disambiguity » conferences & catchups

Matt Webb on design & scope at Reboot 11

leisa.reichelt — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:07:58 +0000

I had the pleasure of speaking at Reboot11 recently and one of the best things about it was seeing this inspiring talk from Matt Webb which you should watch immediately and share with any other designers you know.

UX London – Designing for Content Rich Sites Workshop

leisa.reichelt — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:26:50 +0000

Here’s a dump of tweets i sent during Jared’s workshop.

sitting up the back of @jmspool’s workshop – Why Good Content Must Suck: Designing For The Scent of Information
Jared is talking about the Scent of Information and why it is more effective than designing for navigation
humans = informavours
Jared says: the best websites have a lot of content
conten sucks the user towards it (this is why your content has to suck… like a vaccuum cleaner)
every link gives off ’scent’ that users follow. As scent gets stronger, people are more confident they’re headed the right way
we can only tell from users behaviour whether the scent is working or not. If you’re not watching users, you won’t know.
“trigger words” are the words that cause users to act
our eyes go straight to trigger words.
@Suw no videos from #uxlondon as far as I know
Jared says the 3 click rule is ‘complete bullshit’. Tell your boss.
the only time users complain about clicks is when the information scent has gone
good design is like air conditioning. You don’t notice it unless there’s something wrong.
@Suw I’m in the process of posting dumps of my tweets session by session to my blog right now www.disambiguity.com
when the user comes to the page they scan for trigger words, if they find one, they click on it. If they don’t, they go to search
the search box is users creating their own links by inputting the trigger words they’re looking for
most of the time BYOL (bring your own link) via search doesn’t work
users don’t like to scroll ‘that’s complete bullshit too’ @jmspool
iceberg syndrome: people assume the most important stuff is at the top. If ‘marketing fluff’ is at the top, don’t bother scrolling
nobody goes to a website without a purpose. except web designers.
information masking:when users look at a page they focus on only the portion of the page that has consistently given them good use
navigation panels are often scentless. Scent is specific, navigation is often not.
short links don’t emit scent
the best links are 7-12 words in length
@atownley 12 words is too long
short pages reduce scent. The best pages are *really* long. ref: CNN, Yahoo, Amazon, NYT
things that stop ppl from scrolling 2. Design elements that *look* like the bottom- white space, text that looks like a disclaimer
cute/brand/marketing type links don’t work (mystery meat)
homepages should look more like sitemaps in @jmspool’s opinion. It’s not clutter. Link rich homepages do better than sparse pages
@jmspool on baseball – it’s 15mins of excitement jammed into 2.5hrs
the only people who care about what ’section’ of a site something is in is people who manage the site. Users couldn’t care less.
graphics for information = v useful. decorative graphics are less easy to correlate to good user outcomes
the no.1 thing that users base the quality of their experience on is whether or not they complete their task
Navigation Graphics communicate scent. Content Graphics convey information. Ornamental Graphics do something else #uxlondon PRT @Wandster
yes, in case you’re wondering, I’m tweeting a @jmspool workshop at
designing for scent – make sure every click makes the user more confident
what makes users confident – ‘i know where this link is going to take me’
on click show desired content OR even stronger scent = happy user
if you’re not spending time watching people use your site there is no way you’re designing a good site #uxlondon ( )
you need to know – why are users coming to your site? what are their trigger words?
users look for blue & underlines. yes, it’s ugly and hard to see but we’ve trained users to look for that.
Target Content Page = the page the user is looking for to solve their objective. The most important page on the site for that user
you only have to worry about information scent if you have more than one page on your website
Gallery Page = a list of links to content pages. Scent comes from the content page thru the links on the gallery page to the user
@jmspool does research on ecommerce sites because they’re easy – easy to measure if users have achieved their goal.
3 scent failure predictors: use of the back button, pogo-sticking, use of search
wireframing 2.0 #uxlondon goodies http://tr.im/uxlondongoodies (via @solle)
the back button is the button of doom (repeat after @jmspool)
pogosticking = when the user bounces between levels of the information hierarchy seeking their target content page
when people pogo-stick we see a huge reduction in users achieving success on a site
the more users pogo-stick the less likely they are to find the target content. When you see it it, tells you there’s a problem.
you are *much* more likely to find what you’re looking for if you DON’T use search
only if you have Uniquely Identified Content (like Amazon) do you get an exception to the searching = predictor of problems rule
people type very generic terms into search – this is the main reason search fails (behaviour not technology)
your users are telling you every day what trigger words they’re looking for and on what pages. Look at your search logs.
users are telling you every day what is wrong with your site and what you need to do to fix it. Are you paying attention? @jmspool
to stop people pogosticking, you need to put as much information on the gallery page as possible
“Changes in the web don‚Äôt change the fundamentals of human behaviour” (@jmspool) #uxlondon (via @Paulseys)
alphabetical order is the same as random order in 99% of cases @jmspool
Department Pages = collections of gallery pages. Separates gallery pages into logical groups.
Department pages are for winnowing, gallery pages are for selecting. Users get this.
More on “pogosticking” on UIE: http://bit.ly/NuY6W #uxlondon (via @bashford)
You can always have that much space for your gallery page because you have an infinite page length @jmspool
people do NOT learn the structure of your site by using it. They have no sense of the organisation of your site, nor do they care
When users comparison-shopped using pogosticking techniques:purchase = 11% . Compare to 55% when product lists used. #uxlondon PRT @Wandster
seducible moments – at the end, once users have *achieved* their goal say ‘by the way, would you like to do this?’
Store pages = groups of department pages. Helps users tell the system what they *don’t* want to see (eg. business or sports)
people who choose a ‘Store’ page tend to never choose another ‘Store’ page in the same session.
Do you need store pages? Look to your competitors. If they have them, you probably do. Use the same terms as they are (generic)
Homepage purpose – to get people to other pages, usually to a category page. Divide real estate accordingly
anyone who tells you that your homepage is for brand, to learn about your products/your business etc. They’re wrong @jmspool
the best way to solve arguments is to have everyone watching users actually using the site @jmspool

