• Spinach
  A “qualitative research agency” in the UK. I like the site, although it does leave me wanting more. Roll over the goose for a fun little design detail.

• JumpBlog
  Jump Associates has a new blog
• Deduction & Induction
  I was unable to articulate this clearly the other day, so I’m blogging it for my (and your) reference. Deductive reasoning is top down (take a theory and apply it to specific data points) whereas inductive reasoning is bottom up (take a set of data and build a theory around it).

We’re located near the Pacific Ocean, where Highway 1 scoots along past small towns like ours, and then zips long a crazy road known as Devil’s Slide, with a mountain to the east and a cliff edge to the left. A tunnel is being built (after decades of controversy and planning) but most of the progress is hidden by the mountain itself. Not to mention that as you drive along at breakneck speed, it behooves you not to peer too closely at whatever is not the road itself.

So what are they building in there? Well, Caltrans, in a remarkable display of transparency, has photographers who document the work as it progresses. The pictures are really amazing, showing the people, the process, and the previously hidden environment. For some these are simply your usual construction photos, but for people who drive by there every day, waiting for the tunnel to open (2011 or something) and have little sense of the work behind the scenes, this is a really wonderful peek. There are tons and tons of pictures to browse, and I’ve nicked a few, below.

• Steven Heller interview on mediabistro.com
  They do eventually talk about design but I love that a good chunk of the interview is about interviewing and asking questions (one of my favorite topics). “Well, it helps to ask questions that people want to answer.”

On the street, near Market St. in San Francisco. Construction worker (with an extremely personalized hard hat, thick with stickers) carrying a bottle of Lipton Iced Green Tea, a product that is stereotypically opposite from the drinker. A few blocks further and I see an older man who’s odd fashion sense meant he was either foreign or homeless (or both) with a cheap pink fake-leather iPod case around his neck (with iPod), as if he was given the setup by a 13-year old girl. A block further I approach a cluster of people standing in front of some building on Market having a smoke break. They are all fairly young and relatively well-dressed, perhaps it’s some sort of continuing education or something, but as I pass by I see in their midst is a big clergy dude complete with rope-belt-and-brown-robes. As I enter my parking lot, I hear a noise as something hits the ground. “Sir, Sir!” voices call. As I turn I realize it’s something I’ve dropped and they are calling to tell me. I walk towards the item to retrieve it, but before I can get there a man of 70 (not with the “sir” group) scampers over and bends over to pick it up, and hands it to me so I don’t have to get it!

It was a fun ten minutes, filled with many surprises, confounded expectations, juxtapositions, and cultural collisions.

Booking the hotel for our event at the IASummit I found this rough edge on the confirmation screen.

Circled in red, about halfway down. “Need copy.” Yes, you do still need the copy there. Sad that you launched this with the memo-to-self still intact. It’s smart to use a different tool for marking up content, lest the markup gets confused with the content itself. Proofreading can catch some of those mistakes, but not all of them. And here, we the end-user get a small reminder of the hands at work behind the scenes.

• Calvin Trillin test drives er parks the Lexus LS 460 L Advanced Parking Guidance System
  Funny article in the often-tired aren’t-newfangled-technologies-zany vein. Some valid critiques and some excellent writing.
• Fruit on the Box does not mean Fruit in the Box (packaging imagery or name)
  And we’re comfortable with this disconnect

• Conway’s Law (1968): Any piece of software reflects the organizational structure that produced it.
  Obviously applies to “systems” as much as “software” - put another way “Organizations which design systems are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations.” Thanks to Kristian for this one.

• Trade Show Displays, Exhibits, and Booths Blog
  This riff on booth design uses my photos from The Conversation posted here a few days ago. No interaction design folks yet picked up on the cool old tech (buttons!), but a trade show booth designer does. Not what I expected to happen.
• Rock music, originally a rebellion, has worked hard to preserve itself as the status quo
  For a VERY long time. Enough for rockers like Eddie Van Halen to have hip replacements and children who grow up and join their band in a reunion tour. The typology has shifted from “The [name] Brothers” to “[Name] and Son”
• TLA on Wikipedia
  Three-letter acronym
• A new TLA: UXE (aka User Experience Evangelist)
  We’ve had evangelists in technology since at least the early days of Apple, but somehow calling yourself a UXE takes something away

• Brian Ulrich’s photos of retail environments are some of my faves
  Good story about some stores being more (rather than less) comfortable with allowing photography.

