Design Critique

Simon Barnard from Cosmic Hobo Productions joins Tim Keirnan and Chad Esselink to discuss the design of The Scarifyers audio adventures as heard on BBC 7. Combining old time radio detective and horror stories with X-Files mystery and dry English humor, The Scarifyers have been "saving Great Britain since 1936"--sometimes in spite of themselves. How does the script, the music, the artwork, and the acting come together to create the experience?

You can find The Scarifyers at
www.CosmicHobo.com

You can learn about Nicholas Courtney (Inspector Lionheart) at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Courtney

You can learn about Terry Molloy (Professor Dunning) at
http://www.terrymolloy.co.uk/

Learn about Hugo Pratt's historical fiction at
http://cortomaltese.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Pratt

Jeremy Keith from Clearleft discusses his session at 2008's UI13 conference called Ajax Design Considerations that Tim attended. What do UX professionals need to know about Ajax to best make use of it in websites and web applications? And why is Jeremy's title at Clearleft currently "Lineman for the County"?

You can find Clearleft at
http://clearleft.com/

Check out the 2009 dConstruct conference at
http://2009.dconstruct.org/

UI14 is coming this November and you can learn more about it at
http://www.uie.com/events/uiconf/2009/

The Wikipedia entry for Jimmy Webb's classic song "Wichita Lineman" is at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wichita_Lineman

Doug Jung joins Tim for a discussion of the Macintosh they built with the EFI-X V1 boot processing unit. The product enables the building of your own custom Macintosh and works somewhat as advertised, but reputed poor durability and consistently poor customer service from Art Studios Entertainment Media ruin what could have been a terrific customer experience. We even have a Fawlty Towers clip to illustrate ASEM's customer service style.

You can find pictures of the V1 at the symbolically unusable EFI-X website on
www.efi-x.com
(we're so disgusted with EFI-X that we won't directly link to them, you'll have to type the address manually)

Unfortunately, you must register on the efi-x.com forums to read the complaints customers are having with the unit's fragile nature and ASEM's astounding indifference to the many valid criticisms of the product.

To read alternate, and in our opinion more accurate, information about the EFI-X V1 and V1.1, and to find possible alternatives, go to
www.efixusers.com

Email from listener Alan closes the episode.

For the 4th anniversary episode of Design Critique, Michael Graves and Tony Hron from the Michael Graves Design Group join Timothy Keirnan to discuss product design:

* The wine glasses that [yellow tail] wines commissioned Michael Graves to make for their new wine[tails] mixed drinks. Pix will be at the show's blog page as soon as they are released.

* Tim's Hamilton Beach 6-Speed Hand Mixer, a part of the Michael Graves Design collection at Target stores. Pix are at the blog page now, DesignCritique.net.

* General design discussion.

* Designing for accessibility in a world that still does not value universal design as it should.

Tim closes the episode with some listener feedback and his own reflections on doing the show for the past four years.

The press release for the wine glasses is at
http://www.pitchengine.com/free-release.php?id=35057

Michael Graves' firms are at
http://www.michaelgraves.com/

Wikipedia entry about Mr. Graves, focusing more on his architecture:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Graves

Michael Graves designs at Target:
http://www.target.com/b/ref=sc_iw_r_1_0?node=1060502

The [yellow tail] website is
http://www.discoveryellowtail.com

The [yellow tail] twitter address is
http://twitter.com/yellowtail_usa

Listener Alan's review site for iPod Touch/iPhone apps for young children is
http://atouchoflearning.com/

When the final photos of the wine glasses we talked about are available, they will appear in the artwork for this episode.

Thanks for listening for the past four years, folks. Write a review of the show on iTunes if you'd like to help us celebrate.

