The document discusses user research war stories and lessons learned from mistakes and unexpected situations. It provides tips for user interviews such as being present in the environment, including rich contextual data, and learning from mistakes. Quotes emphasize connecting with others by sharing stories of struggle and having the courage to be vulnerable.
The title of this workshop is a reference to The Artist Is Present, a performance art piece by Marina Abramovic. Marina spent months at MOMA sitting silently across from a nearly endless series of museum visitors, some of whom broke into tears.
The notion of presence is a critical idea for those of us in user experience. At the risk of sounding like Yoda, presence is tied to self-knowing. During ten years of writing, lecturing and coaching on “interviewing users”, many of the questions that Steve Portigal receives are about controlling or influencing another person’s behavior. Yet these interactions with others are really about ourselves, what’s inside us, who we are.
Therapists, as part of their education, must go through therapy themselves. They are expected to achieve a certain level of insight about themselves — their biases, their discomforts, and so on. While we are not therapists, we go out and study people without that level of self-insight!
A lack of self-insight sometimes manifests itself as passion, commitment, or being driven by a mission. While those have their place, it’s easy to become blinded by what we can’t let ourselves see. Sometimes this shows up as discomfort at the micro level, when we react to something a user might tell us about themselves; sometimes it’s a macro issue, when we’re uncomfortable with people who hold different values, preferences, or beliefs than ourselves. And it crescendos as know-it-all douchebaggery, when we think our job is to tell other people what’s best for them — when phrases like “frictionless sharing” fall from our lips as naturally as “what time is dinner?”
In this workshop, you’ll tap into a new level of personal authenticity to unlock a powerful boon. Together, we’ll explore this point of view and participate in a range of exercises to learn more about these ideas — and about ourselves.
Steve Portigal: Yes, My Iguana Loves to Cha-Cha: Improv, Creativity and DesignSteve Portigal
Improv is not "stand-up comedy." It is often presented series of games with rules that offer huge degrees of freedom within a set of constraints. In these games we bring out quickly-understood-and-communicated rules of culture that are implicit, not explicit. The activities of design (collaboration, creativity, and design research, for starters) have interesting similarities with improv: All have in-the-moment aspects; we learn upon reflection; there’s enormous unspoken interaction and there is often an "aha" moment. Design and improv also have important similarities: the need to collaborate and brainstorm, the importance of breakthrough thinking, the balance between process, structure, and unfettered creativity. Playing with improv can make us more mindful of the power of listening, and can be harnessed to create a more collaborative work culture, as a way to develop one’s own creativity, or to help warm up teammates and clients in workshops and design sessions. In this interactive presentation you will learn more about improv, listening, creativity, and how they all connect together to support one another. No iguanas will be harmed.
Keynote from Interact 15, London.
Therapists, as part of their education, must go through therapy themselves. They are expected to achieve a certain level of insight about themselves – their biases, their discomforts, and so on. While we are not therapists, we go out and study people without that level of self-insight! A lack of self-insight sometimes manifests itself as passion, commitment, or being driven by a mission. While those have their place, it’s easy to become blinded by what we can’t let ourselves see. Sometimes this shows up as discomfort at the micro level, when we react to something a user might tell us about themselves; sometimes it’s a macro issue, when we’re uncomfortable with people who hold different values, preferences, or beliefs than ourselves. And it crescendos as know-it-all douchebaggery, when we think our job is to tell other people what’s best for them – when phrases like “frictionless sharing” fall from our lips as naturally as “what time is dinner?”
In this interactive talk we will delve into the concepts of presence and mindfulness and develop an understanding of how this informs how you engage with the world around you, as a designer, a professional, and a person.
Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries (Amuse 2016)Steve Portigal
Stories make the world go round. As user researchers, we love stories. At its simplest, our job is to gather stories and to retell them. War Stories are stories about contextual user research (research out in the field) and the inevitable mishaps that ensue. These stories are in turn bizarre, comic, tragic and generally astonishing.
Steve's collection of stories fills a longstanding need for the design and research community; to share what can go wrong, because that’s the reality. For a practice that is not always well-understood or trusted, there’s pressure for us to only speak to the successes, but examining the human messiness of this work can help develop our skills and our community.
In this presentation, Steve will share some of the best stories, examine the patterns revealed by the stories, and articulate the different lessons revealed by this large collection of stories.
In business and in life, we pursue the good stuff and champion people who are known for their good ideas. But when we place too strong an emphasis on just the good, we may neglect to consider the bad ones. In design and in brainstorming, deliberately seeking out bad ideas is a powerful way to unlock creativity. Generating bad ideas can reveal our assumptions about the difference between bad and good, and often seemingly bad ideas turn out to be good ones. Jotly and Cow Clicker were jokes or parodies—that is, not good ideas—that have been surprisingly successful. Neil Young and Crazy Horse have covered folk songs. An action blockbuster features a US president swinging a silver axe against vampires. In this talk, Steve will explore how opening up the bad idea valve can lead unexpectedly to the kind of success we aim for with our good ideas.
Soft Skills Are Hard: A Journey To Healthier WorkSteve Portigal
From IxDA Seattle, part of a series of presentations and workshops done in collaboration with Dan Szuc. Steve speaks about the interpersonal, creative, and cognitive skill sets that are essential in innovative work cultures. Moving beyond tactical skills and overarching processes, the UX community is increasingly focusing on the role of the whole person in design and innovation. Steve describes the "muscles of innovation" that are needed for growth and success.
