Design Thinking Digest

My Panels At MIX

Going to MIX? Want to see my panels? Here they are. They will also be taped and posted at the www.visitmix.com site.

Real World Design: Working with Silverlight and WPF in the Design Studio

Thursday, March 6 8:30 AM - 9:45 AM, Delfino 4001A 

Speaker(s): Beau Ambur (Metalliq), Chip Aubry (Tribal), Chris Bernard (MODERATOR), Nathan Dunlap (Identity Mine), Rich Weston (Neudesic)

Audience(s): Creative, Technical

Session Type: Panel

Silverlight and WPF represent a new way for designers and developers work together. But what happens in a professional practice that's focused more on employing designers than developers and using Macs versus PCs for much of their daily design work? Join us as we find out how practitioners from companies like Tribal, Projekt202, Metaliq and Identity Mine discuss the learning curves and the workflow that they adapted with their visual designers and rich interactive developers to get up to speed with Expression Studio, XAML and Silverlight. You'll hear the unvarnished truth about the challenges and rewards of how Silverlight is enabling the digital design practice.

What Is the face of the next Web?

Wednesday, March 5 1:30 PM - 2:45 PM, Delfino 4001A 

Speaker(s): Chris Bernard (MODERATOR), Paul Dain (Tribal), Anthony Franco (EffectiveUI), Tjeerd Hoek (Frog), Mark Kurtz (Gage), Garrick Schmitt (Avenue A | Razorfish)

Audience(s): Business, Creative, Technical

Session Type: Panel

Web 2.0 appeared almost overnight from innovative uses of technology to break through the traditional HTML/JS browser ceilings. But what comes next? What is the face of the next web? What are the expectaitons for user interaction and experience? What about a mobile web?

Touch Me: Where Are Interfaces Going?

Thursday, March 6 2:30 PM - 3:45 PM, Delfino 4101A 

Speaker(s): Chris Bernard (MODERATOR), Doug Cook (Thirteen23), Dale Herigstad (Schematic), Daniel Makoski (Microsoft), Yoshihiro Saito (2nd Factory), Dave Wolf

Audience(s): Business, Creative, Technical

Session Type: Panel

The keyboard and mouse are aging input devices. For the future of computing and UX, where are interfaces going? Are these enough? Is touch-screen Surface/iPhone/iPod Touch just a gimmick? Where should Man Machine Interface (MMI) go?

Technorati Tags: MIX08

Get inside the design mind at Microsoft

Colleague Will Tschumy created Design For Innovation months ago as a blog aggregator for a few of us. Those of you that would like to see more unfiltered commentary from folks inside Microsoft might enjoy it. Check it out.

Technorati Tags: design-for-innovation

Follow MIX2008 from home

Sadly, MIX2008 is sold out. But don't let that stop you from following all the announcements and sessions that are happening at MIX. We'll be live streaming all keynotes and sessions will be hosted online within 24 hours.

Starting the day of the event (March 5th) you'll be able to see content at: http://sessions.visitmix.com

Also be sure to check out the MIX Flickr feed.

You'll be able to see presentations from Steve Ballmer, Ray Ozzie, Scott Guthrie, Guy Kawasaki and Dean Hachamovitch unveiling the latest web-oriented products and technologies.

To see what sessions are coming you can browse a comprehensive program of sessions for designers, developers and business strategists led by industry experts.

I'm especially excited because Guy Kawasaki will there. Check out his blog and some of his thoughts on Avenue A | Razorfish's Digital Media Outlook Report. Great Stuff. BTW, also check out www.alltop.com. Great for those of us not on the RSS/ATOM bandwagon yet. I'd love to get in the ego category but of course if you have to ask...

Technorati Tags: Guy Kawasaki,Scott Guthrie,Steve Ballmer,Avenue A | Razorfish,MIX08

Beautiful Applications

Technorati Tags: Thirteen23,MixMe,Continuum

There's a great deal of talk about how Vista (when compared to Windows XP) doesn't provide value to most users. I think much of this stems for the fact that we have yet to see many applications that truly take advantage of the platform and have created applications that make us feel good when we use them.

Of all the numerous designers and firms I work with I'm not sure anyone understands that better (or is able to execute their vision better with WPF and Vista) that a firm by the name of Thirteen23.

Some of the folks from this firm will be sitting on one of my panels with me at MIX on next generation interfaces and I'm hoping I can convince them to show more of their work at SxSW this year too.

