How can you broaden your sphere of influence within the field of human-computer interaction? You can start by building your muscles! Steve will take a look at some fundamental skills that underlie the creation and launch of innovative goods and services. He will discuss the personal skills that he considers to be “the muscles of innovators” and the ways you can build these important muscles, including noticing, understanding cultural context, maintaining exposure to pop culture, synthesizing, drawing, wordsmithing, listening, and prototyping. Along the way, he will demonstrate how improving these powerful skills will equip you to lead positive change.
5. Today’s Session I’ll review some of the muscles I think are important Noticing Listening Understanding cultural context Synthesizing Wordsmithing Drawing Embracing pop culture These muscles drive how we understand users, collaborate with each other, and create design solutions For each, at varying levels of detail What are we talking about Why does it matter How to build these muscles I’ll talk steadily for the first 40 min. or so, then we’ll have Q & A at the end
6. 1. Noticing Noticing the noticing sensation Things that make you go “Hmm” Your attention is grabbed You stop what you are doing Laugh/point/cringe Furrow brow in confusion Whuttha…?
7. Noticing Our Users Gaps between self-reported and actual behavior Workarounds, hacks and kludges Process breakdowns Artifacts or details to ask about Not only what people say, but how they say it
13. Building Noticing Muscles Carry a camera/notepad and use it Thinkaloud protocol – say what you’re seeing To a friend To your device Get out of your regular/comfort zone
20. Building Listening Muscles Use serendipitous encounters with loquacious taxi drivers, airplane neighbors, or social-cue-missing party chatters Even if we can’t repair society’s listening inequity, we can use it to provide endless practice space Are you talking to me?
23. Culture Defined How a group of people make sense of the world Common Experiences Beliefs Knowledge Values Attitudes Behaviors Meanings Patterns Symbols
24. But First: Cultural Norms Articulates what is normal Seen in artifacts Media Products Advertisements Street culture Trends and fads Normal isn’t “right or wrong” – it’s the set of background rules that define much of what people choose or ignore
28. Cultural Context Experiences With these examples, think about your own experiences with culture Is this outside your norm? Is this something you have an analog for in your own culture? Is it your own culture? Have you observed this? Or something similar?
42. Expert Synthesis Process 4 5 2 3 1 6 Objectives Findings User Experience Brief IdeationQuestions Possible Strategies Possible Solutions DetailedSolutions 7
43. 5. Wordsmithing Different than writing prose We draw on this when Writing PowerPoint Creating effective hyperlink labels Naming UI or product functionality Articulate findings about customer mental models (i.e., difference between automatic and smart)
48. Why Drawing? The more ways you have to work out ideas (alone or with others), the more impactful you will be Moving a pen on paper will to engage your brain (and your audience’s brain) in a different way than moving a mouse or typing on a keyboard
54. Building Drawing Muscles Draw It doesn’t matter that you “can’t draw” Kate Rutter calls it putting marks on paper to take the fear out of it Get other people to draw
55. 7. Pop Culture “Pop culture is a rich source of information that can often be crucial for our work. When the public begins to compare and contrast the voting for American Idol with voting for the American president, that’s something we want to pay attention to. Dismissing this cultural data by sniffing ‘I don’t watch American Idol’isn’t a relevant response.” Steve Portigal Living In the Overlap interactions, Sep+Oct 2008
63. Building Pop Culture Muscles Read/watch broadly yet shallowly Go outside your interests Not about being complete, but about expanding your base Skim, surf, flip – TV, RSS, headlines, publications, etc.