Therapists, as part of their education, must go through therapy themselves. They are expected to achieve a certain level of insight about themselves – their biases, their discomforts, and so on. While we are not therapists, we go out and study people without that level of self-insight! A lack of self-insight sometimes manifests itself as passion, commitment, or being driven by a mission. While those have their place, it’s easy to become blinded by what we can’t let ourselves see. Sometimes this shows up as discomfort at the micro level, when we react to something a user might tell us about themselves; sometimes it’s a macro issue, when we’re uncomfortable with people who hold different values, preferences, or beliefs than ourselves. And it crescendos as know-it-all douchebaggery, when we think our job is to tell other people what’s best for them – when phrases like “frictionless sharing” fall from our lips as naturally as “what time is dinner?”
In this interactive talk we will delve into the concepts of presence and mindfulness and develop an understanding of how this informs how you engage with the world around you, as a designer, a professional, and a person.
The title of this workshop is a reference to The Artist Is Present, a performance art piece by Marina Abramovic. Marina spent months at MOMA sitting silently across from a nearly endless series of museum visitors, some of whom broke into tears.
The notion of presence is a critical idea for those of us in user experience. At the risk of sounding like Yoda, presence is tied to self-knowing. During ten years of writing, lecturing and coaching on “interviewing users”, many of the questions that Steve Portigal receives are about controlling or influencing another person’s behavior. Yet these interactions with others are really about ourselves, what’s inside us, who we are.
Therapists, as part of their education, must go through therapy themselves. They are expected to achieve a certain level of insight about themselves — their biases, their discomforts, and so on. While we are not therapists, we go out and study people without that level of self-insight!
A lack of self-insight sometimes manifests itself as passion, commitment, or being driven by a mission. While those have their place, it’s easy to become blinded by what we can’t let ourselves see. Sometimes this shows up as discomfort at the micro level, when we react to something a user might tell us about themselves; sometimes it’s a macro issue, when we’re uncomfortable with people who hold different values, preferences, or beliefs than ourselves. And it crescendos as know-it-all douchebaggery, when we think our job is to tell other people what’s best for them — when phrases like “frictionless sharing” fall from our lips as naturally as “what time is dinner?”
In this workshop, you’ll tap into a new level of personal authenticity to unlock a powerful boon. Together, we’ll explore this point of view and participate in a range of exercises to learn more about these ideas — and about ourselves.
Steve Portigal: Yes, My Iguana Loves to Cha-Cha: Improv, Creativity and DesignSteve Portigal
Improv is not "stand-up comedy." It is often presented series of games with rules that offer huge degrees of freedom within a set of constraints. In these games we bring out quickly-understood-and-communicated rules of culture that are implicit, not explicit. The activities of design (collaboration, creativity, and design research, for starters) have interesting similarities with improv: All have in-the-moment aspects; we learn upon reflection; there’s enormous unspoken interaction and there is often an "aha" moment. Design and improv also have important similarities: the need to collaborate and brainstorm, the importance of breakthrough thinking, the balance between process, structure, and unfettered creativity. Playing with improv can make us more mindful of the power of listening, and can be harnessed to create a more collaborative work culture, as a way to develop one’s own creativity, or to help warm up teammates and clients in workshops and design sessions. In this interactive presentation you will learn more about improv, listening, creativity, and how they all connect together to support one another. No iguanas will be harmed.
Keynote from Interact 15, London.
Therapists, as part of their education, must go through therapy themselves. They are expected to achieve a certain level of insight about themselves – their biases, their discomforts, and so on. While we are not therapists, we go out and study people without that level of self-insight! A lack of self-insight sometimes manifests itself as passion, commitment, or being driven by a mission. While those have their place, it’s easy to become blinded by what we can’t let ourselves see. Sometimes this shows up as discomfort at the micro level, when we react to something a user might tell us about themselves; sometimes it’s a macro issue, when we’re uncomfortable with people who hold different values, preferences, or beliefs than ourselves. And it crescendos as know-it-all douchebaggery, when we think our job is to tell other people what’s best for them – when phrases like “frictionless sharing” fall from our lips as naturally as “what time is dinner?”
In this interactive talk we will delve into the concepts of presence and mindfulness and develop an understanding of how this informs how you engage with the world around you, as a designer, a professional, and a person.
Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries (Amuse 2016)Steve Portigal
Stories make the world go round. As user researchers, we love stories. At its simplest, our job is to gather stories and to retell them. War Stories are stories about contextual user research (research out in the field) and the inevitable mishaps that ensue. These stories are in turn bizarre, comic, tragic and generally astonishing.
Steve's collection of stories fills a longstanding need for the design and research community; to share what can go wrong, because that’s the reality. For a practice that is not always well-understood or trusted, there’s pressure for us to only speak to the successes, but examining the human messiness of this work can help develop our skills and our community.
In this presentation, Steve will share some of the best stories, examine the patterns revealed by the stories, and articulate the different lessons revealed by this large collection of stories.
In business and in life, we pursue the good stuff and champion people who are known for their good ideas. But when we place too strong an emphasis on just the good, we may neglect to consider the bad ones. In design and in brainstorming, deliberately seeking out bad ideas is a powerful way to unlock creativity. Generating bad ideas can reveal our assumptions about the difference between bad and good, and often seemingly bad ideas turn out to be good ones. Jotly and Cow Clicker were jokes or parodies—that is, not good ideas—that have been surprisingly successful. Neil Young and Crazy Horse have covered folk songs. An action blockbuster features a US president swinging a silver axe against vampires. In this talk, Steve will explore how opening up the bad idea valve can lead unexpectedly to the kind of success we aim for with our good ideas.
