Pat’s Point of View

I’m delighted to announce that I’ll be speaking at this year’s Oz-IA conference, October 6-9 in Sydney. I’m running a pre-conference workshop User Research Methods for Information Architecture and I’ll be giving a short presentation during the conference on Five user research methods you have probably never seen.

The workshop is a new version of one I’ve run a few times before, updated with new examples and activities. The presentation will give a short intro to a few research methods that are not so common in the IA field.

Hope to see you there!

On Friday I presented with my colleague Alun Machin at the first day of Oz-IA 2009, the 4th Australian Information Architecture conference. It was a great day, with good company to keep us talking and some interesting stuff to keep us thinking. The venue was quite good too, my first time at Star City Convention Centre as it happens.

Unfortunately I couldn’t make it for the second day of the conference due to family commitments, which is a shame since the programme looked even better for the Saturday!

Our presentation on our new SuperRacing site (not yet live at the time of writing thissite is now live) went down well considering we had to cram everything we wanted to talk about into 25 minutes. The slides are shown below.

After two conference presentations in one week, it’ll be a while before I make another appearance, not to mention that I’ll be pretty brain dead for a while after the new baby arrives.

Today I gave a talk entitled Prioritising user experience at Ark Group’s Information Architecture – Designing and managing information structures for improved web access and usability conference.

I tried to make the topic a bit more interesting (read controversial) and I think it went quite well.

I covered two main topics, firstly I outlined why I think user experience (UX) should be prioritised over information architecture (IA), and then I discussed prioritising UX within the organisation.
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At this year’s Oz-IA conference I’ll be presenting a short session entitled Bringing them online: using design research to identify online opportunities with my colleague Alun Machin.

It’s all very hush hush at the moment because we’re operating under an embargo, but the general gist of it is how user research can inform the design process for a product (in this case a website) that pertains to an activity that is normally an offline experience.

We’ll talk about how we identified the audience’s “information ecosystem” and found an opportunity for our website to fit in with that in a useful way.

We’ll also talk about the very different groups within that audience and how we catered for each.

Alun will then talk about the transition into design and go through the process we followed.

And if all goes to plan we’ll be able to unveil the new website resulting from all this work!

All this in 25 minutes, including questions :)

Update: if you promise to come along and watch our preso you can use this discount code: PK0265. Use it to get $100 off when you register for OZ-IA.

I’m very pleased to have my first article How to combine multiple research methods: Practical Triangulation published on Johnny Holland. Here’s a taste:

All research methods have their pros and cons, the problem comes when you rely on just one method. I’m often disappointed when UX and IxD practitioners describe the research they do, and it’s obviously very one dimensional. They only do surveys, for example. Or they only do usability testing at the end of the project (it’s quite alarming but this practice does continue).

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This is where the concept of “triangulation” comes into its own. Also known as “mixed method” research, triangulation is the act of combining several research methods to study one thing. They overlap each other somewhat, being complimentary at times, contrary at others. This has the effect of balancing each method out and giving a richer and hopefully truer account.

This will of course be one of the many topics I will be covering in my full day workshop on design research methods for UX practitioners at UX Australia 2009 – a 3-day user experience design conference to be held next week (26-28 August 2009) in Canberra (Australia).

Sadly, I’ve had to pull out of presenting at the inaugural UX Australia conference. My talk, entitled “Watching eyeballs: A multi-faceted case study of eyetracking in UXD”, has been getting a lot of attention and would have been quite interesting for all involved. The reason? my source of content has disappeared since I can’t make use of any projects being conducted at News Digital Media*.

My design research workshop is still going ahead though, which is great news.

* My contract ends before the conference, and thus I will no longer be an NDM employee. So there’s a little blogosphere bombshell for you, I am on the market! :)

I’m very happy indeed to announce that my Research methods for user experience design workshop has been added to the UX Australia program (workshops held Wednesday 26th of August in Canberra).

