DIS2002: Viant gets Taken to Task by User-Centred Design Experts

Are design companies practising what they preach? 'The consultancy claimed publicly that it employed a user-centred process' Richard Anderson of Viant told the "Designing Interactive Systems" conference audience, but the framework which purportedly made its process user-centred 'was not well understood, was not often used and, in some offices, was severely ridiculed.'

He and colleagues Jennifer Crakow and Jay Joichi described a company where, despite claims of multidisciplinary working, strategy, creative and technology staff mostly operated separately in developing projects, meeting primarily for status reports. Culture was hard to change on a company-wide scale as offices had developed 'distinct personalities and approaches.'

Transplanted from a Viant office on one coast of the US where practice was more integrated, Anderson came in to disseminate new thinking at an office on the other side of the country where people were less motivated to work in this way. He described a process of observation, laying groundwork for collaboration and then introducibg a couple of projects to be handled by teams working in a more integrated way and involving prototyping with users from an early stage. In a project on personal media management, anthropological models were used, including visits to people’s homes, followed by storytelling, brainstorming and frequent mock-ups.

When Anderson and colleagues were no longer working in the office and had been replaced by local personnel, there was a tendency for the project team to revert to its old ways of development, despite clear enthusiam for the methods it had been using. To improve the chances of real culture change, Anderson recommended:
* increased involvement of people in other offices in the development of the more collaborative, user-centred processes,
* changes to antiquated role definitions to increase their focus on user experience,
* executive acknowledgement of the efforts and announcement of associated responsibilities within the company, and
* development of coaches in all offices who would be available to support projects for their duration.

He concluded that there could never be enough attention paid to cultural and political aspects of how people are working together in the design process.

All change at the top for System Concepts
Source: System Concepts Ltd, 3 July 2009
 
Leslie Fountain has been promoted to joint Managing Director of leading usability consultancy System Concepts.

Life in UCD immortalised in fiction: you couldn't make it up
Source: UN, 2 July 2009
 
Sarah Herman's fictitious book on life in a user-centred design company has hit the shelves and The Guardian's book pages...

Interfaces Magazine - Issue 79: The Education Issue
Source: Interaction Group, 1 July 2009
 
The latest issue of Interfaces is now available as a free download from the Interaction Website.

Two new Behavioural research Tools from Noldus
Source: UN, 30 June 2009
 
Tool updates make on-site behavioural data collection easier.

Cell Phones that Listen and Learn
Source: MIT Technology Review, 29 June 2009
 
New software tracks a user's behavior by monitoring everyday sounds.

Top Six Don’ts for Usability Testing
Source: FutureNow Inc., 27 June 2009
 
Six tips for creating quality usability tests to ensure useful feedback from testers.

Usability: ‘Lovely software. But I can’t work it’
Source: FT.com, 26 June 2009
 
In a recent survey by Global Graphics, 77 per cent of office workers estimate they lose up to one hour a week because business software is difficult to use.

And what do you do?
Source: Dexo Design, 25 June 2009
 
How do you describe your job role? Here are the results of a recent 'Preferred UX/UI Title' Poll.

Most Doctors cite Usability as critical to Electronic Health Record Adoption
Source: TMCNet, 24 June 2009
 
It's all about 'meaningful use'.

Glossy monitors look good but can hurt
Source: QUT, 23 June 2009
 
A new advisory cites research which suggests high gloss monitors make users sit awkwardly.