2013

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Optimizing UI icons for faster recognition

Boxes and Arrows

'What makes an icon a valuable addition to the interface, rather than a mere decorative element? Intuitiveness, aesthetic value, memorability, intercultural perception? While an effective icon would combine many of those characteristics, I’d like to focus on one measure–speed of recognition, or how fast a specific icon can be discovered and identified.

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Piloting Into the Future: Solar Impulse

Bill Fischer

'The future has often been built by those who are a bit out ahead of the rest of us; not afraid to dream, and perseverant enough to ensure that their dreams are realized. In the process, we all move forward as well. This is how change occurs, and this has been particularly well-illustrated in the accomplishment of man''s dreams of flying, as seen in the successes of such larger than life characters as: the Wright brothers; Billy Mitchell; Eddie Rickenbacker; Frenchman Louis Blériot (1872-1936,

Change 89
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Government is a service

Xplaner

'The purpose of government is to serve the people. Thomas Jefferson and Mao Zedong may not agree on much, but they do agree on this. “The purpose of government is to enable the people of a nation to live in safety and happiness. Government exists for the interests of the governed, not for the governors.” ~ Thomas Jefferson. “We serve the people… If, in the interests of the people, we persist in doing what is right and correct what is wrong, our ranks will surely thrive. ~ Mao Zedong.

56
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Innovating When Opportunity Knocks

Technology Created

“Too often, the opportunity knocks, but by the time you push back the chain, push back the bolt, unhook the two locks and shut off the burglar alarm, it’s too late.” – Rita Coolidge. Being a technologist is all about solutions. OK, it’s about a lot more than that. It’s also about timing, effectiveness, innovation and using the right blend of technology to address the specific problem space.

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15 Modern Use Cases for Enterprise Business Intelligence

Large enterprises face unique challenges in optimizing their Business Intelligence (BI) output due to the sheer scale and complexity of their operations. Unlike smaller organizations, where basic BI features and simple dashboards might suffice, enterprises must manage vast amounts of data from diverse sources. What are the top modern BI use cases for enterprise businesses to help you get a leg up on the competition?

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Survey Results: How Does Your Organization Stack Up?

Innovation Leader

We asked innovation executives about the innovation function at their organizations. Results cover topics like metrics, reporting to the board, and internal versus external focus.

Survey 40
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Brands in Memoriam 2013

CorporateIntel

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos made a spectacular impact recently when he went on 60 Minutes the day before Cyber Monday and gave us a glimpse at the future—a fleet of small delivery drones he branded Prime Air. It was a bold statement, and whether intended or not an incomparable public relations move that got much of the nation talking about his online retail company at precisely the most important time of year for consumer purchasing.

Video 40

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In Defense of Floppy Disks: The Vocabulary of the Interface

Boxes and Arrows

'I work on interfaces used by college students to search for academic articles. Librarians buy these databases. Librarians happen to be wonderful clients to build products for because they always let you know what they don’t like. A few years ago, my department started hearing complaints about the “save” icon on our interface. The librarians were concerned that, since college students had never seen floppy disks, they wouldn’t know what the icon meant.

Survey 111
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Let Them Pee: Avoiding the Sign-Up/Sign-In Mobile Antipattern

Boxes and Arrows

This is an excerpt from the upcoming Android Design Patterns: Interaction Design Solutions for Developers (Wiley, 2013) by Greg Nudelman. Anything that slows down customers or gets in their way after they download your app is a bad thing. That includes sign-up/sign-in forms that show up even before potential customers can figure out if the app is actually worth using.

Design 108
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A Stakeholder Interview Checklist

Boxes and Arrows

This is an excerpt from from Kim Goodwin’s excellent Designing for the Digital Age. It is quite long, so we’ve broken it into several sections. Many thanks to Ms. Goodwin and Wiley for allowing us to share this with our readers. Understanding the Business. The General Stakeholder Interview. The Marketing Stakeholder Interview. The Engineering Stakeholder Interview.

Project 106
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Is the iPad mobile?

Boxes and Arrows

'My Android phone died on the train when I was several stops away from my destination. I should have remembered where I was supposed to get off, but, like everyone else, I rely on technology to offload cognitive processes when I should be using my brain. Wait, I thought, I have both my iPad and my laptop in my backpack. I felt ridiculously conspicuous pulling out either just to check Google Maps.

Design 102
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Prepare Now: 2025s Must-Know Trends For Product And Data Leaders

Speaker: Jay Allardyce, Deepak Vittal, and Terrence Sheflin

As we look ahead to 2025, business intelligence and data analytics are set to play pivotal roles in shaping success. Organizations are already starting to face a host of transformative trends as the year comes to a close, including the integration of AI in data analytics, an increased emphasis on real-time data insights, and the growing importance of user experience in BI solutions.