Soft Skills Are Hard: A Journey To Healthier WorkSteve Portigal
From IxDA Seattle, part of a series of presentations and workshops done in collaboration with Dan Szuc. Steve speaks about the interpersonal, creative, and cognitive skill sets that are essential in innovative work cultures. Moving beyond tactical skills and overarching processes, the UX community is increasingly focusing on the role of the whole person in design and innovation. Steve describes the "muscles of innovation" that are needed for growth and success.
Therapists, as part of their education, must go through therapy themselves. They are expected to achieve a certain level of insight about themselves – their biases, their discomforts, and so on. While we are not therapists, we go out and study people without that level of self-insight! A lack of self-insight sometimes manifests itself as passion, commitment, or being driven by a mission. While those have their place, it’s easy to become blinded by what we can’t let ourselves see. Sometimes this shows up as discomfort at the micro level, when we react to something a user might tell us about themselves; sometimes it’s a macro issue, when we’re uncomfortable with people who hold different values, preferences, or beliefs than ourselves. And it crescendos as know-it-all douchebaggery, when we think our job is to tell other people what’s best for them – when phrases like “frictionless sharing” fall from our lips as naturally as “what time is dinner?”
In this interactive talk we will delve into the concepts of presence and mindfulness and develop an understanding of how this informs how you engage with the world around you, as a designer, a professional, and a person.
How to research your novel with Devi YesodharanJuggernautBooks
Tips and tricks to start researching your novel. Perfect if you're looking to write a story with a historic epic or incident at its centre. Perfect if you want to write the next GoT!
About Devi Yesodharan:
Devi Yesodharan was a speech-writer for Infosys chairman N.R. Narayana Murthy. Now, when she isn’t obsessively reading up on the Cholas, she works as a co-founder on Trendlyne, a financial investing platform. Empire is her first novel.
About Empire:
An Indian empire at the peak of its power. A great port heaped with spices, silks, jewellery, perfumes, weapons. Everyone wants a share of the riches of Nagapattinam. When a Greek pirate ship sails in to loot the wealth of the Cholas, it is brutally defeated by the navy and forced to pay a compensation. A payment that includes a twelve-year-old girl, Aremis.
Aremis grows up to be a skilled warrior, a great asset to the Cholas. But she is a foreigner among her captors, even though the emperor trusts her to guard his person. Anantha, the man who took her captive, the supreme commander of the empire’s armies, is a wily strategist. But he no longer has the stomach for war. The emperor’s ambitions weary him. Rajendra Chola has conquered Lanka, now he wants to rule the Indian Ocean. Their future is set: a dangerous journey across the seas and a bloody, brutal war they cannot survive undamaged.
Stories make the world go round. As people who do user research, we love stories. At its simplest, our job is to gather stories and to retell them. War stories about contextual user research and the inevitable mishaps that ensue are in turn bizarre, comic, tragic, and generally astonishing.
Drawing from years spent gathering war stories and his book Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries, Steve Portigal shares some of the best stories he’s collected, examining the patterns and lessons they reveal.
Steve’s collection of stories fills a longstanding need for the design and research community: sharing what can go wrong in the real world. For a practice that is not always well understood or trusted, there’s pressure to only speak to the successes, but examining the human messiness of this work can help develop our skills and our community.
[Slides and the accompanying audio posted at http://www.portigal.com/blog/designing-for-unmet-needs-my-presentation-from-warm-gun]
Don’t be surprised if Steve Portigal, author of Interviewing Users, invites himself to your family breakfast or follows hotel maintenance staff to the boiler room. For more than 15 years, he’s led hundreds of interviews that help clients understand customers and turn insights into design opportunities.
Steve knows that our success depends on letting the unmet needs of our audience shape our designs. Okay—but how do we hit a target we can’t see? How do we design for people who aren’t us? How do we solve for the complexity of those people?
Dig into the details, ditch the guesswork, and join Steve to engage deliberately with the people we’re designing for. Look at ways to acknowledge the complexity of your users. Offer solutions rooted in the connections you make with people. Get unstuck and discover opportunities for design that adds value.
PDF, audio, and voiceover are now available on designintechreport.wordpress.com
Today’s most beloved technology products and services balance design and engineering in a way that perfectly blends form and function. Businesses started by designers have created billions of dollars of value, are raising billions in capital, and VC firms increasingly see the importance of design. The third annual Design in Tech Report examines how design trends are revolutionizing the entrepreneurial and corporate ecosystems in tech. This report covers related M&A activity, new patterns in creativity × business, and the rise of computational design.
Yes, My Tuatara Loves to Cha-Cha Improv, Creativity and DesignSteve Portigal
From UX New Zealand 2015 - Improv is not ‘stand-up comedy’ but a series of games that offer huge degrees of freedom within a set of constraints. During improv, we bring out quickly-understood-and-communicated rules of culture that are implicit, not explicit.
Design and improv have important similarities. Both practices involve collaboration and brainstorming; an emphasis on breakthrough thinking; in-the-moment aspects and ‘Aha!’ moments; a balance of process, structure, and unfettered creativity; an enormous unspoken interaction; and the need to learn upon reflection.
Playing with improv can help us to be more mindful of the power of listening, to create a more collaborative work culture, to develop our own creativity, and to warm up teammates and clients in workshops and design sessions.
In this interactive presentation, you’ll learn about improv, listening, and creativity, and how each supports the others. No tuataras will be harmed.
