Digital Insanity Magazine by Bruno Amaral

The Dance of the Possible

Thu, 24 May 2018 17:00:15 +0100

https://twitter.com/berkun
http://scottberkun.com/about/
https://www.slideshare.net/secret/GWLIasmD09Vg6N

1884

The cutting edge field was construction. Today we look at it as being boring. It was a time before steel and iron, the age of the birth of telegraphy.

Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nouguier

They pitched their idea of a tower to Gustave Eiffel, using a sketch of the tower. He turned it down because it didn’t feel like a useful project. It was just a tall building.

The pitch is as important as the end result.

They took their feedback, and used it to move it forward.

All ideas are made of other ideas

If you are working in a project and feel stuck, it means you forgot this. There is a notion, an inspiration, a causality. The thing we are working can be broken down to pieces and rearranged it in a different way.

Eiffel had built similar projects as the Eiffel Tower, project that were taken down later because their usefulness was over.

There is also a tradition of building towers for the world fair:

Space needle in Seatle
Torre Vasco da Gama in Lisbon

Arches are an example of a pattern seen in architecture since early days.

Deleted tweet 999686421161152518

Study the history of the problems you are working on and find new ideas for solving them.

@uxlx Ahahah scroll bars... for the scroll experts :-) pic.twitter.com/hQdOgnaDr2
— Pedro Alves (@audaxux) May 24, 2018

Great Ideas Often Look Weird

The only reason for the Eiffel Tower to move forward, was because he put its own equity and reputation behind the project. He faced opposition from 300 of his peers, accusing the project of being a monstrosity. Progress is sometimes ugly at first.

A bad idea is different from a weird idea. We need to learn the difference and keep the weird ones in a different place, because it may be useful in the future. Keep asking questions about it, probe deeper. That’s where progress comes from.

Another way to frame this is to understand that all masterpieces start as experiments.

Our minds are naturally creative

Create is a verb. It’s an activity. It’s not something that happens on its own, by an epiphany.

"create is a verb, it's an action (not a thing that happens on its own, like an epiphany)" - @berkun (reminds me of "patience is a practice, not a character trait") #uxlx
— Cyd Harrell (@cydharrell) May 24, 2018

We don’t care about the difference between thinking and creative thinking.

Most people would rather die than thinking, in fact many of them do.

— Bertrand Russel

Creativity is unavoidable when we are suitably motivated by a hard problem. The trick is to know how to find our ‘suitable motivation’ to tackle the problem.

Creativity is a kind of work
Escape false constraints
Journals and self-respect

Eliminate false constraints

The false constraint is the box, in the phrase “think outside the box”. We sometimes invent constraints. We should make a list of all the constraints that we believe exist.

Idea killers “we tried that before”
Fatal criticism of young ideas
Groupthink vs. 1-on-1 pitches

https://www.ideakillers.net/post/107587639745/the-official-idea-killers-poster-download-the-idea

Design and the Importance of Imaginaries

Thu, 24 May 2018 16:30:14 +0100

https://twitter.com/danlockton
http://danlockton.com/

Imaginaries Lab uses design methods to understand how people understand concepts and ideas, and use that to help people imagine new ways of living.

If men define situation as real, they are real in their consequences.

— by William Isaac Thomas and Dorothy Swaine Thomas(1899–1977)

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_theorem

Narratives
stories
Simples cause and effect links
Metaphors
Myths
Folk stories

When we don’t know how a thing works, we make it up.

— Lou Downe Head of Design UK Gov. Digital Service

@uxlx a bit more of @GOVUK pic.twitter.com/LvxFLivAGd
— Pedro Alves (@audaxux) May 24, 2018

The line between fiction and fact is getting thinner and stranger every day. Imagination and how people imagine themselves is critical. @danlockton (Paraphrased) #uxlx
— Boon Sheridan (@boonerang) May 24, 2018

Design for behaviour change

CarbonCulture

Energy is invisible, we can see it’s effect. This is key in how people perceive it. We use metaphors to understand these invisible concepts.

DrawingEnergy.com

Get imagination out of people’s heads and into a shared space. (Mental landscapes, civic visions, etc.)
Explore using more qualitative forms of visualisation (helps understand patterns. Project power cord to make people “listen” to energy)

http://www.dixonlo.com/work/augmentation.html

qualitative visualization, because numbers more often lead to distracting arguments -@danlockton #uxlx pic.twitter.com/cPXWPhBar7
— Cyd Harrell (@cydharrell) May 24, 2018

Can you design new metaphors to help people understand things in new ways?

http://newmetaphors.com/

http://marisa.lu/emoto/

Can you help people experience things in new ways?