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An Open Letter to Project Managers

Boxes and Arrows

'Dear Project Managers, It has been a very enjoyable experience working with everyone over the last couple of months and sharing our ideas on UX design. The various discussions about user interface, product usability, and user engagement have been an enlightening experience for me as well, and it is very positive to see that everyone involved in the product thinks so highly about improving the user experience.

Project 98
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Conceptual Models in a Nutshell

Boxes and Arrows

This article explains what conceptual models are and describes the value of developing a conceptual model of a software application before designing its user interface. Conceptual Model: a Model for Users’ Mental Model. A conceptual model of an application is the model of the application that the designers want users to understand. By using the application, talking with other users, and reading the documentation, users build a model in their minds of how to use the application.

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A Truly Ambitious Product Idea: Making Stuff for People

Boxes and Arrows

'When I was eleven, my parents bought a Mac Plus. It had a tiny monochrome screen, a floppy drive, and 1MB of memory. And it came with something called HyperCard. HyperCard let you make stuff. It had documents called stacks , each a series of cards – similar to PowerPoint today. In addition to graphics and text, you could create buttons and tell them what to do – flip to another card, show or hide an object, and so forth.

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Emotional Design with A.C.T. – Part 2

Boxes and Arrows

'Back in Part 1 , we looked at how the emotions expressed by people and products communicate personality traits over time. We also learned that customers are attracted to things that have an aesthetic personality that’s similar to their own, 1 but they prefer products that take on a complementary role during interaction. 2. In Part 2, we’ll look at how relationships are formed when people interact with products over time, and we’ll explore how people experience the emotion of “love.

Design 95
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How To Select the Right Software for Innovation Management

Finding the right innovation management software is like picking a racing bike—it's essential to consider your unique needs rather than just flashy features. This oversight can stall your innovation efforts. Download now to explore key considerations for success!

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Context matters

Boxes and Arrows

'What makes a marketing e-mail or newsletter efficient? One can judge, for instance, by the number of users that opened the message or clicked on a specified element representing primary action, such as a product link or button. Those indicators measure user engagement precisely; however, they are limited to the last phase of interaction with e-mail or newsletter.

Study 91
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Your Boss Works for You

Boxes and Arrows

'This past June, I stood on the brink of achieving a major professional goal. The UX apprenticeship program I’d been working so hard on was going to begin on Monday. It was Thursday. On my desk lay a curious stack of paper labeled “Manager’s Onboarding Kit.”. Of all the things I’d planned for and anticipated about the apprenticeship program, becoming a manager was something I hadn’t even considered.

Project 89
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Information Architecture’s Teenage Dilemma

Boxes and Arrows

'Imagine if you will information architecture as a pimply-faced, malcontent teenager. IA is eager to express and redefine itself. It wants to be an individual yet accepted by its peers. It is simultaneously aggravated and apathetic about its parents, mentors, and role-models. It is a bit of a mess, but a wonderful, beautiful mess with endless opportunity and potential.

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Soldiers & Hessians, Ronin & Ninja

Boxes and Arrows

'When UX’ers talk, they tend to talk about process, but the ability to deliver an innovative user experience starts before kickoff and lasts after the launch. Repeatable success in UX depends on the right culture. This is particularly important in enterprise scale organizations, with long-lasting relationships. Having worked as a consultant, at an agency and in-house, I’ve observed that the organizational location and economics of the user experience team can make or break them.

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How To Set Up Innovation So That It Aligns With And Enables Corporate Strategy

Speaker: Paul Heller

Most innovation work proceeds independently from company strategy. As a result, the products that arrive in the market are not well aligned with the company’s goals. This challenge is particularly significant in organizations with transformation-oriented strategies, where innovation must directly support growth, scalability, and strategic pivots. In this session, we will discuss why innovation in large companies is so often not aligned with the company’s strategy and what innovation leaders, pro

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Researching User Experience: A Knowledge Ecology Model

Boxes and Arrows

'When we think of learning environments, we think of books, lectures, databases perhaps. But in my recent research, I discovered that the interactions we have with people in our networks play an even more important role in what we learn and how we turn information into actionable knowledge. All of the people in my study were learning how to be lecturers and how to progress their careers after spending considerable amounts of time as practitioners in a variety of industries such as business and m

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Are You Going Soft?

Boxes and Arrows

When was the last time you read your resume? Go ahead and give it a look. Read your last job description. It’s impressive, right? Chances are, you emphasize your accomplishments, your ability to create stunning deliverables, and your extensive knowledge of the user experience practice. Now, think back to your last project. But, ignore the deliverables and design ideas.

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Evolving a Creative Workplace: Step 1

Boxes and Arrows

'When a company or team experiences rapid growth, it’s exciting. But more often than not, that success comes with a price. Behind the scenes, leadership is faced with the challenge of frantically filling positions to meet the escalating client demand, teams are asked to gel quickly and work around the clock to hit client deadlines, and ultimately the quality of deliverables suffers.

