A very nifty concept here-- The Mural:
"The Mural is a "living history" of all knowledge, suppositions, questions, suspicions, and hunches
that employees have about users. The basic framework is first created in a collaborative Team
Meeting, on the basis of a user assessment if one has been done or simply on the basis of any
knowledge the team has. Any new insight or data that the team gains in the course of the project
is added to the mural. And anyone who happens by is welcome to add their own knowledge of
and experience with users to the story panel or to annotate the data structures."
A Scenario-Based Approach to Creating Interaction Frameworks discusses the rarely talked about but intriguing concept of day-in-the-life scenarios.
"Day-in-the-life Scenarios:
Scenarios are created that describe the most typical series of events in the life of the key persona, as they pertain specifically to the product or service being designed. These scenarios explore the mental models that the persona has regarding the workflow, processes, tasks, objects, and other people in their environment, based on ethnographic field research collected and analyzed prior to the creation of the scenarion"
Emphasis mine-- these two concepts are ones often forgetten in discussions on scenerios.
:: TraveLite :: :: home :: is a project from SIMS... check out the design section, esp. the sexy process flow.
uc berkeley sims 213 Spring 2001 SFnight Project is a pretty good introduction to personas... these guys just keep impressing! I'm beginning to think an IA going back to school should put Berekley at the top of the list.
"Scenario is a concise description of a potential user (persona) performing some tasks in an information system to achieve the user goal. "
My latest dream project: two teams of the same competence, both given the same problem and both given user research. One team creates personas and scenarios from the research, the other does not. Both make sites, and then are tested in usability tests. What would the difference be?
Better questions, not more answers
can I get "mentat" on my bizcard?
Nobody Cares That You Only Had the Weekend is another tale of trying to work in an increasingly fast-paced world. Unlike Morville's request that we all slow down if we hope to produce quality, David Baldwin seems to think quality work can be produced in half the time and speed means new tactics, not fighting to go slower.
Who's right? I don't know. Sometimes longer timelines means one just procrastinates then rushes at the end. Sometimes long timelines means one ruminates, and the solution flows out effortlessly. Sometimes longer timelines means time to explore the wackier ideas, and allows for innovation. Sometimes it leads to taking on two or three projects at once, and still working 15 hour days. Depends on the company, depends on the freelancer.
In my personal experience a gentle timeline leads to rumination which leads to breakthroughs. You can't "sleep on it" when it's due tomorrow. I often have important breakthroughs in problems when I do go to sleep, or when I take an hour walk, or when I go cook dinner or wash dishes. The break from the problem allows the subconscious mind to go to work. When horrid deadlines loom, one tends to chain oneself to the computer, locked in a stressfilled countdown where any solution is better than staring at a blank screen.
Consider that we Americans have the least amount of vacation than any other country (Annual vacation days: Italy 42; France 37; Germany 35; Brazil 34; Britain 28; Canada 26; South Korea 25; Japan 25; U.S. 13.), and consider even a week of vacation can reduce chance of heart attack. Consider this information from an Oxford health survey: "Some 34 percent report they have such pressing jobs that they have no down time at work. A full 32 percent work and eat lunch at the same time. Meanwhile, 32 percent never leave the building once they arrive at work; 19 percent say their job makes them feel older than they are and 17 percent say work causes them to lose sleep at home."
Now let's look at speed. It may produce bad work, it may produce good work, but it uses employees like firewood.
Something has to change. The world actually has enough advertisements for candy bars, the world has enough espresso makers. Why don't we slow down?
Slow down. Make better products. More importantly, make better lives.
Optimize Your Home Page for New Visitors asks us again "Who is the homepage for?"
and James catches amazon in an interface boo-boo.