Bar camp and Webstock

A colleague mailed me a link for an event on 15 December - Barcamp

In their words (as I am lazy) "BarcampAuckland is a free event that is going to be held to encourage and refresh the web community in New Zealand. It will do this by encouraging the discussion (by every attendee) about design and development ideas, concepts or theories as well as practical design and development skills and examples."

it sounds great, very collaborative and open minded .. so register and go there..

Something to look forward to before Webstock early next year ...

avagoodweegend!

Good design just happens... not!

At a recent project where two agencies presented a commerce/product web design for the same domain (brought in by separate sponsors), both looked great and on brand. However the different elements fed into the designs led to two very different outcomes for users.

The design from a visual design approach had users looking for information about a product down three different areas of the site. The other design had user centered input, a task driven information architecture but still on brand and visually pleasing. It took three times as long to get information than the User Centered Design influenced one, the user centered design influenced one was actually useful.

So what goes into a user centered design influenced design that allows effective IA and great design to happen?

Typically:

• Planning and research
  
• Interviews, observation tasks, with stakeholders ,customer facing staff and real users
  
• Writing up workshops/persona's etc etc
  
• Taking time to analyze all the rich data
  
• Creating a schematic and/or specification
  
• Planning card sort with users (staff sorts are great to compare mindsets)
  
• Analysis of card sort data
• Working from a good set of goals and outcomes with a designer/team in a collaborative manner
  

Creation of effective design doesn't just happen, working with a valid requirements, a good brief and information architecture, is as important as having a good visual designer.

The creation of IA and schematics then is an emergent entity. It occurs earlier, subject to revision and changes and c0-created in a multi-disciplinary team.

Marketing hubris - classic quote

'We'll tell customers what we want them to know'

This from a major company marketer.. and they wonder at the same time why they are losing market share.

*sigh*

buddhism folks ... get into it .. any way you can ..gotta love it .. think of others and do selfless acts..

...again love the power of marketing when used for good. I came around to it many years ago, i love knowing about the power of the brand and the psychology of commnications and consumption combined with user centered design

but wow this quote stopped the meeting in its tracks. Even the project sponsors were amazed

Favorite quote from "Devil wears Prada' - "They run around like they are trying to cure cancer or something" take your job seriously, don't take your self seriously.. if the Dalai Lama doesn't (saw him speak 2 weeks ago and it was awesome) why should you?

Design hubris (rant lite)

Something that gets my goat is designers that may go for design over overall experience, I have had more that one designer say changes would compromise their design 'vision' for the site.. oh please!

We are not rock stars, we are there for our customers and users at the end of the day.. being strongly interested in teachings and concepts in Buddhism,we should approach our work from an ego less perspective.. thats not to say you shouldn't have vision just dont be so precious about it..

Well that’s fine if you are happy for site visitors to squint, get eye fatigue and have a lesser experience for the sake of upholding your fun, design vision and at the expense of reader comfort go for it..

to me that is the height of arrogance .. you can design and have a vision and take these things into account. The needs of one designer to have their ‘way’ overriding the needs of the many always saddens me. What I do is not for me its for others ..not that i am a saint but i'll go into bat at the right time for the user..

Designers be good and proud of what you do, I love what you do, I couldnt do it, but do think outside of your desktop in your office for the poor schmo who has to try to use the site after your are on the next project...

Googled

to see what and if anyones reading this from Linked in I have set up Google analytics to see what traffic if any is on here :)

still around

well nothing really new to report , i have been to Kaitaia , enjoying work, seen Pirates of the Caribbean 3 (almost yawn), Pans' Labyrinth (very good) and hope to see Spiderman 3.. been catching up with friends off and on .. eating too well and exercising too infrequently :)

cheers till next time

lazy blogger here :)

Fun song

"Grace Kelly" by Mika

fun, a cross between freddie mercurys harmonies and oasis

Pasifika 07

What a Saturday, a friend and i went to Pasifika on the weekend, a large celebration of Pacific Island culture. There were great bands, food of all kinds, and each country had their own 'village'. I saw Tahetian dancers, pacific hip hop, funk and R&B bands and traditional dancers and a Samoan Tattoo collective doing live demonstrations on their group. The atmosphere, weather and crowd were all great. grr i hate the way you cant layout photos easily without editing in html and make tables ! and here's the best coffee of the day.. they did real espresso in iced coffee. ...