Interviewing users is undeniably one of the most valuable user research tools. Yet, sometimes we forget that it's a skill we need to learn, because:
* It's based on skills we think we have (talking or even listening)
* It's not taught or reflected on
People tend to 'wing it' rather than develop their skills. Without good interviewing skills, insights may be inaccurate or reveal nothing new, suggest the wrong design or business responses, or miss the crucial nuance that points to opportunities for breakthrough innovation.
This talk will cover:
* Framing the research problem to have the most impact on the business
* What type of participants to recruit and how to find them
* Different methods for learning from interviewees
* Asking questions
* Listening and building rapport
* Analysing data from the field
Portigal Consulting: Reading Ahead Research Findings reduxSteve Portigal
Presentation of research findings from our project on the evolution of reading and books. After we've lived with the results and been out sharing them with different audiences, the material starts to evolve, as well as incorporate changes that are happening around us.
(from an event at IxDA SF with Dan Szuc and Jo Wong) Driving change is not as easy it sounds. Change is about people and is thus inherently messy. Coping with the mess means we must relate to, engage with and encourage people's thinking, feeling and acting as well as their actions. We already spend a reasonable proportion of our time influencing people we call collaborators, clients, stakeholders, bosses, customers (to name a few), although we may not always be aware we are doing it.
Together we will look at influence in work, question the language used during change and reflect on the various elements of influence that we too often fail to consider in our own aspirations. We will also look at frustrations and barriers that get in the way of the work we would prefer to be doing. Steve, Jo and Dan will lead a small exercise to help make the principles of influence more personally actionable.
C’era una volta una tecnica chiamata intervista. Un giorno questa tecnica andò a trovare la nonna e non immaginate com’è andata a finire, anche perché: che significa “ricerca basata sulle storie“? Che vuol dire intervistare? Che errori può compiere l’intervistatore per spezzare l’incantesimo? Ma soprattutto: con queste storie poi che ci faccio?
Ci accompagneranno in questo percorso Malinowski, Tarantino, Adorno, Lazarsfeld e altri individui trascurabili
6 to 106 in 4 years - The story of the Atlassian Design teamAlastair Simpson
4 years ago Atlassian had 6 designers. Fast forward to today and the design team numbers 106. Building and managing a design team of this size is one thing, integrating it successfully into a traditionally engineering led organisation is another. Alastair Simpson (Head of Design — Confluence) will share how Atlassian has successfully embraced design as a first class discipline and is changing from being an engineering, to an experience led company. At the end of the session, you’ll be armed with a basic playbook for how to manage your team of designers to affect meaningful change within any organisation. Come for the practical tips about how to grow and manage design as you scale, and hear some of the road bumps along the way as we grew from 6 to 106 designers in just 4 years.
[Slides and the accompanying audio posted at http://www.portigal.com/blog/designing-the-problem-my-keynote-from-isa14]
Too often we assume that doing research with users means checking in with them to get feedback on the solution we've already outlined. But the biggest value from research is in uncovering the crucial details of the problem that people have; the problem that we should be solving.
As the design practices mature within companies, they need to play an active role in driving the creation of new and innovative solutions to the real unmet needs that people have. In part, driving towards this maturity means looking at one's own culture and realizing the value of being open-minded and curious, not simply confident. This is a challenge to each of us personally and as leaders within our teams and communities.
I will speak about the importance of this evolution and offer some tips to help guide the changes.
Learn Spanish with Fresh Spanish: Expresar Deseos y Objetivos IFresh Spanish
In this class we will talk about how to express wishes and objectives in Spanish. In Spanish there is a verbal form called 'Subjuntivo' that is very tricky for students because it doesn't exist in other languages. This form is used in different uses, one of them is when we want to express wishes and objectives, although we don't use it all the time. In this class we will work on this topic.
How to research your novel with Devi YesodharanJuggernautBooks
Tips and tricks to start researching your novel. Perfect if you're looking to write a story with a historic epic or incident at its centre. Perfect if you want to write the next GoT!
About Devi Yesodharan:
Devi Yesodharan was a speech-writer for Infosys chairman N.R. Narayana Murthy. Now, when she isn’t obsessively reading up on the Cholas, she works as a co-founder on Trendlyne, a financial investing platform. Empire is her first novel.
About Empire:
An Indian empire at the peak of its power. A great port heaped with spices, silks, jewellery, perfumes, weapons. Everyone wants a share of the riches of Nagapattinam. When a Greek pirate ship sails in to loot the wealth of the Cholas, it is brutally defeated by the navy and forced to pay a compensation. A payment that includes a twelve-year-old girl, Aremis.
Aremis grows up to be a skilled warrior, a great asset to the Cholas. But she is a foreigner among her captors, even though the emperor trusts her to guard his person. Anantha, the man who took her captive, the supreme commander of the empire’s armies, is a wily strategist. But he no longer has the stomach for war. The emperor’s ambitions weary him. Rajendra Chola has conquered Lanka, now he wants to rule the Indian Ocean. Their future is set: a dangerous journey across the seas and a bloody, brutal war they cannot survive undamaged.
Stories make the world go round. As people who do user research, we love stories. At its simplest, our job is to gather stories and to retell them. War stories about contextual user research and the inevitable mishaps that ensue are in turn bizarre, comic, tragic, and generally astonishing.
Drawing from years spent gathering war stories and his book Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries, Steve Portigal shares some of the best stories he’s collected, examining the patterns and lessons they reveal.
Steve’s collection of stories fills a longstanding need for the design and research community: sharing what can go wrong in the real world. For a practice that is not always well understood or trusted, there’s pressure to only speak to the successes, but examining the human messiness of this work can help develop our skills and our community.
