Jon Hung

Here’s a list of takeaways from the presentation:

• There were several connections between architecture and social design. Both create an ecosystem (one physical, the other virtual) which people act within and on.  The designer’s role is to “pave the cowpaths” – chart out the area with paths for its intended use.
• Because of the duplicity of names, users require more complex forms of identification besides name. This can be a picture, badges, biographical info, etc.
• talk like a human. Designing a social interface should be different than designing a bank transaction. No robo-speak allowed.
• Related to watching how you speak, designers should consider the difference between “me” and “you”.  In the world of social media, propriety of information is still a gray area which one should be sensitive to.
• Competition can be good, if you want to foster competition, otherwise people will game the system for no purpose besides being on top.
• Pay attention to the organic use of your social system, e.g. Friendster failure– fake profiles emerged because people wanted to create associations around things other than real people.
• Related to fake profiles, social media should refer to some social object, an “aboutness”.  Once a user creates a profile, then what?
• Important questions: What is going to be the behavioral norm? What about your power user? Your system has to accomodate the user who never adjusts anything from the defaults but also the user who wants to explore every last feature.
• Humans are unpredictable.

lessons from Treasure Island Music Festival.

1. Get comfortable with other people’s smells, scents, looks and touches.  You’ll be “getting friendly” with your neighbors for hours at a time.  Hopefully they’re not complete strangers.
2. Chart out your personal space by dancing uncontrollably.  Creating ample wiggle room at the start of a set is essential to preventing claustrophobia.
3. have fun!  There were moments this weekend when people’s body odor and aggressiveness got to my head.  I was squished, de-hydrated and irratable.  Then I realized that people were there to have fun, not create a bad experience for other concert-goers.   Might as well join them.

Speaking of creating experiences, how could experience designers (event planners in this case) create a more enjoyable time for me and thousands of others?

I was stoked to get to meet designers and photographers at a AIGA networking event. Though the bar had poor circulation and gave the venue a stuffy atmosphere, the people were anything but. All very friendly and talented folk. Like me, some were looking for employment, only having contract or freelance work. Unlike me, they all had professional websites showcasing their work.

This is something I’ve been dreading doing for some time. I think it’s time to step it up. If I really want a job, I’ve got to crank it up a notch. I’ve been blogging for almost a year and have gone through about 3 re-designs. Though I’ve liked each one more than the last, I’ve never been fully satisfied (this one still needs some tweaks). I want to build something I’m really proud of, and shouldn’t be wasting my time doing anything less.

starting as soon as this weekend is over. Cause Friday night is no night to be coding.
-jon

I mean what does “experience” amount to besides knowing whose ass to kiss; I can figure that out!

And who needs experience, when I’ve graduated from an elite college with a diverse set of skills, a willingness to learn, and a no-fear attitude towards technology and social media.  Shouldn’t that get me the job?</sarcastic Gen Y rant>

I detect this cynicism out there, towards job postings, and towards companies who use “experience” as a barrier to entry-level candidates.  Hell, even I feel cynical from time to time, especially with all the doom and gloom out there.  It is easy to view work experience is a empty phrase because all it seems to amount to is a few bullet points on a resume.  Over the summer, I learned to dismiss some of my cynicism when I got to see exactly how experience translates in the workplace.  Allow me to play the devil’s advocate for a minute, because I believe experience IS valuable, though it might be illusive.

Employers look for certain qualities in an applicant, qualities that are primarily fostered by work experience.  Time at the workplace fosters organizational skills, for one thing. An experienced worker proves he or she can meet deadlines, keep orderly, and has enough interpersonal savvy and “organizational” knowledge knowledge to turn to the right people when there’s a problem to solve.  Not only does time at a job lead to understand other skilled professionals’ job roles, it also helps develop a self-knowledge of your own abilities.  This self-perception allows you to contribute to a team quickly, and helps the manager work with you effectively. And there’s no one a manager wants to hire more than someone who makes his/her job easier.  Lastly, work experience teaches us to handle ambiguity, and be an open-ended problem solver.  At school, we are taught to be rational, analytical and reflective, but the problems in a work environment are ill-defined and require thinking that is creative, uncertain, and action-oriented.

