December 2006 Issue
Seeing the World in Symbols: Icons and the Evolving Language of Digital Wayfinding
Published: December 18, 2006
Of all the objects that occupy our digital spaces, there are none that capture the imagination so much as icons. As symbols, icons can communicate powerfully, be delightful, add to the aesthetic value of software, engage people’s curiosity and playfulness, and encourage experimentation. These symbols are key components of a graphic user interface—mediators between our thoughts and actions, our intentions and accomplishments.
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Category: Columns
Clash of the Titans: Agile and UCD
Published: December 18, 2006
Agile software development [1] has become fairly popular in the last few years, leaving many UX professionals wondering how user-centered design (UCD) can fit into an extremely fast-paced development process that uses little documentation. User-centered design can involve a variety of techniques that provide insights into users’ wants, needs, and goals, including ethnography, contextual inquiry, contextual interviewing, usability testing, task analysis, and others. But all of these take time—time that an agile development process might not allow. There is hope, though. Agile and UCD methods are not completely at odds with each other—and in some cases, agile development can even enable a more user-centered approach. By taking the time to understand the differences and similarities between agile development and UCD, it’s possible to devise a process that is both user-centered and agile.
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Category: Features
Applied Empathy: A Design Framework for Meeting Human Needs and Desires
Published: December 4, 2006
Part Two: Dimensions, Needs, and Desires
Typically, we design products for a specific end state. For example, someone has an idea that a large beanbag can function as a chair. Or someone imagines how improving a paperless payment system can work more effectively than a manual system that is currently in use. Or customer feedback leads to the optimization of a Web site workflow that helps people complete their tasks more quickly. But in each of these examples, the focus is on things other than the essence of the actual people who will use the products—whether that focus is on the application of a particular material, on using technology to make a process easier, or responding to customers’ feedback to keep them satisfied. As I previously described in Part One of this series, the intentional attempt to satisfy people’s internal needs and desires simply isn’t there.
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Category: Columns
The Complexity of Simplicity
Published: December 4, 2006
Though many business strategies and publications continue to trumpet the power of simplicity
in the design of digital products, for lots of companies and product teams, simplicity doesn’t come easy.
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Category: Columns