CanUX Keynote

Slide 1: Eating our Own Dog Food: Using UX Methods to Build a UX Business Lou Rosenfeld, Rosenfeld Media CanUX: Banff, Alberta, Canada November 26, 2007 www.rosenfeldmedia.com

Slide 2: Brief bio Co-author, Information Architecture for the World Wide Web Blog: www.louisrosenfeld.com Co-founder, IA Institute and UXnet Publisher and founder, Rosenfeld Media (books for UX practitioners): www.rosenfeldmedia.com My forthcoming book: Search Analytics for Your Site: Conversations with your customers

Slide 3: The Rodney Dangerfield Era of UX is over Design thinking is ascendant, and UX practitioners are upwardly mobile What happens when actually we get our hands on the keys to the car?

Slide 4: Design challenges in publishing 1. Designing books Can book design be improved upon? 2. Acquiring books Which books should we publish? 3. Developing books How can we ensure quality content?

Slide 5: Design challenge #1: Designing books How is it usually done? How would you do it differently? “…book covers do sell books, just like packaging sells other products…” --Dan Poynter

Slide 6: Question: What makes a good UX book good? Show’n’tell sessions and blog discussions 1. What UX books do you (dis)like? 2. What about them do you (dis)like? Blog entries, summaries, and comments:  http://tinyurl.com/2rjg7u  http://tinyurl.com/2jvrd9  http://tinyurl.com/32ty7r

Slide 7: Anecdotal answers  Short enough to read on a plane trip  Short chapters  Small, portable profile: 6” x 9”  Wide margins for annotation  Color interiors and good illustrations  Support readability and reference: print and PDF

Slide 8: …and that favorite UX book?

Slide 9: Interiors

Slide 10: Covers Ehh… Better

Slide 11: Book testing: print and PDF Goals: validate design, uncover missed opportunities Task analysis  Foundation (e.g., What is this book about?)  Navigation (e.g., re-finding)  Extension (e.g., grabbing a diagram) Post-test questionnaire  Ratings (e.g. author credibility, price)  Open-ended comments/feedback

Slide 12: What we’re learning from testing The value of new concepts  FAQ for book  Closer integration with web-based content New twists on old concepts  Table of contents critically important  Value of front matter, covers Not missing the obvious  Author bio establishes credibility  Improving quality where critical (e.g,. Images)

Slide 13: Design challenge #1: Designing books How would you do it?

Slide 14: Design challenge #2: Acquiring books How is it usually done? How would you do it differently?

Slide 15: Choosing proposals Metaphors help set useful boundaries  Weft: “horizontal” UX methods  Warp: UX “verticals” …and then they break …which is ok

Slide 16: Adding rigor to book acquisition Qualitative methods  Agile proposal development process (between author + publisher)  Peer review of proposals (by editorial board)  Reconsidering venues for input (e.g. social networks) Quantitative method: UX Zeitgeist

Slide 17: Good help is there if you ask for it Editorial Board Liz Danzico Andrew Dillon Steve Krug Mike Kuniavsky Ginny Redish Marc Rettig Nathan Shedroff Rashmi Sinha Karen Whitehouse

Slide 18: Another source of input: social networks (e.g., LinkedIn Answers)

Slide 19: Quantitative topic evaluation: UXZeitgeist.com

Slide 20: UXZ Person

Slide 21: UXZ Book

Slide 22: UXZ Book Index

Slide 23: UXZ Topic Index

Slide 24: Design challenge #2: Acquiring books How would you do it?

Slide 25: Design challenge #3: Developing books How is it usually done? How would you do it differently?

Slide 26: Books as dialogues: engaging with stakeholders The obvious  Author  Publisher  Editorial board  Editorial team The not-so-obvious  Industry/subject matter experts  Industry influencers  Conference planners  Software and service vendors  Potential readers

Slide 27: Book sites: grounds for engagement

Slide 28: Further engagement: mapping the market Ubiquitous, viral discount codes  Surveys  UX Zeitgeist  Bookmarks  Individual PDF versions of books Generates map of UX community

Slide 29: Design challenge #3: Developing books How would you do it?

Slide 30: Lesson: Build platforms for engagement  Businesses that produce creative assets should be designed as platforms  Make your platform as open as possible  With platforms, opportunities originate with iteration more than innovation

Slide 31: Another lesson: Sweat the soft stuff  It’s easy to get carried away by the technical aspects of platforms  It’s too easy to ignore the human aspects of platforms (e.g., project managers, art directors)  And it’s way too easy to ignore the traditional aspects of an industry (e.g., book publishing is and always will be damned hard)

Slide 32: One last lesson: cobblers and their kids  Get used to looking like a hypocrite  Don’t let that stop you  And remember to eat your own dog food

Slide 33: Image credits Rodney Dangerfield: etwist.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html Dice: www.joystiq.com/media/2006/02/rollingreddice .jpg Weave: www.classicistranieri.com Onion: k53.pbase.com/u25/franziskalang/upload/1519 7600.Onion.jpg

Slide 34: More information This presentation is available at: www.slideshare.net/lrosenfeld Louis Rosenfeld, Publisher Rosenfeld Media, LLC 705 Carroll Street, #2L Brooklyn, NY 11215 USA +1.718.306.9396 voice +1.734.661.1655 fax lou@rosenfeldmedia.com www.rosenfeldmedia.com