UXpod - User Experience Podcast

Gerry Gaffney spoke to Luke Wroblewski, Senior Principal of Product Ideation & Design at Yahoo! about what web designers can learn from the world of product packaging, about 'unpacking' as a metaphor for registration, and about embracing the fact that your content will be clipped, cut, copied and embedded.Luke's forthcoming book is Web Form Design - Filling in the Blanks (www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/webforms).Luke's company is LukeW Interface Designs (www.lukew.com); his blog is Functioning Form (www.lukew.com/ff).Luke mentions Jumpcut (www.jumpcut.com).The design patterns mentioned are from Yahoo! (developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns), Jennifer Tidwell (designinginterfaces.com) and Martijn van Welie (www.welie.com/patterns/index.php).Gerry mentions a previous podcast episode (uxpod.com/index.php?post_id=122094) with Ken Carroll from ChinesePod (www.chinesepod.com), who spoke about edge competencies.We also mention CHISIG (www.chisig.org) and the VALA conference (www.vala.org.au).And the beer Luke discovered in New Zealand is from Mac's brewery (www.thebrewerybar.co.nz/shed-22-brewing-company).Duration: 20:54File size: 3.54MB

Gerry Gaffney spoke to Patrick Kennedy from Step Two Designs in Sydney (www.steptwo.com.au) about mentoring.What are the benefits - and the pitfalls - in mentoring?The book Patrick mentions is The Tao of Coaching, by Max Landsberg (tinyurl.com/yt8kaj).(Our book links go to Amazon, and we get a small commission from books sold in this way).Check out Patrick's Point of View blog (www.gurtle.com/ppov).Duration: 17:05File size: 2.93MB

Gerry Gaffney spoke to Patrick Larvie, Google's Manager of User Experience Research.Patrick reveals Google's secret - rapid user feedback, early and often.He also talks about the influence of culture on technology.The book Patrick recommends is Karaoke Nights: An Ethnographic Rhapsody, by Rob Drew (tinyurl.com/2ewbft).There was also a reference to the Google Image Labeler (images.google.com/imagelabeler).Gerry concluded with a plug for Information & Design's usability training courses in Melbourne (infodesign.com.au/training/courseschedule.asp).Duration: 34:29File size: 5.92MB

Gerry Gaffney spoke to Floyd Mueller about his work with exertion interfaces - where the world of video games meets the sweat of the sportsground, and where you can jog, box or play ball with people in distant locations.Floyd discusses the impact of the Nintendo Wii, and how the lessons to be learned from sports psychology can be applied to video conferencing tools.He explains that in virtual table tennis, the player puts meaning in the ball by imparting spin and force; the game carries meaning through the network; and the meaning is what matters for engagement.For interesting videos and more, check out Floyd's website (floydmueller.com), exertion interfaces (exertioninterfaces.com) and 'Remote Impact' at the distance lab (www.distancelab.org/projects/remoteimpact).Duration: 30:48File size: 5.28MB

Gerry Gaffney spoke to Dr. Sofia Celic of Vision Australia (www.visionaustralia.org.au) about issues faced by the visually impaired and others.Sofia says that a knowledge of accessibility should be "in any serious developer's toolkit".Two screen readers were mentioned - Jaws (www.freedomscientific.com/fs_products/software_jaws.asp) and Window-Eyes (www.gwmicro.com).OzWAI (www.ozewai.org) is the Australian Web Adaptability Initiative.Sofia mentions the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) (www.hreoc.gov.au).Microsoft has case studies and videos online (www.microsoft.com/enable/casestudy/default.aspx).Sofia is also involved in the ongoing development of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT).Duration: 14:26File size: 2.47MB

Gerry Gaffney spoke to Daniel Szuc in Hong Kong about the state of usability today. Although we were on the 22nd floor, in the background you can hear the sounds of the Hong Kong traffic.Daniel's company is Apogee (www.apogeehk.com)The Usability Toolkit is the one Gerry and Daniel co-authored (www.theusabilitykit.com).UPA is the Usability Professionals' Association (www.upassoc.org).Disclosure: Gerry and Daniel have various commercial connections.Duration: 18:11File size: 6.24MB

Gerry Gaffney spoke to Celeste Lyn Paul about the state of usability efforts in open source software, and about her card sorting method - the Modified Delphi.Celeste mentioned Open Usability (openusability.org)Gerry mentions a previous card-sorting episode of UXpod with Donna Maurer (tinyurl.com/3xzglj)Celeste mentioned Michael Gladwell's book 'Blink' (http://tinyurl.com/235vnd)The spreadsheet that Celeste spoke about is Joe Lamantia's on BoxesAndArrows (http://tinyurl.com/3742xt)Celeste's blog is weblog.obso1337.orgDuration: 25:46File size: 8.84MB

Gerry Gaffney asked Brian Donohue from iQcontent (www.iqcontent.com) about when, why and how to use web analytics.Brian talked about avoiding 'zero insight', and how you can use analytics to understand users, improve your site, and validate success.A few books and resources were mentioned:Web Analytics Demystified by Eric Peterson (tinyurl.com/ys498j) Web Analytics: An Hour a Day by Avinash Kaushik (tinyurl.com/2bnc8d)Google Analytics Shortcuts by Justin Cutroni (www.gashortcut.com)Sitescan (sitescanga.com)Emetrics (www.emetrics.org)Advanced Web Metrics is Brian Clifton's blog (www.advanced-web-metrics.com/blog/)Occam's Razor is Avinash Kaushik's blog (www.kaushik.net/avinash/)Duration: 22:49File size: 7.83MB

Gerry Gaffney interviews social media maven Tom Raftery.What does it mean to be a 'social media consultant'? In a wide-ranging discussion, Tom talks about:

• The meaning and relevance of social media
• Whether bus drivers in Cork will use social media software
• Why companies should embrace complaint
• Carbon-neutral data centres

Tom's blog is Tom Raftery's Social Media (www.tomrafteryit.net/)You can follow the progress of Tom's carbon-neutral data centre - the Cork Internet Exchange (www.cix.ie/). Tom's presentation on reducing IT's carbon footprint is online (tinyurl.com/2u5bvz).Several venues and conferences are mentioned:Barcamp Galway (barcampgalway.wordpress.com/)Barcamp Dublin (www.barcampdublin.com/)Reboot Copenhagen (www.reboot.dk/)Le Web conference (www.leweb3.com/)Web 2.0 Expo (www.web2expo.com/)DLD Munich (www.dld-conference.com/)Duration: 23:17 File size: 8.2MB

Gerry Gaffney asks Jason Furnell about designing for mobile devices.Along the way, Jason talks about the poetry of movement, the Agile development methodology, and how to navigate a career path in design.He tells us that without a vision, great minds can go to waste; and how high-fidelity wireframes can help communicate a simple vision.Jason's blog is 'the architecture of everything'. (jasonfurnell.wordpress.com)The William Gibson book is 'Spook Country'. (tinyurl.com/2a7mf9) Duration: 20:29 File size: 7.2MB