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• IDSA Polar Opposites Conference Recap by Lauren Serota & Wyatt Starosta on October 01, 2008

  About 2 weeks ago, a good group of us Lextantites made a trek to Phoenix, AZ for IDSA’s 2008 national conference, Polar Opposites. We think it’s safe to say that we all had an enjoyable time (especially during “pool breaks”); here is a recap of what we had going on and other things we learned.

  In total, we were involved in 4 official conference events.  Marty and Lauren, with the help of Philip White (ASU, IDSA EcoDesign chair) lead a workshop called Design Research meets Sustainable Design, which was an experimental session based on findings from IDSA via Lextant’s research the ideal design community for young design professionals. The 40+ session attendees were briefed on current trends in sustainable development & design research fundamentals before being divided in to smaller teams. The teams, led by design researchers from Lextant, Blackhagen Design & The Savannah College of Art and Design not only developed research plans to understand consumers’ perceptions, opinions, beliefs and attitudes of “green” issues such as Food waste, Bottled beverages and Hot water, they also identified specific process steps to achieve their goals. For example, one team tackling the issue of understanding an individual’s perception of hot water consumption came up with a unique solution -By putting a thermometer on the faucet they could record the temperature of the water and later during the interview probe the participant on whether or not the water was hot enough. This would not only allow the research team to better understand the question of “How hot is hot?,” but it would also help in developing metrics for engineers to use down the line. There were a ton of great ideas that came out of the workshop and our plan is to breathe some life into them by working with universities to turn them in to research projects for design students.

  Immediately following the research workshop, William Bullock (University of Illinois, IDSA SAGE chair), Brian Roderman (in2innovation, IDSA section VP) and Lauren lead Bourne vs. Bond – a designer’s life roundtable featuring young design professionals and their seasoned counterparts.  We had design greats such as Bill Moggridge, Bruce Claxton, George McCain and even our own Jim Couch participate in discussions (most of which were located at the bar) with designers of all ages to share experiences, and anecdotes of past successes and failures.  This was really tons of fun – it’s amazing how far a little direction and some introductions can go.

  People Can’t Tell You What They Want – and nine other design research myths.

  The following morning, Chris gave an engaging (and we’re not just brown-nosing) talk centered around dispelling design research myths called People Can’t Tell You What They Want – and nine other design research myths. The audience was littered with folks snapping shots of Chris’ slides (which can be downloaded here), and there were a few people in front of me that were consistently nodding in agreement while he explained the subtleties of conducting effective user-centered research.

  Finally, Chris and Marty sat in with the Blackhagen fellows on a panel called Resposables, tackling the medical industry’s disposable goods dilemma.  We sat this one out and opted to hear from Dan Harel from Smart, who did a talk on a few things including how designing and marketing to women has changed (a hat-tip to his co-workers in the Femme Den) and the absurd social and political uproar caused by made-up lyrics to Louis Louis in the 60s.  We’re still not quite sure what to make of this one (there wasn’t a clear thread throughout the presentation), but it was darn entertaining and thought-provoking, and we prefer that over linear and yawn-inducing any day.

  Other noteworthy events included Jon Kolko & Matt Schoenholz’s ridiculously well-attended Designing in the Face of Change talk, which described our shift socially (and our consequent responsibility as an industry) towards the need for thoughtful experience, emotional resonance and local relevance versus traditional, often commoditized “thing” design.

  Thanks goes out to Tim Atkins, Frank Tyneski, Larry Hoffer, Jill Richardson, Carrie Rice and all the other rad IDSA folks for putting together such a great event and providing a platform for fun and creative people to get together.

  For some more in-depth coverage of specific events, you can check out Jon Kolko’s notes.  Also, here are some more pics to browse through.

  Also, did we mention the pool?

  

  Maybe we should have a caption contest? 

