The User Advocate |
Arie van Baarle; 20+ years experience in design, branding & interaction. Founder of Limage Dangereuse, creative director of Razorfish, co-founder of Syndicat now selfemployed. Developing adaptive brands and helping brands to interact with their stakeholders. Focussing on all aspects of interaction: Human-Brand interaction (brand development, service design and digital strategy), Human-Machine interaction (website and brand-app concepts/design) and Human-Human interaction (social media strategy and concepts). Specialties: Digital strategy, concept development, human centered design, interaction concepts, service design, experience branding, social media- and experience design. |
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Great brands lead users, not the other way around…
A few months back Fast Company’s Co.Design blog published a controversial post that triggered a lot of discussion. In their article provocatively titled User-Led Innovation Can’t Create Breakthroughs; Just Ask Apple and Ikea, Jens Martin Skibsted and Rasmus Bech Hansen wrote:
“[User-centered design] doesn’t work. Here’s the truth: Great brands lead users, not the other way around.”
Skibsted and Hansen cited Apple and IKEA as some of the most innovative brands that don’t follow the user-centric design model. They say that their friends in the Apple design team spoke out against user-centric design because it’s “a waste of time”, and similarly at IKEA because “it doesn’t work.” They argued that brands have to take the lead in innovation with a strong and consistent vision, and outlined several reasons why it’s actually detrimental to listen to your users.
I have to admit, their examples are compelling, but are they correct? How do we reconcile their claims with what we know about the value of design research and user-centered design?
read this great post by Peter Hui
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MIT AgeLab’s Age Gain Now Empathy System
Meet AGNES — the MIT AgeLab’s Age Gain Now Empathy System. This suit was designed to provide insight into the physical effects of aging. The various components simulate the changes that occur naturally as we age. Put on this suit and you feel increased fatigue, reduced flexibility in joints and muscles, spinal compression, and difficulty with vision and balance. Altogether, AGNES is more than just a suit. It is a calibrated method developed and constructed by exercise physiologists, engineers, and designers. As demographics shift, we need to fully understand the needs of an aging population to design a future that is accessible and engaging for people of every age. AGNES is better way to see how a product, service, or environment is used and navigated by an older adult because it allows us to experience it for ourselves. AGNES is one tool that we use at the AgeLab to study and improve life tomorrow.
To learn more visit: agelab.mit.edu
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Designing By Numbers: Data Analysis for Web Designers
Judging what’s best for an audience is never far from the web designer’s mind. The ability to predict whether a web design will soar like an eagle or sink like the Titanic is among the most subjective and complex measurements you will encounter.
While resources that explain best practices exist, and your visitors contacting you about serious issues and offering you feedback relating to your site will occur if you have the proper mechanisms in place — it’s ultimately your responsibility to be proactive and research, investigate, and determine the what, why and how to ensure widespread usability.
read the article on six revisions
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Making User Interface Elements Difficult to Use By Intent
In modern web interface design, no other principle has been heralded and pushed onto us as much as the concept of user-centered design. User-centered design tells us that we should do everything we can to make our user interfaces as easy to use and as intuitive as possible.
However, a big part of designing user interfaces that are easy to use also involves figuring out what things should be a bit more difficult to to use. It’s a counter-intuitive notion that’s central to effective user interface design.
read the full article on six revisions.com
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Creative Ways to Use Unmoderated User Research
Over the past year or two, unmoderated usability testing has become a popular option to help guide product design. It is especially popular for Web sites, providing startups the opportunity to get relatively quick-and-easy user feedback on design iterations. From a user research perspective, the improper use of unmoderated research services presents a certain amount of danger. However, there are a number of ways you can use unmoderated user research tools that can provide a great deal of value. This month, we’ll discuss some of the more interesting ways in which you can derive value from unmoderated research tools.
Read the full article on UXmatters.com
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NotesUser Centered approach to the next generation ATM’s by IDEO
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How To Critique An Interface
Non-designers are often called upon to make judgments about interfaces. Perhaps you are a business owner evaluating your new website, or a project manager looking at mockups from your designer. What do you look for in the design? And how do you give feedback in a more meaningful way than “It looks nice” or “It seems hard to use”.
While the full-depth of understanding design cannot be covered in a short article, here are some guidelines to help you out.
