Pat’s Point of View

Bit of a delay while trying to get my Twitter Tools plugin to work. So here are two weeks of my tweets:

@awmitchell damn skippy! #osnbc 10:55 AM Nov 24th

RT @trib: #osnbc http://www.acevents.com.au/socialmedia08/ (for @lisakate) 10:45 AM Nov 24th

thanks @trib and @warlach 10:40 AM Nov 24th

can’t be arsed working it out…what’s #osnbc? 10:36 AM Nov 24th

having 100% daddy time with bubs tonight. w00t! 5:28 PM Nov 21st

what’s @S2D_Catherine been up to? 4:59 PM Nov 21st

d’oh! 4:58 PM Nov 21st

what’ 4:58 PM Nov 21st

@arbitraryDoll I think @trib blogged it didn’t he? 12:29 PM Nov 21st

@s2d_jamesr errr um this is guerillia social media research 12:25 PM Nov 21st

@Alex_Manchester you just need to wear one of those yellow vests 12:16 PM Nov 21st

@s2d_jamesr a hybrid bicycle…does that mean you peddle with your hands as well? :) 11:35 AM Nov 21st

oh shit, left my lunch on the bus! the missus won’t be happy 10:30 AM Nov 21st

Had breakkie with @docbaty and the USiT team at News Digital Media (previously known as News Interactive) 10:24 AM Nov 21st

@pixel8ted yep Maxtor = bad http://snipr.com/60592 but there are others out there that do what you want 4:10 PM Nov 20th

@pixel8ted don’t buy Maxtor! 4:07 PM Nov 20th

@scenariogirl yet you bought a Ford :) 2:22 PM Nov 20th

@russmaxdesign should filter tweets too…sick of your whinging :) 2:19 PM Nov 20th

@scenariogirl you know what a ’68 Monaro is? Mr Hardy is a lucky man 1:44 PM Nov 20th

UK govt using mentoring to assist people with using technology http://snipr.com/5yt0p 9:33 AM Nov 20th

hating smokers… 9:31 AM Nov 20th

@jamesbreeze couldn’t you use senduit.com? 5:54 PM Nov 19th

@ericdot what sort of designer isn’t also a Mac boy :) 5:11 PM Nov 19th

needs to cleans his Facebook status. This should do. 12:53 PM Nov 19th

RT @oliverw: Next Michael Robinson (CEO of Media at NDM) to talk about personalising the news website experience #aimiaux08 10:46 AM Nov 19th

@joelflom you mean you weren’t already reading www.usit.com.au ? :) 10:41 AM Nov 19th

@docbaty now you’re just sucking up :) 10:30 AM Nov 19th

@ericscheid have you finalised the numbers for #ozia08 ? 10:05 AM Nov 19th

is up to his neck planning research for next week! 5:10 PM Nov 18th

Blogged my doco preso at #arkux08 http://snipr.com/5qnd4 5:09 PM Nov 18th

please SBS, don’t bring back Top Gear Australia for a second season…don’t embarrass us any further 11:28 AM Nov 18th

is quite liking ‘Wires and Lights’ http://blogs.news.com.au/theaustralian/wiresandlights/ 11:24 AM Nov 18th

might see @s2d_jamesr on 20:30 flight tomorrow night? 7:57 PM Nov 13th

thinks business frequent flyers who get all smug and uppity are really just overcompensating 7:36 PM Nov 13th

at airport for the first time in ages, on “my own ticket” 6:42 PM Nov 13th

any of my tweeps in Sydney Qantas Club? 6:41 PM Nov 13th

off to #arkux08 5:53 PM Nov 13th

has discovered the wonders of dual screen presentation mode in Powerpoint for Mac! 3:37 PM Nov 13th

aren’t the new “car” yellow pages cute? 12:59 PM Nov 12th (update: they’re called “Yellow™ In the Car”)

@diversionary re “mongoose” it’s not as wierd as it sounds :) 12:54 PM Nov 12th

can’t believe one would be stuffed silly after ‘high tea’ 2:10 PM Nov 11th

I recently blogged about facilitating a discussion session on the topic of “Documenting for Interactive Websites” as part of Ark Group’s two day conference on Enhancing Online User Experiences. The event was held last Friday (it took me a week to blog it?!) and it went very well. In order to document the session and allow further discussion I have blogged my thoughts over on the USiT blog. Feel free to leave feedback or continue the conversation.