Colin Finkle from www.finkle.ca returns to discuss redesigning the blog page for the show. This episode is the sequel to DC56, and you might want to hear that one first before hearing this one.
In this second part of the series, Tim (in the role of client) tells Colin (in the role of consultant) what he envisions for the new blog page. Based on this episode, Colin will create a third mockup to display in a future episode along with the "client-free" mockups done by Colin on his own.
Amidst the discussion, Tim rants against those who disdain a typeface even though context may justify its use for a specific goal. Since when did joining form with function become unfashionable? Should design teams allow some elitist snobs' whims of fashion dictate what typefaces should and should not be used for a purpose?

Mike Elledge of MSU's Usability & Accessibility Center joins Tim for a freewheeling, after-dinner discussion about accessibility in product designs. What is it, why should we care, and how do we achieve it? This episode explores the fundamental concepts of accessibility.

You can reach Mike at
ELLEDGE (followed by the at sign) MSU dot EDU.

The MSU Usability & Accessibility Center is at
http://usability.msu.edu/

The W3C Web Accessibility initiative is at
http://www.w3.org/WAI/

Web Accessibility In Mind is at
http://webaim.org/

Section 508 guidelines are at
http://www.section508.gov/

CSUN Conference is at
http://www.csunconference.org/index.cfm?EID=80000144

Accessing Higher Ground Conference is at
http://www.colorado.edu/atconference/

The Blind Webbers listserv is at
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/blindwebbers/

The Web Axe podcast on accessibility is at
http://webaxe.blogspot.com/

Tim Keirnan interviews Jim Jacoby of Manifest Digital about "big picture" UX  and our ideal place inside companies. Jim's presentation  was called "Interaction Designers As The Next Generation of Business Leaders". Recorded at Internet User Experience 2009 on April 1st, Jim told us the following points:

* Why interaction designers should be the next generation of business leaders inside our companies.

* How traditional "business players" in companies have become commodities.

* Why "the creatives" in companies should step forward and help their companies innovate at the highest levels, not passively remain in the background.

* The danger of being an introvert while "empty megaphones" from other areas may lead your company in non-customer, unauthentic, non-innovative directions.

As a provocatively sincere and friendly revolutionary, Jim tells us about all this and more, including the importance of being "in the moment" with our end users/customers and coworkers.

Manifest Digital is found at
http://manifestdigital.com

Jim's blog, Everlasting Now, is at
http://www.everlastingnow.com

The "mindful walking" exercise Tim mentioned came from his experience at Peaceful Dragon School in Ann Arbor:
http://www.peacefuldragonschool.com/ConsciousWalking.cfm

At Internet User Experience 2009, Tim Keirnan interviews Dr. Susan Weinschenk about her new book, Neuro Web Design: What Makes Them Click. How does the human brain process website use, and what can Web design teams do to better design websites for the subconscious as well as conscious mind? Recorded on April 1st, 2009, Dr. Weinschenk provides a brief overview of her book's themes and answers Tim's questions from her presentation earlier that day.

Dr. Weinschenk's website for the book is
www.neurowebbook.com

Make sure you visit the Fun Stuff tab to find her podcast and blog!

Susan works at Human Factors International, which you can find at
www.humanfactors.com

Finally, Deanna wrote to tell listeners about Zero Ink, an innovation for printing full color without the need for ink because the paper contains the colors. There's a contest ongoing for all you print design professionals at
www.Zink.com

This is the first episode in a series wherein host Tim and listener/volunteer Colin redesign the blog page for the show at www.DesignCritique.net.  Our process for this "case study in the making" is:
1. Colin designs a new look and feel using only his impressions as a long-time listener of the show, with no input from "the client" (Tim). Tim wants to see what Colin would do without any input from "the client".

2. Colin interviews Tim to ask questions he normally would ask a new client (this here episode, in fact) regarding branding opportunities for and background of Design Critique.

3. Colin iterates his "client-free" design based on what he learns in this interview.

4. Tim, still not having seen Colin's first two designs, tells Colin his own goals for the new blog page, including both big picture concept and nitpicking details.

