Column: Universal Usability

Stories are hot. And why not? We all know how to tell a story. Stories are a lot more interesting than most other ways of sharing information. And they work. Stories are a great way to introduce a concept in an imaginative way or sell an idea to your team or management.

Storytelling fits into the design process in many places. You probably know that collecting stories is key to user research and ensuring your UX designs tell a clear story makes the resulting user experiences better. But in this column, we’ll focus on that big moment when you have something to share and want everyone on your team to pay attention.

Here’s an example of a case where a story is worth a thousand arguments. All of us have likely been there:

You’ve been testing some concepts for a new product design. Your team is excited about the ideas. Unfortunately, your users aren’t. When you take this disappointing news to your team, your report is met with skepticism. They might say, “You must have found the only people on the planet who don’t love this idea.” Or perhaps, “Your tasks must have been wrong.” Or, “You’ve just misunderstood them.” You know the design concepts won’t work as they are, but you just can’t convince the team. Read More

This column, Universal Usability, will explore the social benefits of human-centered design and ways in which we can create better conversations that include more people.

I’m writing this while listening to news reports and public discussion about the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. The thought that keeps running through my head is this: the real disaster was not the storm, but our response to it.

The work of planning for crisis response may seem mundane. Long before a catastrophe, officials must prepare emergency and evacuation plans. To be ready for a disaster, they must make arrangements for essential needs like transportation, food, and shelter. This real-world, logistical planning is a lot less exciting than working on cutting-edge, high-tech systems like data mining for surveillance, but people’s lives depend on its being done well. Once a crisis occurs, officials must respond quickly, making and communicating the right decisions, organizing volunteers, and transporting supplies. And they need systems—both online and off—that help them do just that. We won’t know what really happened in the aftermath of Katrina for a while, but my guess is that people far from the daily reality of crisis response were seduced into thinking that technology could supply all the answers. Read More

I lost my address book recently. It was one of those near-death computer experiences where you see your data pass before your eyes and start searching through the trash, then the Web, hoping to find the information you need right now. The experience made me think about blame—and trust.

Here’s what happened. I was running late for a meeting and plugged in my Palm for a quick HotSync. You know the drill: one hand on the mouse, the other stuffing things into my briefcase, all while shrugging on my coat. Then, I got an error message. Something about having too many records and suggesting that I delete a few and try again. Distracted, I try removing old, completed tasks. A few quick clicks, and I’m hotsyncing again. That’s when it all went wrong, and I lost all of the information in my address book. Read More