It's alive

I'm starting up my English blog again, and plan to be writing on both my Swedish and English blog more frequently. Please bear with me as I iron out the design and functionality over the month of August.

Presenting at Interact 2009

I'll be speaking at one of the world's largest HCI-conferences, Interact 2009, on the 27th of August. My subject area is interaction design (IxD) strategy. We all know how to do it right, but how do you do it right when everything goes wrong?

Fuglesang is talking to you, not to media

Submitted by axbom on Thu, 08/27/2009 - 11:51

Christer Fuglesang

Right after midnight passing into August 26, 2009, Swedish time, Christer Fuglesang writes this on Twitter:

Just got the news that we are scrubbing again, due to technical problem. Bad luck again, but maybe we can have dinner with the families.

On the morning of August 26 as I pick up the paper from the floor the front page says (my translation): "Did Fuglesang lift off? SvD.se will broadcast the launch of Christer Fuglesang's second space trip att 7:11 today." Inside the paper the reporter Karin Henriksson writes, on location in Florida (my translation):

This is what he himself reported: Back inte room after four hrs on my back in the shuttle. Hurts a bit. Hungry. Bad luck, but not that disappointed. Later he got back with: Tomorrow will be better."

All this Christer writes on Twitter for the whole world to see. With a reporter on location in Florida it becomes ironic to read quotes from Fuglesang's old Twitter messages in the paper. Especially when newer message from Fuglesang several hours before had reported that there would be no launch today either.Read more

Since when do people have a clue about what they want?

Submitted by axbom on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 15:53

amusement park ride at Gröna Lund, picture by Per Axbom

In my experience a lot of websites, or subsets of websites, are developed based on findings from surveys explicitly asking people what they want. Of course, people want a lot of things, and it is generally a bad idea to let users decide for themselves what features should be available for a company that intends to be profitable.

As always, examples are more fun when you take them to the extreme. I watched Bruce Almighy yesterday and Morgan Freeman, playing God, summarised the point well:

Since when do people have a clue about what they want?

The background is that the character Bruce, portrayed by Jim Carrey, simply effectuates all prayers to the letter (i.e. people's wants, desires and wishes expressed in their own words) in his aspiration to handle God's work. This of course causes chaos, frustration and angry mobs destroying the city.

Having worked with many websites over the years I can confidently say that the most successful sites are the ones that find a coherent balance between business needs (expressed by strategy and focus), user needs (expressed through observation, contextual interviews and the analysis of these) with a relevant dose of technology (not going overboard with the latest hype). Sites that just perform what users tell them to generally create chaos, frustration and angry mobs.Read more

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