Look back at your past year; have you been illustrating these intangibles?  Are you demonstrating organizational skills, teamwork, and a rigorous problem solving style? No?  Well then, get back to work.

photo by Art Wolfe

I’m in a CreativeTechs webinar this morning with photographer, Art Wolfe.  He has an amazing presentation with stunning photos from around the world.  I noticed the photos with the most drama are those that are back-lit. It simplifies the subject and brings out the form. Great for making simple, bold statements.

btw, if you want to get better at Photoshop, illustrator, or using any Adobe software, CreativeTechs runs free classes almost every day, on a variety of subjects. I highly recommend them.

Any thoughts / comments welcome.  I haven’t gotten the typography right yet, and I’m not in love with the idea of business card as User Interface.

UPDATE: iPhone card idea mock-up below. Text un-readable. doh!

image by Brit.

If you have made resolutions to budget better, start accounting for one’s finances or even read bank statements regularly and failed, fear not. There’s an app for that. You need to try Mint.

• Mint has been hailed by UX pros.
• It was recently purchased by tax software-giant, Intuit.
• It’s a web application that  monitors and provides feedback about how you spend money.
• oh, and its 100% FREE

Have you tried it out yet?  Okay, leave this article, seriously. Go sign up and give it a whirl, then come back (or don’t) if you want to read the rest of what I have to say. More after the break.

Mint’s budgeting & accounting system is fun and easy to adopt.  It is unlike other accounting books, systems, and programs which are as enjoyable as monthly trips to the dentist.  Mint uses your bank statements to categorize and archive your activity automatically. Instead of laboriously managing statements and spreadsheets, you can spend time learning about your spending patterns through Mint’s system of interactive charts and pie graphs. MM…. pie graphs.

The makers of Mint realize that unless the system is simple or the program enjoyable, a person will not adopt it.  Habits dealing budgeting and finances are burdensome, even when there are financial incentives to get into those habits. For the first time ever, I want to be rigorous about my personal finances.  And not because I have excessive spending habits, but because it’s damned fun to do so.

Eating my burrito last night, I pondered about finances and the extent to which Mint was bettering them.  I saw a girl in line take out her wallet, and stare into its empty contents with a disgusted and slightly confused face.  I’ve been there before, you look into your wallet and it appears more empty than you believe it should be.  Looking at that girl’s expression, I realized that though Mint is a marvelous tool, the one thing it cannot do is track cash spending.  Once you pull money out of an ATM, it flies under the radar, leading to unconscious and irresponsible spending.

well, duh, Jon. How is an application going to track cash?

Hey, this is just an observation.  Perhaps Mint can do kick ass cash management, as well.  I believe the solution lies in the physical container: your wallet.  Cash can be accounted for the day we all have “smart wallets” in our pockets and purses.  These devices will come with a GPS tracker and a camera that reads bills.  Every time you open the wallet to pull out cash or credit, it records your GPS location and takes a photo of the cash in the wallet before money is taken out, and after. The uploaded data can tell you when and where your money was spent.  And, as an added bonus, the wallet can track down a thief if it gets stolen.

I guess its a problem if you’re dealing with cash transactions you WANT flying under the radar (hint: what businesses do transactions only in cash?). Too much Big Brother?

Photo by Christelle Despont

Packing my bags, getting ready to be back in the city I love. San Francisco, the city of freaks.

Well, I came here because this City is fantastic. I remember driving home from a court appearance in Oakland one afternoon and feeling my heart just swell looking at the City. Even though it’s damn cold and I had to throw away all my tank tops and open toed shoes, I had found a place where I could waive my freak flag. I had found a place where my liberal mouth was not met with mute horror but smiles and agreement. I had found a place where I could be as weird as I want to be, and believe me, I want to be weird, regularly.

via I Live Here

Prototyping is the expression of a designer’s thoughts: a tangible, testable reification of a design idea. Effective prototyping follows some of the same principles of effective communication.  First, at the core is a good idea; second, the best tool is often the one we feel comfort using; and third, the final product depends on what the audience wants to hear.

