Author Archives: louise

About louise

London based user experience consultant

Puffin Crossing – Help how does this work?

I maintain that a designer should always aim to consider and where possible engage the user in any design. If a user is struggling to comprehend how a product works then it is often back to the drawing board for further consideration. It feels like a failure if a product requires instructions to enable the user to operate it and my instinct is to develop the product further until it works. This set of instruction for using the new Puffin Crossings [Puffin crossing are an adaptation of the Pelican crossing] struck me as odd, firstly are people really having problems using this, especially when it’s older sibling has been around for such a long time now. If this is this case wouldn’t it have been better to resolve those issues without the need for pinning guidance to the product.

links for 2009-09-01

  • Six Thinking Hats – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    # Neutrality (White) – considering purely what information is available, what are the facts?
    # Feeling (Red) – instinctive gut reaction or statements of emotional feeling (but not any justification)
    # Negative judgement (Black) – logic applied to identifying flaws or barriers, seeking mismatch
    # Positive Judgement (Yellow) – logic applied to identifying benefits, seeking harmony
    # Creative thinking (Green) – statements of provocation and investigation, seeing where a thought goes
    # Process control (Blue) – thinking about thinking
    (tags: management productivity six-hats)

links for 2009-08-11

  • Networking and Innovation
    The value and benefits of networking to innovation, productivity.
    'The principal benefits of networking as identified in the literature include,
    risk sharing; obtaining access to new markets and technologies; speeding products to
    market; pooling complementary skills; safeguarding property rights when complete or
    contingent contracts are not possible; and acting as a key vehicle for obtaining access to
    external knowledge. The evidence also illustrates that those firms which do not cooperate
    and which do not formally or informally exchange knowledge limit their knowledge base
    on a long-term basis and ultimately reduce their ability to enter into exchange
    relationships.'
    (tags: innovation, business)