THroughout most of the year I have been in the top forty, often in the top ten, on ReverbNation for electronica in my region. If you are on an iDevice you can get the same versions of these tracks at soundcloud.com/bitpakkit or in the Soundcloud app.
Reposted from IMHO.
In today's brief customer journeys, customer experience professionals are both artists and scientists collaborating on behalf of our most important benefactor. As artists we want to visualize and experiment with these benefactor touch points but there is this wall of complexity around how we intelligently scribe and simulate a million points of light from a hundred thousand journeys. As scientists we seek to simulate and experiment with our learnings and shape them into thesis or ultimately repeatable models.
If you follow Gartner's thinking around context-aware technologies, it is clear that C- level executives need to seriously consider the disruption that context-aware technologies will have on purchasing and loyalty behavior. Gartner identifies context-aware technologies as the ones that influence consumer purchase decisions by using information about the consumer's context (e.g., location and interests) to offer more-relevant promotions, content and recommendations. Smartphones and tablets armed with context-aware apps will influence consumer spending as much in nonelectronic channels (e.g., physical stores) as in e-commerce and the technology will primarily be used to shift consumer spending from one competitor to another. It does point out that is less likely that it will increase consumer spending overall. The customer journey, when taken into consideration at a touch point, must be considered in context.
What is the taxonomy of this union of art and science, this cartography of a journey and ethnography of a participant, perhaps individual or en masse as an audience? What are the unifying factors and measurable, logical groups of data that we can ultimately action? We have more than enough market data to understand that context in its totality has all the facets of data needed to optimize a behavior. But context is the thing itself, what then would we call the process of understanding and leveraging the learning of context? I propose:
Contextography - n. - the collection, study, analysis, measurement and resulting use of context. e.g. For the purpose of this article, the user speaks in italics to help you empathize with data gained through contextography.**
I'm on a horse. You knew that. right?
First let's meet a user and their context. In the same way that Old Spice imagined how women might like to see the men in their lives in order to have men in turn see themselves through that lens, we are constantly anticipating an audience and their needs, desires and motivations. I am hoping that I have anticipated your need to better understand how context is made actionable even if I am really only able start another conversation at this inflection.
While we have gotten better at allowing users to manage their account, their profile, and even how they share their activity with other customers or users of a product or service, we also have had to learn over time to consume that data intelligently and understand patterns that emerge and perhaps express these as context. The parameters that are relevant for the context can be broken down in different dimensions. For the purpose of this short journey we will give our user, which could be me, some context.
Me, the user, of course: Sometimes you and sometimes me, but always everything that characterizes the customer, perhaps demo-, psycho- and ethno- graphic.
My situation: That which describes the circumstances in which the user interaction takes place and the process and result of interaction. Relevant parameters for this include the channel of the interaction, the device made use of, the location, and the network that is used to connect and the facilities that enable this.
My history of interactions: That which we know and are able to share about the relationship between the user and your enterprise. Relevant information include buying history, contracts, support cases, and any other information that characterizes the business relationship.
I'm at a touchpoint. It's pretty. It doesn't work the way I expected.
A user’s experience is always dependent on a defined relationship between a business activity and that user’s goals. While the experience may take many forms, there are commonalities in the approach to arrive at a final experience, and this process is the practice of user experience (UX). The disciplines essentially map to the outputs of this process and typically include:
Technologists, behaving like scientists, strive to have applications widely adopted are essentially questing for patterns; patterns to users means that there are functions in those applications that are repeatably useful, usable, easy to find, credible, and ultimately successful at solving an identified problem or achieving a known goal. As the increase in focus on great customer experience matures, so in turn does the practice and rigor associated with defining the patterns of engagement. It's fair to think of increased investments in great user experience as a discovery of true patterns - the right investments presented in the context required for the right happy customers and happy employees to use your apps.
I know what awesome is. You and I are on the same page.
