Return of the wordcast! Timothy Keirnan was joined by Chris Farnum and Larry Rusinsky back in December 2007 for a discussion about card sorts. What are they, why do user experience professionals use them, and how are they sometimes done?

Mixed in with some theory is a lot of practitioner anecdotes–so much so that we divided this wordcast into two parts. Without getting into more exotic card sort methods, there was plenty of discussion to go around.

In part two, the cohosts will discuss tools for doing card sorts online, analyzing the data from card sorts, plus even more anecdotes.

Dave Mitropoulos-Rundus joins Timothy Keirnan for a discussion on the value of attending professional conferences, using the upcoming Internet User Experience 2008 conference as an example. Dave began IUE as a modest two-day combination of presentations and tutorials, but careful listening to customers has led to a much larger and diverse conference over the years. Tim and Dave discuss definitions and purposes of:

* Presentations

* Panels

* Tutorials

* Workshops

The website for Internet User Experience 2008 is www.internetuserexperience.biz Tim closes with advice for students: attend conferences while they are cheap for you due to student discounts. Learn, network, and have fun while you still have that student ID.

At User Interface 12, Timothy Keirnan interviews Kim Goodwin, Vice President and General Manager of Cooper, on November 7th, 2007. Kim’s presentations at User Interface 12 were “Integrating Design In Your Organization” and “Essentials Of Interaction Design”.

Points discussed include:

* Gardening as a metaphor for introducing improved design processes into an organization

* How the folks at Cooper define “design”

* Kim’s advice to isolated practitioners who are attempting to improve the design processes at their workplace, and how to maintain focus when your efforts start succeeding!

* Abundance thinking versus scarcity thinking, and the need for taking risks when trying to innovate

The books written by Alan Cooper are About Face and The Inmates Are Running The Asylum.

You can find Cooper’s website at
www.cooper.com

After the 15 minute interview, Tim concludes the episode with some feedback received from listeners.

Special thanks to User Interface Engineering (www.uie.com) for making this episode possible by sponsoring Design Critique at UI12.

While taking a short break from our UI12 conference interview series, Alan Sygrove joins Timothy Keirnan for a longitudinal review of Logitech’s mm50 iPod portable speaker system. As well as making incisive comments about the mm50, Alan compares Design Critique to My Dinner With Andre.

We also have some terrific feedback email from Eric, Brian, and Jesse. Season’s greetings to all you Design Critique listeners out there! If you want to get us a present here at Design Critique, we could use some more reviews about the show, either at the iTunes Music Store or anyplace else. Tell why you listen and what you want more of.

Here are some links to some other (older) reviews of the mm50 with more pictures (Logitech doesn’t have a page for it on their site anymore since the Pure Fi Anywhere succeeded the mm50):
http://playlistmag.com/reviews/2005/08/logitechmm50/index.php
http://www.mobiletechreview.com/iPod/logitech-mm50-speakers.htm

And here’s Logitech’s page for the mm50’s successor, the Pure Fi Anywhere:
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/speakers_audio/ipod_mp3_speakers/
devices/3290&cl=us,en

Timothy Keirnan interviews Gerry McGovern at User Interface 12 on November 5th, 2007, immediately after Gerry’s all-day seminar called How To Design A Task-Based Information Architecture: Essential Tips For Creating Customer-Centric Websites.

Points discussed include:

* “Words drive behavior.” Getting the right words is crucial to developing good Web content.

* Task-centric is customer-centric. Correct wording is essential to being customer-centric.

* The opposite of customer-centric is organization-centric. Organization-centric websites are not very helpful to customers.

* People often come to the Web to learn or to do something. So, design for impatience. Are your customers able to quickly and simply complete their tasks?

* Advertising often treats customers like Pavlov’s dogs. Many Web users see through manipulative ads and instead want useful knowledge that conveys something authentic about the good or service they’re after. Most ads are not perceived as authentically representing a good or service.

NOTE: When Tim says “marketing” in this interview, he should have said “advertising”. It was a terrific but long day 🙂

You can find Gerry’s website at
www.gerrymcgovern.com

Gerry’s most recent book is Killer Web Content at
www.gerrymcgovern.com/killer-web-content.htm

Special thanks to User Interface Engineering (www.uie.com) for making this episode possible by sponsoring Design Critique at UI12.

