Pat’s Point of View

The time has come for a change, as if I haven’t had enough change lately. But this change is a career change, and it is with some sadness that I announce this is my last week at Step Two Designs.

While it has been quite an experience, it is time to move on and experience something else. My immediate move will be to join the team at News Digital Media. I’m looking forward to it, especially to the change in pace and surroundings, and working with a great bunch of people. In many ways it will be a return to the sort of environment I had worked in for many years prior to coming to Step Two.

So, next after Step Two—the third step as it were—is News. I start next Monday and I can’t imagine it will be long before I’m rubbing shoulders with uncle Rupert himself. You don’t suppose he monitors the blogosphere do you? :)

I’m quite looking forward to taking part in this year’s WebDU conference in June. I’ll be presenting Demystifying Information Architecture which will be aimed at web designers and developers who have more than likely heard of this IA thing, but perhaps aren’t entirely sure what it is or how to go about doing it properly.

In some ways I’ll be continuing my efforts to engage with developers, a process I first started with my WSG presentation Intranets–why you should care. That was fairly well received but this time I will have to combat the stigma of ‘those bloody usability people’ instead of the intranet stigma.

If you’re a web designer, developer or producer/manager, what is it you’d like to know about IA and usability? How could I demystify it for you?

If the website and my initial contact with the organisers are anything to go by, then it should be a pretty fun two days. And I’m pretty chuffed with my animated avatar!

My little girl is growing fast, so I’ve posted a few photos so you can see how well she is doing.

She’s very animated but sometimes hard to interpret. For instance, in this photo is she is practising her a) scary face for Halloween b) Ice-T gangster rap, or c) what-to-do-in-an-armed-robbery look? Perhaps she’s pretending to be a pirate, I don’t know.

There aren’t many photos of her sleeping, that’s because it’s a bit of a rarity at this stage. Her mum is doing so well, I don’t know how she copes. I have it lucky, I have to go off to work, so I get to sleep at night!

Well the title of this post says it all really. Regular readers may remember my comments on protecting the digital home, regarding my efforts to find a NAS solution for my home Mac network. Ironically, my chosen solution did little to live up to the title of that blog post, because the Maxtor Shared Storage II drive I purchased didn’t protect me at all.

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My latest article has just been released, in which I interview Gerry Gaffney on the use of cultural probes in the context of intranet development. This was actually to return the favour extended by Gerry to interview me for his UX podcast. Here’s a taste:

Often it’s difficult to tell exactly who is using an intranet, and how they are using it. Obviously, some research is required to help answer these questions, but what technique can capture the tacit knowledge without shadowing users in an uncomfortable and expensive way?

A relatively recent research technique that can be very useful in this situation is known as a ‘cultural probe’. In essence, the technique involves getting users to give you information without you actually being there. Often this means giving them a diary to write things down in, but the technique can make use of all manner of objects.

I think there are many benefits to this technique for those designing, or redesigning, an intranet. Firstly, it’s often the case that intranet teams are working with very little budget, and thus including all user groups—say interstate or overseas—in research activities can be next to impossible. Sending out a probe which can collect data for you at low cost is a good solution.

It’s also a great way to reduce the ‘Hawthorne effect’, that is the effect you will have on those you are researching simply by being there. This effect is especially difficult for intranet teams to avoid, since they are often researching their own colleagues. It’s hard to blend into the background when you know everyone in the room! External consultants have it easy when it comes to quietly observing or doing contextual inquiries.

I really like the cultural probe technique, especially the sorts of whacky and creative things done by design researchers such as Bill Gaver. These might be a bit ‘out there’ for the corporate environment, but certainly get your attention.

(I’m interested in case studies that describe the use of probes, particularly ‘inside the firewall’. Have you probed your enterprise? What did you find?)