Firstly, if you haven’t seen Objectified, a film by Gary Huswit, I would strongly recommend it as it covers a multitude of designs and gives at least a glimpse into the thinking and processes that some of design’s top proponents go through.
One of my favourite designers is definitely Apple’s Jonathan Ive. He doesn’t speak often but does have a five-minute segment in Objectified and here it is …
Not only a stunning piece of design but also incredibly fast, and check out how quiet it is…
My small root beer obsession to one side, this is a wonderful guy and this video contains more great ideas about user experience, dealing with customers and so on than you would ever get in a $1,000 a day conference!
User experience is a slightly cold phrase to describe a very human interaction. It could be a simple as a door that doesn’t open the way you expect, the feel and way you use an iPhone, the way in which you use a piece of software on a computer or how you interact with a website.
I’ve spent more than 15 years working in user experience but not from a focused, trained to do this now do this as a job direction. No, my route to working in user experience came from making or ‘designing’ things that people used – record stores, magazines, newsletters, websites, online music stores and software to name a few.
It wasn’t even the heart of what I did day to day but always formed an important part of each role. Listening to the customer/user/client seemed one of the best ways to build a better product and so sell more product etc. As my career has progressed, without really knowing it, I’ve alway managed to ensure the next role had a little more UX involved in it. That includes some major sidesteps in career path from retail to journalism, journalism to digital media, digital media to ux.
Finally now, user experience is all I do for work. I’ve dropped salary, changed titled, made all the steps that make a CV a horror show to explain to potential new employers! However, the point is that I’ve arrived at a job and career that didn’t really exist as a recognised job even 10 years ago. So I guess I was just waiting for the path to exist before I took it.
The best part is that all of that work experience to date only adds to and assists what I do for work. I’ve a much broader understanding of many different types of business, founded often on having actually worked in them. I sometime wish I’d followed the educational path to this point but I simply didn’t know that this is what I wanted to do then.
So, from the UK, via the US, you can now find me in New Zealand as a user experience designer. And the best part is that the route forward is filled with even more opportunity as user experience becomes more valued and better understood.
As a side issue, international subscription for magazines is a really poor experience. Conde Nast and other really need to examine that experience as it’s far from optimal. The focus is on local subscribers, which while I understand, completely drives me nuts as I’m in New Zealand not New Jersey (thank goodness).
However, what has changed most is my TV viewing habits. In the UK, I used a PVR extensively, so much so that I didn’t know when programmes were originally broadcast. I simply would scan papers, sites etc to find out about new shows, try one, if I liked it then record the series. That way, in typical PVR fashion, I would watch what I wanted when I wanted. Of course, for advertisers I was a nightmare, flicking straight over the ads. Heck, I even learned how to time my fast forward so I could jump from the start of the ad break to the end. Interestingly I would be exposed to the show’s sponsors but would miss all the 30-second slots in-between.
Moving to New Zealand stripped me of that equipment – it’s available but I’m still sorting out other ’stuff’. So, I was back in the analogue world of scheduling etc. Choices of programmes and channels aside, I tried, really tried to get back to the ‘old’ way of watching a programme when a channel had decided to schedule it but after only 8 weeks it’s all broken down and I’ve given up on TV and stick to web (and not TVNZ’s on demand service – it’s impossible to use) and DVDs.
I simply can’t go back (bit like flying business class on a plane). I’ll get TiVO or (spits on ground) Sky and go back to PVR viewing. That freedom of choice and timing is too damn good to give up, and it’s not to skip ads. I perfectly understand their purpose but as mentioned it seems pointless when you don’t have to so that model will have to change to capture my eyeballs.
That said, there will always be those scheduled events – sports and other live events – that will draw me back to analog TV but those are few and far between. Especially in New Zealand, where Sky’s locked them down even more tightly than in the UK. Way to go sports bodies – figured out why participation and attendances are dropping yet?
And those ‘watercooler’ moments aren’t gone but now tend to be focused on what I called passion points where you are really excited about something televisual but they tend to be more about series as a whole rather than the latest micro event in Coronation Street et all.
Is this a common thing, of course not yet. Adoption of these technologies is growing but by no means universal but that simply frees up conversation time for more meaningful things for now 
Mark Cuban has covered the business side of things for PVRs vs Internet video on his blog and good reading it makes too.
I confess I am a Mac fan but I use(d) both platforms and frankly these are just funny. I’m sure Windows 7 will be fab thing … no really.
Another great NZ music export is about to burst out globally and not only can she write, she’s really great live. Signed to Motown, it’ll be interesting to see how she fares outside of NZ an Australian shores. Check out her appearance on Smashmouth’s hit single Brother as well.
So cool, having worked this up from a pen sketch through concept designs through testing into visual design and now it’s going to be out there April 2010!
Cool.
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