I’ve revised key aspects of the workshop, leveraging the experiences from some recent projects as examples, and allocated a full day. I’m looking forward to this!

What’s it all about

User experience design, and user-centred design (UCD) in general, requires an understanding of users and their needs and designing with those needs in mind, balanced by factors such as business objectives and technical constraints. Without a solid understanding of these inputs into the process, design is blind.

“Design research” is the process of uncovering and understanding those needs, whether it be direct user research or other means of gathering requirements. Yet, even some experienced web designers, developers and UX practitioners don’t feel well-equipped to take on the research aspects of their projects.

In this one-day workshop, Patrick Kennedy will present the fundamentals of design research from the ‘user experience’ perspective. Specifically, the workshop will be conducted in the context of organising and designing information systems such as websites, intranets and software applications.

This workshop will introduce design research, explain the fundamental principles and teach some simple techniques. The aim is to give the audience a heads-up on the subject and point them in the right direction so they can integrate research into their own work or just better collaborate with design researchers.

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I spent today at Ark Group’s Strategically Managing Intranet Developments conference, which I blogged about before.

There were some good things being said, and by real people who have done the hard yards. They’re not “industry luminaries”, but people out there in the trenches working out how to create effective intranets. Grounded and real are two words I would apply to the conference.

Then there was my presentation, a tad more abstract, but I felt it went well. Slides below.

I felt compelled to steer my presentation towards audience participation, if only because of the collective knowledge in the room; about half the room were presenting at the conference so I was learning as much, if not more, than I was dishing out. That’s the downside of being a consultant, you rarely get that rich experience that in-house staff have. Some great examples were offered by the audience, complementing my own examples.

There were one or two people twittering, you can follow the conversation on #smid.

Happy to hear your comments on my slides, either here or on slidehsare.

I will be speaking at Ark Group’s Strategically managing intranet developments conference from March 2nd to 4th, on the topic of Re-engineering your intranet with user-friendly architecture. To quote the brochure:

This session will take a case study approach outlining projects undertaken by Patrick Kennedy for clients within Australia

• Assessing user psychology: identifying needs and analysing behaviours
• Streamlining processes to simplify work flow and usability
• Personalising the intranet experience by creating user centred design

Hope to see you there!

I’ve just returned from a week in Cairns, a trip which was meant to be partly for the OZCHI 2008 conference and partly for holiday. Not the best trip.

Last Sunday we flew up to Cairns. When we arrived the Qantas check-in staff didn’t provide an infant boarding pass for my daughter, and I didn’t such a thing even existed, so when we went to board there was a bit of dilemma. Thankfully the staff at the gate were very helpful and gave us an upgrade to business class! (Although I think this result had more to do with another family of four who were giving them a hard time about wanting to sit together so our two ‘spare’ economy seats were a welcome relief). It was a great start to the holiday, and not a bad flight to get upgraded for: it’s 3 hours to Cairns.

Then we arrived in Cairns. Hot. Humid. Ouch. I’m not built for hot weather, but I soldiered on and tried to find the cab we had booked online the night before, with a special request for baby seat. A lot of cabs in Cairns are now based on the eco-friendly Toyota Prius, so I was thinking hey they are pretty high tech up here. Sadly no. After asking some people and having no luck I called the cab company. They told me two things: a) they don’t accept bookings from the airport and b) “in Queensland public transport vehicles are exempt from having to carry baby capsules” (a phrase we were to hear over and over again) so they can’t do that either. FAIL! Why does your website allow you to request both those things if you can’t deliver?

So now I know why you see so many baby seats/capsules on the luggage conveyors at the airport, it’s because you can’t rely on anyone you just have to bring your own. Seriously, I don’t give a crap if the Queensland government have deemed “it’s perfectly legal to just hold the baby on your lap”, it’s not safe! How can they feel it’s unnecessary for essential safety equipment for babies to be available? I would happily have waited and/or paid more to secure a safe mode of transport for Grace. We had few choices, the best of which seemed to be catching a cab with Grace on Jenn’s lap in the back seat. We discussed the lack of baby seats in Queensland cabs with the driver, as well as how using a hybrid vehicle for a taxi is really just a PR stunt and not yet economically viable (nor environmentally friendly at the end of the day).