IA Lenses: A New Tool for Designing Digital Structures

Thu, 24 May 2018 15:30:14 +0100

https://twitter.com/brownorama
http://eightshapes.com/dan-brown.html
https://medium.com/eightshapes-llc/information-architecture-lenses-8a3929a106dd
https://twitter.com/ialenses

Information Architecture (IA)

The underlying structure of a website
The practice of designing that structure

There are 51 Lenses for IA, there is overlap but they provide interesting perspectives.

These lenses came from a project for The World Bank website, in 2016. We can ask:

Are there better words I can use to describe things?
Can users grok what’s available?
What would actually help users?
…

Why is this important?

Pace Layers influence each other. We can’t change the navigation without changing the UI and Culture influences all the top layers.

IA deals with the abstract concepts

When we do design, we are also making critique to make things better. It’s hard to critique IA, because it’s so abstract. It’s also important because of IA’s effect.

Lenses help us bring that critique forward: Narrative, Multiple Homes…

The lenses will not give us the answer but will help ask the right questions. It’s a new tool and it’s a way to make us re-examine what we do.

I got an amazing lens. Thanks to @brownorama at #UXLX @ialenses pic.twitter.com/JPtzNBy0hA
— Nicolas Djambazian (@nhacsam_) May 24, 2018

Ux in Service

Thu, 24 May 2018 15:00:14 +0100

https://twitter.com/cydharrell

We are not used to thinking about UX / Design with a government institution.

@cydharrell sharing an experience about civic interaction with the government #uxlx pic.twitter.com/jzQeaMSoZb
— Rita Gomes da Silva (@ritags553) May 24, 2018

When does the government assist people and how can we make that experience better? There is a lot about the concept of assistance and what it should be. And the term government is also broader. Institutions like a library, schools, hospitals are also part of the government.

.@cydharrell tells story of a first civic interaction with #localgov via Twitter in 2011: reporting errant sprinklers #uxlx pic.twitter.com/WSNDAArpRz
— Dan Lockton (@imaginari_es) May 24, 2018

Whether, and how, people are able to access public institutions -- over time -- can make a huge difference to their lives, and so #civictech is a crucial application for user experience designers: @cydharrell #uxlx pic.twitter.com/QOkDiMZUsk
— Dan Lockton (@imaginari_es) May 24, 2018

Field guides to ensure voter intent

A set of guides and tools that can be used to build a website, and indirectly It helps voters gather information to decide their vote.

I never felt more like a UX designer than when I was diving into these messy government websites. - @cydharrell at #uxlx on her research work with @civicdesign pic.twitter.com/35YcJSToI4
— Per Axbom (@axbom) May 24, 2018

@cydharrell participated in the creation of https://t.co/zI6NwO2Bpd to help state build efficient election websites. 🇺🇸
French government should take example if we end up with electronic vote 😉🇫🇷#uxlx pic.twitter.com/I7BA2NjBIC
— Aurore Malherbes (@AuroreMalherbes) May 24, 2018

Home loan disclosures

Redesigning the form was a first step towards the legislation and to help that process be clearer to the person taking the loan.

Public servants are designers

—Dana Chsinell, civic design camp NYC

Design Principles

Respect people’s time, dignity and abilities
Government and citizens are on the same side - design for unity

“Sometimes you just need to show what is possible.” @cydharrell talking about her work in public service. Amazing and very inspiring talk. #uxlx pic.twitter.com/cum6Zoxt02
— Jan Toman (@HonzaTmn) May 24, 2018

There aren’t enough of us

How can you share your practice with the institutions that are important to you?

#uxlx thank you for coming to my talk on UX in Service! for those of you who wanted the slides, here they are :https://t.co/HMoUtAZXhz
— Cyd Harrell (@cydharrell) May 24, 2018

Shaping Behavior by Design

Thu, 24 May 2018 14:30:13 +0100

https://twitter.com/ChrisRisdon
https://about.me/chrisrisdon

Time and friction get in the way in our intent to buy or donate. There is a difference between wanting to donate to victims of a tragedy in 2004 and in 2010. In the US, there is an option to donate with a text message : 90999. It’s a standard donation of 10 USD. It’s frictionless. The difference is that in 2010 the donations were made on impulse and reached 43 Million USD.

Donors reported they did not follow the 2010 Haitian relief… since making the donation.

Every design decision influences the user

Every design decision influences users. @ChrisRisdon #uxlx pic.twitter.com/QcgzNXFVjJ
— Jan Toman (@HonzaTmn) May 24, 2018

The best way to change a person’s behaviour is to change their environment. It’s called choice architecture.