Tim interviews Mike Beasley, President of the Usability Professionals Association Michigan chapter, about the upcoming World Usability Day 2007. Also, UIE’s User Interface 12 conference is rapidly approaching and Tim will be there. Finally, the MSU School of Packaging answers listener Tom’s question about episode 35.

World Usability Day’s URL is
www.worldusabilityday.org

UIE’s User Interface 12 Conference URL is
www.uie.com/events/uiconf/2007

House Band Peter Grey sings Nothing. (Which is exactly what we have left as far as songs from Peter for future episodes.)

Tim interviews David Chmura, Chief Instigator of Humble Daisy, Inc., about the design of both Humble Daisy (the company) and ProfCast (the application). This episode has three parts:
1. HumbleDaisy’s vision, structure, and culture as a truly user-centered company.
2. ProfCast, the presentation recording application.
3. The design process Humble Daisy used to create ProfCast.

See ProfCast at www.ProfCast.com
See HumbleDaisy at www.HumbleDaisy.com

The book Getting Real that Tim refers to is at
http://gettingreal.37signals.com/

Listener Rachel mentioned Beau Brummel in her email to the show.

We close with a brief discussion of the band XTC, source of both Humble Daisy’s name and a lot of good music. Tim’s favorite XTC songs are Knuckle Down and Snowman, both from English Settlement. Dave loves the band too much to have a favorite song, but prefers their Skylarking album above most of the others. What is your favorite XTC song? Email the show from the designcritique.net home page and tell us. See XTC’s website at
www.xtcidearecords.co.uk

Peter Grey, where are you? Our house band seems to have disappeared.

Virtually all products,  from food to electronics,  come in some type of packaging. Who designs the customer experience of packaging and how? Join Tim on his visit to the Michigan State University School of Packaging.

The school’s website is www.packaging.msu.edu.

Addresses for Dr. Bix, Joe, and Javier are as follows (remove spaces and exchange AT for @ before sending):
Dr. Bix: bixlaura AT msu.edu
Javier: cjd AT msu.edu
Joe: fairjose AT msu.edu

Rousseau is a psychologist who does warning research. A citation
for one of his publications is:
Rousseau, G. K., N. Lamson, et al. (1998). “Designing Warnings to Compensate for Age-Related Changes in Perceptual and Cognitive Abilities.” Psychology & Marketing 15(7): 643-662.

Kea told us about the MX East conference in Philadelphia this October:
http://adaptivepath.com/events/2007/oct

Serendipity strikes! Fast Company magazine’s article on the new Barbie packaging is here:
http://www.fastcompany.com/multimedia/slideshows/content/mattels-123-barbie.html

Tim and Tom are joined by returning guest Serena Rosenhan for a critique of Panasonic’s NI-553R clothes iron. What did people in olden times use for ironing and how does the design of the modern-day NI-553R support the task? The gang discusses the merits of the design as well as problems found during its use, and reflects on the classic trade-off of convenience versus safety.

Also, email messages from Jorg and from house band Peter Grey, plus a startling revelation from Tom. We close with an absurd Bea Arthur song (Good Night, But Not Goodbye) from the infamous 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special, wherein she sang it to the cantina patrons (Peter Grey, please send us some more music so we aren’t tempted to do this again). Listeners will understand the relevance, such as it is.

For Design Critique’s 2nd anniversary episode, Tim and Tom are joined by Jared Spool from User Interface Engineering. Jared shares some of UIE’s recent research such as:
+ How UIE thinks user researchers should hold back on giving recommendations, but instead share the observations with the team and let them generate their own recommendations.
+ How UIE thinks user research is an important skill, but usability professionals are not necessary.
+ How UIE thinks usability labs are a senseless waste of glass and wood, instead preferring any ole’ conference room.

Tim and Tom share insights from their own experience regarding Jared’s points, and numerous similes and metaphors abound. A certain amount of whackiness ensues.

Rolf Molich, whom Jared mentions, can be found at www.dialogdesign.dk/cue.html.

Lisa Battle, whom Tim mentions, can be found at www.designforcontext.com.

User Interface Engineering is at www.uie.com.

It’s been a great two years! Tim and Tom would like to thank all the listeners for downloading the episodes, telling others about Design Critique, and sending us such fascinating feedback.