Here we go again. From the Isaiah Washington slur flap

I welcome the chance to meet with leaders of the gay and lesbian community to apologize in person and to talk about what I can do to heal the wounds I’ve opened.

Now that’s how to get a meeting.

Last week I posted (on Core77) about Virgin America’s new on-board entertainment system.

Here’s a run-through of the system by Charles Ogilvie of the airline.

The information is good, the capabilities are good, but the video is filled with corporate/tech jargon. I’m always amazed at how unable some business folks are to talk to (or about) people in plain ol’ English.

Some of the scary phrases to listen for

• globally available
• primary navigation areas
• list construct
• watch-related options
• toolbar will return but in a reconfigured state
• a cache-format
• hardware platform
• running application over Linux
• stock-out situation

Good marks, however, when a TLA is introduced and defined, and then explained, which is nice,

Much of the lingo is pretty far from how we might want to talk with Virgin (although they mention the dialog back and forth with us they are interested in).

Oh, and did you see the arrow cursor flipping around whenever they showed the on-screen display? Is that real, or an artifact of the demo actually being filmed on a desktop computer and not the seatback? A detail, for sure, but if you’re going to talk about open source, Linux, multi-stream, file servers and the like, expect that same audience to notice things like faked-out demos.

A quicker and more polished on-board tour is here.

• What kind of underwear causes insomnia?
  We don’t have the answer, but we are the #5 hit on ask.com
• MediaMaster: Your music collection is now safe, organized, and accessible anywhere.
  Now in Private Alpha. A year ago we did upfront research on a variety of concepts they were considering. Exciting to see how they are moving forward, and I can’t wait to try it myself.

The Conversation is a fantastic 1974 Coppola film that has surveillance as one of its central themes. There’s a lot of great technology imagery, especially the analog audio that Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) uses to decipher the content of the conversation, and also the surveillance trade show that Caul attends. Here’s a sampling of stills depicting the awesomeness:

The lab, with lots of reel-to-reel and plenty of buttons for Bill DeRouchey.

The trade show, complete with booth babe, and some very 1970s design (environments, hardware, clothing, typography).

• SFist:: I Saw Gavin Newsom
  I sent in this little story to SFist about our encounter with the Mayor at Sheila’s goodbye party
• Terminate and Stay Resident or TSR
  A bit of arcania, I guess. Saw a sticker for a band in a urinal (!) at O’Neill’s pub in San Mateo. The sticker saiid “TSR” and I geekily remembered this old DOS-era technology that I hadn’t thought about for years.
• Depressing but not surprising description of audience research for radio stations
  Get your demographic (narrowly defined) into a room and let ‘em sample a huge number of songs, and rate ‘em. Then tally it up and play ‘em. Yes, yawn.

I had a fun time at a Microsoft event in SF yesterday, essentially a product demo day, with 300 people watching presenters tweak HTML (and other arcane variants of such code), and then some more intimate discussions on design, user experience and so on by Chris Bernard. Given the emphasis on User Experience, I thought these demo kiosks were lovely but discouraging to use.

Things look nice.

I’m not sure about the term demo assets exactly, and why I need to get them ready, but the mess of a screen at least has a “do this first” zone.

Except it’s a non-stable trick. They put a Windows shortcut on top of that white triangle, but I accidentally dragged it when I went to click it. It’s not really a button, it’s a fake button, and one that easily breaks when someone tries to use it. Oops.

Okay, so now you do the double clicking they want you to do. And up comes a DOS window that lasts more than 1 second. Maybe I’m just un-tech enough to have that bother me, but it really seemed like the backstage was being revealed in a way that it shouldn’t. Why do I see DOS stuff when I’m running a new Windows app?