UX London – Quick Sketching for Interaction Design Workshop – Mark Baskinger & William Bardel

leisa.reichelt — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:14:24 +0000

Here is a dump of my live tweets during this excellent workshop at UX London. If you like it, you should buy their book when it comes out later this year.

wondering about the easiest way to export my tweets from yesterday and get them into chronological order
sketching workshop kicking off, hooray! ‘and we’re going to get kind of sweaty’
‘how many of you guys are IxDs? And how many are UX Designers?’ Cue chaos
showing people your sucky drawings is part of the growing process
squeak squeak squeak, explain explain, squeak squeak (how many of you use a whiteboard?)
why are we here (in this sketching workshop)? to become better communicators
design drawing is useful in the planning process, can help to see the world differently, heightened awareness of how things work
drawing can help you tell your story to others, its honesty can be v compelling
why draw by hand when we have computers? Mice suck.
why draw by hand – direct with the pencil is more direct, more expressive than via mouse
thinking is a fast paced activity, the pencil is simple & immediate, a good, fast tool for capturing thought
‘Pencils Before Pixels’ – Mark Baskinger
we’re going to start off with really simple things like straight lines …
‘i’d love to sit down and draw cubes with you after the workshop’
we’re grabbing pencils and paper…
starting with pencil holding technique. @ashdonaldson & @cennydd are getting some remedial tips
if you can’t see the tip of your pencil you can’t draw. You need a v loose grip to avoid fatigue
your bellybutton is very important for vertical lines. It’s like a visual landmark. Pull the lines toward it #uxlondon (seriously!)
(feels like sketch pilates)
@keeran of course I’m participating! my vertical lines are much better than my horizontal!
correct each others squares. what do you see? either ‘my squares suck’ or ‘the person next to me is blind’
you have to warm up before you can sketch properly.
techniques for better hand drawn wireframes: use non-repro blue for underlay drawing (it disappears when copied)
carry a sketchbook all the time. practice sketching all the time. practice straight lines, squares, using hatching for tone
‘it’s all about pulling some lines’
use lines in various intervals, not scribble, for adding tone.
being purposefully rough, like overlapping corners, makes sketching look more sketchy
sketchiness = this is not a finished idea, I’m still thinking about this. Sketching holds the conversation back to the big picture
avoid crosshatching in wireframes, starts to ‘pop’ too much. Use various weight of diagonal or vertical lines instead
build your sketches up sequentially, add weight and tone onto the skeleton
uh oh. perspective! (moving shapes in space)
perspective – make sure your back vertical is a little shorter than your front vertical
try to finish your line with the same weight as you start it
if you can do curved planes, you can do arrows. (v pretty arrows, that is)
@alexjamesmorris you might think all UX people draw, but unfortunately not true, and many of us would love to draw better!
move the point of your arrow back just a tiny bit off centre and it will look better
i can recommend Trio Scribli pens #uxlondon (via @solle)
‘these are all ‘ungood’ ways of drawing a circle’
the only useful thing your pinky does is stablise your hand when you want to ‘drop in’ a pencil
the trick to drawing a good circle is to do a few practice circles before you ‘drop in’ your circle (it works!)
@freecloud agree that blog posts are like word sketches, but there’s nothing like drawn sketches to communicate some ideas
@alexjamesmorris i agree. you can’t copy and paste sketched wireframes. I think that’s incredibly important.
I’m realising that my biggest problem with sketching before is not visualising what I am trying to sketch before starting to draw
realising sketching is a lot more deliberate than I thought. Resolving to *really* do the sketchbook thing from now on
’sketching becomes a magic trick. I can draw this and you can’t. That’s a powerful thing’
@alexjamesmorris absolutely – pencil before pixels as Mark said at the beginning
ok. drawing people. If I can leave this workshop with people drawing skills I will be stoked.
if you have an element in your sketch that is weak or less deliberate, it attracts attention & detracts from your entire sketch.
notational sketching = the act of recording things that you see in the world. Mostly for your sketchbook, less so for sharing
analysing visual input (what you see) and deciding what to record is a particular kind of drawing skill
@leisa sketching is physical thought in my book #uxlondon (via @Snowbadger) > i agree
notational sketching tips: fast & loose, use icons, images & symbols, portability is important (in context), date your pages
more notational sketching tips: respect the borders (esp. the gutter), print neatly (annotations), white space is ok
moving onto visualising functional relationships – communicating how things interact together so it makes sense to others
Bill: I like using watercolour because it is less controlled, it forces you to work with mistakes
if notation is aimed at recording, diagramming is aimed at explaining
tips for explanatory mapping & diagramming: balance style and substance, think about how to direct attention where you want it
The Don: ‘How do you draw a blur?’ Mark: ‘You lick your page’
@jonbho this is an unusual glut of tweets due to #uxlondon. I can assure you I’m usually much quieter! Apologies for the noise.
getting to the end of the sketching workshop. My sketching is still rubbish, but I have a v good idea of why and what to do
sketching workshop wrapped up with a gentle critiquing session. Great workshop, recommend it.

