via Flickr
Since Apple debuted the New iPad, complete with the stunningly sharp retina display, the entire design and tech industries have been buzzing not only about potential for on-screen visuals, but also what this means for the future device landscape.
At Moment, we’ve been discussing the wondrous display, and following the discussion throughout the design community about how this is impacting digital product design. The full impact is far from settled, but what is clear is the future of digital design is now. We’re in a transition period, getting used to working with relatively low-resolution comps for something that will be produced at a much higher resolution.
But should we get stuck on that little hiccup? We think no. The retina display doesn’t change how we design for the fundamental interactions with devices, but it certainly impacts the finish quality, of the product we are creating. When thinking about the craft of creating things for onscreen, this is a different consideration than it was before the retina display. Working at this new resolution standard for the iPad is obviously not totally new because we have dealt with this iPhone’s retina display and several high-res Android devices. It’s just a continuation of the evolution and how we approach designing these products, and there’s no going back now. Read More »
In recent years, many new information tools have been introduced to improve the practice of medicine, but those very tools also have the potential to create challenging situations for clinical practice. Improving these healthcare tools is a complex, some would say wicked problem. Nowhere is that more obvious than in Electronic Medical Records (EMRs). EMRs are essential tools that physicians, hospitals, and health systems use to manage their patient’s medical information. Despite the long history of these applications, or perhaps because of it, EMRs are notorious for steep learning curves and challenging usability.
To further complicate matters, physicians who use these products have become quite adept at their interfaces; so, changes to the interface, no matter how much they improve the overall experience, often slow them down, costing them money in the process. As if that was not enough, there is the doctor-patient relationship that must remain intact, requiring physicians to put recordkeeping and ‘paperwork’ aside for later so that a they can devote their attention to their patients during their office hours. These challenges are problematic at best and, at worst, a threat to effective medical care.
Innovation in EMR systems must address these challenges, and at the Healthcare Experience Design Conference this past weekend, Jill Reed, User Experience Research Manager for Allscripts, shared her team’s work on their new EMR product, Allscripts, which provides a forward-thinking solution to these problems. What’s interesting to me about this project is how clearly it demonstrates the value of a holistic perspective on their customer’s experience. Because they took the time to better understand the real-life context of their customers, the solution they developed, a mobile companion product to their existing EMR systems, better fits into the physician’s physical and procedural workflows. Read More »
Recently, all 12 of Moment’s graphic designers, myself included, spent an entire day at The Arm, a South Williamsburg Letterpress studio, learning the in’s and out’s of printing. So what does letterpress have to do with digital design? Well, after donning aprons, exploring ink colors and a vast selection of wood and metal type, I discovered that the two disciplines have striking similarities. It is pretty safe to say that a 2-ton letterpress machine and drawers of type are not comparable to a 41-pound Mac Pro and Adobe Illustrator; however, despite the medium, both practices require a methodical process and intent, resulting in a well-crafted product.
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via angelapaige.com
As social networks move more and more towards the norm, it seems to be the trend to make the User Interface (UI) of the product reflect the user’s life, telling the story of a day in their life and allowing them to control of what others see. Social networks are becoming methods of storytelling for users. Recently there have been a number of popular products acting as storytelling tools. We could say that these tools are an evolution of the personal diary, except these are public and meant to be shared. There’s a narrative component in the interfaces that encourage users to record and document moments, giving their audience a glimpse (and sometimes more) of what their life is like. Read More »
It seems that one topic that almost everyone at SXSW was talking about this year was the collision of the digital and physical worlds; it’s where technology is headed and we, as designers, need to be ready for it. “Designing Tomorrow’s Digital/Physical Interfaces”, a panel discussion lead by David Merrill, Fabian Hemmert, and Leah Buechley at SXSW 2012 presented new areas for bridging the gap between the physical and digital environments. How can we expand the ways we interact with mobile devices beyond multi-touch gestures? Are there other properties from the physical world that we could better incorporate into our “smart” lives? Read More »
Increasingly product design and development teams are introducing agile methods into their process. While there are many well-documented benefits to this approach, short timeframes can feel constraining and lead teams to prioritize production over their product vision. In “Rev Up Your Product Design, the “Concept Car” Way”, a SXSW panel moderated by Nancy Dickenson, the importance of designer’s vision was brought back to the forefront with the concept of ‘visiontyping.’ Read More »
According to cyborg anthropologist Amber Case, we are all cyborgs; the second we look at those glowing smartphone screens we become a cyborg. Sounds a little too science fiction, right? Yesterday, her keynote “Ambient Location and the Future of the Interface” at SXSW Interactive 2012, raised an important flaw with the way we interact with our devices today – they are asking us to do too much.