[Slides and the accompanying audio posted at http://www.portigal.com/blog/designing-for-unmet-needs-my-presentation-from-warm-gun]
Don’t be surprised if Steve Portigal, author of Interviewing Users, invites himself to your family breakfast or follows hotel maintenance staff to the boiler room. For more than 15 years, he’s led hundreds of interviews that help clients understand customers and turn insights into design opportunities.
Steve knows that our success depends on letting the unmet needs of our audience shape our designs. Okay—but how do we hit a target we can’t see? How do we design for people who aren’t us? How do we solve for the complexity of those people?
Dig into the details, ditch the guesswork, and join Steve to engage deliberately with the people we’re designing for. Look at ways to acknowledge the complexity of your users. Offer solutions rooted in the connections you make with people. Get unstuck and discover opportunities for design that adds value.
PDF, audio, and voiceover are now available on designintechreport.wordpress.com
Today’s most beloved technology products and services balance design and engineering in a way that perfectly blends form and function. Businesses started by designers have created billions of dollars of value, are raising billions in capital, and VC firms increasingly see the importance of design. The third annual Design in Tech Report examines how design trends are revolutionizing the entrepreneurial and corporate ecosystems in tech. This report covers related M&A activity, new patterns in creativity × business, and the rise of computational design.
Yes, My Tuatara Loves to Cha-Cha Improv, Creativity and DesignSteve Portigal
From UX New Zealand 2015 - Improv is not ‘stand-up comedy’ but a series of games that offer huge degrees of freedom within a set of constraints. During improv, we bring out quickly-understood-and-communicated rules of culture that are implicit, not explicit.
Design and improv have important similarities. Both practices involve collaboration and brainstorming; an emphasis on breakthrough thinking; in-the-moment aspects and ‘Aha!’ moments; a balance of process, structure, and unfettered creativity; an enormous unspoken interaction; and the need to learn upon reflection.
Playing with improv can help us to be more mindful of the power of listening, to create a more collaborative work culture, to develop our own creativity, and to warm up teammates and clients in workshops and design sessions.
In this interactive presentation, you’ll learn about improv, listening, and creativity, and how each supports the others. No tuataras will be harmed.
Interviewing users is undeniably one of the most valuable user research tools. Yet, sometimes we forget that it's a skill we need to learn, because:
* It's based on skills we think we have (talking or even listening)
* It's not taught or reflected on
People tend to 'wing it' rather than develop their skills. Without good interviewing skills, insights may be inaccurate or reveal nothing new, suggest the wrong design or business responses, or miss the crucial nuance that points to opportunities for breakthrough innovation.
This talk will cover:
* Framing the research problem to have the most impact on the business
* What type of participants to recruit and how to find them
* Different methods for learning from interviewees
* Asking questions
* Listening and building rapport
* Analysing data from the field
Portigal Consulting: Reading Ahead Research Findings reduxSteve Portigal
Presentation of research findings from our project on the evolution of reading and books. After we've lived with the results and been out sharing them with different audiences, the material starts to evolve, as well as incorporate changes that are happening around us.
(from an event at IxDA SF with Dan Szuc and Jo Wong) Driving change is not as easy it sounds. Change is about people and is thus inherently messy. Coping with the mess means we must relate to, engage with and encourage people's thinking, feeling and acting as well as their actions. We already spend a reasonable proportion of our time influencing people we call collaborators, clients, stakeholders, bosses, customers (to name a few), although we may not always be aware we are doing it.
Together we will look at influence in work, question the language used during change and reflect on the various elements of influence that we too often fail to consider in our own aspirations. We will also look at frustrations and barriers that get in the way of the work we would prefer to be doing. Steve, Jo and Dan will lead a small exercise to help make the principles of influence more personally actionable.
C’era una volta una tecnica chiamata intervista. Un giorno questa tecnica andò a trovare la nonna e non immaginate com’è andata a finire, anche perché: che significa “ricerca basata sulle storie“? Che vuol dire intervistare? Che errori può compiere l’intervistatore per spezzare l’incantesimo? Ma soprattutto: con queste storie poi che ci faccio?
Ci accompagneranno in questo percorso Malinowski, Tarantino, Adorno, Lazarsfeld e altri individui trascurabili
6 to 106 in 4 years - The story of the Atlassian Design teamAlastair Simpson
4 years ago Atlassian had 6 designers. Fast forward to today and the design team numbers 106. Building and managing a design team of this size is one thing, integrating it successfully into a traditionally engineering led organisation is another. Alastair Simpson (Head of Design — Confluence) will share how Atlassian has successfully embraced design as a first class discipline and is changing from being an engineering, to an experience led company. At the end of the session, you’ll be armed with a basic playbook for how to manage your team of designers to affect meaningful change within any organisation. Come for the practical tips about how to grow and manage design as you scale, and hear some of the road bumps along the way as we grew from 6 to 106 designers in just 4 years.
[Slides and the accompanying audio posted at http://www.portigal.com/blog/designing-the-problem-my-keynote-from-isa14]
Too often we assume that doing research with users means checking in with them to get feedback on the solution we've already outlined. But the biggest value from research is in uncovering the crucial details of the problem that people have; the problem that we should be solving.
As the design practices mature within companies, they need to play an active role in driving the creation of new and innovative solutions to the real unmet needs that people have. In part, driving towards this maturity means looking at one's own culture and realizing the value of being open-minded and curious, not simply confident. This is a challenge to each of us personally and as leaders within our teams and communities.