UX London Tweets – Don Norman

leisa.reichelt — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:06:55 +0000

Here is a dump of my live tweets during The Don’s presentation at UX London. I’m writing a more coherent version of this for Johnny Holland – coming soon!

Don Norman on the stage. Last speaker of the day at UX London
the Don opens with ‘Thank you, it is now time for questions’
whenever anyone says they want something, I oppose it. I question it. #uxlondon #TheDon
Rules of complexity: Life is complex, The tools we build have to match life, the problem is understanding not simplicity #uxlondon #TheDon
Complexity is not bad. Complicated is bad. #uxlondon #TheDon
If you want to make something simple you compensate by making other things complex #uxlondon #TheDon
When @lukewdesign says ‘no one’ customises Yahoo.com he means ‘only 60million people’ #uxlondon #TheDon
Complex can be enjoyable. Some simple things can be horrible. #uxlondon #TheDon
Don Normal talking about the doors. What a treat. #uxlondon #TheDon
‘I highly recommend walking around with sticky green dots to remind yourself which way things should turn’ #uxlondon #TheDon
As a generalisation, Asian cultures prefer more complex interfaces #uxlondon #TheDon (123india.com vs google.com)
he even sounds a bit like a messiah, don’t you think?
#uxlondon #TheDon
Magpies are the only bird that can pass the mirror test, can lie, they’re extremely intelligent #uxlondon #TheDon #WhoKnew
reading music is incredibly complex but it produces amazing things, we don’t complain about that complexity. #uxlondon #TheDon
People whose offices look messy often know where their stuff is & are better able to find things than ‘neat’ people. #uxlondon #TheDon Amen
Too simple is boring. To complex is frustrating. There’s an ideal amount. Experience moves the preferred complexity up. #uxlondon #TheDon
Being distracted is sometimes a good thing, it can be how we learn things. #uxlondon #TheDon
some ’simple’ tools take time to use well. eg. a silversmith’s hammer #uxlondon #TheDon
there’s a sweet spot for complexity & engaging things are found in that sweetspot, but it keeps shifting! #uxlondon #TheDon
As I get better at something, I need increased complexity to maintain interest, otherwise I get bored. #uxlondon #TheDon
Complexity is good. It’s good to feel the world disappear as you engage in what you’re doing. It’s enjoyable & productive #uxlondon #TheDon
I think Don is proving his point re: complexity & understanding (unconvinced by his suggestion to redesign musical scales) #uxlondon #TheDon
@fred_beecher yes, he mentioned games re: complexity & shifting sweetspot #uxlondon #TheDon
we are sending seriously mixed messages – we say we want simplicity but we buy things because they’ve got more features #uxlondon #TheDon
we can’t resist features. Even when incredibly simple mobile phones are produced, we don’t buy them. We want features. #uxlondon #TheDon
quoting The Paradox of Choice, Schwartz – we have more choices than ever but less satisfaction. More is Less #uxlondon #TheDon
You can contain complexity by putting things in modular clumps so you only see options when you need them #uxlondon #TheDon
Google’s advanced search interfaces helps me do something complex in a supported way and starts to teach me Boolean search #uxlondon #TheDon
the solution: conceptual model #uxlondon #TheDon
eg file system interface is a fake. It doesn’t really exist but it helps me understand where to find things on my computer #uxlondon #TheDon
But the Graphical User Interface does not scale. #uxlondon #TheDon
Another solution: Systems Thinking #uxlondon #TheDon
The reason the ipod is such a success is that it is a complete system. License music iTunes iPod #uxlondon #TheDon
Lots of the visiting US speakers are talking up the Kindle. And saying it’s increasing their reading volume. Jealous. #uxlondon #TheDon
Complexity can be fun – for example this very complicated coffee maker. I don’t know if it makes good coffee or not #uxlondon #TheDon
and that’s the end of Don Norman’s ‘In Favour of Complexity’ – what a treat! #uxlondon #TheDon
from the Q&A – if I can’t get my pictures out of my camera, it’s hopeless. The whole system has to work #uxlondon #TheDon
in the old days we suffered through technology, but now we are selling to everyday people. Things have to work. It really matters.

