test collections for evaluation of accessible search
    systems
  * Collaborative search techniques for assisting users with specific
    needs (e.g. parents helping children)
  * Potential of search personalization techniques to satisfy users with
    specific needs
  * Search interfaces and result representation for people with specific
    needs
  * Using assistive technologies for interaction with search systems,
    e.g. speech recognition or eye tracking software for querying and
    browsing.

ORGANISATION COMMITTEE

Pavel Serdyukov, TU Delft
Djoerd Hiemstra, University of Twente
Ian Ruthven, University of Strathclyde

PROGRAMME COMMITTEE

Leif Azzopardi, University of Glasgow
Dania Bilal, University of Tennessee
Jamshid Beheshti, McGill University, Montreal
Carlos Castillo, Yahoo Research
Kevin Collins-Thompson, Microsoft Research
Arjen de Vries, CWI, Amsterdam
Hilary Hutchinson, Google
Diane Kelly, University of North Carolina
Mounia Lalmas, University of Glasgow
Barbara Leporini, CNR, Pisa
Andrew MacFarlane, City University, London
Marie-Francine Moens, University of Leuven

Hello,

This is my first post to the list so apologies in advance if this is the wrong
place or has been covered before. I'm a (relatively new) UX practitioner at an
international mobile operator.

We're trying to pitch a Agile + UX approach to an audience of software
developers & managers. I'm able to find quite a few resources on best practices
(e.g. parallel track approach, rapid iterative user testing), but what we're
missing at this point are compelling case studies indicating that this combined
approach is feasible for a large-scale international mobile company.

Basically we are looking for a few examples of major software development
companies that have successfully used Agile (specifically, Scrum) combined with
user centered design activities. So far I've found case studies on
ComputerWeekly.com, Microsoft (Video Games), and Autodesk, but so far nothing in
mobile. Any anecdotes, links, etc. would be much appreciated!

Thanks,
Nina

We have been doing this at Con-way Enterprise Services

Link Here:  http://uxsuccess.com/2009/10/19/ux-and-agile-co-mingling/

Process based on how we worked on SCO Mobile P&D Re-write
During Iteration Planning:
• The BA works with the business owners to decide what stories go in this
iteration.
• UX does research to inform stories and to create the User Scenarios that will
inform the UAT and the user test scenarios.
During Story Analysis  (working an iteration or two)  ahead of the developers :
• UX meets with the BA and the clients to assist in needs elicitation from the
user's perspective to help write the story.  The UX person may do participatory
design and use lo-fi prototyping in RITE sessions to get to a starting point for
the BA
• The BA refines the mock-up screens that are added to each of the stories using
Balsamiq.
• UX reviews those mock-up screens for best-practice as the developers review
for technical viability – this is done through a story review with the team (try
to take the form of cognitive walk-throughs here to keep team members on task)
• When enough stories are complete in mock-up, they are linked in clickable
prototype format so that our End-Users who participate in weekly revolving door
sessions can test.  UX does a weekly report-out that includes story sign-off and
stories signed off with these exceptions.
• UX also participates in client story reviews at this time to get client
feedback on the prototype
During Development: (working on cards that are being played in this iteration)
• UX does desk-side reviews as the developers are programming the UI screens. 
We are learning a lot here — since our developers are doing the screen design —
we have no formal designer on the team.
• As the UX person, I am trying to extract "standards"  from the 6 developers
and post those on a Wiki to try to keep the design consistent repeatable and
predictable.  This is our greatest challenge right now.
•  As soon as we can, UX brings the "happy path" click through on a device  (or
screens) that has been populated with mock-data to revolving door sessions and
into the field. NB: About revolving door sessions:  Generally these sessions
always happen once a week with 6 users who have committed to a 30 minute time
slot. They look at both prototype mock ups and test the click-through tasks on
the device
• When we have more functional code, we take the device out to the field to walk
through a task in the context of how they would do it — not just following a
"happy path" we do a more formal review with users out in the field — drivers
and dock-workers. This gets us locked down, UX will sign off, and then we go to
QA.
During QA:
• UX review stories and defects and adds cards as appropriate. We partner
closely with QA to make sure that the integrity of the UX is maintained before
we go to client sign-off.

