UX London Tweets – Don Norman

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?
</starstruck>#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

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

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

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!