I will speak about the importance of this evolution and offer some tips to help guide the changes.
Learn Spanish with Fresh Spanish: Expresar Deseos y Objetivos IFresh Spanish
In this class we will talk about how to express wishes and objectives in Spanish. In Spanish there is a verbal form called 'Subjuntivo' that is very tricky for students because it doesn't exist in other languages. This form is used in different uses, one of them is when we want to express wishes and objectives, although we don't use it all the time. In this class we will work on this topic.
EuroIA14 - Well, We've Done All This Research, Now What?Steve Portigal
One of the most persistent factors limiting the impact of user research in business is that projects often stop with a cataloging findings and implications rather than generating opportunities that directly enable the findings. We’ve long heard the lament “Well, we got this report and it just sat there. We didn’t know what to do with it.” But design research (or ethnography, or user research, or whatever the term du jour may be) has also become standard practice, as opposed to something exceptional or innovative. That means that designers are increasingly involved in using contextual research to inform their design work.
Ongoing acceptance of design research has increased the ranks of designers and others who feel comfortable conducting user research. But analysis and synthesis is a more slippery skill set, and we see how easy it is for teams to ignore (more out of frustration than anything malicious) data that doesn’t immediately seem actionable. This workshop gives people the tools to take control over synthesis and ideation themselves by breaking it down into a manageable framework and process.
Interviewing users is undeniably one of the most valuable and commonly used user research tools. Yet sometimes we forget that it's a skill we need to learn, because:
● It's based on skills we think we have
● It's not taught or reflected on
People tend to 'wing it' rather than develop their skills. Without good interviewing skills, insights may be inaccurate or reveal nothing new, suggesting the wrong design or business responses, or they may miss the crucial nuance that points to innovative opportunities. Steve will share best practices for asking questions and listening and then lead a “safe” interviewing exercise.
More Than Users workshop for Interaction 17Acuity Design
A workshop from Interaction 17 on using methods drawn from Indigenous Research and Post-Colonial thinking to create new forms of usability research that empower people to be be more truthful by being more connected to their own memories, capacities and communities.
Practical project examples come from work in UK on ageing well, health and loneliness prevention.
Not Dead Yet: Designing Great Experiences with Bad DataSonia Koesterer
By Sonia Koesterer
The world is imperfect. Every “happy path” intersects with dozens of crappy paths caused by typos, technical errors, and data that goes missing, is mis-assigned, adulterated, or is otherwise compromised/ stolen by evil data pirates. While you can’t prevent all data fails, you can avoid catastrophic failures, design graceful recoveries, and even turn the weakest points of your service into a strategic advantage. In short, you can create great services despite bad data.
The impact of data failure can be a humorous accident, minor inconvenience, or completely detrimental. For example, each year, the U.S. government falsely declares over 12,000 people dead due mostly to typos. In sheer percentage this is a rarity of a corner case of an edge case… but for those 12,000 individuals who suddenly lose their social security benefits, health insurance, bank accounts, and can’t easily prove they are alive, it’s catastrophic.
So design for the the edge-case! Understand the weakest points of your service, learn from them, and turn your failures into great experiences.
Stories make the world go round. As researchers, we love stories, and essentially it's our job to gather stories and to retell them. War Stories are stories about contextual user research and the inevitable mishaps that ensue are in turn bizarre, comic, tragic, and generally astonishing.
Steve will share some of the best stories from his book Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries, examining the patterns and lessons they reveal. For a practice that isn’t always well understood or trusted, there’s pressure to only speak to the successes. But examining the human messiness of this work can help develop our skills and our community. Steve’s collection of stories fills a longstanding need for the design and research community—sharing what can go wrong in the real world.
Stories make the world go round. As people who do user research, we love stories. At its simplest, our job is to gather stories and to retell them. War Stories are stories about contextual user research (research out in the field) and the inevitable mishaps that ensue. These stories are in turn bizarre, comic, tragic and generally astonishing.
In this presentation, drawn from years of gathering war stories and his book “Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries”, Steve will share some of the best stories, examine the patterns revealed by the stories, and articulate the different lessons revealed by this large collection of stories. Steve’s collection of stories fills a longstanding need for the design and research community; to share what can go wrong, because that’s the reality. For a practice that is not always well-understood or trusted, there’s pressure for us to only speak to the successes, but examining the human messiness of this work can help develop our skills and our community.
In this interactive session, we'll work together on identifying and developing the interpersonal, creative, and cognitive skill sets that are essential in innovative work cultures.
In business and in life, we pursue the good stuff and champion people who are known for their good ideas. But when we place too strong an emphasis on just the good, we may neglect to consider the bad ones. In design and in brainstorming, deliberately seeking out bad ideas is a powerful way to unlock creativity. Generating bad ideas can reveal our assumptions about the difference between bad and good, and often seemingly bad ideas turn out to be good ones. Jotly and Cow Clicker were jokes/parodies (e.g., not good ideas) that have been surprisingly successful. Neil Young and Crazy Horse have covered folk songs. An action blockbuster features a US president swinging a silver axe against vampires. In this talk, I explore how opening up the bad idea valve can lead unexpectedly to the kind of success we aim for with our good ideas.