--- In agile-usability@yahoogroups.com, "rogerwingo" <neener@...> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> This is my first post to the list so apologies in advance if this is the wrong
place or has been covered before. I'm a (relatively new) UX practitioner at an
international mobile operator.
>
> We're trying to pitch a Agile + UX approach to an audience of software
developers & managers. I'm able to find quite a few resources on best practices
(e.g. parallel track approach, rapid iterative user testing), but what we're
missing at this point are compelling case studies indicating that this combined
approach is feasible for a large-scale international mobile company.
>
> Basically we are looking for a few examples of major software development
companies that have successfully used Agile (specifically, Scrum) combined with
user centered design activities. So far I've found case studies on
ComputerWeekly.com, Microsoft (Video Games), and Autodesk, but so far nothing in
mobile. Any anecdotes, links, etc. would be much appreciated!
>
> Thanks,
> Nina
>

+1 To what William said.

I find specific UX practices and how they get applied on agile projects is very
team dependent (not so much company or process).

How you incorporate UX into your agile process will be highly dependent on who
you have on your team and how they work together.

I know this sounds obvious but it's not.

What if you have a developer with a really good eye for design?
Could they do the mock-ups the iteration before and share them with the rest of
the team?

Or what if you have a designer who still knows how to code, but loves working
with paper prototypes before building anything concrete.

Theirs a saying that you pick your architecture when you pick your team. I
believe the same is true for how UX is used and applied in your project.

As William said, it's something you as a team need to come together on a figure
out.

My advice is to look for people who are open to new ideas, aren't afraid to
experiment, and can check their egos at the door and enjoy learning from others.

Because the experience matters. And there is so much the UX community brings to
the process.

Good luck!

--
Twitter: @jrasmusson
http://agilewarrior.wordpress.com
The Agile Samurai - http://bit.ly/9wlCdz


--- In agile-usability@yahoogroups.com, William Pietri <william@...> wrote:
>
> On 03/24/2010 02:54 AM, samfmsutton wrote:
> > I'm a designer based in a developer heavy web development company. We
started moving towards agile over the last year or so.
> >
> > One argument I'm facing at the moment is that wireframes etc seem like
bureaucracy that gets in the way of writing stories and implementing them.
> >
> > I can understand that, although I'm not strict about this, and we have had
really useful, positive discussions about decisions when we had wireframes to
guide us.
> >
> > But what do you think? Is it better just to write stories, put live code out
there and test the results and then refine, or have you had positive benefits
from using wireframes or just basic mockups to think about the functionality
beforehand?
> >
>
> I think there are three separate questions here:
>
>    1. What do you, as a designer, need to do personally to think through
>       an interface?
>    2. What are the most efficient ways for your team to meet and design
>       things together?
>    3. What's the most efficient way to get a good experience to users?
>
>
> I don't think there's a general-case answer to these: you're looking for
> the intersection of individual variation, team variation, and minimum
> waste. To me, the only way to find that is to be continually tinkering
> with your process, seeing how little you can get away with and still
> produce great work.
>
>
> So if I were in your shoes, there are some things I'd start discussions on:
>
>     * Is everybody happy with the kind of products your team is turning out?
>     * Does the team really iterate on things until they get to the right
>       level of quality?
>     * In what situations can some up-front thinking save your team time?
>     * How can the team conduct experiments to settle questions like this?
>
>
> Really, this could go either way. I've seen teams waste a lot of time
> and money by going off half-cocked. I've also seen immense waste from
> too much design time and expensive design artifacts. Developers are
> prone to the former mistake; designers, the latter. It's only when you
> have a whole team working together that you can find the local optimum.
>
> William
>

(cross posted)

When:  13 July 2010
Where: iCrossing, Brighton
What:   2 (possibly 3) talks on analytics

Many companies use analytics as a starting point for user research but
get stumped when it comes to gaining genuine understanding about why
users do what they do.