Essentially, most investments in user experience within the enterprise today amount to superficial and cosmetic changes applied as afterthoughts in an attempt to solve apparent and predictable problems with the surface of the application. Often, people focus on type size, color, and other basic design, and believe that they have created a great customer experience. The reality is that this approach only goes so far in addressing problems and is ultimately going to fail since the user-focused work was started much too late in the process. Business users often make the mistake of masking the lack of user input with cool technology, and while this world of wonder can fascinate to the point of going viral, it often lacks the deep engagement intended.
I don't make mistakes, you do. I recently redefined the customer is always right. I did this for you.
The later in a project you invest in change, the more it costs. There are a number of methodologies in use today across the industry that are purported to facilitate user input into the design and development process - beware the linear, embrace the cyclical, and mandate the agile. In this way we appropriately recognize that users don't really blame themselves for things going wrong the way that they used to. That was convenient because it presented an opportunity to teach someone how to use a system in the way it was intended. Now the table is turned and the system must work in the way that is expected.
I'm on a journey. I have a map. Embrace my journey.
Many of the guidelines from analysts and industry experts have identified a key tool in this process to be a map of all the customer touchpoints across an enterprise. This map can be used in several strategic ways:
I'm in your systems. I'm doing this fast.
Finally, we need to reflect the outcomes of design in our application architecture. In a functional architecture we can surface this experience layer to bridge the “last mile” gap between user and business application. This layer essentially represents the presentation layer of applications (e.g., interaction models such as touch) with knowledge of domain, integration, and the associated infrastructure. True multichannel delivery is thus enabled through an abstraction of presentation that intentionally separates the channel, controls, and interaction from the fundamental underlay of business logic and application code.
This abstraction serves a unique purpose in planning and development. By creating handshakes between the UX professionals who own the experience and developers who own the implementation of the application, we in turn empower handshakes between customers and the business.
For example, wireframes that represent the experience layer and interaction model can be made interactive in such a way as to represent the potential interaction, and elsewhere in the team those interactions can be wired to the application and business logic. These can be tested with actual customers or users in order to further refine logic, interaction models, and general usability themes such as accessibility, both prior to implementation and over time.
Suck less. Be awesome more. Please.
A user’s experience is impacted by many things beyond our control as designers, such as network issues, device or operating system issues, IT policies, or even physical distractions. What is within our control is exhibiting a shared understanding of goals and interaction capabilities and providing this in a consistent way to support the brands we represent.
One could choose platforms and tools that effectively reduce the time it takes for you to develop the final experience with a component model based on UX best practices. For example, here at Adobe, we are working hard to maintain a domain model that is essentially pre-integrated with relevant technology services and infrastructure, and abstract this from the presentation layer such that you can reuse or strip away and replace at whim. Not your whim, but that of your customer's oft-fickle hearts and minds. In this way you can adapt to changes in contextual trends at the edges of your business, and put your new passion for contextography to work helping to sustain and grow your business.
I'm done. Listen for my feedback.
** Re: Contextography. I honestly had no idea that someone else had made the word up before I did but Google was helpful in setting me straight on that. Recognizing the definition potentially already in place actually helps me build on that to an expanded definition that is first of all both representative and inclusive of the user POV, and more importantly one that embraces all aspects of a digital environment, not only images of a fictitious one. I should point out that more recently I have been made aware of a definition of this term that is similar to a bibliography for a paper or thesis - essentially tracking the context of sources. I love that definition and my only regret was that I was not personally encouraged to add contextographies to my papers when I was a student many (many, many) years ago.
I have registered the domain Contextography.com to build a body of research and work in the areas of definition, research and analysis of both the art and science of context. In parallel to that we will also be tracking the context conversation here - @contextography (sorry to any fans of @uxpectations, that chapter is now complete for me) and I will bring the first few months of this together for a talk on this subject at the upcoming Adobe Digital Enterprise Summit in October. Register for VIP invite here.
Special thanks to Hank Barnes, Craig Randall and Jamie Anderson for additional insights and thoughts, and to the extended community for the inspiration and motivation to get this idea off the napkin.