Therapists, as part of their education, must go through therapy themselves. They are expected to achieve a certain level of insight about themselves – their biases, their discomforts, and so on. While we are not therapists, we go out and study people without that level of self-insight! A lack of self-insight sometimes manifests itself as passion, commitment, or being driven by a mission. While those have their place, it’s easy to become blinded by what we can’t let ourselves see. Sometimes this shows up as discomfort at the micro level, when we react to something a user might tell us about themselves; sometimes it’s a macro issue, when we’re uncomfortable with people who hold different values, preferences, or beliefs than ourselves. And it crescendos as know-it-all douchebaggery, when we think our job is to tell other people what’s best for them – when phrases like “frictionless sharing” fall from our lips as naturally as “what time is dinner?”
In this workshop we will delve into the concepts of presence and mindfulness and develop an understanding of how this informs how you engage with the world around you, as a designer and a professional and as a person.
Yes, My tuatara loves to cha-cha: Improv, creativity and designUX New Zealand 2015
Speaker: Steve Portigal
Improv is not ‘stand-up comedy’ but a series of games that offer huge degrees of freedom within a set of constraints. During improv, we bring out quickly-understood-and-communicated rules of culture that are implicit, not explicit.
Design and improv have important similarities. Both practices involve collaboration and brainstorming; an emphasis on breakthrough thinking; in-the-moment aspects and ‘Aha!’ moments; a balance of process, structure, and unfettered creativity; an enormous unspoken interaction; and the need to learn upon reflection.
Playing with improv can help us to be more mindful of the power of listening, to create a more collaborative work culture, to develop our own creativity, and to warm up teammates and clients in workshops and design sessions.
In this interactive presentation, you’ll learn about improv, listening, and creativity, and how each supports the others. No tuatara's will be harmed.
Similar to Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries: User Research War Stories (6)
The old maxim says we should “Find a need and fill it;” while at a one level that is certainly true, even in this era of fetishized disruption, organizations seem to easily fall in love with the idea of being in the problem solving business. Steve will review a number of different mindsets for creating products and services, consider their benefits and risks, and challenge you to go beyond a fixing mentality.
One of the most persistent factors limiting the impact of user research in business is that projects often stop with a catalog of findings and implications rather than generating opportunities that directly enable the findings. We’ve long heard the lament, “Well, we got this report, and it just sat there. We didn’t know what to do with it.”
Ongoing acceptance of (and demand for) user research has increased the ranks of practitioners of all stripes who feel comfortable conducting research. But analysis and synthesis is a more slippery skill set, and we see how easy it is for teams to ignore (more out of frustration than anything malicious) data that doesn’t immediately seem actionable. This session describes a process to take control over synthesis and ideation by breaking it down into a manageable framework.
In this session, you'll:
Learn how to move from data to insights to opportunities.
Get techniques for generating ideas and strategies across a broad scope of business and design concerns.
Explore how to prioritize findings and create new opportunities.
User research: Uncovering compelling insights through interviewsSteve Portigal
Interviewing users is undeniably one of the most valuable and commonly used user research tools. Yet sometimes we forget that it’s a skill we need to learn, because it’s based on skills we think we have (talking or even listening) and it’s not taught or reflected on.
In this workshop, we’ll consider how to frame the problem, when to use research in the design process, and the tactics for setting up a successful study. We will focus in detail on the interview itself, reviewing detailed techniques for listening and asking questions, then conclude with an engaging exercise to bring these best practices to life.
This workshop will show you how to:
Integrate mixed methods of research into solving a problem.
Develop increased empathy, a critical facet to meaningful interviews.
Derive useful results from interviews once you get participants to open up.
One of the most persistent factors limiting the impact of user research in business is that projects often stop with a catalog of findings and implications rather than generating opportunities that directly enable the findings. We’ve long heard the lament, “Well, we got this report, and it just sat there. We didn’t know what to do with it.”
But design research (or ethnography, or user research, or whatever the term du jour may be) has also become standard practice, as opposed to something exceptional or innovative. That means that designers are increasingly involved in using contextual research to inform their design work.
Ongoing acceptance of user research has increased the ranks of designers and others who feel comfortable conducting research. But analysis and synthesis is a more slippery skill set, and we see how easy it is for teams to ignore (more out of frustration than anything malicious) data that doesn’t immediately seem actionable. This workshop gives people the tools to take control over synthesis and ideation themselves by breaking it down into a manageable framework and process.
In this session, you'll:
Collaborate in teams to experience an effective framework for synthesizing raw field data.
Gain perspective on the difference between surface observations and deeper, interpreted insights.
Learn how to move from data to insights to opportunities.
Get techniques for generating ideas and strategies across a broad scope of business and design concerns.
Focus on individual and group analysis to create a top-line report.
Brainstorm on patterns, cluster analysis, and diagrams to rethink problems.
Prioritize findings and create new opportunities.
Championing Contextual Research in Your OrganizationSteve Portigal
More and more design organizations actively embrace a range of user-centered methods, including ways of getting input from users: surveys, A-B testing, focus groups, usability testing. But for many teams, when it comes to leaving the office environment and going out to meet and observe customers, there is significant resistance.
In this talk, Steve Portigal draws from his 17 years of selling contextual research into organizations, as well as primary research he's conducted with internal champions and change agents to break down the cultural, resource, and other factors that inform this resistance.
Steve will suggest ways to address these challenges and look at how you can maximize the result of every small victory, turning every fieldwork experience into an opportunity to do more!