For July’s event we aim to show how applications like Google Analytics
can be used to both formulate and answer questions. We’ll also show
how these quantitative techniques can be combined with qualitative
methods such as traditional user testing.

Book your free place:
http://uxbrighton.org.uk/supergoogleanalyticsexpialidocious

--
Danny Hope
User Experience Design, Brighton UK
http://dannyhope.co.uk
http://twitter.com/yandle
+44 (0)7595 226 792

(cross posted)

After successfully running UX Brighton for two years, we have decided
to turn one of our meet-ups into a full blown conference. So, I'm
pleased to announce UX Brighton 2010 – a conference with an emphasis
on designing for behaviour. This will be a one day event at the Sallis
Benney Theatre on September 13th, where we'll be learning how
disciplines such as behavioral economics, cognitive psychology and
linguistics can provide a clearer understanding of what goes on inside
our customers' heads and inform better design.

Get your early bird ticket now: http://2010.uxbrighton.org.uk
£69 rather than £99

--
Danny Hope
User Experience Design, Brighton UK
http://dannyhope.co.uk
+44 (0)7595 226 792

[Sorry for any duplication in your inbox.]

Greetings,

We're breaking up the band.

With one stop to go, attendees are telling us the UIE Web App Masters
Tour is one of our best events ever. Hundreds of web application
designers have found inspiration from our world-class experts.
Fortunately, there's one more stop on the tour and you can be there too.

I'm both excited and sad that our UIE Web App Masters Tour is coming
to an end. I'm sad because I really wish we could keep going, bringing
this merry band of thought leaders to designers all over the world.
I'm excited because every tour stop gets better than the last. Seattle
is sure to be our best.

But don't just take our word on how awesome this Tour is. Read what
past attendees think of the Tour:

      * "Absolutely one of the BEST conferences I've been to. Each
speaker brought valuable lessons we can take away with us."
Philadelphia attendee
      * "Thank you everyone for an absolutely outstanding event. Loved
it, loved it, loved it." @brightmatrix
      * "2nd day of Web App Masters Tour. Great stuff. @billwscott =
excellent #uiewamt" @let5ch

  > This Tour Changes the Way You Design

Across two days, nine leading experts in web-based application design
share their experience and wisdom, to show you concrete examples on
how to take your work to new levels. They tackle the issues of
complexity, communicating with the developers, integrating new
features, and engaging the users. Attendees come away with a full
brain and a pile of new ideas, ready to start making improvements
right away.

  > Who Are the Masters?

These folks define the front lines of today's web app designs:

      * Luke Wroblewski on web form design
      * Ryan Singer sharing 37signals' design process
      * Bill Scott on design patterns
      * Stephen Anderson on seductive interactions
      * Ken Kellogg describing Marriott.com's new redesign
      * Christian Crumlish on designing for social interactions
      * Doug Bowman sharing how Twitter gets people engaged
      * Hagan Rivers on web app navigation techniques
      * and I'll be sharing UIE's latest research on how teams succeed
      * Find out why we think this is our best Web App program ever.

  > It's Not too Late to be Part of the 2010 Tour

The last stop is in Seattle on July 12 & 13. There's about a one in a
billion chance that all these Masters share the stage together again.
Seattle will deliver a program we guarantee will change the way you
design applications forever.

Agile Usability readers can sign up with the promotion code WEBTOUR
and get $200 off the registration price. But you have to register
soon. There's only a few seats available at that price.

Hope to see you in Seattle.

Jared M. Spool
Mastermind behind the Web App Masters Tour

[Apologies for being an idiot and not including the link in the last
message.]