We can influence how people perceive the environment
We can influence how people navigate the environment
We can influence how people interact with the environment

Devices have been moving from being a Utility to being an Augmentation to help the user do something.

We now have a more direct relationship with our products and services.

Behaviour change as a value proposition

Self selection (by the user)
Prescriptive (The system as a decision engine)
Augmented ability (system offers some sort of “magic” that the user perceives is hard to do alone)
Time release value proposition (The value received occurs over time, not “out of the box”)

Behaviour change as value proposition@ChrisRisdon #uxlx pic.twitter.com/v8yd5jsAuU
— Adam Amran (@amrancz) May 24, 2018

Making sense of behaviour

Frame and measure
Identify key behaviours
Understand behaviours
Ideate and Design

Frame and measure

Problem statement
Identify measurable outcomes

Identify Key Behaviours

Behaviours backcasting
Ecosystem mapping
Journey diagnosis

Understanding Behaviours

Ideate and Design

Influence and persuasion

Behavioural design requires an ethical backbone.

“If you want to start doing behavior design, start with ethical guidelines and principles.” @ChrisRisdon #uxlx pic.twitter.com/4LwtaQrvjO
— Jan Toman (@HonzaTmn) May 24, 2018

Help people do something they already want to do
Balance the benefit to the business and the customer
Any new behaviour needs to be more beneficial than the alternate behaviour

https://twitter.com/axbom/status/999652490609078272

Like that @ChrisRisdon is addressing the ethical qualms of influencing behavior with design. Loops back to how we are often experimenting on humans without their consent, as @kimgoodwin put it, and the goal of making other people successful, in the words of @RMBanfield. #uxlx pic.twitter.com/kIwbiVe8nl
— Per Axbom (@axbom) May 24, 2018

There are also shortcuts, biases and heuristics that we use to guide our behaviour.

Quick Example

Remember O-B-I

Outcome: future state achieved by behaviours

Behaviours: required to achieve the future state

Interactions: that can support behaviours

The Values Are the Experience

Thu, 24 May 2018 11:45:13 +0100

https://twitter.com/kimgoodwin

How do I get my organisation to value design? This question puts the focus on design and kind of leaves out the other areas of business.

“The values are the experience not what you’re claiming on your goodies” from @kimgoodwin @uxlx pic.twitter.com/UgpVd0t1J1
— BAM (@bam_lab) May 24, 2018

As an example, United Airlines tries to deliver a good UX but fails through a lot of the parts of the journey. Online and offline. A user experience is not made of pixels.

“Coffee writing doesn’t change a thing if you’re killing puppies.” @kimgoodwin on the dissonance served up by United Airlines. #uxlx pic.twitter.com/RjcKE4ES9T
— Boon Sheridan (@boonerang) May 24, 2018

A UX is built out of Decisions and those decisions are made out of trade-offs.

When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier

— Roy Disney

UX is caring about people. #uxlx @kimgoodwin pic.twitter.com/spaTyXzgeb
— Ana Oliveira (@anaoliveiraux) May 24, 2018

When we say we are Valuing customers we mean valuing revenue. Metrics-Aware Design is essential but it is problematic.

If we are focused on metrics we are not human-centred. We need to focus on human needs (Maslow’s pyramid).

Uber manipulates people to drive business
Session replay tools let us watch what someone is doing and can invade privacy

The Nuremberg Code

1940’s, the Nazis experimented on humans and the nuremberg code are 10 principles to assure those atrocities are not repeated.

Internet products and services are the largest human subject experiment ever conducted. With no consent, and no idea on how that information is being used to manipulate us.

Is it of benefit?
Is it the only way?
Is the risk proportional?
What kinds of harm are possible?
How will you minimize harm?

Is participant consent truly voluntary?

informed
Not coerced
Withdrawn at any time
Exceptions are very rare

Why don’t we ask these questions when doing product design ?

5 things we can do:

Don’t just drive the bus, think about how you can take some responsibility for the whole experience
Leverage Existing Values
Challenge assumptions and requirements
Agree (and measure for) real values
Work to change values

Speaking Ceo: Business Fluency for Designers

Thu, 24 May 2018 11:15:13 +0100

https://twitter.com/jessmcmullin
http://www.situ.org/

From @jessmcmullin “This talk is about the things I wish I’d told myself 15 years ago.” (Crosses fingers for a “who let the dogs out” reference.) #uxlx pic.twitter.com/QIPAioizrJ
— Boon Sheridan (@boonerang) May 24, 2018

https://twitter.com/boonerang/status/999597304507195392

Conceptual and cultural fluency

It’s not about us being better practitioners. It’s a 180º Pivot to understand the business.