They've built two beautiful applications that show the power of Vista and the graceful and beautiful applications that can be built for it when one applies great design to our platform. As the Vista adoption curve matures I'm sure we'll continue to see firms like Thirteen23 prosper.

So what are the two applications they've created that I love so much? The first one is an update to their MixMe 07 application they created last year. This year they've focused on creating an elegant tool that let's me keep track of all of the sessions that I want to see this year. It's a great complement to our own Flotzam tool to keep track of the buzz at MIX. You can download it here.

The second application is a simple, yet elegant chat tool. I find myself using this over my other chat tools because I simply find it more pleasurable and easy to use. Called Continuum. You can download it here.

Silverlight 2.0: What you need to know

I try not to cross-post content that is available in abundance elsewhere but Scott Guthrie has put some detailed posts up on Silverlight 2.0. It's safe to presume that we'll be talking more about Silverlight 2.0 for the remainder of the year and Scott's post is a great place to start to get some updates.

Check out Scott's blog for details. Or see below for some great tutorials that can get you stared.

Part 1: Creating "Hello World" with Silverlight 2 and VS 2008

Part 2: Using Layout Management

Part 3: Using Networking to Retrieve Data and Populate a DataGrid

Part 4: Using Style Elements to Better Encapsulate Look and Feel

Part 5: Using the ListBox and DataBinding to Display List Data

Part 6: Using User Controls to Implement Master/Details Scenarios

Part 7: Using Templates to Customize Control Look and Feel

Part 8: Creating a Digg Desktop Version of our Application using WPF

Technorati Tags: Silverlight 2,Tutorials,Scott Guthrie

New content on brainstorming, interaction design and user observation

Technorati Tags: Innovation,interaction design,IxD,IxDA,brainstorming,user observation,Institute of Design

I've been dusting off some of my previous work on these three subjects in preparation for some workshops that I'm going to be doing in a few weeks. I've created a presentation for each topic and posted to www.slideshare.net/chrisbernard.

The topics are:

Innovation and interaction design. This gives a high-level overview of the processes and techniques that commonly used to design digital experiences today. However, I'll caveat thought and say I don't think the processes described can account for the impact we're seeing social media and it's inherent network effects reflected in the planning process. Something that we probably need to solidify a bit. Plus, I think this way of working (and the inherent artifact porn that is generated) is fundamentally too slow and far removed from the digital software and interfaces we build. We need to define new standards and demand more of our tools to become more effective and productive in this area.

Brainstorming. A simple overview of the concepts and techniques where I discuss the default method we used at the Institute of Design. It's doubtful you'll have tremendous success doing this the first time without a little help and alot of planning but once you can put a core team through this exercise a dozen or so times on different problems you'll find your design team becoming like an improv theatre group.

User Research. An overview of methods and a case study from work I did at the Institute of Design. Not a how to for collecting the information as much as instruction on what designers do WITH the collected information and why it's valuable. Slight tangent here. Agile methods and IxD are a hot topic these days and I think this presentation covers some of the value-adding components of design. Enjoy.

Do we need branded utilities

Technorati Tags: MIX,My Vegas,Branded Utility,Las Vegas,Silverlight

A big part of my shtick when I talk about Rich Platforms is that we'll all be using them in a few years if not sooner. I'd argue AJAX is a rich platform too but the real question is will the applications we live in today (social media, way-finding, etc.) eventually migrate (or become augmented by) richer technologies like Flex, Flash, AIR, Silverlight, WPF, etc.

Critical Mass takes a tender step into that area with a social application called My Vegas. It's goals are based on the following simple (and accurate) premise.

People go to Vegas to have fun and “be someone else”
People travel to Vegas in groups and often “converge” at a common destination

There's a whole bunch of tools (like Facebook and Twitter, etc.) that we can use to facilitate this right now, but what happens when we aggregate them? If and when this convergence happens what we're really talking about is branded utility. That's what My Vegas is all about. Now I'd love to see a version of My Vegas built on Silverlight to make this interface sing : ) but what stands out here has more to do with the approach to design than the application of technology--or rather the fit, polish and emotional response it engenders. All great things that marketers and technologists must strive to provide to distinguish itself in the online realm.

I'll be using My Vegas for a trip this week and during MIX to plan my events and keep in touch with my friends it's one of a number of great tools that I'll be taking advantage of while I'm at MIX (more on those other tools later).