UX London Tweets – Jared Spool

leisa.reichelt — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:51:39 +0000

Here is a dump of my live tweets during Jared’s presentation at UX London. I’m writing a more coherent version of this for Johnny Holland – coming soon!

warming up my twitter fingers in a vain attempt to keep up with @jmspool, who is up next at
‘ …and they thought that was just a senseless waste of asterisks’ @jmspool is on form
designs can’t intuit anything, people intuit things, calling design ‘intuitive’ is a shortcut.
people become frustrated because they are no longer focussing on what they are doing, they are focussing on the design itself
novelty isn’t always responsible for unintuitive design, sometimes it is simplicity
intuitive design is a personal thing – it is based on what you currently know (your previous experiences)
intuitive design is evolutionary – as the technology matures, our expectation for intuitive design increases.
Current Knowledge (what the user brings with them to the design) & Target Knowledge (what they need to have to complete their task)
In between ‘Current’ and ‘Target’ knowledge = ‘The Gap’. Design happens in The Gap.
is anyone at #uxlondon heading over to tonight’s UX London bookclub? (via @Wandster) > I am!
Lots of excellent (but not so tweetable) comparisons of IM setup pages and their relative ‘intuitiveness’
wizards reduce Target Knowledge, which is great… as long as they work. If they don’t work, the user is screwed.
a design is intuitive if target and current knowledge are the same, or the knowledge gap imperceptibly small.
ethnography/field research: users in the mist @jmspool
Techniques for creating intuitive designs: Field Studies (Current Knowledge), Usability Studies (Target Knowledge)
use robust personas to store and communicate what you learn from your user studies
can’t believe @jmspool hasn’t cracked a ‘mind the gap’ joke yet

UX London Tweets – Dan Saffer

leisa.reichelt — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:47:45 +0000

Here is a dump of my live tweets during Dan’s presentation at UX London. I’m writing a more coherent version of this for Johnny Holland – coming soon!