Agile Usability readers can sign up with the promotion code WEBTOUR
and get $200 off the registration price. But you have to register
soon. There's only a few seats available at that price.

Of course, you'll want to go to
http://www.uie.com/events/web_app_masters/seattle/
   to learn about the program and sign up.

Jared
[Not the smartest] Mastermind behind the Web App Masters Tour

I will be on vacation between June 24th and July 6th and will only check email
intermittently. If you need to reach me in the mean time, please call or text.

Hank

On Jun 28, 2010, at 6:03 AM, agile-usability@yahoogroups.com wrote:

> Agile Usability
> Messages In This Digest (1 Message)
> 1.
> [event] Next UX Brighton event: SuperGoogleAnalyticsExpialidocious, From:
Danny Hope
> View All Topics | Create New Topic
> Message
> 1.
> [event] Next UX Brighton event: SuperGoogleAnalyticsExpialidocious,
> Posted by: "Danny Hope" danny.hope@...   dannyzhope
> Mon Jun 28, 2010 1:17 am (PDT)
>
>
> (cross posted)
>
> When: 13 July 2010
> Where: iCrossing, Brighton
> What: 2 (possibly 3) talks on analytics
>
> Many companies use analytics as a starting point for user research but
> get stumped when it comes to gaining genuine understanding about why
> users do what they do.
>
> For July‚s event we aim to show how applications like Google Analytics
> can be used to both formulate and answer questions. We‚ll also show
> how these quantitative techniques can be combined with qualitative
> methods such as traditional user testing.
>
> Book your free place:
> http://uxbrighton.org.uk/supergoogleanalyticsexpialidocious
>
> --
> Danny Hope
> User Experience Design, Brighton UK
> http://dannyhope.co.uk
> http://twitter.com/yandle
> +44 (0)7595 226 792
>
> Back to top
> Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post
> Messages in this topic (1)
>
> RECENT ACTIVITY
> 	 4 
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> Visit Your Group
> Stay on top
> of your group
> activity with
> Yahoo! Toolbar

>
> New web site?
> Drive traffic now.
> Get your business
> on Yahoo! search.

>
> Y! Messenger
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> Host a free online
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>
> Need to Reply?
> Click one of the "Reply" links to respond to a specific message in the Daily
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I will be on vacation between June 24th and July 6th and will only check email
intermittently. If you need to reach me in the mean time, please call or text.

Hank

On Jul 2, 2010, at 6:52 AM, agile-usability@yahoogroups.com wrote:

> Agile Usability
> Messages In This Digest (3 Messages)
> 1.
> [event] Announcing UX Brighton 2010 From: Danny Hope
> 2a.
> [PLUG] We're Breaking Up The Band - Last Stop on the UIE Web App Mas From:
Jared Spool
> 2b.
> [PLUG] We're Breaking Up The Band - Last Stop on the UIE Web App Mas From:
Jared Spool
> View All Topics | Create New Topic
> Messages
> 1.
> [event] Announcing UX Brighton 2010
> Posted by: "Danny Hope" danny.hope@...   dannyzhope
> Thu Jul 1, 2010 7:19 am (PDT)
>
>
> (cross posted)
>
> After successfully running UX Brighton for two years, we have decided
> to turn one of our meet-ups into a full blown conference. So, I'm
> pleased to announce UX Brighton 2010 ˆ a conference with an emphasis
> on designing for behaviour. This will be a one day event at the Sallis
> Benney Theatre on September 13th, where we'll be learning how
> disciplines such as behavioral economics, cognitive psychology and
> linguistics can provide a clearer understanding of what goes on inside
> our customers' heads and inform better design.
>
> Get your early bird ticket now: http://2010.uxbrighton.org.uk
> £69 rather than £99
>
> --
> Danny Hope
> User Experience Design, Brighton UK
> http://dannyhope.co.uk
> +44 (0)7595 226 792
>
> Back to top
> Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post
> Messages in this topic (1)
> 2a.
> [PLUG] We're Breaking Up The Band - Last Stop on the UIE Web App Mas
> Posted by: "Jared Spool" jspool@...   jmspool
> Thu Jul 1, 2010 5:34 pm (PDT)
>
>
> [Sorry for any duplication in your inbox.]
>
> Greetings,
>
> We're breaking up the band.
>
> With one stop to go, attendees are telling us the UIE Web App Masters
> Tour is one of our best events ever. Hundreds of web application
> designers have found inspiration from our world-class experts.
> Fortunately, there's one more stop on the tour and you can be there too.
>
> I'm both excited and sad that our UIE Web App Masters Tour is coming
> to an end. I'm sad because I really wish we could keep going, bringing
> this merry band of thought leaders to designers all over the world.
> I'm excited because every tour stop gets better than the last. Seattle
> is sure to be our best.
>
> But don't just take our word on how awesome this Tour is. Read what
> past attendees think of the Tour:
>
> * "Absolutely one of the BEST conferences I've been to. Each
> speaker brought valuable lessons we can take away with us."
> Philadelphia attendee
> * "Thank you everyone for an absolutely outstanding event. Loved
> it, loved it, loved it." @brightmatrix
> * "2nd day of Web App Masters Tour. Great stuff. @billwscott =
> excellent #uiewamt" @let5ch
>
> > This Tour Changes the Way You Design
>
> Across two days, nine leading experts in web-based application design
> share their experience and wisdom, to show you concrete examples on
> how to take your work to new levels. They tackle the issues of
> complexity, communicating with the developers, integrating new
> features, and engaging the users. Attendees come away with a full
> brain and a pile of new ideas, ready to start making improvements
> right away.
>
> > Who Are the Masters?
>
> These folks define the front lines of today's web app designs:
>
> * Luke Wroblewski on web form design
> * Ryan Singer sharing 37signals' design process
> * Bill Scott on design patterns
> * Stephen Anderson on seductive interactions
> * Ken Kellogg describing Marriott.com's new redesign
> * Christian Crumlish on designing for social interactions
> * Doug Bowman sharing how Twitter gets people engaged
> * Hagan Rivers on web app navigation techniques
> * and I'll be sharing UIE's latest research on how teams succeed
> * Find out why we think this is our best Web App program ever.
>
> > It's Not too Late to be Part of the 2010 Tour
>
> The last stop is in Seattle on July 12 & 13. There's about a one in a
> billion chance that all these Masters share the stage together again.
> Seattle will deliver a program we guarantee will change the way you
> design applications forever.
>
> Agile Usability readers can sign up with the promotion code WEBTOUR
> and get $200 off the registration price. But you have to register
> soon. There's only a few seats available at that price.
>
> Hope to see you in Seattle.
>
> Jared M. Spool
> Mastermind behind the Web App Masters Tour
>
> Back to top
> Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post
> Messages in this topic (2)
> 2b.
> [PLUG] We're Breaking Up The Band - Last Stop on the UIE Web App Mas
> Posted by: "Jared Spool" jspool@...   jmspool
> Thu Jul 1, 2010 5:45 pm (PDT)
>
>
> [Apologies for being an idiot and not including the link in the last
> message.]
>
> Agile Usability readers can sign up with the promotion code WEBTOUR
> and get $200 off the registration price. But you have to register
> soon. There's only a few seats available at that price.
>
> Of course, you'll want to go to
http://www.uie.com/events/web_app_masters/seattle/
> to learn about the program and sign up.
>
> Jared
> [Not the smartest] Mastermind behind the Web App Masters Tour
>
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Just posted on the Autodesk DUX blog: an article I wrote discussing what design
activities are more useful in getting a product to "done" than writing reports:

http://dux.typepad.com/dux/2010/07/deconstructing-done-achieving-results-over-wr\
iting-reports.html

This is a follow up to John Schrag's previous article about Design Values. It's
an in-depth look at why we value Achieving Results over Writing Reports.