5. Colin creates a design based only on Tim's (the client's) needs.

6. Tim views all three designs, which will be shared with the listeners.

7. Colin and Tim debate the merits of the three designs and invite listeners to help evaluate their strengths and weaknesses through several UX methods.

8. A final design is iterated and put into production.

You can find Colin's website at
www.finkle.ca

Tim interviews Sam Ng from New Zealand's own Optimal Usability about the design and development of Optimal Workshop. This UX design suite combines three applications, including OptimalSort which we talked about in DC42, and we hear how a UX research and design consultancy becomes a product developer. What's it like to walk the UX talk we tell our clients when they create products? Listen up and find out!

Optimal Workshop is at
www.optimalworkshop.com

Optimal Usability is at
www.optimalusability.com

New Zealand isn't just about cool accents, great UX practitioners, and beautiful sights, though. No sirree. There's a whole tradition of innovative and very top-quality music from this small country at the bottom of the world.
Hear ye! We close this episode with a full song from a great New Zealand musician, Phil Judd. His self-published "Novelty Act" album in 2006 is still the best album Tim has heard in a very long time. Phil Judd co-founded Split Enz in the mid-70s with Tim Finn, was the driving force behind later bands The Swingers and Schnell Fenster, and has done terrific soundtracks as well. "Falling Off A Cloud" is one of Phil's more upbeat numbers, but the amazing "Novelty Act" album is full of classic Judd variety: fun poppy weirdness, hard-rockin' weirdness, sensitive and tragic ukelele weirdness... just catchy, infectiously complex pop genius.

http://profile.myspace.com/philjuddmrphudd

www.PhilJudd.com

Recorded live at the poster session of Michigan Tech's first World Usability Day event! Tim Keirnan interviewed the student teams about their posters, the projects behind the posters, and the processes they followed to ensure that project deliverables were useful and usable for end users.

The date was November 13, 2008. The place was Michigan Technological University's Memorial Union. Listen to this episode with headphones and feel like you're really there...yep, this episode's in stereo.

Thanks to the students who talked to Design Critique about their projects. Thanks also to Karla Kitalong and the WUD-U.P. volunteers, Bob & Evie Johnson, Chad Esselink, and the Ford Motor Company.

Finally, here's the Wikipedia entry on Yogi Berra, whom listener Brian in Colorado mentioned in his email.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogi_Berra

Dave Mitropoulos-Rundus joins Tim Keirnan to discuss the upcoming Internet User Experience 2009 conference. IUE2009 will be held March 31 through April 2, 2009, in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Visit the conference website for details at
www.iue2009.com

Brian Matt, founder and CEO of product innovation firm Altitude, Inc., joins Timothy Keirnan for a discussion of how Altitude designed the award-winning Worksite Radio for DeWalt.

You can find Altitude here:

www.altitudeinc.com


DeWalt DW911 Worksite Radio/Charger links include the following:

http://www.idsa.org/catalyst/case_studies/2004/index.aspx

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/05/06/idea2005/source/152.htm

Recorded October 14th, 2008.

Tim Keirnan interviews Jeff Patton at User Interface 13 in Cambridge, MA, on October 15th, 2008, after Jeff's full-day seminar "Bringing User-Centered Design Practices Into Agile Development Projects".

You can find Jeff at
http://agileproductdesign.com

We conclude with email from Jan in Germany, Francisco in Portugal, and Andy from England. You can learn about UXLondon at
http://uxlondon.com

Finally, Jan's video blog, IA Television, is here:
http://iatelevision.blogspot.com

Thanks to User Interface Engineering for sponsoring this particular episode.

Hi everyone,
Thanks for listening to Design Critique over the past year. 2008 was fun and I have three episodes in post-production right now for 2009. The photo is from the holiday card I sent this December to family and friends, and I thought why not share it with the listeners. I don't know who all of you are or where you are, but I appreciate that you're out there. I wish a useful, usable, and enjoyable new year to all of you.

Best regards,
Tim