User Experience Monitor

Case Study: Using Designers for Problem Solving

I can't think of a more impressive testimony to the use of designers - and by extension the design process - in problem solving than is pointed out in an article by Justin McGuirk in The Guardian about some processes happening overseas - in Finland, to be exact.

The Finnish Innovation Fund advises governments on ways to solve pressing social problems (and Finland has its share). What's unique about this group is that it  incorporates designers (whether from web and interactive, urban planning or architecture) into its process for their ability to redesign systems and improve the user/customer experience - and keep their eye on the long-term picture through implementation.  It may be a way of avoiding the kinds of social disasters we're all so familiar with, when policies are implemented by bureaucrats who don't think through problems.

It's all about human-oriented outcomes.  As McGuirk points out:

"While strategic design can't necessarily find the perfect answer, it at least begins by asking the right questions.

Read more at The Guardian

The Semantic Web - but Not from the User's Perspective

CNET writer Laura Locke's article and interview with Gi Fernando on the changes coming down the pike at Facebook is interesting because they discuss the "semantic Web," not from the user's perspective, but from the advertiser's perspective.

As Facebook begins to implement its new approach to such action verbs as "Read," "Watch," and "Listen," the Internet giant will begin to monetize things in a new way. As always, the game-changer continues to change the game.

Read the entire interview

Tracking Google's Influence: A Review of 3 Books on the Search Giant

This is an interesting article  by Daniel Soar in the London Review of Books about the influence of Google.  He reviews three books out this year: "The Googlisation of Everything (and Why We Should Worry)" by Siva Vaidhyanathan, "In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works and Shapes Our Lives" by Steven Levy, and "I’m Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59" by Douglas Edward, and analyzes what they're saying collectively about the search gian.

I love his assertion near the end of this article that: "Google is getting cleverer precisely because it is so big."  This is the antithesis of what most analysts think about Google!  How does he come to this conclusion?  You'll just have to read the article.