Nothern User Experience Meetup - September

Attended my second Northern User Experience meetup this week at the Code Computerlove offices in Manchester.

This month featured a very interesting and informative talk entitled: 'PET: Designing for Persuasion, Emotion & Trust'.

This was a topic I was aware of but had never really looked at in detail. The presentation, by usability specialist Barry Briggs, provided a good introduction to an interesting design topic that affects our consumer habits and decisions on a daily basis.

The presentation introduced the concept of 'PET' and explained how it is used as an extra layer on top of user centred design. It then went onto to explain some of the techniques used within the PET toolkit in certain situations.

I found the concept of the toolkit especially interesting as I had recently designed a service design toolkit called 'Fine Tune' for my final major project at uni. The practice of categorising different techniques to be used in different design situations was something I was familiar with after researching various service design method decks such as IDEO's and SILK. It was interesting to see this same technique applied to PET.

The presentation ended with a mention of the 'Mental Notes' card set, which similar to IDEO's method deck displays 50 PET insights and techniques which can then be applied to various design briefs depending on the aims of the project. The cards are focused on aiding the design of web sites, web apps and software applications.

Overall the presentation was very informative and got me thinking how I could adapt my own 'Fine Tune' method cards to different design situations, in particular aspects of usability design.

Big thanks to @fan_futures for taking the lovely snaps.

Here's the presentation slides:

PET: Designing for Persuasion, Emotion and Trust

View more presentations from Barry Briggs

Spotify...

Link to my lovely spotify...

Design thinking for social change...

This week 4 nights of rioting and looting shocked the people of England. Lots of cities were affected, noticeably London, Birmingham and Manchester, my current home.

The rioting has died down for now and the clean ups have commenced . The public and media are now questioning what caused these riots and trying to identify what is so wrong with British culture that thousands of “youths” feel that they now own the streets and are above the law.

Opinions are ten a penny and even the rioting “youths” have wildly varying reasons for taking to the streets. It started off with protesting against the shooting and death of Mark Duggan, then the general corruption of the police was given as a reason, race tensions and immigrant laws were mentioned also. By the fourth day of riots many people on the streets simply couldn’t answer when asked what they were protesting about, it had quickly progressed to mindless violence and opportunity theft.

Thousands of people have been affected by the events of the last four days. Businesses ruined, homes destroyed and communities ripped apart by their own residents. The physical damage can be repaired in the short term but the underlying problems in our society will remain and can’t be ignored. This is where I feel OpenIDEO (or the concept of it) comes in.

OpenIDEO is an online community created by IDEO the international innovation company. The site is a place were creative thinkers can share ideas and use creativity and innovative thinking for social good.

Current social challengers and problems are posted onto the site for example “How can we raise kids awareness of the benefits of fresh food so they can make better choices?” then members of the OpenIDEO community can contribute in various ways during the three development phrases - inspiration, concepting and evaluation.

Members can discuss and rate ideas that are submitted and the best ones are developed further and hopefully made a reality in the real world.

It’s all a bit American and shiny for my liking but the underlying concept of using design, innovation and creative thinking to come up with new solutions to tackle real social issues has to be better than a load of politicians or stuffy council workers sitting round a table for hours relishing in piles of paperwork.

I also like the idea of sharing ideas and people from varying backgrounds and professions discussing solutions together to view issues from different view points.

It’s not easy changing the world but the current system is screwed. Innovative, creative thinking may provide some answers and a bit of hope for the future or British society.

Uh oh I smell a uni project…

Best music video ever...

Title of this post says it all really. Not quite sure how this video passed me by (it was released in April) but saw it the other night and was amazed, it also has EVERYONE in it. All da actors.

Making UX Strategic

Last week I attended the Northern User Experience 'Making UX Strategic' talk at Code Computerlove. The talk was given by Chris Collingridge a usability specialist with over 10 years experience in the industry.

The talk focused on how companies, or more importantly people within companies who understand user experience, can champion UX and make the rest of their organisation see the benefits and unique selling point that UX can bring to their company resulting in a competitive edge over their competition.

As a design student with minimal experience of UX (I did one computing module which touched on it during my final year) I found the topic to be very interesting but inevitably some parts went over my head but I will definitely be keeping my eyes peeled for more talk and events similar to this. Here's the slides from the talk anyway:

Making UX strategic

View more presentations from ccollingridge

The happiest Russian dolls...

I came across London based illustrator Hattie Stewart when looking through i-D's website and was intrigued by the charming graphic accompanying their July mixtape.

Her work is kinda like the stuff you imagine you can draw as a kid but then it never quite comes out right, you either lack in patience, talent or resources (crayola crayons were never that great for a straight edge)

What impresses me most about her work is that she achieves these high impact and extremely detailed graphic images with emulsion paint and marker pens as shown in the picture below... pretty impressive.

You can see more of her work here.