Designing from the Inside-Out: Behaviour as the Egine of Product Design with @odannyboy
@21five good pickup. We don’t customise on the web. Mobile is a completely different story
it is easier to focus on things like form than it is on behaviour.
many competitive products do very similar things, it is the behaviour of the products that differentiates them (eg iphone/nokia)
features are not a good long term strategy for product differentiation. eg. Flip Camcorders
behaviour led design can be a great defender against featuritis
very pretty KeyNote transitions @odannyboy. Esp the glistening obligatory Don Norman quote
It’s easy to replicate features but it is hard to copy how those features behave if care is taken to design them well
Stop looking for people’s goals and preferences and start looking for what they do and why they do it.
Focus on: Motivations, Expectations, Actions, not demographics or preferences for customer modeling
Transitions Matter #uxlondon (ref: previous tweet re: Dan’s keynote transitions. lol)
@odannyboy is talking about Buddha Nature (core activity) and the Hero Task. Think they would enjoy @lukewdesign’s Parti
If the product was an action, what would that action be? There is a big difference btwn ‘design X’ and ‘design something to do X’
‘So, am I saying form follows function? Somewhat, but don’t quote me’ @odannyboy

UX London Tweets – Luke Wroblewski

leisa.reichelt — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:42:15 +0000

Here is a dump of my live tweets during Luke’s presentation at UX London. I’m writing a more coherent version of this for Johnny Holland – coming soon!

Next up at #uxlondon @lukewdesign talking about Parti & the Design Sandwich… cryptic much!
How do all the things like design patterns, best practices, design principles, design visions etc. fit together?
imagine having 590 Million customers and 10K stakeholders… that’s Yahoo.com. Design that homepage!
Parti = the big idea
A parti is different to a vision statement bc it is expressed through the language of design incl. experiential and aesthetic
tech opportunity, resource alightment, company strategy, market factors, customer insights, all contribute to Parti
Parti derives from usage metrics, customer feedback, market trends, corporate strategy, revenue objectives, concept testing….
Yahoo.com Parti – ‘the dashboard for what you love on the web’
emerging theme from #uxlondon – communicating your design work/principles effectively is as important as the design work you’re doing.
It’s not about having control over this big idea, it’s about being able to get everyone aligned around it.
no one customises/personalises. (@lukewdesign of Yahoo.com says so – tell your boss)
The top of the Design Sandwich is Design Principles (Jensen Harris’ MS Design Tenets on screen for the 2nd time today)
Good idea or no? Someone has an idea, evaluate that idea against your design principles – does that idea align with principle?
Design Considerations are at the bottom of the Design Sandwich (Opportunities & Limitations)
What is Best Practice? Not how you can solve a problem but how you should solve it.
in situations where bad decisions happened, people lacked some information that would have helped make the right decision @jmspool
the rest of the design sandwich (the filling) = design patterns, best practices and research/testing.
a poor designer will attempt to hold onto a failed parti, thus losing the integrity of the whole. Create another parti!

UX London Tweets – Eric Reiss

leisa.reichelt — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:37:39 +0000

Here is a dump of my live tweets during Eric’s presentation at UX London. I’m writing a more coherent version of this for Johnny Holland – coming soon!

Eric Reiss on stage talking E-Service (if you want it done right, do it yourself).
Service is 100% about user experience, but UX is not 100% about service.
‘here you’ve got another middle aged white man to tell you what you should be doing’
Lesson 1: Service management is a process not a program
Willing to lay bets that Eric didn’t fly British Airways to London
‘i’m so paranoid about flying British Airways that I take photos of my luggage before I fly with them’
happy customers tell on average 3 people. Eric is v unhappy and telling hundreds. (The av. unhappy only tells about 17 tho’)
Service: there is nothing tangible about service, the experience is the value
service: quality assurance needs to happen *before* production
We don’t want interaction! – we want to minimise our interaction!
3 Types of services: Help, Enhance, Fix
Reading between the rants: customer service is old school and you new school kids are getting most of it wrong. Be more thoughtful
Eric: the problem is that the people who really know Service Management don’t know our (digital) industry. And vice versa.

UX London Tweets – Peter Merholz

leisa.reichelt — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:33:45 +0000

Here is a dump of my live tweets during Peter’s presentation at UX London. I’m writing a more coherent version of this for Johnny Holland – coming soon!

the legacy of org chart mentalities is silo-ing the customer experience, the website is only one part. Need to get up the chain
use mental models and personas to understand goals, behaviours and what keeps your customer up at night worrying
Customer experience is not something that the organization buys, it’s a mindset it adopts.
Experiences> Interactions> Touchpoints> Procedures> Systems. Good UX starts at Experience, most companies start at Systems
consider Experience Principles, not just ‘voice’ as a foundation of Brand
Need to figure out how to communicate what we want to do in order to get others to embrace it.
What are u doing to get other people excited about the opportunities? What can u do to communicate ur ideas to get people inspired
we need to think of design as ACTIVITY – that a whole organisation can engage in. We become faciliators #uxlondon (ed note: +++ )
Everyone from the CEO down can be involved in collaborative design processes. Collaboration doesn’t make it slower.
Q: how do we get good experience without a visionary CEO? A: A good set of experience principles helps develop vision from within

Random inspiration from UX Bookclub attendees

leisa.reichelt — Fri, 22 May 2009 16:07:05 +0000

I’m organising the upcoming London UX Bookclub and we’re reading Dan Saffer’s Designing Gestural Interfaces. O’Reilly kindly gave us 20 free copies of the book so to decide who got the free books I asked people to email me what they’ve been reading recently that they found inspiring and the first 20 would get free books. yay. So here in a pretty much un-edited form, is what they sent me – I hope you find something inspiring here too!