IxDA Interaction08 Revisited

Technorati Tags: Chris Bernard,IxDA,Dan Saffer,David Armano,David Malouf,Jared Spool,Bill Buxton,SCAD

 

IxDA's first conference in Savannah was one of the most interesting conferences I've been to in the past 12 months. More than just about any other event I've attending recently I found folks here to be the most closely aligned to much of my thinking on design as it related to technology and the crafting of experiences. Just a few of the highlights included getting to spend some quality time with Bill Buxton and learn that Jared Spool, in addition to being an expert on usability is also accomplished with the art of the card trick (In the picture above he's showing David Armano a few tricks worthy of Ricky Jay).

From a social perspective the highlight of the event was a party that was sponsored by Microsoft on Saturday evening at the Savannah College of Design Gulf Center. A working production studio for the school it provided perfect mix of fun and design inspiration.

Finally, I think the organizers of this event are to be commended for their commitment to sharing the good words and thoughts of all the speakers at the event by posting videos in less than a week after the conclusion of the event (a model that all conferences should follow).

You can actually see some of the sessions for yourself.

There are many faces that were behind this successful event but special recognition should go to Dave Malouf and Dan Saffer for making this happen and getting all the right folks in place, they were supported by a great IxDA Board Membership (Most of whom I also got to spend quite a bit of time with) and I hope to see IxDA conferences become a regular occurrence.

Here's some of the sessions that are being hosted over at Brightcove.

Cinematic Interaction Design, Sarah Allen

The Design Ecosystem, Bill Buxton

Design for Flow, Dave Cronin

Device Art, Regine Debatty

Conversations with Everyday Objects, Bill DeRouchey

Hit It with the Pretty Stick, Jenny Lam

Don't Make Me Click, Aza Raskin

Concept Ideation and IxD, Gretchen Anderson

Experience Design, Convergence + The Digital Agency, David Armano

Effective Prototyping Methods, Jonathan Arnowitz

Classic Design Movements and IxD: Kissing Cousins?, Chris Bernard

Help Me! A New Approach to Support Interactions, Doug Bolin

Concept Models: A Tool for Planning Interaction, Dan Brown

An Insurgency of Quality, Alan Cooper

IxD for Community Empowerment, Carl DiSalvo

Self-Conscious Gaming, Andrew Hieronymi

Designing for the Other 99%, Morten Hjerde

Designing for SpaceTime, Building in No-Time, Matt Jones

Redesigning Sony-Ericsson's Product Catalog, Saskia Idzerda

Intervention-Interaction, Sigi Moeslinger

New Interaction Model for a Modular Personal Infotainment System, Sajid Saiyed

Strategic Boredom, Molly Wright Steenson

Interaction Across Disciplines, Michele Tepper

Ethics of Everyday Design, Gabriel White

User Interface Design in an Agile Environment: Enter the Design Studio, Jeff White and Jim Unger

Fieldwork and Sketching: Translating Research Themes into Conceptual Designs, Susan Wyche

The Ultimate Mash-Up: Stephen P. Anderson and Design

Technorati Tags: Stephen P. Anderson,Design,Star Wars,The Force Behind Star Wars,George Lucas

Any one that is active in local communities such as Refresh or IxDA or has attended an Adaptive Path conference has some passing experience with Stephen P. Anderson. Stephen just went out to start his own thing recently after a tenure at Sabre and I think he's one of our most cogent thinkers in the design space. But he also knows how to have fun in going about that inspiration. See the presentation below for example. Back in December I had a chance to see George Lucas speak in Chicago at the Chicago Economics club and Stephen does a pitch perfect job of telling this story the same way that George does but also includes his design focused spin. I'd LOVE to hear Stephen give this presentation.

| View | Upload your own

In Microsoft many of my peers and I spend an inordinate about time developing the stories that talk about the importance of design. We spend a lot of time catering these messages to different audiences too. Now, more often than not, I point people towards some of the thinking Steve has done on this subjects, I'm not sure there's anyone out there right now that can put a more human face on design and it's value in such a delightful and accessible way.

If you get a chance to hear Steve talk, don't miss it.

One of my favorite things: STM

I'm a bag snob. But in a dorky way. For me it's all about computer bags. I cherish nylon. Generally I've focused on Brenthaven and Tumi over the years and as I'm not in much more of a jeans and t-shirts culture (Jack Victor was sad when I left IBM). I've found that my computer bag tastes have changed too. My current favorite bag company is STM. I have the bag pictured to the right. It's a perfect laptop bag and and economical bag to boot.

If I weren't in technology (or rather when I get tired of it this would be my dream gig, making the cool crap to carry my cool crap.