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For future reference and for easier reading through the whole "UX leadership insights" series, I'll compile the links to individual articles here.
by Panu Korhonen Managing Director
UX leadership insight #1: Clear design drivers UX leadership insight #2: Vague or specific? UX leadership insight #3: Pick your battles UX leadership insight #4: Appropriately radical UX leadership insight #5: Split it UX leadership insight #6: Milestones are good for you UX leadership insight #7: Difficulty of UX design reviews UX leadership insight #8: [...]
This is my last post in this series of design leadership. I have saved the most personal one as last.
by Panu Korhonen Managing Director
(See my earlier posts for introduction to the series.) The last design leadership insight is about you. Simply, take care of yourself. Most of the time you need to worry about other people: users, designers, stakeholders, managers. If you only do that, you will exhaust yourself. Get your weekly rest. Do something else than work [...]
In a large project, there will always be some churn in the design team. Some designers will eventually leave, and there will be some new members that join the team during the process. Sometimes, when there are schedule pressure in the project, you can try to catch up by adding a couple of extra designers to the project. New hires, freelancers, agencies - there are always people available (if you have deep pockets).
by Panu Korhonen Managing Director
(See my earlier posts for introduction to the series.) In a large design project you will have vast amount of tacit knowledge that is never written down. You may have documents describing the original design drivers or goals of the project. However, the interpretation of those drivers take place during the design process. People who [...]
A few weeks back our client SuomiTV released a web tv designed by us, and built by Soprano Brain Alliance on top of Brightcove's technology. For us, it was business as usual, until we heard we'd broken a world record in process.
by Sami Niemelä Creative Director, Nordkapp
Bit of a background— at Nordkapp, we work with a fairly systematic process/framework which we apply to each project we do. SuomiTV was no exception—we started with a competitor analysis, which we then turned into some obvious opportunities and design drivers. After presenting the findings to our client, we proceeded to synthesize these findings into [...]
As with many other natural phenomena, the skills of designers follow a bell curve. There are always a few super productive ones, lots of in-between, and then some at the tail of the curve. Factors that determine the productivity and quality of design work include training, experience, or simply - if I dare to say aloud - talent.
by Panu Korhonen Managing Director
(See my earlier posts for introduction to the series.)
How should the teams for design be built? There are thousands of handbooks how to build effective teams, so let’s not get into the generics. There’s one specific aspect of design teamwork that I would like to emphasize, and that is the collaboration of interaction design and visual design.
by Panu Korhonen Managing Director
(See my earlier posts for introduction to the series.) I may have mentioned before, that in a process where interaction designer creates wireframes and then hands them over to a visual designer for decoration, the result often is — decorated boxes. Creating something more, something that is novel, meaningful, effective, fluid, dynamic, alive, and mesmerizing, [...]
Forum Virium held a nice event this morning. It was about service design for urban media and embedded design, especially in relation to the recent selection of Helsinki as the World Design Capital 2012. I presented about urban screens. My presentation is attached here with English notes.
by Teppo Kotirinta Principal Designer
Urban Screens View more presentations from Teppo Kotirinta. Presentation schedule Helsinki Design Capital 2012 – Palvelumuotoilu kaupunkimediassa 9.00 Welcome, Esa Blomberg & Helena Hyvärinen 9.10 4 things to remember when designing service interactions Anton Schubert, 358 9.30 Miten palvelumuotoilu luo mahdollisuuksia kaupunkiympäristössä Mikko Koivisto, Yatta 9.50 Palvelumuotoilussa oli avaimet voittoon: Forum Virium Helsinki ja WDC [...]
Mikko Franck, a respected Finnish conductor, was asked to help out and rehearse with an amateur orchestra for a full weekend. He arrived at the site, and just for a trial started to conduct the first composition. The musicians in the orchestra didn't play particularly well. In fact, they struggled to keep in their tunes. After a few bars he put his baton down and said: “I’m sorry, but I can’t help you”, and walked out.
by Panu Korhonen Managing Director
(See my earlier posts for introduction to the series.) I’m not 100% sure that this is a true story. Nevertheless, if it weren’t, it wouldn’t make the point of the story any less clear. Just like the orchestra conductor, you as a design lead you should concentrate in the big picture and the nuances of [...]
After a long wait, the Apple tablet saw the light of the day today. We at Nordkapp are as excited as you are, and here's a few thoughts on what this might be all about;
by Sami Niemelä Creative Director, Nordkapp
The new old media One of the most obvious uses for this is naturally the “old” media and the publishing industry. I am not probably very much off if I propose that the iPad, along the whole interaction paradigm, will breathe a new kind of life to the industry at a brink of being left [...]
Here are some of the themes we think will either finally make their way into mainstream or are there, and keep on on getting stronger in 2010. Tell us what you think in the comments.
by Sami Niemelä Creative Director, Nordkapp
1. Design as a process In 2006, the UK’s Design Council published their seminal paper on Transformation Design. Somehow things kept bubbling under the radar for a few years, but slowly design started to catch up. Meanwhile service design and UX had brought the holistic, human centered thinking into into the collective design consciousness, and [...]
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