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An Answer to the Pains of Integrating Agile and UX

Boxes and Arrows

'I recently attended UXPA 2013 in D.C. Although I was attending as a sponsor/exhibitor for Indigo Studio, I did manage to break away to go to the “There’s more than one way to skin a cat: Integrating UX into an Agile environment” session. It tied in quite nicely with the book I’m reviewing here. As sometime director of Design at Infragistics, I personally have had first hand experience trying to integrate UX into an existing, established Agile engineering process with large-ish teams.

Agile 80
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Driving Responsible Innovation: How to Navigate AI Governance & Data Privacy

Speaker: Aindra Misra, Senior Manager, Product Management (Data, ML, and Cloud Infrastructure) at BILL

Join us for an insightful webinar that explores the critical intersection of data privacy and AI governance. In today’s rapidly evolving tech landscape, building robust governance frameworks is essential to fostering innovation while staying compliant with regulations. Our expert speaker, Aindra Misra, will guide you through best practices for ensuring data protection while leveraging AI capabilities.

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Going Beyond “Yes – and…”

Boxes and Arrows

'My first experience in improvisational comedy was in 1989. I was a freshman at Texas A&M University. Some of the students in the theater department decided to get an improv troupe started and somehow talked me into joining them. In the beginning, I was petrified to perform without a script. Looking back now, I can see just how much improv has taught me and how it informs the decisions I make when working with a project team to create a cohesive user experience.

Project 80
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Building the In-house Design Agency

Boxes and Arrows

'The first article discussed the pros and cons of different UX team structures. For companies that depend on user experience for business success, a strong internal team is essential. But how do you get there from here? Having built one UX group from scratch and managed another 230+ person internal UX groups, I’ve learned a few tips, often the hard way, that can help.

Design 79
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Site Speed and Usability

Boxes and Arrows

Did you know usability tests have shown that the maximum number of seconds a user is willing to wait, on average, before abandoning a web page, is 8.6? If that number surprises you, it should. The study took place in 1994. The bar is exponentially higher now for people involved in website user experience design and development when it comes to load speed.

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Clicking Fast and Slow

Boxes and Arrows

'Through social psychology and cognitive science, we now know a great deal about our own frailties in the way that we seek, use, and understand information and data. On the web, user interface design may work to either exacerbate or counteract these biases. This article will give a brief overview of the science then look at possible ways that design and implementation can be employed to support better judgements.

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HR Meets AI: The New Way of Keeping Large Workforces Connected and Engaged

Speaker: Miriam Connaughton and Donald Knight

As organizations scale, keeping employees connected, engaged, and productive can seem like a monumental task. But what if AI could help you do all of this and more? AI has the power to help, but the key is implementing it in a way that enhances, rather than replaces, human connection. Join us for an exploration into how industry trailblazers are using AI to transform employee experience at scale while addressing both the potential and the pitfalls.

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UX One-liners

Boxes and Arrows

'A little background to start: I’ve had the honor of working as a designer-in-residence for General Assembly’s User Experience Design Immersive Pilot Program (UXDI) from June through July. Our team built, launched, and taught a UX course 5-days a week, 8-hours a day, for 8-weeks straight. It was quite the challenging, yet rewarding experience. However, learning from our approach, I found something about the way we bring people into the fold that we can stand to improve.

Design 78
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Drilling Into Lean UX

Boxes and Arrows

'Overall I found Lean UX to be an incredibly insightful and helpful compilation of principles and suggestions for practice/improving process and collaboration as outlined in my review of the book. As I was reading, though, I had some questions come up that I felt weren’t answered–or maybe I missed the answer. Since others may have these same questions, we appreciate Jeff Gothelf agreeing to answer them for Boxes and Arrows.

LEAN 78
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Becoming More Innovative in 2014

Bill Fischer

Organizations don't innovate, people do. Organizations that are admired for being especially innovative don't hire genetically different people than are available to the rest of us, they just make different managerial choices that allow their people to be more innovative. Leadership does this (or, doesn't), and, as a result, innovative [.

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Becoming More Innovative in 2014

Bill Fischer

Organizations don't innovate, people do. Organizations that are admired for being especially innovative don't hire genetically different people than are available to the rest of us, they just make different managerial choices that allow their people to be more innovative. Leadership does this (or, doesn't), and, as a result, innovative [.

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Best Practices to Streamline Compensation Management: A Foundation for Growth

Speaker: Joe Sharpe and James Carlson

Payroll optimization can be one of the most time-consuming and complex factors of small business management. Yet, organizations that crack the code on streamlining employee compensation often discover innovative avenues for growth. With the right strategies in place, outsourcing and streamlining payroll processes can result in substantial time and resource savings.