-Desirée

P.S. Yes, I do know the difference between 3. and (c), etc. Somehow my lists
were mangled when the article was posted. Sigh.

Hi Joshua,

Nice post. Like others in the agile community, I have used the term "product
vision" to capture the essence of a product, to sketch what the product should
roughly look like and do, and to galvanise everyone involved in the development
effort: http://bit.ly/cSZspJ and http://amzn.to/crkiAW

Best regards,
Roman

--- In agile-usability@yahoogroups.com, Joshua Kerievsky <joshua@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Folks,
>
> I blogged today about "Product Metaphor" and thought it may be of interest
> to folks on this list.
>
> Here's the link: http://bit.ly/ch1ztZ
>
> --
> best,
> jk
>
> --
> Joshua Kerievsky
> Founder, CEO
> Industrial Logic, Inc.
> Web: http://industriallogic.com
> Twitter: @JoshuaKerievsky, @IndustrialLogic
>
> Amplify Your Agility
> Coaching | Training | Assessment | eLearning
>

(cross-posted)

Who: Jan Srutek of Flow
What: Information visualisation – more than just eye candy
When:10 August
Where: Brighton
Info: http://uxbrighton.org.uk/information-visualisation-mini-event/

--

This is a smaller event than usual but it will be a good one.

Information Visualisation (InfoVis) is a domain that has gained a lot
of attention recently. The mass media seem to have fallen in love with
information design too – feeding us with an infographic a day. But
despite the great potential for representing data visually, a lot of
the potential is currently being wasted. Just because something is
graphically depicted does not mean it is useful and usable. The
challenge is to design InfoVis tools and infographics that will allow
its users to actually gain valuable insights from the data. The talk
will present some of the advantages of visual communication, along
with the challenges for design and evaluation of InfoVis tools.

Jan works as User Experience Consultant at User-Centred Design agency
Flow interactive in London. Before joining Flow Jan worked as an
Information Architect designing Web2.0 online community services and
corporate websites. He also has experience as a Business Analyst for
Online Marketing at SITA, a global IT company operating in the air
transport industry. Since at Flow, Jan has completed research and
design projects for a number of clients including Transport for
London, Tesco, HAYS, GAVI Alliance, and Standard Life. Apart from his
capabilities in user-centred design methods, Jan is interested in
Information Visualisation, Web Analytics, and Search Engine
Optimisation. Jan has a BSc in Information and Communication
Management and an MSc in Human-Computer Interaction from University
College London.

--
Danny Hope
User Experience Design, Brighton UK
http://dannyhope.co.uk
http://2010.uxbrighton.org.uk
+44 (0)7595 226 792

Josh,

I really like this post.  I think it goes beyond "product vision" (which
sometimes is exactly the bicycle pictured at the bottom of the posting)
to "conceptual integrity."  This is another of Fred Brook's terms that
has been mostly ignored in our industry.

I don't know if I've said so, before, but thanks for resurrecting
"metaphor" from the software development trash heap.

   - George

On 7/23/10 10:59 AM, Joshua Kerievsky wrote:
>
>
> On Fri, Jul 23, 2010 at 3:03 AM, Roman Pichler
> <roman.pichler@... <mailto:roman.pichler@...>>
> wrote:
>
>     Nice post. Like others in the agile community, I have used the term
>     "product vision" to capture the essence of a product, to sketch what
>     the product should roughly look like and do, and to galvanise
>     everyone involved in the development effort: http://bit.ly/cSZspJ
>     and http://amzn.to/crkiAW
>
>
> Hi Roman,
>
> Yes, product visioning is great.
>
> For me, it is part of a larger practice called Chartering
> (http://www.industrialxp.org/projectChartering.html).
>
> My friend III turned me on to Chartering many years ago and around 2002
> I made it a regular part of our Agile practice, as I found it to be
> extremely helpful to our clients.
>
> I've never included "metaphor" in Chartering and of late I'm seeing a
> power in product metaphor that is exciting.
> best,
> jk
>
>
>