The most inspirational recently is without a doubt having discovered the presentations of Stephen P. Anderson (who is leading the design team at viewzi). Triggered by the presentation he gave at the IA summit about “Seductive Interactions“. I had a look at his blog and previous presentations and have to say that he his pretty good at nailing down some theoretical framework of User Experience in diagrams (especially this one) that give a structure to explore the “components” of User experience.
The below quote in About Face 3 sums up my thoughts on designing a user experience rather succinctly: “Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but rather when there is nothing more to take away.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The most inspiring thing I’ve read lately is the video demonstrating AR implemented as a tool to create 3D graffiti art (included in the post). It’s amazing in the way the AR interface creates an entirely new space for expression and experience. I thought this example was really cool. In general it feels like AR is the next UX frontier. There’s a lot of hype around it, but if the technology delivers what it’s promising to, the UX possibilities it will open up are really exciting.
I was most inspired by this article on remote learning The concept of providing ESL learning via Second Life to me demonstrates an exciting collaboration of learning / gaming. I believe more creative e-learning methods, especially for adult learners, has so much more to be explored.
I’ve started to read quite a lot of books recently helping me to become a better developer, but I think ‘The most inspiration thing you’ve read recently that is UX related’ would have to be Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think – which was one of the first (and admittedly most basic) books, which I found a real inspiration, and really got me started on this journey!
Other were inspired by: http://www.madebymany.co.uk/the-future-of-wireframes-00991 and http://www.cennydd.co.uk/2009/complex-inferiority/
What’s inspiring me the most in this period is not a quote but a movement: I’ve been trying to retrace what the psychogeography movement has been studying and developing since the ’50s. Reinventing the way to explore, live and consume the cityscape, redefining “function” and “play” seems to me like an interesting shift from which we can learn how to (re)design everyday things.
My recent inspirational thing is this presentation by Colleen Jones about the balance between usable and influential (marketing) content. I found it interesting because my day-to-day work (at least until the end of the month) means I often see the tension between design/content that is useful versus that which is out and out marketing-focused.
The most inspirational thing I’ve read has to be Graham Pullin’s new book called “Disability meets Design”. I actually went to his talk at the Design Museum recently and really enjoyed it..
We’ve just started a project examining community and how best to leverage the social aspects of the betting experience. Whilst doing some research in the area I came across the following two websites, that I think are particularly interesting: A patterns wiki which is a companion to Crumlish and Malone’s book ‘Designing Social interfaces’. And a blog which examines the issues around building reputation systems online and also includes a wiki that is being used to create the book ‘Building Web 2.0 Reputation Systems’.
I suppose the most inspiring thing I’ve read lately that’s UX related is Don Norman’s Emotional Design. Not exactly a revelation, I’ll admit, but certainly changed the way I saw usability.
It’s not exactly reading, but I was blown away by Jer Thorp’s Just Landed.
I’d been working on some personas’ for a couple of days and this made me realise they where a little 2D. “What sound or noise do you love?” After watching this then reading up on Inside The Actors Studio.

I have a terrible feeling I may have accidentally archived a couple of other inspirations in gmail, so if I’ve missed yours please add it in the comments below, and if anyone feels like sharing other recent inspirations reads, then please – share away!

thanks to all and look forward to seeing you at bookclub soon!

disambiguity » conferences & catchups

Matt Webb on design & scope at Reboot 11

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UX London – Designing for Content Rich Sites Workshop

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UX London – Quick Sketching for Interaction Design Workshop – Mark Baskinger & William Bardel

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UX London Tweets – Don Norman

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UX London Tweets – Jared Spool

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UX London Tweets – Dan Saffer

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UX London Tweets – Luke Wroblewski

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UX London Tweets – Eric Reiss

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UX London Tweets – Peter Merholz

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Random inspiration from UX Bookclub attendees

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