The prototyping process must start with an idea.  Choosing a tool is secondary.  Despite it serving as the ideas’ catalyst, the tool is invisible in the creative act.  We don’t marvel at DaVinci’s paintbrush or Hemingway’s typewriter.  In the end its the idea or the creation that the client, user or audience appreciates.  This is why much of the work in design comes in ideation, before diving into the prototyping tools.  Be true to the idea before choosing the tool.  It is like figuring out what you want to say before how you want to say it.

After the idea is understood, its best to pick a tool that you’re familiar with.  Features can distract from achieving goals; sometimes I prefer my toy camera over the dSLR, use notepad over Microsoft word.  Pick the tool that gets the idea across with the least amount of trouble, then supplement it with your presentation and pitch.  I got the summer to use Fireworks, but because of my inexperience using the software, I could only produce static mock-ups.  These could express core ideas but could not stand on their own; I had to supplement the proposal with a design write-up and a few team presentations.  Effective prototyping involves knowing the deliverable’s limitations, and sometimes that involves letting the design speak from your own lips.

In a recent UIE podcast, Todd Zaki Wafel performed research on prototyping practices and discovered that some people use Excel for prototyping, simply because they are familiar with the software.  Comfort matters a great deal.  A post on Konigi sees the same take-away:

One of the things I took away from this talk was that the best prototyping tool is the one that your most familiar with and know how to exploit to communicate the ideas.

I would add that besides comfort with the tool, another factor that will help you make your prototyping decisions is understanding what the audience expects.  Communications 101: sometimes it doesn’t matter what you say, but how you say it.  (yes, I know this contradicts an earlier statement) Consider who is going to consume it and what it will be used for; this will dictate what tools or strategies will best communicate your design.  During the summer my audience was a UX team so the fidelity of the prototype was not important; they were as comfortable reading sketches as they were html prototypes.  This decision changes once you know a prototype will be seen by end users.

When it comes to choosing a tool, there are a number of alternatives out on the market, and no two experts will pick the same software or methodology.  One can get bogged down, as I do, comparing Axure versus Fireworks or choosing the best prototyping strategy.  When this slowdown happens, its best to remember that prototyping is like communication.

This past week I underwent my first ever design review. It was painful. I have had friends lament about design critique in fields such as photography, architecture, and art practice. They have shared with me the horrors of the experience, but words never match the feeling of being there, in the hot seat. On Friday I received a critique struck to the core of my design: more attention should have been paid to research, before visual design. Because of the lack of thorough user research, the design lacked an empathy towards the user’s experience. It was stressful, miserable, though not without reward.

What did I learn? Two lessons for surviving the next design critique: be prepared to answer “why is this good?” with research, and ask for reviews early & often.

1) Take the audience through your research.
From the Cooper Journal: “It’s pretty common to hear a skeptical Cooper designer begin a critique with some variant of the question, “Why is that good?” Design is the conclusion to an argument, and like any other arguments it relies on evidence to lead the audience through your reasoning. My critique might not have been so bad had I walked the reviewers through my research, guiding them through the path I had taken to reach my design. Research is the answer to “Why is that good?”

2) Work with the team to ask for critiques that are frequent & honest.
I could be upset by the fact that a lot of effort and struggle went into creating a design that missed the mark, but I’m not. What I am upset by is the fact that I did not seek out this line of communication before. Received early in the design project lifecycle, this type of feedback could have prevented me from missing the mark.

I feel frustrated by my inexperience in design, my ability to fall privy to mistakes & poor choices. I know that studying cognitive psychology doesn’t exactly prepare me for this type of work, or for working within a corporation, and I’m trying to remember that I’m only at intern level. Still, I expect more from myself. But I am not daunted, and intend to improve. Knowing what design review is like & surviving, I know I can handle the truth & that is an empowering thing.