Big Design Lecture #2

The second lecture I attended was "The Art and Science of Seductive Interactions" by Stephen Anderson. This lecture really went hand in hand with the previous lecture even though they were in separate tracks. In fact, the lecturer user the first speaker several times as an example.


Stephen did, however, use lots of examples with his points. I was amazed at all these hot web-site everyone in the audience had heard of that I haven't. Examples: iLike, Sabre, Doppler

Again, this was a demonstration in how sausages are made.

Big Design Lecture #1

The first lecture I sat in on at Big Design '09 was "What Makes The Click" with Dr. Susan Weinchenk. She was a psychology expert that walked the audience through understanding several quirks of the human brain and how to take advantage of that in design web applications. A few points she made:

1. Fear of Loss - The most primitive parts of our brain are more concerned about losing something we have than gaining something we don't have. This can be exploited by offering a product with all the features and letting the buyer remove them rather than giving them a base model and letting them add features. In the latter example, they'd be reluctant to lose the money for the upgrade.
2. The Bystander Effect - When placed in an uncertain situation ("which item should I buy?!") people tend to become followers. This is leveraged with user testimonials and buyer reviews.

At the end of the talk, I felt (as a customer) like I was let in on a secret I wasn't supposed to know about. Like walking in on a butcher while he's making sausages. Knowing your being manipulated and pulled in is such a turn-off, even when it's the subject of a lecture.

I chuckled thinking about what it would look like if we used these principles in the UI for the F-35. "An unknown entity has been detected. Click here if you want to learn more..."

Big Design Intro

This summer I'm taking a course in Service Oriented Computing. As a cold opener to the course, my class attended "Big Design '09" at SMU. This was an all-day conference that had multiple tracks talking about UX as it relates to software. What UX was they never said, but 10 hours of context clues makes me think it stood for "User Experience"

I'll save my over-all impressions for the end. What follows will be my summaries and impressions of each seminar I attended.

The Keynote Plenary was given by Norm Cox on "The UX Landscape" (again, never said what UX was :P) Norm gave a very interesting autobiography on his work with early computers using bitmap displays with the operating system. His work involved creating what could be thought of as the first desktop with icons. One of his most profound comments was that IBM recognized early on that the user interface is the most valuable touch-point between a user (customer) and the product.

At one point he talked about contracting with PizzaHut to overhaul their back-office system that instructed employees on how to build a pizza. This was extended to ensuring that when an order is taken, it's taken correctly. Although he didn't touch on it, this new UI was so simple that PizzaHut used it when they developed a web-service for ordering a pizza on-line. I know because I did that very thing not 3 days before the show. I remember thinking at the time, "This is a great setup they have here!"

Take-away points from his speech:
1. Beware the limitations of titles.
2. Be a 'jack of many (ui) titles, master of some"
3. Elevate and think strategically
4. Take advantage of opportunities.

Striving for a Charlie Brown Christmas

One of the top five descriptions I'd use to describe my paternal grandfather is that he loved Charles Shultz's Peanuts comic strip. As such, I remember watching a "Charlie Brown Christmas" at an early age. As a child, there's always that initial excitement of watching a cartoon, (especially at the grandparents ;)) but I distintively remember being disappointed. The plot didn't make sense, the animation was horrible, and the humor was over my head. And that was probably the last time I watched it in its entirety until this week. It is quite possibly the best seasonal movie I've ever seen. If my mere recommendation of it now has your interest peaked, I found it all on YouTube.

For the last three or four years Christmas has been a really hard time of year for me. I feel wound up and anxious and trying to think of twenty things twenty people can get me is frustrating and feels somehow wrong. The cartoon addresses this in its opening line -

"I think there must be something wrong with me, Linus. Christmas is coming, but I'm not happy. I don't feel the way I'm supposed to feel. I just don't understand Christmas, I guess. I like getting presents and receiving Christmas cards, and decorating trees and all that, but I'm still not happy. I always end up feeling depressed."

Charlie Brown tries to busy himself with holiday activities in the form of directing a Christmas play. I wish they would have developed the story on this Christmas play since it included an inn keeper, a Christmas Queen, and easy jazz music... Charlie Brown takes his job very seriously and becomes a bit of a task masker - the rest of the kids just want to dance to the jazz. Charlie Brown then tries to make it better with the infamous "Charlie Brown Christmas Tree" to which he is richly chastized. At his wits end, he cries out for someone, ANYONE, to explain the meaning of Christmas to which Linus gives his epic monologue:



I hope if you find yourself striving for things or activities this time of year, you slow down and remember the reason for the season. ;)

The New Love of My Life!

I'd like you all to meet Jonathan Reagan Faulk! He's due a full month earlier than thought! March 11. The technician says he looks very healthy - perfect brain, perfect spine, perfect stomach, perfect liver, and perfect kidneys. He's got a perfect.... err.... something else too! ;)

In the shots below Jonny is laying on his back with his head on the right side.





In this picture he raised his hand to his mouth...

This final shot is looking up between his legs...



I'm going to have a son!!!

Got Change For a Million?

If you've been to downtown Fort Worth on the weekends, chances are you've encountered a Christian organization handing out leaflets with a million-dollar bill on the front. If I recall correctly, they tie the question of where you go when you die with 'the million dollar question.' In the half-dozen times I've been to Sun Dance Square, I think I've seen them 3 or 4 times.

Turns out someone in Pennsylvania tried to make change with one of their leaflets at a grocery store. Here's the link.

Any idiot knows you have to go to the Federal Reserve to make change with your Clevelands.

Honeycomb Chifon Pie

Recently I made a pie for our Bible study. Here are pics of it...