Design research: SVT Kids Online

Part 3 of 13 in the series Some of my skills.

Via home visits – "contextual inquiry" as we call it – I learned things I could not have learned any other way. The Ahlstrand family visit

Human-centered as philosophy

Part 2 of 5 in the series Human-centered product design in 2019.

I love to understand humans and their desires (or, at least some humans). I also don't want to waste time. This perspective makes me human-centered.

This lifts my spirit at work

When I am a catalyst towards social justice and inclusion of the extremes of human abilities.

When i help my team have a good product strategy and make good product design choices by focusing on serving humans.

When I help you be brave and curious.

7 ways to infuse the scrum team with research findings

My team wants to understand why we build the things we build. So, how can I get our users into their minds? It's all individual...

How long will it take? How do I save a bit of time?

I like being efficient and effective. So I have optimized where I wait in some of the stations of the Stockholm subway. I'm an optimization freak. :) The Japanese do it too!

What I experienced at SVT

I worked for three years as an Interaction Designer at SVT, the Swedish public service TV broadcaster. While helping to build some great video services (and games) I developed my ability to think strategically, learned to appreciate Scrum and met hundreds of persons to validate interaction concepts. Strategist, inclusion, Scrum and more.

Groups are hard to change. That’s ok.

A concept should always solve specific problems or create a clearly defined new opportunity. There is always more then one solution to any concept task so chose a solution that can be created within the boundaries of your available resources. "It's ok, just chose an other concept."

Plazas and digital places

I recently found the video The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces (1988) by William H. Whyte that I just have to share. The hour long movie is about what makes a successful plaza but I can see clear parallells with how we can create successful digital artefacts. A list that gives me chills!

“Love me, don’t insult me”

At SVT we design our web sites upon a philosophy called "progressive enhancement". One reason for that is Love. "Those persons who use IE7, for whatever reason, deserve much more respect..."

Summary & Comparison

Part 5 of 5 in the series 4 ways I meet "users".

As the final part of my short series about participatory design I have created a comparison table to help you chose the best method for the current phase of your project. A table of pro's and con's.

Long-distance relationships

Part 4 of 5 in the series 4 ways I meet "users".

A longitudinal study with up to 100 participants has the potential to combine the best of quantitative and qualitative metjods. A bonus: no need to constantly find new "test subjects". "Is the service valuable over time?"

Guided explorations

Part 3 of 5 in the series 4 ways I meet "users".

In a guided exploration I let a person immerse themselves in a system. I ask them to accomplish tasks that touch on points in the artefact that we want to validate. During the hour-long session I can find a lot of pain points in the artefact I help design. I can validate full use cases.

Interviews

Part 2 of 5 in the series 4 ways I meet "users".

Interviews help me understand the life and desire of those that will use the artefacts that I help design. "How do persons decide/negotiate which channel to watch?"

Quick usability tests

Part 1 of 5 in the series 4 ways I meet "users".

In this first part of a short series on participatory design methods I write about usability tests. The tests help me prove if my solutions for important details in my artefacts work or if I have to "go back to the drawing board". There are an enormous amount of persons who know more then I do about the things I design.

90 productive minutes

In the span of 90 minutes I changed my mind on several key aspects, scrapped two prototypes and got lots of new ideas. All thanks to my colleagues!

A creative UX workshop

Part 3 of 8 in the series Deliverables.

I wanted to introduce my colleagues to the user experience parts of a new project we are working on so I invited them to a paper mockup session. The team created a lot of cool, fun and useful interaction ideas and my colleagues also started thinking a lot about the details in the product that we are creating. The workshop was a great success.

Those that I am passionate about

The list is a reminder of the very broad range of persons, systems and organizations that I must empathize with and cater to when designing. "Users", editors, developers, graphic designers, guidelines, CMS:s, future system owners...

Lessons for digital products

Part 6 of 7 in the series Bathroom User Experiences.

Use the human ability to see connections between separate parts of a system. Build products that help us improve the world a bit. Build accessible artefacts. Make the important system states obvious. If your interface needs instructions, you have failed.

Showers with multiple outlets

Part 5 of 7 in the series Bathroom User Experiences.

Some shower faucets have more then one outlet – one for a shower head and one for filling the bath tub, for example. In these, the water temperature and water flow is set once and a lever is used to switch between the outlets. The design of that switching mechanism can be quite horrid.

Faucets for “the disabled” are the best

Part 3 of 7 in the series Bathroom User Experiences.

Over the last 100 years, bathroom and kitchen faucets have become very common. Have you thought about how much they have changed over time?