Adaptive Path’s UX Week 2009: Day 2
September 19th, 2009 § 0
Theme
In welcoming us to Day 2 of the conference, Adaptive Path President Peter Merholz promised us we wouldn’t see any product or UI pictures as the goal was to move from technology tools and methods to reflection on the human experience. Day 2′s theme was ‘Expression.’
Keynote Recap
Sarah Jones
Tony Award® winning playwright and performer Sarah Jones brought life and meaning to the concept of personae. Those who weren’t familiar with her work (myself included) were greeted, in the first moments of her presentation, by a very proper English-accented woman whom we assumed would present to us for the next 40 minutes. What we in fact witnessed was a consuming character study that reminded us in a jolting way of the people for whom we work.
Adaptive Path’s UX Week 2009: Day 1 Notes and Quotes
September 16th, 2009 § 2
Aaron Forth: Mint.com – Why Good User Experience and Design are Essential
- Traditional tension exists between user experience and business objectives.
- “User Experience is where strategy must begin.”
- There exists a history of frustration with personal finance tools.
- The brand establishes an affiliation with a certain type of content, which in mint’s case is delivered through its blog.
- Key Aspects of the mint.com UI:
- Setup in less than 3 minutes
- Reduction of work and repetitive tasks wherever possible
- Designing for ‘wow’ moments
Adaptive Path’s UX Week 2009: Day 1 Keynote Recap
September 15th, 2009 § 1
Matias Duarte: Preparing for Revolution – Designing a Mobile Information Workspace
Matias Duarte is Vice President of Human Interface & User Experience at Palm and joined the company when, as he tells it, it was bordering on irrelevancy, bankruptcy, and ruin. To paraphrase, “The ship was sinking and even the lifeboat I chose to jump into was a rotten leaky one…” Duarte presented on how, from such a position, he was able to drive the thinking and process that led to webOS, the underlying UX foundation of the Palm Pre that Fast Company describes as the “Smartphone [that] Might Turn Palm Around.”
Fly Me to Canux
September 2nd, 2009 § 0
Who I am
I wear the UI designer’s hat but also the developer’s.
I work in a large Financial Institution where money is the business and those who handle it are called ‘officers.’
I am asked to provide estimates and updates on a weekly basis.
I am expected to design and develop to a schedule.
I am expected to work on multiple simultaneous projects.
I believe that functionality has been all but commoditized and that design and experience are today’s differentiators.
I believe in aesthetics, emotion, and pleasure of product.
I struggle to reconcile these beliefs with my organization’s focus on projects, pace, and pipeline.
I sometimes get discouraged…
But I haven’t lost the faith.