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The Puzzle Piece Meta-model Hugh Dubberly’s May/June Interaction’s article provides a great survey of models and frameworks - a sort of meta-model of meta-models. It’s wonderful and I highly recommend it. (ACM Digital Library subscribers can see the full article online - here is the bibliographic reference with links to…
August 6, 2009
Architecture and User Experience (Part 1: The Politics of Architecture) Architecture is fundamentally about politics. Whether the architect is fighting for the rights of neighbors to maintain their neighborhood’s character, or acting on behalf of those in power, the architect’s work has significant impact on the lives of thousands of…
August 4, 2009
In Architecture, practitioners are expected to develop several deliverables prior to creating a design: Urban context study Project pro-forma Transportation study Relevant code analysis Site study Program analysis Life-cycle cost analysis Affinity Matrix Space / FAR analysis Bubble diagram All of these methods of mapping the contexts of the proposed…
July 9, 2009
I was talking with Brian Jamison, Founder / CEO of OpenSourcery a Portland-based custom software development shop the other day about User Experience Architecture when I had a flash. Software Architecture is a relatively easy concept to describe (even if designing a Software Architecture is anything but easy). Can we…
June 4, 2009
Is Ethnography the Answer? Ethnography has been bantered about as a form of design research quite a bit lately. While many ethnographers are pleased at the uptick in business, an equal number express uneasiness about the casual use of the term. Ethnography is as much a process of investigating the…
May 7, 2009
Seeking Truth versus Seeking truths I think about those questions every time I sit down to consider a new project. Do I have enough information to make a compelling solution? Do I understand my target audience well enough to judge any alternative as better than another? How confident am I…
April 2, 2009
Consider more innocent times, just a half century ago. Imagine yourself the proud owner of a small manufacturing company, and you are interested in increasing the distribution of your product, a simple drinking glass. You’ve made reasonable investments in the machinery, labor and distribution channel to get your products onto…
March 5, 2009
Within the context of pervasive computing, which weaves intelligence into the fabric of our environments, architectural design informs interaction design as much as interaction design transforms architectural design. So suggests Malcolm McCullough in this extraordinarily deep dive into design theory and the impact of digital, interactive technologies on architecture. McCullough…
March 1, 2009
User Experience is Irrelevant Until recently, business managers believed user experience is a time consuming process adding cost and complexity to a project. In the past few years, due in great part to wildly successful products defined primarily by their excellent experience design, managers have come to believe user experience…
February 10, 2009
Businesses that fail to address their customers’ needs will fail. Businesses that fail to integrate their customers’ needs into their business strategies will lose to companies that do. These maxims have been a standard part of annual reports and marketing hype, yet very few companies successfully execute them. How puzzling…
January 15, 2009
Within the corporate cubicles, whether as employees or as creative consultants, as user experience professionals we must continue to push the user’s agenda higher up the food chain until it is a strategic element of the business. When those in authority pay lip service to user experience, but fail to…
December 10, 2008
Last month I suggested that any piece of Architecture is necessarily a political act. Whether the architect is fighting for the rights of neighbors to maintain their neighborhood’s character, or acting on behalf of those in power or with authority, the architect’s work has significant impact on the lives of…
November 16, 2008
Sketching User Experiences is a rambling stream of consciousness through Bill Buxton’s head—spanning a treatise on the role of design in business, a history lesson on sketching, and an analysis of specific design solutions. The topics—shifting gently—are often intriguing, and their overall trajectory is completely unpredictable. As, in my current…
October 7, 2008
CHIFOO marks a new chapter in its history with the upgrade of its website. The changes are both subtle and profound, some of which are immediately evident and some may be completely invisible. Four years ago, the CHIFOO Executive Council established a plan for upgrading the ways in which the…
October 6, 2008
Over the past several years, CHIFOO has hosted speakers who have focused on the strategic value of user experience. The message has been clear: As user experience employees of companies, if we expect to make a difference, we must play a strategic role in the company. Similarly, if we are…
October 6, 2008