		yours truly taking it all in
Great bands		a great day
		Tahitian dances
real coffee , best iced coffee i have had
		Samoan tattoist collective

Quake (no, not the game)

hi we had our first earthquake here (hi and I have retro posted my last few months)

It was out in the harbor 30 Kilometres away from Auckland, but we felt the wave in our suburbs before it petered out. fortunately not a precursor to a bigger quake or volcano. the quake was away from the 'Volcano' fields of Auckland'

Read the article

i thought my house mate had thrown his bed against the wall,. (don't ask me how I came to that conclusion, but my brain went for the nearest plausible explanation based on the reality that was immediately around) before the walls seemed to flex (that was the shockwave passing through the house... cool!) and loafing on the bed i didn't feel too much of the rocking. Then, recalling a similar event in Melbourne in the very early 80's i realised it was a small earth quake. my house mates girlfriend thought something had exploded but the news confirmed my guess.. it was more curious than anything else. perhaps the 2 glasses of reisling had dulled my worry nodes.

07 What a year already

Well its back to work and glad of it. but Christmas was great fun.. heres the recap

Dec 15- Dec 28

back to Melbourne for Christmas.. what struck me when i was flying in was how dry it all looks. After the lush green of NZ it was a shock. But i had a week visting friends and family. Though next time I'll be just having a 'come all ye' at a pub and yum cha.. it was good to see everyone but i was exhausted..

Dec 28 - Jan 10th. well i have had holidays in Auckland and new years which was nice.. friends came up from wellington, stayed a few days and i have had a few house parties with friends taking advantage of the warm nights.. looking at Melbourne's weather I am glad to be here in the humid 20's where i live is on a rise so the house stays relatively cool.

I went to Roturua 2 weeks ago again so heres some pictures (can't be bothered with flickr or picasa yet, too time consuming).. it's all sitting on a big Volcanic rock shield keeping the land from the Volcanic activity underneath. So steam vents, thermal pools, hot mud etc filter up from deep below... it smells sulfurous but hey you get used to it.

Scroll down for pictures sorry. Not being a code monkey i can't seem to join this table up to this paragraph even though it looks fine when I preview it..

	Volcanic pool at Wai-o-tapa the colours, pools are incredible. to see Rotorua in a small amount of time I think this and Te Puia would be great places to cover. As well as Whakarewarewa...these pools have a surface temperature of 75-78 degrees centigrade, are often poisonous so don't fall in. Often they are 150 degrees centigrade at the bottom.
	The 'Wero' challenge by one of the Maori 'Warriors' at Te Puia. Every time I have visited Rotorua in the last four years, this performer has appeared in one cultural performance or another at differerent venues, funny sychronicity....
	Geyser at Te Puia an amazing Maori arts college as well as thermal park.
	Geyser shot two at Te Puia an amazing Maori arts college as well as thermal park.
	Waterlily outside the Polynesian spa.. a great place to go relax, day or night the pools next to the lake are cooled to 36, 38, 40 degrees centigrade..I just liked this photo when I took it ..

so i am a slack blogger . I treat it more as a catchup page or event log , as I hope I'll be talking about my experiences one to one, in real time maintaining my social relationships, not at 'one remove' from people. I subscribe to the theory the internet is a 'creative destroyer'; as in it creates amazing possibilities at the expense of the real world equivalent/analogue it is based on...I'm not one to put my thoughts and whinges on here. That's what friends are for, and putting it all out there sometimes lacks intimacy and i think sometimes is a form of emotional exhibitionism, depending on who your audience is (are for keeping in touch with remote friends, or is it for all and sundry to look into your life details) as long as you are not neglecting your real, geographic and temporally close friends and family who are in proximity it's ok by me..Just think - would you be spending more time with friends and family, having experiences in the real world instead of blogging about them? Enough of a rant, back to work..