Usability made fun...

Usability Design: Because it's awesome

View more presentations from Jen Yu

Recently discovered Slideshare and found this light hearted but very informative presentation about usability design. I've learnt quite a lot about usability design and testing since I was introduced to it during my final year at uni.

It's a very interesting and necessary topic that can be utilised by all kinds of organisations to make them more competitive, allow them to connect with their customers or run internal operations more efficiently saving both time and money. It is however also a topic that can be difficult to explain, visualise and 'get your head round', this presentation manages to do it in a clean, fun and engaging way... suppose it's just good usability though!

Design Thinking: Method Cards

My uni course introduced me to the concept of 'Design Thinking' something which should be obvious to all designers and creatives but if often quite difficult to get your head round and pinpoint exactly what it is (something I will need to perfect for future interviews!). Many organisations can benefit from design thinking, not just companies working within the creative industries.

I found this interesting presentation from the University of St Gallen which displays their Design Thinking Method Cards and explains how companies can benefit from this innovative approach.

Design Thinking Method Cards (Beta 1.0)

View more presentations from BorisFriedrichMilkowski

Certified banger of the week...

Heard this song last Friday night and I've not been able to get it out my head since.

Good song, good video, good guy.

Skifree Monster!

I'd forgotten all about this game until I stumbled upon the work of Aled Lewis, a London based designer and illustrator. Aces!

http://www.aledlewis.com/

50 Things Every Creative Should Know...

Jamie Wieck created #the50, a visual essay comprising of 50 points every creative should know. As a recent graduate I still have a number of points to work on but #the50 provides a good source of advice, inspiration and comfort for students, graduate and creative professionals.

The 50

Awe-inspiring

Someone on twitter first alerted me to this, Jurassic Park theme 1000% slower. The result is 55 minutes of beautiful ambient music to rival Brian Eno or Stars of the Lid. It's only a song played really slow but it does sound pretty damn good.

Design thinking can change the world...

Yoxi is a creative competition and social game that invites teams of three to enter to compete to find the best solutions to current social problems.

The first competition challenge was simply titled; 'Reinvented fast food.'

Easier said than done.

Ten teams were selected to compete and developed a product, service or programme that helped to answer the challenge in a socially positive way.

The winners were The Udon Project with 'The Spoke' a fast food drive thru restaurant that's transparant, locally interactive and community driven.

The second competition challenge has now been released with the title; 'Trim the waste of fashion' and hopes to address issues of waste and sustainability within the world of fashion.

I think some of the responses to the first challenge were very creative, exciting and innovative so I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for the next ten entries when they are announced next Friday.

Visitors of the site are also encouraged to play along and support their favourite team, a good technique for getting people involved with social issues...

Big bad world of freelancing...

Like most of my peers on the design cluster courses at the University of Salford I graduated with a respectable degree, however it's after graduation that most of us find our biggest test... finding a job. They're hard to come by and I've quickly come to realise that degree classification is all well and good but it can still be impossible to get your foot in the door without solid experience and a good reputation.

Thinking about setting up my own business with fellow graduates or going solo sounds terrifying especially with a hefty student debt looming over our heads but realistically it could provide the best option to get out into the professional creative world and avoid flipping burgers to earn some dollar...

I found this 'freelancers guide to the galaxy' on the fresh books website. May provide some much needed inspiration:

Fresh Books Blog

Keep calm and carry on...

During my final year of uni I embarked on a computing module which involved usability testing and human centred design. It involved me designing a digital interface for a specific target market. I had to take into account content, typography, colour pallets, use of media and navigation. What is the best way for my target user to move around my site quickly and easily, finding all the information they require and what happens when a missing URL is requested and they get the dreaded ‘404 NOT FOUND’ message?

Good human centred design takes all these things into account, including the occasional error message and clearly communicates to the user that there is an error but the site is not broken. By taking the time to design the 404 NOT FOUND page in keeping with the branding of the rest of the site, confidence with be maintained and users shoul

d stay on the site for longer.

Here are some examples of well designed error pages:

gdzl

Mail Chimp

Inflicted

I25UE: Design Thinking

The brief was set. Create and launch a product into industry which will promote ourselves as individual designers and help to explain to potential employers was BA Design Management & BA Design Futures is all about.

Our solution was I25UE: Design Thinking

The product consisted of:

1. A 32 page full colour newspaper consisting of the 24 design issues the students were investigating for their final major project. 5000 copies were printed and distributed to creative agency's, people and hotspots around Manchester.

2. A website and mobile app to further promote the I25UE brand and create a network for creatives in Manchester and beyond to share their design issues.

3. Our 25th issue, a live debate titled 'What skills and attributes do employers in the creative sector really want from graduates?' The debate featured a panel of key industry figures and an audience made up of students and creative professionals from some of the top creative companies based in Manchester.

Find out more at: I25UE