As Amber described it in her talk, technology has consistently forced us to conform to it, rather than the other way around. When the telephone was invented, we had to go to a specific place to use it; the same thing with a computer. These devices that were meant to make our lives easier, giving more time away from them are still asking us to do a multitude of actions to get to our desired end. She made an analogy that I found painfully accurate: our phones are like babies. When they make noise, we do what we can to make it stop; we buy them special cases and accessories. We fall to pieces when they break or get lost. Sound a little bit like you and your phone? These devices are supposed to reduce stress, make tasks easier and give us more time, but they seem to be doing just the opposite; we are interacting more with screens than the physical world around us. That’s a problem. Read More »
The classic Swiss Army Knife: A few essential tools in a convenient package. via bobvila.com
A lot of effort in digital product development goes into making products fully featured. This notion seems like common sense – teams are working to make sure that their product has all of the features the person using it might possibly need. In addition, many digital product development teams are now following a design and development approach where they are working to incrementally improve their product with short release cycles. As they scope and design each release they try to improve their product by adding more and more new features.
If you’re on one of these teams, I’m writing this to ask you to stop. Stop trying to create a fully featured product! What should you be trying to do instead?
Create the perfectly featured product.
A product that is fully featured is loaded with capabilities to accommodate anything a user might need, but a perfectly featured product provides precisely what’s wanted and no more. Perfectly featured products are easier for people to understand, more satisfying to use, and I’d argue, simply better design. Read More »
via picassa
Risk is a risky topic. “Risk mitigation” has become the focus of business efforts rather than taking a risk; so what is the future of risk? Last Wednesday evening, accompanied by fellow Momenteers Peter and Yixiu, we attended a discussion on that very topic hosted by Smart Design and IIT’s Institute of Design.
The three-person panel discussion highlighted a recent change in the nature of risk; specifically the risks associated with bringing a new product to market; or failing to do so. The panel consisted of:
- Patrick Whitney, Dean of the Institute of Design at IIT
- Charles Adler, Creative Director and Co-Founder of Kickstarter, and
- Tucker Fort from Smart Design
Underlying the discussion was the shift in how companies (and those who run them) think about risk. To paraphrase Patrick Whitney: ”Risk” has historically been viewed as a direct result of “Change.” In past decades, business models were set, product development processes were well understood, and customer choice was limited. Now, business models are rapidly evolving, new product development processes are fluid and fuzzy, and customers are overwhelmed with choice. In this new world, “Risk” is a result of standing still. Read More »
This is the second essay in a three-part series by John Payne, Principal of Moment’s Experience Design practice, reflecting on his recent workshop, Ethnography for User Experience and their visit to Occupy Wall Street.
As I mentioned in part one of this series, in November I led a workshop on Ethnography for User Experience for the New York Chapter of IxDA. My goal was to provide the attendees, a group of 25 interaction designers, some working principles of ethnography that they could adapt to their day-to-day design work; in essence, to help them shape a more “ethnograph-ish” approach to user experience design.
This map, published in the “Occupy Wall Street Journal” shows how the occupiers laid out their camp.
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