Anyway, it wasn’t clear what that was doing (perhaps restoring things to a pristine state) and it was even less clear what to do next. Some things to click were just Word documents that you couldn’t interact with (that’s a demo?), and others were apps that gave dire warnings about expiring betas. Again, maybe I’m not the right person to be trying this stuff anyway, but you can see that the commitment to design and user experience has a long way to go.

My hosts were exceedingly kind with their time and made me feel very welcome, so I apologize for having the poor grace to only post something negative. I suspect they are only too aware of the many instances of this sort of thing going on, and are marching uphill. But at least they are marching!

• X is the new Y - a diagrammatic survey
  The idea is funnier than the artifact.
• Pogue on the new designs for MS Office
  "After a radical redesign, Word, Excel and PowerPoint are almost totally new programs." This after a day of MSFT presentations about design, including some details on the process and philosophy behind these drastic simplifications for Office

I blogged this before, back in 2004, but ah, technology. Actually a $5 cable is all I needed to be able to pull audio from a microcassette into my PC, and onto Odeo, so that I can blog it here.

I received this voice mail a couple of years ago. It’s obviously misdirected, perhaps because of my Museum of Foreign Groceries which used to be displayed on this site. But that’s all packaged foods, so? Hard to figure out what the other person was thinking, but it’s funny anyway. Give it a listen!

Note: I’ve redacted the phone number to protect her privacy.

powered by ODEO

• David Denby on the future of Hollywood
  Incredible article: considers history and future in terms of marketing, content, technology, distribution, advertising, lifestyle, culture, and more.

George Carlin made his reputation as a comedian with a dirty mouth. But beyond being willing to say things that others aren’t, he’s also an oblique commentator on our society (sometimes, very direct, of course), and a master of words. This is a recent bit (2005) and it’s brilliant. He creates meaning, or at least creates the opportunity for the listener to infer meaning, but connecting almost random bits of meaningless cultural ephemera.

Listen to the audio, or read along with George (nabbed from here)

I’m a modern man.
I’m a modern man.
I’m a modern man.
I’m a modern man.

I’m a modern man,
A man for the millennium,
Digital and smoke free.

A diversified multicultural postmodern deconstructionist,
Politically anatomically and ecologically incorrect.

I’ve been uplinked and downloaded.
I’ve been inputted and outsourced.
I know the upside of downsizing.
I know the downside of upgrading.

I’m a high tech lowlife.
A cutting edge state-of-the-art bicoastal multitasker,
And I can give you a gigabyte in a nanosecond.

I’m new wave but I’m old school,
And my inner child is outward bound.

I’m a hot wired heat seeking warm hearted cool customer,
Voice activated and biodegradable.

I interface from a database,
And my database is in cyberspace,
So I’m interactive,
I’m hyperactive,
And from time-to-time,
I’m radioactive.

Behind the eight ball,
Ahead of the curve,
Riding the wave,
Dodging a bullet,
Pushing the envelope.

I’m on point,
On task,
On message,
And off drugs.
I got no need for coke and speed,
I got no urge to binge and purge.

I’m in the moment,
On the edge,
Over the top,
But under the radar.

A high concept,
Low profile,
Medium range ballistic missionary.
A street-wise smart bomb.
A top gun bottom feeder.

I wear power ties,
I tell power lies,
I take power naps,
I run victory laps.

I’m a totally ongoing bigfoot slam dunk rainmaker with a proactive outreach.
A raging workaholic.
A working ragaholic.
Out of rehab,
And in denial.

I got a personal trainer,
A personal shopper,
A personal assistant,
And a personal agenda.

You can’t shut me up,
You can’t dumb me down.
‘Cause I’m tireless,
And I’m wireless.
I’m an alpha male on beta blockers.

I’m a non-believer and an over-achiever.
Laid back but fashion forward.

Up front,
Down home,
Low rent,
High maintenance.

Super size,
Long lasting,
High definition,
Fast acting,
Oven ready,
And built to last.

I’m a hands on,
Foot loose,
Knee jerk,
Head case.

Prematurely post traumatic,
And I have a love child who sends me hate mail.

But I’m feeling,
I’m caring,
I’m healing,
I’m sharing.
A supportive bonding nurturing primary care giver.