Monday. A day of relaxing and acclimatisation in preparation for my OZCHI tutorial on Tuesday. Possibly even more hot and humid. Yuck. It’s not glamorous, but we spent most of the day in Smithfield shopping centre because we had to get some groceries for Grace and it was air conditioned! (not something there is a lot of in Palm Cove). In the spirit of the tropical theme I bought a lovely knock-off ‘Aloha shirt’. Cool in that absurd kind of way.

Tuesday. Went off to James Cook University for my tutorial. Still hot. Got into the room the tutorial would be in…urrgh not much cooler. Lovely. The tutorial went well, although almost everyone there was not exactly at the right level for an introductory course, but I got good feedback and I think we all got something out of the half day.

Wednesday. Can’t remember what we did in the morning, but I remember the heat hadn’t relented. We went for a late lunch at Pepper’s Beach Club on the esplanade at Palm Cove, we’d been there many times when we last stayed there and it was always nice. I had a ham focaccia and a light beer. Big mistake. I remember thinking our order arrived quite quickly, Jenn only got a salad so I was wondering if my sandwich was fresh. It turns out it probably wasn’t and given the hot and humid conditions something was off. To cut a long and painful story short I spent the next 8 hours witnessing my body performing a complete evacuation of its digestive system by any and all means possible. I’ve not been struck by any major illness in my life, and I’m sure this is nothing in comparison, but this bout of food poisoning was the worst such thing I’ve ever experienced.

By midnight I was completely wrecked, severely dehydrated and in need of medical assistance. I was worried, about me but also about my family, what if this was viral? At this point I was also pondering, in my barely lucid state, how vulnerable we are when on holiday. Without your normal support network, local knowledge and even transport, you kinda feel on your own. But we managed to get an ambulance to the resort which was harder than expected. The paramedics agreed it was food poisoning, possibly with a bit of heat stroke to boot. I opted not to take them up on the offer of hospitalisation because I had a wife and baby to consider. Besides, the mass evacuation seemed to have slowed by the time the paramedics arrived, so I thought I would ride it out and see how I was in the morning. It was a rough night.

After the ‘purge’ had finished the ‘reboot’ began, as my digestive system was rebuilt, a process that ultimately went on for about 60 hours. I was trying to rehydrate myself but Mr Stomach wasn’t playing nicely. I couldn’t digest anything for a while, so eating and drinking were very difficult.

Thursday. Why does it always seem to be overcast in Palm Cove? It makes is more humid and it’s depressing rather than a tropical paradise. But on this day I think the sun was out all day. It might have been hotter but at least not as humid, but I wouldn’t know since I spent the entire day in bed. Made a break for it at dinner time and chanced a trip to the restaurant. Saw OZCHI folks going off to the conference dinner, but I was in a daze. Didn’t last long, had to return to the room.

Friday. Started to get better, I even ventured out for breakfast and lunch. Arranged to meet James Breeze and some others for dinner, but as the sun started to set the humidity rose and as we couldn’t find any restaurants with air-conditioning I quickly wilted and had to make a very early exit. The heat, sweat and thought of food just made me ill. Why no restaurants in Palm Cove have A/C is beyond me.

Saturday. Feeling much better. Packing, breakfast then transfer to airport (and guess what? no baby seats available, because “in Queensland…” grrrr!). At the airport things were looking up, we managed to all get on the same flight (long story) and even got moved to a bulkhead row with a bassinet so we could put the baby down for a sleep during the flight. Back home in Sydney. Dry heat. Hmmmm.

Man, I need a holiday.