--
   ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    * George Dinwiddie *                      http://blog.gdinwiddie.com
    Software Development                    http://www.idiacomputing.com
    Consultant and Coach                    http://www.agilemaryland.org
   ----------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello everyone,

One tension that frequently arises in trying to design usable systems
is this idea that we're not our user and therefore we can't see the
design the way they do. That's why we employ techniques such as
usability testing, field studies, and personas.

But, what happens when we are the users? When we are designing for
ourselves?

I wrote about this in a little piece I call "Actually, You Might Be
Your User" - http://www.uie.com/articles/self_design

What do you think?

Jared

Jared M. Spool
User Interface Engineering
510 Turnpike St., Suite 102, North Andover, MA 01845
e: jspool@... p: +1 978 327 5561
http://uie.com  Blog: http://uie.com/brainsparks  Twitter: @jmspool

I distinguish between the product vision and the project charter. The latter
describes the relevant information to turn the vision into a successful product
including the project org, the delivery date and the budget. Best regards, Roman

--- In agile-usability@yahoogroups.com, Joshua Kerievsky <joshua@...> wrote:
>
> On Fri, Jul 23, 2010 at 3:03 AM, Roman Pichler <
> roman.pichler@...> wrote:
>
> > Nice post. Like others in the agile community, I have used the term
> > "product vision" to capture the essence of a product, to sketch what the
> > product should roughly look like and do, and to galvanise everyone involved
> > in the development effort: http://bit.ly/cSZspJ and http://amzn.to/crkiAW
>
>
> Hi Roman,
>
> Yes, product visioning is great.
>
> For me, it is part of a larger practice called Chartering (
> http://www.industrialxp.org/projectChartering.html).
>
> My friend III turned me on to Chartering many years ago and around 2002 I
> made it a regular part of our Agile practice, as I found it to be extremely
> helpful to our clients.
>
> I've never included "metaphor" in Chartering and of late I'm seeing a power
> in product metaphor that is exciting.
>
> best,
> jk
>

On Jul 25, 2010, at 11:20 AM, Joshua Kerievsky wrote:

> For our eLearning software, we used to have a book metaphor.  We had
> several "interactive" books and would teach with these "books."
> One day one of our instructors said "I want a playlist."  He needed
> a way to create a pathway through several of our books, for use in
> classrooms.   Books don't support that idea, so the metaphor didn't
> fit.  His need prompted us to reflect on our current metaphor and
> realize that a music metaphor would be a far better fit.
>
> Now that we have a well-established music metaphor, we've had a few
> requests for "bookmarks."  :-)

I guess that was my point.

If you're using the metaphor as a way to brainstorm functionality and
features ("if our software was a car, what would it be like?"), that
works, because you don't have to be dogmatic by sticking with the
metaphor.

However, if you try to build it out as a UI, you run into issues where
the metaphor doesn't support the innovation (because if you did, you
wouldn't be replacing it).

This is the current argument many designers have against Apple's iPad
& iPhone design, where elements, like the calendar and notebook, have
real-world metaphorical references to their traditional form factors
(think the spiral "binding" and yellow lines on the notepad). Their
argument is that it's holding back on what the design could be.

The counter to their argument is that you need to ground the design in
something users are familiar with. If it's too novel, then they can't
grok it, because none of their previous experience helps them with the
new interface.

So, it's a hard line to tow: make it like existing real-world elements
(the metaphor approach) or innovate?

Jared

Jared M. Spool
User Interface Engineering
510 Turnpike St., Suite 102, North Andover, MA 01845
e: jspool@... p: +1 978 327 5561
http://uie.com  Blog: http://uie.com/brainsparks  Twitter: @jmspool