Jared Spool kicked off the 2014 edition of Midwest UX with an excellent talk on the Unicorn Institute that goes well beyond the opening of the school in Tennessee. With tips that every professional can use to help further develop their skill set he demonstrated once again why you should always see him present if you have an opportunity - even if it means choosing between him and Peter Morville.
Read MoreIA Summit Day One Recap
For those who are not familiar with the IA Summit it is one of the best organized events for anyone interested in Information Architecture, User Experience, or other related professions. The conversations in the hall alone are well worth the expense.
This year's conference was held in sunny San Diego and featured some of the best talks that I have heard in five years of attendance. Starting with an exceptional keynote by Irene Au the rest of the day offered a dizzying selection of presentations from both seasoned presenters and first timers.
Read MoreCommon sense defaults
Over the years I have read a large number of pieces advocating the use of sensible defaults. Stephen Anderson's book Seductive Interaction Design devotes two pages to the topic with proof about the why and how (one of many reasons to order a copy as soon as you can).
Today Jared Spool provides even more validation. By performing a simple experiment with Microsoft Word he found that less than 5% of users change any settings. In other words 95% of people touching your product will assume there is a reason that the default settings are configured the way they are. Rather than fix them they'll go with the status quo.
I highly recommend reading the piece when you get a minute. The questions it asks apply not just to those of us trying to design the experience but the people actually writing the code. You may be surprised at all the assumptions that sneak through into the final design.
Design is intentional
Recently this argument about the dangers of premature design optimization came across my stream. There was a point a few years ago where I used to think the same thing - you write your data models, your business logic, and other pieces before focusing on the 'V' in MVC.
Experience these last few years has shown me this is a very bad idea. Waiting to address the user experience until the last part of the project means that it gets bolted on. Instead of discovering usability issues when they are relatively cost effective to fix they end up being potential showstoppers. Sadly this attitude that 'design is just a phase' seems to persist today.
My advice to anyone looking to start a project is to get in contact with someone as soon as possible. Figure out what types of user interactions work before it becomes impossible to correct them. Not only will you have an easier time with the visual design and information architecture but you may find yourself avoiding developmental dead ends as well.
Thoughts on a 'Digital Nation'
Recently I ran across a fantastic documentary called Digital Nation. An hour long look at the changes hat have occurred over the last ten to fifteen years it seeks to answer the question of what technology has done to our lives. Put under the lens of the user experience it raises some very thought provoking threads for designers of all interfaces. What are we actually creating through the explosion of desktop, web, and mobile bssed interfaces that surround us now on a daily basis?
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