I don’t understand them well enough to communicate the value of the work. We can use the same skills we already use to understand the business-people’s needs better.

Better tools to work with business

The priority grid

What keeps managers up at night?

Money
Hiring and developing people
Setting and Tracking goals
Delivering value to customer, shareholders and employees
Reputation
Managing Risk

"Money is like oxygen: you need it to survive but it's not the purpose of your life." - @jessmcmullin Uxlx
— Scott Berkun (@berkun) May 24, 2018

https://twitter.com/berkun/status/999598642607599616

The Pyramid

Lead, Manage, Execute: Understanding levels of abstraction and zoom levels in an Organisation

Scale and impact of the decisions is different in each level. Bigger on the top, and the more important the decision, the less the person making it knows about it.

@jessmcmullin ot traditipnal companies, descison makers don't know the impact of decision at #uxlx pic.twitter.com/qo4wyFbxfh
— Tycho Tatitscheff (@TychoTa) May 24, 2018

https://twitter.com/TychoTa/status/999600139617689600

That is because different levels of the organisation use a different language.

People, Projects and Money

Customers < Segments < Markets

Employee < Role < Team < Division

The hypothesis funnel

When we have the opportunity to connect with business, we need a way to translate that connection.

Problem or opportunity framing

Current solutions

Business Sources

Customer Experience Hypothesis

…

The hypotheses funnel is NOT a canvas! @jessmcmullin @uxlx @prodculture pic.twitter.com/rCg7wO8uB1
— Bruce McCarthy (@d8a_driven) May 24, 2018

https://twitter.com/d8a_driven/status/999602493779783680

Empathic Advocacy

Hypothesis Driven design improves our credibility

From Ux Strategy to Digital Transformation

Thu, 24 May 2018 10:45:12 +0100

https://twitter.com/JaimeRLevy
http://userexperiencestrategy.com/

“Working on my first discovery phase, with contact with the stakeholders, there was still a lack of a method and framework. 2010 I start my own UX Strategy Consultancy. 2013 I insanely decide to write a book called UX Strategy.”

Four pillars of UX strategy by @JaimeRLevy #uxlx pic.twitter.com/vbZufkLDUX
— Jan Toman (@HonzaTmn) May 24, 2018

https://twitter.com/HonzaTmn/status/999591031212593158

Business strategy: plans and strategies the company uses to reach its goal

Value innovation: the primary utility of the product, the things that are indispensable.

Validated User Research: “The product is not a product until you are selling something”

Killer UX Design: “Making something that is frictionless”. It’s about how hard each click is.

I had to find a way to fit all these ideas in the book.

Technique 1: validating a value proposition using provisional personas and customer discovery

Technique 2: Conducting Competitive research and analysis

Technique 3: Storyboarding value innovation

Technique 4: Creating Solution Prototypes for Experiments

Technique 5: Conducting Guerrilla Research

Technique 6: Designing for conversion

Book is released

I was the one who wrote it first and was lucky

Digital transformation needs to be from the top down

And it needs to:

Embraced by the whole company
Touch all types of technology

In practice:

Build out a UI component library nd UX template frameworks
Look across all new product acquisition touch points
Early prototypes
Look at the competitors in a platform level
Experiment new ways to combine these puzzle pieces

Augmented Reality – Wait, What? (Or, Pokémon Gone)

Thu, 24 May 2018 09:45:12 +0100

https://twitter.com/boonerang
http://www.boonsheridan.com/

There is a lot of disclaimers in talks about augmented reality. Things change fast.

https://twitter.com/bam_lab/status/999573435616579584

Is it AR? VR? MR? These concepts have an amazing continuum, a wide spectrum of how AI can be a part of our daily life. We are still debating our relationship with the computer.

https://twitter.com/marekkalnik/status/999573957408952320

With Pokemon suddenly everyone was talking about augmented reality. It was an epidemic type of technology. It was a weird wave of fun and chaos.

AR’s evolution

https://twitter.com/AuroreMa27/status/999574788422209536

More companies became involved into AR after Pokemon Go. It is now maturing into a platform but it’s not ubiquitous yet. Yet, smartphones are giving us the tools to use AR. We have the required technology in our pockets. All it takes is a camera.

