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Design Critique: Products for People
Timothy Keirnan
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Mike Velasco joins Timothy Keirnan to critique the E-sds HDMI 2 Port KVM Switch Box. This item enables the use of two computers with a shared keyboard (K), video monitor (V), and mouse (M). The holistic excellence of this product is surprising.
When a company does the mundane as well as this product, it shows what can be done with all details gotten right. From its excellent user interface, to its rugged build quality, to its beautiful packaging, to its well-written and well-illustrated documentation, E-SDS did everything right. This is what a good team can accomplish when value, rather than cost, is the focus for the customer. It also proves that goods made in China can be of terrific quality. Even the sales entry on Amazon.com is done extraordinarily well and ,while this show does not have nor want affiliate links, we’re going to put the Amazon link here so you can see how well the catalog entry was done. It has all the photos and text one would need to make a good decision. https://www.amazon.com/Supports-Auto-scan-Hot-Key-Netware-HDMI1-4v/dp/B07DFFFPR7?ref_=bl_dp_s_web_11891183011
Paul Axente, host of meetup group UX City and producer of the new Design Conversations podcast, joins Tim Keirnan for a wide-ranging discussion about UX in Romania and other topics, including: * UX City's purpose and meetings * Paul's unique route to a UX career * The Design Conversations podcast * Dark patterns in online retail * Concerns about Amazon's long-term effects on customers and communities * Paul's reservations about "corporate command" in the design process * Ethics of design * Customer experience of the video game industry (it's bad) but the promise of independent gaming companies who design for great games and for customers instead of only to make money. * The trap of people confusing tools with design skills. "What is the best tool for design? YOU are the best tool for design."
If you are in Romania (and even if you're not!), look up UX City here: https://www.uxcity.net/
You can find the Design Conversations podcast in many places, including UX City.net and https://www.buzzsprout.com/245555
Dave Mitropoulos-Rundus returns to talk with Tim Keirnan about labels for our field. This continues our long-running friendly discussion about what we call our profession and why, and is there a difference--or should there be--between User Experience and Customer Experience? Dave appreciates the terminology differences whereas Tim wonders why we make such fine distinctions when at the root level we're all "Designers of Stuff".
Kelly Goto's excellent 2018 article: https://www.gotoresearch.com/2018/04/11/x-marks-the-spot-in-experience-design-thinking-ux-vs-cx-vs-service-design/
Jared Spool's excellent article published the day we recorded this episode. I think Jared's a mind reader! https://articles.uie.com/ux-and-cx-same-language-different-dialects/
NOTE: Tim regrets interrupting Dave too much in a shocking lapse of bad hosting etiquette...he was hopped up on cough syrup at the time of this recording, which you can hear in his deep head cold voice breaking worse than Peter's in that episode of The Brady Bunch. https://tv.avclub.com/the-brady-bunch-dough-re-mi-1798222209
Keith Instone and Serena Rosenhan both return to the show for an episode about UX and "buzzwordification". The last 3-4 years have seen a big rise in the use UX terminology in the media and among coworkers. What are the advantages and disadvantages for UX practitioners now that UX has become popular beyond academia and professional societies? Tim Keirnan sets up the roundtable discussion and the wisdom pours out of these two veteran UX professionals.
The fireplace crackling gets a bit loud at points but plying guests with food, drink, and fireplace ambience is part of our recording process. You can find Serena at www.linkedin.com/in/serenarosenhan
You can find Keith at https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithinstone/
Syed Ibrahim returns to the show to talk with Tim about his side project, Shoutouts.app. Syed's story of creating this web application is a terrific example of doing a minimum viable product. He candidly shares both advantages and disadvantages of releasing an MVP, and walks us through the details of having an idea, acting on it to create something that works at a basic level for a specific audience, and getting it out there to continue learning and enhancing it. You can find Syed at https://www.syedibrahim.me
One of the best definitions of MVP is from Frank Robinson who created the term around 2000, see http://www.syncdev.com/minimum-viable-product/
Ben Woods joins Tim Keirnan for a single point perspective on the Fiskars StaySharp Max reel mower. Needing neither gasoline nor electricity, this lawnmower is completely powered by the user to cut the lawn.
Ben discusses the values that led to his wanting this mower and his experience with it over several summer months of use. As usual we follow the critique structure to learn his experience with
- Encounter
- Decision
- Purchase
- Out of the Box
- Longitudinal Use
Ben can be found at www.dbenwoods.com.
Author Giles Colborne returns to Design Critique to talk with Tim Keirnan about the new second edition of Simple and Usable: Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design.
Simple and Usable is one of the best books on UX we've owned in our careers. The contents are simple and usable just as the title promises, and this is one book that both practitioners and stakeholders will benefit from reading.
Giles and Tim talk for 40 minutes about various topics including
- Giles' career having progressed along with the UX profession across the decades, moving from basic website design to service design to organizational design.
- The physical design of the book reflects the theme, and the publisher did not stray from the successful book design of the first edition.
- How "get out of the office" is still of prime importance today and the crucial importance of field research with our users.
- Types of users Giles has observed in his career: experts, willing adopters, mainstreamers.
- The seductive danger of relying on expert users in our designs.
- How Alan Cooper's method of Personas has been undermined by some practitioners' use of person-less personas when they haven't even talked with or observed actual users. How this risks the integrity of the design profession as much as a user-less usability test would.
- Working with stakeholders on design projects. Being teacher or facilitator as opposed to "persuader".
- Don't rush into design. Understanding what's core takes time.
Simple and Usable can be found at its entry on publisher Pearson/NewRiders site.
Mike Velasco joins Tim Keirnan for a critique of the Milwaukee 13" Jobsite Work Box. This tool box is oriented vertically in contrast with conventional tool box designs, which provides both advantages and disadvantages. While Mike enjoys the design and uses his tool box regularly, Tim has not been as impressed despite the numerous positives of the product's design and construction. This is why we do the show! Good designs of even "simple" products like a tool box cannot always please every user; people are so different.
As usual, we structure our critique around the following points: * Encounter * Decision * Purchase * Initial Impression (out of the box) * Longitudinal review
You can find the tool box at Milwaukee's site here: https://www.milwaukeetool.com/Products/Storage-Solutions/48-22-8010
Note that product photography usually involves very bright lighting, and in this case Tim was not expecting the interior to be as dark as the product photos appeared. The photo on the Design Critique blog page is not using a flash for a more accurate representation of what a user sees when looking into the box for tools along the bottom.
Jared Spool and Dana Chisnell join Tim Keirnan for a conversation about what Tim is calling the "buzzwordification" of UX. Has the increasing notoriety of this profession label helped us? Has it hindered us? Maybe it's a balance of pro and con. Maybe we just need to meet in a rental car in a parking garage somewhere in Dearborn and hash it out.
Jared can be found at User Interface Engineering and the Center Centre school. Check the UIE site for his upcoming appearances in a city near you.
Dana can be found at the Center for Civic Design. She is also, among many other wonderful things, the co-author of the legendary Handbook of Usability Testing 2nd Edition. She travels, too. Meet her if you can.
This is the second in a series of indeterminate length. While not linked in any way beside the topic, you may also be interested in listening to the first conversation in the series with Serena Rosenhan and Keith Instone.