With recent news around all of the unavoidable and avoidable activities that are killing us, I thought it prudent to ponder a list of the Top 10 Things that are not killing us. Here they go, in no particular order, with absolutely no scientific backup (also a trend on a lot of health-related posts).
1) Being happy.
Several prominent authors who seem quite happy share their beliefs that being happy is actually very good for us. Choose the physiological or spiritual POV on this activity. Just smiling may be good enough.2) Meditation or prayer.
Being in touch with your spiritual self is critical to basic skills like self-awareness, confidence, empowerment and a healthy attitude (especially this last part). As long as you are not dropping on your knees in a war zone or meditating when you should be medicating this should be a sustainable priority.3) Helping others.
It's the little things that count. Do something for someone today, no matter how small.4) Contributing to charity.
No studies whatsoever indicate any harmful side effects of sponsoring charities or charitable events.5) Eating healthy.
Choose green, choose local, choose balanced.6) Standing up.
I would have said sitting up straight but apparently that still kills you. It follows that if sitting is shortening our lives, then standing up within tolerable levels should not be any risk.7) Great sex.
I would have said "Being in Love" but that has actually caused some pain, confusion and even death in remote circumstances. For whatever reason, love is also not as popular on the internet as sex. And maybe not just great sex, but any sex perhaps. Assuming you are of an appropriate age, have no pre-conditions that will harm you from exertion, and like this kind of thing you should proceed at will, as available and where consent allows (of course). 8) Updating your status.
As long as you are not provoking war, political dissent or exposing your infidelity, social media has actually been proven by someone, somewhere, to be good for you.9) Paying your taxes.
I know from experience that not paying them on time can cause stress. Since death and taxes are both absolutes, you should choose this one annually in favor of the other. If you need the money to cure a life-threatening disease, leverage your own ability to prioritize.10) Celebrating success.
While certain forms of celebration, or activities undertaken during celebration, may have adverse health risks, the simple act of acknowledging exceptional behavior or important milestones is an important part of creating positive memories about your life. You can only partake in this activity directly while you are living, so you should think up a reason now.Unofficial #11 - Creating a top ten list that fits somewhere in the stack of useless internet journalism that is amusing for short periods of time.Disclaimer: I have no definitive proof of anything nor do I actually believe anything I have ever read in a Top 10 list.
72 slides on how Amazon controls e-commerce. faberNovel provides a wake-up call for CEOs to challenge their business model and directly embrace opportunities and address threats created by current market shifts.
For some time now a cross-section of business, research and technology teams have been working on a way to get great UX into a box with one primary goal - that it can be effectively un-boxed and put to work. A variety of different approaches were taken and in the end we settled on one workable option, but first let's explore the outputs of the lengthy and expensive consulting and brainstorm process:
In the end, we decided to put design-thinking DNA in the box and to make sure that there was enough to go around. Through direct injection and osmosis, firms can leverage this DNA across multiple projects forever. In addition to providing a steady stream of maintenance and support revenues, this also accomplishes the much-needed requirement for teams to fundamentally rethink how they enable self-serve and customer service touchpoints through great design.
Finally, this guarantees that the initial investment will pay out for years to come as organizations constantly improve on the UX based on changing user requirements and evolving form factors and interaction models.
Unfortunately, we are currently stuck on pricing - we know it is somewhere between free and priceless and the business and marketing teams are polarized on this issue now.
As soon as we resolve this, we will have more information. If you would like to participate in a pre-release program, grab a pencil, a napkin, a few user profiles and a design buddy and head down to the pub for an April Fools Friday cocktail and some of that tomorrow's soup you love so much.
As part of our ongoing research to see if there are better approaches, the plan is to capture and document the next 30 days of UX discussion around the web and mine, visualize, share, thread and thematically digest the current UX conversation. Please participate by continuing to talk about UX and if you like join the conversation directly by using the hashtag #30DaysofUX (#UX is a perfectly fine alternative of course). We are not trying to co-opt the conversation and we know it goes beyond 30 days, but this is an opportunity to capture, mine and better understand it - who is driving it, what the current themes are and where the conversation is going. Our thesis is that it's going outside the box. More to come...
