Archives for the month of: May, 2009

From Business to Buttons 2009

07/05/2009 //
0

From Business to Buttons 2009 brings us Garr Reynolds, presentation guru and web 2.0 thought leader, along with a great mix of tech heavyweights, startup cases and experts in innovation including:

  • Matt Jones (founder of Dopplr.com)
  • Scott Berkun (author of The Myths of Innovation).
  • Todd Lefelt (Director of User Experience  at Huge)
  • Microsoft (sponsor) with the Interactive Surface tabletop.
  • The Cocktail (sponsor) introducing Iwannagothere.com, the travellers social network born in Spain.
  • Complete list of speakers, sessions and registration at businesstobuttons.com

When and where: 11-12 of June in Malmö, Sweden

Short bios:
Garr Reynolds, Associate Professor of Management at Kansai Gaidai University in Japan, is the creator of the most popular website on presentation design and delivery on the net: presentationzen.com. He shares lessons and perspectives on making remarkable presentations that are simpler, visual, engaging, and effective. He is the former Manager of Worldwide User Group Relations at Apple Computer, and spent most of the ’90s at Sumitomo Electric Industries in Osaka.

Scott Berkun is the author of bestselling books “Making things happen” and “The Myths of Innovation”.  At Microsoft from 1994-2003 he oversaw projects such as Internet Explorer (v1-5 of), Windows and MSN. He has taught at the University of Washington, regularly contributes to Harvard Business Digital, and has featured as an innovation and management expert on MSNBC and on CNBC. He writes frequently on his popular blog:  scottberkun.com

Matt Jones is a founder and lead designer of Dopplr.com, a service for frequent travellers. His previous positions include Director of User-Experience Design at Nokia Design, and creative director for Sapient in London. In the late 90s, he was creative director for the launch of BBC News Online. He has spoken at events such as Reboot, Ars Electronica, O’Reilly’s Etech and FooCamp. He now blogs at www.magicalnihilism.com.

Todd Lefelt is the Director of User Experience  of Huge, where he oversees research and interaction design for projects including Audible.com, Nickelodeon and The Warner Music Group. Todd has over 10 years of experience leading the definition of scalable interactive media strategies and user friendly experiences.  www.hugeinc.com

Iwannagothere.com is a social network dedicated to travel, an off-shoot of The Cocktail. During the conference the people behind Iwannagothere will be showing how they have used the Effect Map methodology in the development of the service and will be launching their mobile  service, co-designed by The Cocktail and InUse.

About the conference

From Business to Buttons is the most important European conference on Design for Business. It’s third edition runs between 11-12 of June in Malmö, Sweden.
For whom: designers, business strategists and user experience professionals.
Organisers: InUse, Ergonomidesing, Malmö University – Sponsors: The Cocktail (Spain) and Microsoft.

Tags , ,
Categories Product design, user experience

First impressions: Changing from PC to Mac

01/05/2009 //
1

I’ve recently switched to Mac after nearly two decades using Windows. My first impressions:

- Yes, the Mac user interface is incredibly elegant and clever.

- Yes, it makes MS look stupid and life easier. Simple example: plugging a Mac to a projector and watching it adjust the resolution perfectly and automatically – versus embarrassing long minutes trying to set a PC up for a client presentation.

- It’s gorgeous, it’s clever, but it is not intuitive. Sorry, the Mac UI is NOT as intuitive as fans claim.  In my humble opinion the learning curve is steep, or steeper than I imagined.  To find my way around I  need to get used to a number of tricks, shortcuts and combinations of the two things.  I confess that I haven’t taken enough time to “study” these tricks – but should I need to just to do the basics?

- Whilst the Windows UI is clunky, you can find your (long) way around it without much help – my mum and mother-in-law can handle it although it amazes me HOW absurdly they handle it. But things  go well only until things go wrong. And boy, things do go wrong on a PC. Don’t even get me started.

- Software made for Mac is nearly perfect. But I’m not impressed with the “versions for Mac” of generic software. Who on earth thought that floating panels were a good idea?

Provisional verdict:
Despite a slightly bumpy start I have to say that the Macbook is such a nice piece of kit. The user interface is beautiful but not intuitive – requiring a considerable effort to get used to. But I can see myself already working more efficiently and perhaps in a month or two,  joining the hordes of annoying Mac fans.

P.S. (22/10/09) – Reporting back 5 months later: Happily using my Mac on basic mode. Surviving without ever learning non-essential tricks and shortcuts.

Check out the evolution of operating system user interface design from 1981 to 2009 by the Web Designer Depot.

Mac user interface as I remember it from 1991

Mac user interface as I remember it from 1991

Categories user experience