11 weeks at UCLIC

4 December, 2011

This autumn was full of big changes!

I moved from wonderful Yorkshire down to London – and you can probably imagine that I started to experience totally different and exciting world – but that would be a story for another article.

I started also new and exciting job as User Experience Consultant at Fortune Cookie. It is now 3 months since I joined the company – and I’m learning more and more every day.

And finally – and this is something I was looking forward to for so long – I started the MSc course in Human-Computer Interaction with Ergonomics at UCLIC! Now, I’m 11 weeks into the course and I have to confess that what I experienced so far hugely surpassed my expectations. Continue reading

Design Jam London 4

3 December, 2011

Recently, I was fortunate enough to get a ticket to the Design Jam London #4 this November. I heard a lot of praise about this event and I was really interested if it could live up to my expectations.

The event, hosted by City Uni, started early on Saturday morning at 8:30 (ouch) with a brief introduction of the organisers, mentors and sponsors. Soon the goals of the Design Jam and the main challenge were presented.

The main challenge was to design a solution that would help the shoppers to find and choose their best outfit for upcoming occasion. We were encouraged to get out and ask potential users about their shopping habits, behaviour, stories and frustrations, and use this knowledge to inform our design decisions. Continue reading

To boldly go…

5 August, 2011

Right, it’s official now!

Just in a few weeks I’ll be moving from lovely Yorkshire down to London. That’s one small step for mankind but one giant leap for a man ;-)) How exciting!

University College London

From September I’m going to start the MSc Human-Computer Interaction with Ergonomics at University College London, where I’m going to learn about the wonders of HCI, interaction design, psychology and emotions in design! I’m really excited about that, and about the fact that I’ll have a chance to participate in the London UX community and learn about things I’m really passionate about.

Big thanks to all who support me in my decision! Cheers guys :)

Emotional Design – Why we love (or hate) everyday things

19 April, 2011

Emotional Design - Why we love (or hate) everyday things by Donald A. NormanWhen I began exploring the field of human-centered design, I was told to start with reading Donald Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things – and I have to confess that all those who recommended this book were right. For me it was a breaking point, a milestone in my career.

After I finished reading The DOET, I started looking elsewhere – on books by Alan Cooper, Jeff Raskin and Dan Saffer, but soon I came across a nice review of another book by Donald Norman, Emotional Design – Why we love (or hate) everyday things.
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Interesting articles on design III.

15 April, 2011

Hello! This is my third digest of all things from the world of design that I came across this week. If you seen something worth mentioning, please do so in comments! Thanks :)
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March Northern User Experience meetup

5 April, 2011

Recently, I attended the Northern User Experience meeting in Leeds that was organised by Keith Doyle from NUX and hosted by Simple Usability in Round Foundry Media Centre in Leeds. The turn-up was good and I was lucky enough to talk to a few really interesting people from the usability / UX industry about how they got into the field and about their methods and workflow. The main talk on the history of User-Centered Design was given by Ian Franklin. Ian presented the development of the UX since the first half of the 20th century to the present days, mentioning different milestones and approaches throughout last 70 years.
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Emotions in Design

21 March, 2011

Let me introduce you to a mini-series of articles on the importance of emotions in design.

Today, the approach to user interface and interaction design is still often steered away from using emotion as a tool for interaction between the user and the product and as one of the cornerstones of the user experience design.

The first software designers were those who possessed the knowledge how to write instructions in programming languages – developers, engineers and techy nerds. Naturally, they cared much more about the viscera of their products than about the emotions their creations can imply. Continue reading

Design by Committee – How Doggie and Pussycat Made a Cake

13 February, 2011

Design by Committee - How doggie and Pussycat made a cakeWhen I was a child, I loved the book All About Doggie and Pussycat by Josef Capek, Czech writer and painter, who invented the word “robot” for his brother’s play R.U.R.

The stories of Doggie and Pussycat are very well-known in Czech Republic and children usually love them. But there is one particulary great story – How Doggie and Pussycat made a cake.

In this story, Josef Capek nicely describes the pitfalls of the design by committee. Continue reading

Interaction-Design.org Encyclopedia

6 February, 2011

Interaction Design Encyclopedia logoRecently, the new Interaction-Design.org Encyclopedia was launched. I used to read articles on Interaction-Design.org for some time and I’m delighted to see that the guys from The Interaction-Design.org Foundation decided to transform the list of articles as it used to be to a library of entries written by experts in the particular fields. The entries are coupled with insightful commentaries and videos.

“Experience or User Experience is not about technology, industrial design, or interfaces. It is about creating a meaningful experience through a device.”
- Marc Hassenzahl

One of the recent entries I went through was User Experience and Experience Design by Marc Hassenzahl – and I can say it was the best article explaining the philosophy of UX I have ever read. Continue reading

Interesting articles on design II.

29 January, 2011

Hello! This is my second weekly digest of all things from the world of design that caught my eye! If you seen something worth mentioning, please do so in comments! Thanks :) Continue reading