2.
How to avoid disaster L earning about UX by looking at massive failures CanUX September 14, 2006 Banff, Alberta

3.
Why disasters? <ul><li>Reveal real-world complexity </li></ul><ul><li>Defy our expectations about accountability and corrective action </li></ul><ul><li>Cascade of ordinary failures </li></ul><ul><li>Attract small-problem solutions </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Blame and shame </li></ul></ul>

4.
Management 101

5.
Management 101

6.
Management 101

7.
What is a system? <ul><li>Collection of “stuff” </li></ul><ul><li>Dynamic, complex, interdependent relationships </li></ul><ul><li>Can't be decomposed into linear processes </li></ul><ul><li>Can't be separated from the environment or context in which they occur </li></ul><ul><li>Small changes  big effects </li></ul>

8.
What are systems? <ul><li>Economies </li></ul><ul><li>Ecosystems </li></ul><ul><li>Organizations </li></ul><ul><li>Markets </li></ul><ul><li>Projects </li></ul><ul><li>Social Networks </li></ul>

9.
Agenda <ul><li>Talk about a few disasters </li></ul><ul><li>Lessons learned </li></ul><ul><li>Successful systems </li></ul><ul><li>Mindset </li></ul>

11.
<ul><li>Rounding error </li></ul>

12.
<ul><li>Rounding error </li></ul><ul><li>or </li></ul><ul><li>Programmer error? </li></ul>

13.
<ul><li>Rounding error </li></ul><ul><li>or </li></ul><ul><li>Programmer error </li></ul><ul><li>or </li></ul><ul><li>System failure? </li></ul>

14.
Lessons Learned <ul><li>Real-world tests </li></ul><ul><li>Complex accountability </li></ul>

17.
All Dead

20.
Lessons Learned <ul><li>Real-world tests </li></ul><ul><li>Complex accountability </li></ul><ul><li>Big problems have shared ownership </li></ul><ul><li>Assumed safety nets can vanish easily </li></ul><ul><li>Small changes  Big impact </li></ul>

22.
http://www.boeing.com/commercial/safety/pf/pf_accident_rate_history_cht.html

23.
Eastern Flight 401

24.
NASA Research (1979) <ul><li>Primary cause of most aviation accidents: </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Leadership </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Decision-making </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Interpersonal communication </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Led to teamwork training for flight crews </li></ul><ul><li>Reporting of near misses </li></ul>

25.
Teamwork training <ul><li>“ A state medical board has fined a surgeon and an anesthesiologist $10,000 each for brawling in an operating room while their patient slept…” </li></ul><ul><li>“ A nurse monitored the patient as the doctors fought” </li></ul>

26.
Successful Systems <ul><li>Transparency </li></ul><ul><li>Quality over authority </li></ul><ul><li>Shared ownership </li></ul><ul><li>No goats (and few heroes) </li></ul><ul><li>Team training </li></ul><ul><li>Real-world tests </li></ul>

27.
Lessons for UX <ul><li>Understand what influences your solution </li></ul><ul><li>Consider feedback as a design parameter </li></ul><ul><li>Help clients find leverage points </li></ul><ul><li>Know when you’re at a brick wall </li></ul><ul><li>Unintended consequences </li></ul>

28.
Facebook <ul><li>“… Facebook's feedback from users comes in the form of emails to its customer-service email address, which the company's product-development team reviews weekly. But the company typically doesn't solicit feedback by showing features to users before launching them .&quot; </li></ul><ul><li>Wall Street Journal , September 7, 2006 </li></ul>

33.
Questions? Stories? Email: [email_address] URL: http://atomiq.org/etc/canux_2006.pdf