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• Memo to online dating sites: you can do better by Katie Kimble on September 16, 2008

  Being a user experience expert with a degree in psychology gave me highly qualified insight into…my recent attempts at online dating. And if there’s anything I can offer these website developers, it’s that a different approach is needed to portray a more “honest” perspective on what the experience will likely entail for new users.
  
  In my experiences with research, a redundant theme is that users don’t want to be lied to — they don’t want sunshine where the sun don’t shine. Users want a realistic expectation to be set about the experience into which they’re about to drop some serious coin.
  
  So, I’d like to translate into plain English some of the standard slogans, tactics, and promises that Match.com uses to “lure” people to join the site.
  
  “Worlds Largest Online Dating Service” Translation: we aren’t selective at all so if you aren’t either, this is the place for you.

  “We guarantee you’ll meet someone in 6 months or your next 6 months are free” Well, therein lies the rub. You need to do some rigorous emailing and be pretty aggressive to get this deal, which they do not advertise. This makes it much more difficult to be selective about who you talk to on the site. If you are, this deal is not for you.
  
  Winking. Simply put, very annoying. “Winking” at someone, an online nudge designed to get your attention, should be limited. As a young woman, I received over 10 “winks” a day from people I like to call “serial winkers”. Match.com should not allow people to wink at others if they A. don’t meet my specifications for someone that I’m looking for (e.g. men under 32) and B. They wink at more than 1 person a day on average. Limitations on this specific feature would make for a much less aggressive environment and would allow women specifically to feel much less attacked and annoyed.
  
  I must qualify my cynicism with one caveat: I did meet someone interesting on match.com. So overall, I’d say the site did its job. But as far as user experience is concerned, online dating sites as a whole can do much more to improve the experience. Matters of the heart are sensitive, so be sensitive to your users’ needs by making it the most comfortable environment possible. If you need help, Lextant would be happy to do your research and redesign.

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• The Livescribe Pulse Smartpen, Part 1: Anticipation by Leah McDougald on September 02, 2008

  We are eagerly anticipating the arrival of the newest addition to our data collection and analysis quiver: the Livescribe Pulse Smartpen.  And just in time, as Justine and I headed into the field (Raleigh, N.C. and Denver, Colo.) to learn about the new home buying and customization process. Our primary task will be ethnography: lots of observation, inquiry, video capture, and note taking, all within limited spaces. The challenge, as always, will be making sense of the pages of notes during observation. We’re hoping the Smartpen makes it a little easier.
  
  The Smartpen is just that – a writing instrument that does much more than put ink on paper. It helps give context to all those scribbles.  Here’s how USA Today described it recently: “[It] writes in ink like any ordinary pen. But your Bic can’t perform clever stunts like this. You can record audio while you sketch or scribble, then play it all back through a built-in speaker with a tap of the pen…”

  In the past, we’ve had success using other text analysis tools. One of my personal favorites is Concordance, an app that allows for proximity searches and high frequency word analysis of transcript text documents. I love the results and even more so love the casual tone of the messages you receive throughout such as “This is a very large file and will produce a huge concordance. Proceed anyway?” (You’ve gotta love R.J.C. Watt, web pioneer and the author of the app.)
  
  But this next project has an aggressive timeline and we ‘re hoping for a quicker way to “relive” the experience without having to use Concordance or go back and watch video to sync it with our notes. Chris Rockwell came across the Smartpen and ordered it for us. We can’t wait to discover the data analysis goodness we hope it will bring. For starters, we hope it will:

  • Keep us from having to track time codes while we are busy observing.
  • Give us good quality audio without having to carry around a separate piece of technology.
  • Help us to better make sense of our messy notes—and faster!
  • Attach quotes to images/words stimulus chosen during the participatory exercises.
  • And, of course, let us be the first in the office to use such a cool new device. (Professional rivalries here? Nooo…)

  Stay tuned for our follow-up post, “The Livescribe Pulse Smartpen: Part 2: Judgment Day.”

  

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