Typewriter soundplay brought to you by Funny Jokes
Irving Stackpole uses the example of considering a seniors' community to explore the different factors affecting loyalty and satisfaction. There is growing realization and acceptance that these two traditionally connected themes may be correlary but are still exclusive.
Amplify’d from www.stackpoleassociates.com
There is a frightening disconnect between measured satisfaction and customer loyalty. For many years, senior living managers have performed customer satisfaction surveys to measure how happy various customers and consumers are with their communities. These surveys have taken many forms, but the results have been remarkably similar - customers and consumers seem quite satisfied, or happy. Another fact, however, is that satisfied customers are not predictably loyal - too often they walk away to another senior living community. Why? And if happy customers walk away, why bother trying to find out if they're happy in the first place?
Three theories may explain this situation:
- Customers of high vulnerability services (such as senior housing) don't tell the truth about their level of satisfaction;
- Satisfaction and loyalty are not correlated in the markets for these services;
- Service dissatisfaction is not the only reason for disloyalty.
There is good evidence that each of these provide at least part of the explanation, and can be helpful in guiding what to measure and how.
Regarding surveyed persons telling the truth, little can be done, although there is some evidence that having an outside person, vendor or agency perform the measurement is useful. Surveyors often must work harder to obtain negative responses through one-on-one interviews, for example. What is clear, however, is that the survey respondents who provide negative responses are offering the surveyor precious information. It is my experience that negative responses are too frequently either dismissed with a roll of the eyes, or rationalized away to the margins. It is human nature to take pride in, and therefore be defensive about, our work, but this human quality does not serve the management of senior living communities in this circumstance.
The relative importance placed on features and price change with time. Of importance to measure, therefore, on a regular basis, are the relative satisfaction with, and the perceived value of, a communities' services. How can we do this?
Shoppers for, and consumers of, high vulnerability services evaluate these services in a highly comparative manner. Perceived satisfaction alone does not predict buying behavior or loyalty. By asking shoppers and customers to make comparisons of competitive positions in both service areas and price, it is possible to create a far more useful and predictive model.
Great examples of different styles of sketches from a bunch of reasonably famous projects - interesting to note the differing levels of detail and also the similarities to the actual final projects.
More and more after the jump...Amplify’d from inspirationfeed.com
5 Years of Firefox
iPad app sketch
Viget Labs Wireframes
Early Ember Sketches
OnlyJames Wireframe Sketch of Article Detail
CommLogix Wireframe
Early BusinessWeek.com Design Sketch
Website UI Sketch
UI Flow Sketch
Dew Tour Wireframes
HBO SATC UI wireframe
Web Sketch Interface v2 – Graffletopia
Sqetch
Verify Home Screen
Nielsen has posed the question "Who is winning the US smartphone battle?" and has answered it in two ways. Then the company put it all into a nice chart to help you understand, which you can see below.
The first answer is Google's Android, if we're looking at smartphone OS market share. The second is Apple's iPhone tied with Research in Motion's BlackBerry, if we're looking at smartphone manufacturer market share. Let's look more closely at the numbers. Android has 29 percent share (broken down into 12 percent for HTC, 10 percent for Motorola, 5 percent for Samsung, and 2 percent for Other). Both iPhone and Blackberry have 27 percent. Microsoft, HP, and Symbian are not a threat, yet. (If anyone knows of a higher res source for the image that is not a content farm, please share)Amplify’d from www.techspot.com
A few folks have asked me where I got the stat I dropped when I got to
the message is the interface" part of my #AdobeUX keynote in Barcelona. It's from Neilsen. Technically I was under - think I said 3,000 texts per month and its actually closer to 3,500.Amplify’d from thechrisvossshow.com
