http://www.montparnas.com/articles Articles on effective experience design, product strategy, and usability. Thu, 17 Nov 2011 17:07:40 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en In his article A Brief Rant on the Future of Interaction, Bret Victor counters the status quo and a recent video from Microsoft projecting the future of interaction. Victor argues that, while the future does encapsulate using our hands, the future is tactile and not touching glass or 'Pictures Under ... http://www.montparnas.com/articles/the-future-of-interaction/ A few months ago, I received an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. As a UX designer, it seemed a strange choice to many I spoke to about the decision, but I've been a long-believer in the convergence of design and business. Furthermore, the need for collaboration between ... http://www.montparnas.com/articles/ux-design-and-business/ "The trouble with market research is that people don't think how they feel, they don't say what they think and they don't do what they say." The BBC reports on an upcoming breakthrough for market research, currently being developed. Dr Roberto Valenti of the University of Amsterdam and Dr Theo Gevers. The ... http://www.montparnas.com/articles/market-research-and-the-primitive-urges-of-the-consumer/ Great words of insight (as usual) from Don Norman in an interview with Jeroen van Geel on Johnny Holland Magazine. He talks about the gaps between academic research, design studies, and design as well as topics on innovation, emotional design and design thinking. In regards to design thinking, he refers ... http://www.montparnas.com/articles/design-research-and-innovation-an-interview-with-don-norman/ A recent Financial Times article, "Functionality remains Baidu’s priority" (free registration required), juxtaposes Baidu's product development philosophy with that of its chief rival, Google. The piece states that Baidu focuses on making functionality that allows the average user to get things done, while Google's approach is pushing out a ton of "cool" features and ... http://www.montparnas.com/articles/baidu-focuses-on-usability-not-proliferating-features/ I loved this presentation by Paul Adams of the Google UX team. He explores designing for real social networks by examining relationships, influence, identity and privacy. The entire presentation is extremely well done, and the discussion around relationships and our online versus offline social network truly illuminates important factors in social ... http://www.montparnas.com/articles/the-real-life-social-network/ In "Fusing Content Strategy with Design", David Gillis gives a very good summary of content strategy and its interplay with the overall user experience strategy and information architecture. The leading advocate for the field, Kristina Halvorson defines the field as such: Content strategy plans for the creation, publication, and governance of ... http://www.montparnas.com/articles/content-strategy-and-ux-design/ Consumer behavior has certainly changed in recent times, and the way we interact with brands in increasingly becoming more intimate and familiar. I'm sure a few years ago we would not have thought that we would be "friends" with (or fans receiving daily updates from) our favorite soda or restaurant. The ... http://www.montparnas.com/articles/social-brands-and-people/ Growing a vast customer base for an online product is a complex process that encompasses marketing, product development, and luck. However, it is possible to stack the odds in your favor and to make the best of your marketing dollars by creating a product experience that fosters the organic growth ... http://www.montparnas.com/articles/fueling-the-organic-growth-cycle-for-web-products/ To much fanfare and critical acclaim, TiVo announced last week its new Premiere DVR that features a ground-breaking user interface. I'm very happy to say that we had the privilege to work alongside TiVo's talented design team to define and design the novel user experience that extends TiVo's high interaction ... http://www.montparnas.com/articles/montparnas-helps-design-tivos-revolutionary-ui/