The conference was quite enlightening, with a good mix of presentations on a variety of subjects. I was only able to attend the second day, but what I saw was good food for thought.

I particularly liked Rod Farmer‘s presentation on managing a UX team. Very interesting stuff on choosing your team members, including looking beyond technical skills to personality types (please post your slides on SlideShare Rod!slides are now on Slideshare).

Jodie Moule had some great case studies of the use of personas for Telstra projects. Check out her slideshow.

James Breeze‘s discussion on using social media for user research was also great. Wish I had had a wifi connection so I could have participated in his Twitter demo :)

I was reading the Qantas in-flight magazine yesterday, and came across a review for the Olympus Tough Smart 1050SW which was claimed to be “astonishingly resilient to holiday rough and tumble”. And as a keen snowsports fan, it would seem to be a perfect camera for skiing. Not only is it sealed, waterproof and able to withstand freezing temperatures (which I can attest most electronic devices are not able to do) but the “entire camera body is touch-sensitive, making it easier to use [whilst wearing] gloves”.

All you need to do is touch the top of the camera to take a photo or you can select “play” mode by tapping the LCD screen. To browse to the next photo you just tilt the camera to the left or right. If only all products were this straightforward to use, and contextually respectful. I’ve not used one, so I don’t know how sophisticated it is at detecting these gestures, but it sounds perfect for snowsports. Apart from not wanting to take off your gloves because it’s cold, doing so takes precious time that might mean you miss that spectacular stack that you really want to capture forever.

This is excellent design for the context of use. There may be other cameras like this, but this is a great example of seeing the problems people have using technology, and then solving those problems in a suitable way. Well done.

I’m a big fan of extracting lessons learnt from one field of expertise and applying them to another. I’ve written about this before, be it Gordon Ramsay, Trinny & Susannah, parent craft centres, shopping for furniture or super nanny. I’ve also talked about cross pollination before.

Why is this? I’m not sure. I find it frustrating when people run around in tiny circles trying to conjur a solution to something whilst wearing blinkers to other sectors, industries or fields or expertise that have already found a solution. A great case in point is the borrowing of psychology, anthropology and other scientific methods by those practising user experience and web design. It’s not new, but I find this stimulating, and I actively look for good sources of knowledge to cross-pollinate from one field to another.

So I’ve decided to collect references to this cross-pollination.

One I found today is Lessons for User Experience Consultants from Barack Obama:

That said, there are a few lessons from Barack Obama’s campaign that apply to our world of user experience consulting … Lesson 1: Use Clear Calls-to-Action … Lesson 2: Put a Priority on Creative … Lesson 3: Make Personal Connections (Or At Least Fake It) … Lesson 4: Don’t Let The Man Throw You Off Your Game … Lesson 5: Set Up Shop in Chicago … Lesson 6: Be Young, Charming, and Good Looking

(Can’t argue with lesson 2, by the way, the Obama brand was very well executed.)

Feel free to suggest more, leave a comment below.

Fresh from my Twitter feed:

Case study: redesign of The Australian business section http://tinyurl.com/5z32lz 4:44 PM Nov 8th

@scenariogirl it’s hard to go back to Powerpoint after seeing that feature in Keynote, isn’t it? 3:40 PM Nov 8th

Just put in two more #iasummit submissions (thanks @rebeccarodgers for spurring me on) 3:20 PM Nov 8th

is doubtful Codral will clear his fuzzy head 2:58 PM Nov 8th

trying out ScribeFire for blogging http://www.scribefire.com/ 5:39 PM Nov 4th

Free to good home: one ticket to “Enhancing Online User Experience” next week in Melbourne http://tinyurl.com/5o9d88 11:08 PM Nov 3rd

RT @s2d_jamesr: RT @tobyward: 270 respondents now to the Intranet 2.0 study: but we need 300+ so plz promote: http://tinyurl.com/6qbu3l 11:02 PM Nov 3rd

@lachlanhardy ahhh yes, Melbourne Cup. I wondered why you were in a suit 4:53 PM Nov 3rd

was just compared to “Twiki” from Buck Rodgers 3:36 PM Nov 3rd

hates conference calls… 7:16 PM Nov 2nd

just realised I shaved off my mo just when Movember is kicking off! 5:01 PM Nov 2nd

I have one guest pass for Enhancing Online User Experience in Melbourne on the 13th/14th of November (that’s next Thursday/Friday). If you’re interested, let me know. I’ll be there on Friday only, for my interactive discussion on “Documenting for interactive websites”.