It also lets us do some crazy things:

Smart mirrors
Smart toothbrushes!
…

And it can give us useful things:

Real time information about the world around us
Tools to learn how to draw
Directions

https://twitter.com/AudaxUx/status/999577754529132544

https://twitter.com/axbom/status/999576255782703104

AR is reaching the age of usefulness, it’s stabilising an expanding. It’s also getting more interest from executives.

https://twitter.com/beantin/status/999577001123090433

Great AR is customer focused, and how can we build it ourselves?

The challenge is that people struggle to get started.

Before

You don’t need AR tools to prototype AR
Build it for people who are already mobile friendly
Consider how you will measure success

During

Narrow scenarios and embrace your constraints.
Prepare for lots of post-build testing

After

Consider the personal impact

https://twitter.com/berkun/status/999580480730255360

Solve real problems

Map customer needs, think about their lifecycle and find a place where AR can really help them.

Expand options for consideration (Ikea, Warby Parker, Sephora are a few examples)
Prevent post-purchase problems (Customer manual from Hyundai)

Confusion, Stupidity and Shame

Thu, 24 May 2018 09:00:12 +0100

https://twitter.com/rmbanfield
https://www.freshtilledsoil.com/

Nice talk by @RMBanfield at #uxlx about "growth minset".

Failure doesn't make yout sh*t, they makes you learn.
Success are not a gift, its the result of work and team.
You can and will grow! Never give up.

Prepare for failure, try crazy ideas. Your life just gonna be better. pic.twitter.com/mihxxHUG1z
— Tycho Tatitscheff (@TychoTa) May 24, 2018

Fight Club

Kids are born with the ability to just get up and keep going, we lose that when we grow up. They don’t stop trying, and that’s the best way to lear. We learn through failure.

the first rule of failure is to talk about failure

When we talk about it, people show empathy and support

Tragedy

“it was the worst thing to happen to me”
“I’m a terrible human being”
“Nobody knows how hard I work!”

Identity

“What will he do next?”

Your identity is not the design you do, the UX you crafted. The identity is what we do next.

Responsibility

Take responsibility for your decisions

Talking about screwing up doesn’t make you a screw up.

Sometimes we suck.

Success

Comes from a set of factors:

privilege
genetics
timing
parents
friends
education
luck

You’re not special. Get back to work.

We should all work harder.

Success makes you selfish, and the goal in life is making others successful.

Failure is yours, success is your teams.

— Tess Cooper

Privilege and luck have more to do with success than how smart you are

Scary Things

We give up when things don’t go as planned.

Suggestion from Richard:

“We should understand that bad things happen, and that’s ok. If we know that, we are prepared for that. Plan for things that can go wrong, not just for when things go right. Don’t be ridiculously optimistic.”

Most people lost in the wild, they die of shame.

—Charles Morse (Anthony Hopkins)

To deal with reality you must first recognise it as such.

— Laurence Gonzales

We bulshit ourselves to believe we don’t need others.

”All the time we bullshit ourselves that we can do it alone and don't need help from other people.” @RMBanfield #uxlx pic.twitter.com/1EBJhpIabr
— Jan Toman (@HonzaTmn) May 24, 2018

https://twitter.com/HonzaTmn/status/999568706266193921

Embarrassment is more likely to kill you than anything else

What to pack for space

As soon as you start talking about a new idea, you start polarising people. When this happens, you lose momentum because you consider their opinion more important.

A genius is a crazy person who turned out to be right

— Tim Minchin

Be a little bit nuts and go beyond what other people think about you. Go to the science. Find arguments to back you up.

"I invite you to be crazy, to be a little nuts." "Don't worry about people loving your ideas all the time." - @RMBanfield #uxlx pic.twitter.com/5Uhta1veeH
— Per Axbom (@axbom) May 24, 2018

https://twitter.com/axbom/status/999569639863738369

As designers we put a lot of identity and self into the work and don’t deal well with adverse opinions. Because it feels they are putting down our identity.

Life is essentially an endless series of problems. The solution to one problem is merely the creation of another.

— Mark Manson

You don’t have to solve all the problems, you just need to find the ones that are meaningful for you.

I love you - or - the fiery ball of death

You should have a fake funeral for your ideas. And if they are meaningful you should keep working for them.

Failure is actually a strategy.

It turns out you have to give up control to other people.

Failure isn’t so bad when there’s someone there to catch you.

Great talk this morning by @RMBanfield at the @uxlx . 🙌🏼 #uxlx pic.twitter.com/qk1hwibVI7
— Therese Henriksen (@theresehenrix1) May 24, 2018

https://twitter.com/theresehenrix1/status/999574179258273792