Contextual Vibes

Why doesn’t the iPhone allow you to customize the vibration sequence based on the context of the notification? This has been bugging me for awhile, but thanks to Eduardo Ortiz and Diego Pulido I’m bugged enough by it now to write about it. During a standard work day, my phone stays in the silent mode more often than not. Between SMS message, Boxcar Notifications, and emails my phone buzzes a lot. Now I’m like many people and I keep my personal email open all day so I can easily switch it when I need to. Feeling an email “buzz” come from my leg would tell me to check this tab rather than pull out my phone. The more I think about this type of use, the more I want this feature.

The Philosophy of Function

As I mentioned in my previous post, I recently was reminded of papers I wrote back in college for some philosophy courses that oddly deal directly with my professional life as a User Experience Designer. This next paper really resonated with my internal Interaction Designer, as it deals mainly with function and behavior.   Please bare in mind that my skills as a writer were not the greatest back then and I’m slightly embarrassed at the state in which I found them, regardless I hope you enjoy.

The Physical and Non-Physical World

Last weekend at the IA Summit, I was reminded of some papers I wrote back in college on various areas of philosophy. I was surprised to realize that many of these papers oddly enough dealt with the very thing I find myself doing everyday as a User Experience Designer. Below is the first of several papers I’ll be posting from this time in my life, please bare in mind that my skills as a writer were not the greatest back then and I’m slightly embarrassed at the state in which I found them.

Why I AM a Designer

Disclaimer: This is NOT meant to be a statement of general definition. I wrote this article to myself, in an act of self reflection. Since I’m an open person, I felt it was necessary to put this out there for the world to see and comment on.

Do you consider an architect a designer? Is the work of an industrial designer design? If you answer yes to either of these questions, than why is it that some people define the act of design for the digital world to only belonging to the visual side of things? I’ve recently been criticized for calling myself a designer, a user experience designer to be exact. One of my favorite quotes regarding the ambiguous definition of design is “Design’s fundamental role is problem solver”. While this is a great definition of design, it doesn’t really help to justify calling myself a designer, even though my primary role is to solve problems. (Note: The actual title that is prescribed to me is meaningless. What matters to me is the fact that I am recognized as designer, and that the work that I do is design.)

Innovate St. Louis

Later this month, the very first St. Louis Innovation Camp will be held. This is a unique event in St. Louis, hosted and organized by a group of people that are tired of seeing all the crazy cool things happen on one of the coasts. For a long time now there has been a ton of untapped talent in the St. Louis  area, and those that really do shine normally end up getting whisked away to one of the those alluring coastal cities. Hopefully, St. Louis can finally peek it’s head out of the bushes and show those other cities it knows how to play with the big dogs too.

2010 New Year’s Resolutions

I’m normally not one for making New Year Resolutions simply because I know I wouldn’t be able to follow through with them. By posting them here, it’s my hope that I can use this post as a prolonged ‘To-Do’ list for the new year and be a gentle reminder that I always have something I could be working on. Between now and Dec. 31st, I’m going to be adding things to this post as they come to me. I know some of these resolutions will require the help of other people, so I’ll need to step out of my comfort zone a bit and be more willing to ask for help from my peers. Hopefully, by the end of 2010 I will have made some headway on this pesky things and be a better person for it.

Advanced Prototyping Using Blend 3

The key to any advanced prototypes using Blend 3 w/ Skecthflow is using the SketchFlow Animation Panel, the more advanced States panel, or by adding common interactive behavior to controls. Now, if you happen to have any Flash background, setting up animations will feel very comfortable for you. Below are my thoughts on how to set up some of the behavior that is exhibited by another Silverlight Prototype I put together. (Please explore the prototype to see how feedback and annotations work.)

SMCSTL – Evolution of the Web – A Panel

The Social Media Club of St. Louis is meeting on August 20^th to discuss how IT has had to deal with the changes of the web over the course of the past 10 years. With the raise of Web 2.0 and the theoretical discussions going on about the Semantic Web (Web 3.0) throws a lot of wrenches in the gears of an IT department.

How do you learn from failing?

The art of designing is one filled with failing early and failing often. These iterations allow a designer to learn from their mistakes to get to a proper solution. Learning from your failures is real challenge though, especially if there is a close personal connection to a design. The slippery slope is when we don’t learn from our failures, for we are destined to make the same mistakes all over again. The act of ‘sucking less than I did last time’ is an art that any designer needs to learn if they hope to be successfully.

Get Your Boss to Pay for IDEA09

It is obvious to say that times are tough financially. Every business is trying to control its costs in order to best weather the storm, which makes asking for money difficult. What can you do to convince your manager that it is worth the time and money to send you to a conference like IDEA 09? Here are some tips to help you sell the idea of going to a conference.