My output is down,
But my income is up.
I take a short position on the long bond,
And my revenue stream has its own cash flow.

I read junk mail,
I eat junk food,
I buy junk bonds,
I watch trash sports.

I’m gender specific,
Capital intensive,
User friendly,
And lactose intolerant.

I like rough sex.
I like rough sex.
I like tough love.
I use the f word in my email,
And the software on my hard drive is hard core, no soft porn.

I bought a microwave at a mini mall.
I bought a mini van in a mega store.
I eat fast food in the slow lane.

I’m toll free,
Bite sized,
Ready to wear,
And I come in all sizes.

A fully equipped,
Factory authorized,
Hospital tested,
Clinically proven,
Scientifically formulated medical miracle.

I’ve been pre-washed,
Pre-cooked,
Pre-heated,
Pre-screened,
Pre-approved,
Pre-packaged,
Post-dated,
Freeze-dried,
Double-wrapped,
Vacuum-packed,
And I have an unlimited broadband capacity.

I’m a rude dude,
But I’m the real deal.
Lean and mean.
Cocked, locked and ready to rock.
Rough tough and hard to bluff.

I take it slow.
I go with the flow.
I ride with the tide.
I got glide in my stride.

Drivin’ and movin’,
Sailin’ and spinnin’,
Jivin’ and groovin’,
Wailin’ and winnin’.

I don’t snooze,
So I don’t lose.
I keep the pedal to the metal,
And the rubber on the road.

I party hearty,
And lunch time is crunch time.

I’m hanging in,
There ain’t no doubt.
And I’m hanging tough,
Over and out.

Drawing on the participation trend at MacWorld, maybe tying into to the creative and community brand attributes of Mac.

Scribbling all over the box constitutes a casemod? Maybe that’s a stretch, but it was popular.

The company is Mophie, the concept behind these concepts is the Illuminator. People submitted ideas, voted on ‘em, and the top three are actually going to get made by Mophie!

Speck was asking people (kids?) to create a new case design, although any prizes were strictly random.

• Another of the usual articles about the future of snacking - what products, flavors, brands are coming next
  Posted here for the mention of a “snackologist” who researches what people snack on, looking for trends. Few details in methods or findings here, as if the word “snack” could carry the whole story. A quick and silly read, oh, like a snack!
• Design-Feed - a blog aggregator
  All This ChittahChattah is included in this site, which takes many different design related blog feeds and smooshes ‘em together

Update: this event has been cancelled

The IA Summit program is up, including our workshop:

Bill DeRouchey, Dan Saffer, Steve Portigal

22/03/2007 (Thursday). Full day.

How often do several hundred user experience practitioners gather in Las Vegas, a global capital of experience design? The opportunity is priceless. Let’s get out of the hotel and go see it. Let’s go Learn from Las Vegas.

Experience design goes beyond the screen, even beyond physical products. Entire environments are architected and designed to intentionally evoke specific experiences. In Vegas, this intention is amplified; from the slot machines you first see leaving your plane to the lack of coffee makers in your hotel room. Every detail has a purpose. Very little is left to organic chance. This gives us an incredible opportunity to critically examine those design decisions as user experience practitioners rather than tourists.

In this full-day workshop, we will take what we know from the field of user experience and apply it to looking at intentionally designed spaces. We will consider everything. Just how little wayfinding is there? How few steps are required to use a slot machine, and then again, and again? How is money transacted? Why does the inside of Paris simulate outside? How often does the present experience reference a more exotic experience? How are each of our senses being stimulated, influenced, or focused?

But even more importantly, how do people behave in these environments? Can we determine the impact of these decisions on the users? Their actions? Attitudes? Or expectations?

I’m looking forward to this!

Seen at MacWorld: Annette, of Venus Hum, accessorizes in green. Her Griffin trio case does iPod covers in colors. Maybe, tomorrow, she’ll listen to Pink.

Turns out Venus Hum is real. I hadn’t ever heard of ‘em, but either way, the (painfully awkward) copy reads more like a persona-driven blurb than anything. Maybe it’s the ungainliness of the writing is like the amateurish crap that people put around personas, or else it’s the matter-of-fact-ness of the tone.