Well, We've Done All This Research, Now What?Steve Portigal
One of the most persistent factors limiting the impact of user research in business is that projects often stop with a cataloging findings and implications rather than generating opportunities that directly enable the findings. We've long heard the lament "Well, we got this report and it just sat there. We didn't know what to do with it." But design research (or ethnography, or user research, or whatever the term du jour may be) has also become standard practice, as opposed to something exceptional or innovative. That means that designers are increasingly involved in using contextual research to inform their design work. Ongoing acceptance of design research has increased the ranks of designers and others who feel comfortable conducting user research. But analysis and synthesis is a more slippery skill set, and we see how easy it is for teams to ignore (more out of frustration than anything malicious) data that doesn't immediately seem actionable. This workshop gives people the tools to take control over synthesis and ideation themselves by breaking it down into a manageable framework and process.
Some of the most effective ways of understanding what customers want or need – going out and talking to them – are surprisingly indirect. Insights produced by these methods impact two facets of innovation: first as information that informs the development of new products and services, and second as catalysts for internal change. Steve discusses methods for exploring both solutions and needs and explores how an understanding of culture (yours and your customers) can drive design and innovation.
Between Filth and Fortune- Urban Cattle Foraging Realities by Devi S Nair, An...Mansi Shah
This study examines cattle rearing in urban and rural settings, focusing on milk production and consumption. By exploring a case in Ahmedabad, it highlights the challenges and processes in dairy farming across different environments, emphasising the need for sustainable practices and the essential role of milk in daily consumption.
Top 5 Indian Style Modular Kitchen DesignsFinzo Kitchens
Get the perfect modular kitchen in Gurgaon at Finzo! We offer high-quality, custom-designed kitchens at the best prices. Wardrobes and home & office furniture are also available. Free consultation! Best Quality Luxury Modular kitchen in Gurgaon available at best price. All types of Modular Kitchens are available U Shaped Modular kitchens, L Shaped Modular Kitchen, G Shaped Modular Kitchens, Inline Modular Kitchens and Italian Modular Kitchen.
Dive into the innovative world of smart garages with our insightful presentation, "Exploring the Future of Smart Garages." This comprehensive guide covers the latest advancements in garage technology, including automated systems, smart security features, energy efficiency solutions, and seamless integration with smart home ecosystems. Learn how these technologies are transforming traditional garages into high-tech, efficient spaces that enhance convenience, safety, and sustainability.
Ideal for homeowners, tech enthusiasts, and industry professionals, this presentation provides valuable insights into the trends, benefits, and future developments in smart garage technology. Stay ahead of the curve with our expert analysis and practical tips on implementing smart garage solutions.
Hello everyone! I am thrilled to present my latest portfolio on LinkedIn, marking the culmination of my architectural journey thus far. Over the span of five years, I've been fortunate to acquire a wealth of knowledge under the guidance of esteemed professors and industry mentors. From rigorous academic pursuits to practical engagements, each experience has contributed to my growth and refinement as an architecture student. This portfolio not only showcases my projects but also underscores my attention to detail and to innovative architecture as a profession.
Transforming Brand Perception and Boosting Profitabilityaaryangarg12
In today's digital era, the dynamics of brand perception, consumer behavior, and profitability have been profoundly reshaped by the synergy of branding, social media, and website design. This research paper investigates the transformative power of these elements in influencing how individuals perceive brands and products and how this transformation can be harnessed to drive sales and profitability for businesses.
Through an exploration of brand psychology and consumer behavior, this study sheds light on the intricate ways in which effective branding strategies, strategic social media engagement, and user-centric website design contribute to altering consumers' perceptions. We delve into the principles that underlie successful brand transformations, examining how visual identity, messaging, and storytelling can captivate and resonate with target audiences.
Methodologically, this research employs a comprehensive approach, combining qualitative and quantitative analyses. Real-world case studies illustrate the impact of branding, social media campaigns, and website redesigns on consumer perception, sales figures, and profitability. We assess the various metrics, including brand awareness, customer engagement, conversion rates, and revenue growth, to measure the effectiveness of these strategies.
The results underscore the pivotal role of cohesive branding, social media influence, and website usability in shaping positive brand perceptions, influencing consumer decisions, and ultimately bolstering sales and profitability. This paper provides actionable insights and strategic recommendations for businesses seeking to leverage branding, social media, and website design as potent tools to enhance their market position and financial success.
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Sameer Chavan
Connecting Through War Stories
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Click to edit Master title style“We’re wired for story. In a culture of scarcity and
perfectionism, there’s a surprisingly simple reason we
want to own, integrate, and share our stories of
struggle. We do this because we feel the most alive
when we’re connecting with others and being brave
with our stories.” Brené Brown, Rising Strong
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www.portigal.com/
category/series/
warstories
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Click to edit Master title styleDoorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries
rosenfeldmedia.com/books/user-research-war-stories/
Interviews with in-house user research leaders
portigal.com/podcast/
Interviewing Users
rosenfeldmedia.com/books/interviewing-users/
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Click to edit Master title styleDoorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries
rosenfeldmedia.com/books/user-research-war-stories/
Interviews with in-house user research leaders
portigal.com/podcast/
Interviewing Users
rosenfeldmedia.com/books/user-research-war-stories/
10. ‹#› Portigal
Click to edit Master title styleThey Call Me Mister
Elaine Fukuda
touchtons.wordpress.com
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It's okay to walk away
Call a timeout
Use the breaks you are given
The unexpected can reveal new truths
Improvise
14. 14
Prepare for the experience of the interview
Consider your assumption about the
environment
Be present in your surroundings
Include the rich data from the environment
Learn from your mistakes
17. Portigal
“Vulnerability is not winning or losing; it’s having the
courage to show up and be seen when we have no
control over the outcome. Vulnerability is not weakness;
it’s our greatest measure of courage.”
Brené Brown, Rising Strong