It has been a great week for me because I’ve actually gotten time to read through all of my favorite blog posts. Today I was reading over this post by Alexa from Adaptive Path. It’s a very interesting article that talks about creating sustainable experiences that encourage users to do the right things, even though their tendency may be to do otherwise. I must admit that parts of me were torn. In some instances I totally agree with this like with her example of taking public transportation vs always driving. However, there is a part of me that thought, shouldn’t I create an experience based user requirements, wants, needs etc. For example let’s say I design cars, sure I think that people should help save on energy, but I want them to use my car as well AND I want to make sure that the car exceeds their expectations.

The next article I read was this one from Inkblurt. This talks about how Facebook encourages the negative experience that one can face. And I thought well, maybe I should look into Alexa’s point a little more. In a social networking space like Facebook, an experience designer could hone in and really think about how they wanted people to use facebook however instead people throw apps together and put them out there, which ends up turning negative. By being more conscientious we can influence those around us to take the right path and do better things. I’m totally buying into now and realizing the types of outcomes that I can have an influence in. Go me!

[techtags: USER EXPERIENCE, EXPERIENCE DESIGN, SUSTAINABILITY]

There are times when I know I’m an idealist. Well actually almost everyday in project meetings and planning sessions I know I’m an idealist. I get frustrated with the “process”. I get frustrated with doing things the same day in and day out and development teams wanting to go faster. Constantly I think about the saying that doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. How does no one else see this?!

Doesn’t anyone else out there care about the quality of the user experience? I know to some who read this I may sound silly, but doesn’t anyone else take pride in whether or not people enjoy and can use the by-product of their hardwork??? On days like these I know that I was meant to be in this industry. I’ll admit that as a developer I didn’t always think through the interface, but now that I’ve been exposed to that line of thinking I’m never going back. They can’t make me!

[techtags: USER EXPERIENCE, EXPERIENCE DESIGN]

Many of you may know this and many of you may not, but this is by far my favorite time of the year. The college basketball season is in full swing and leading the pack is none other than my favorite team the North Carolina Tarheels. After every game there is a press release describing the game as well as an article by their writer Adam Lucas. I love Lucas’ articles. Here is today’s: http://tarheelblue.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/010708aab.html. I know what some of you may be thinking. I don’t even like college basketball. What is she trying to get at? But stay with me.

So I started to think about WHY I love his writing so much and there are a few things to note that I think relate to our jobs as experience designers.

1. He knows his audience (crazy tarheels fans around the world!) and caters to them. He IS one of them!
2. He tells a story (just got through the Ten Faces of Innovation and I can see the storyteller persona as I type). Notice paragragh 3. He is letting the reader set their own context.
3. He knows the subject that he’s writing about. This man knows Tarheels basketball through and through.

Those are the few that I picked out so far. Do you guys see any others??

[techtags: BASKETBALL, EXPERIENCE DESIGN, TARHEELS, UNC]

I read an interesting article today that was featured on the Catalyze blog. The article was put together by the McKinsey Group, and was featured in their quarterly newsletter. I started to read through it, and realized that these “trends” have been around for at least some time. After reading Wikinomics, I thought these were already fairly well known, at a bare minimum in the web “sphere”. Pardon the pun. In all seriousness, I would think that the topics would be last year’s trends to watch. So I came up with a couple of questions? Who usually sees the bus coming first. I want to believe it’s the folks who like myself and my team keep an eye out for what’s next, what works, and how to make things work better. Also, how long does it take for these ideas to penetrate other industries or schools of thought? Thoughts?

[techtags: INTERACTION DESIGN, CATALYZE, BUSINESS TRENDS]