When I at Interactions08 a friend of mine, Jenny Lam, presented a talk titled, "Hit It With a Pretty Stick" which discussed the value of beautiful visual design. An appropriate talk for her to give considering her amazing ability to create beautiful visual design. In the talk, Jenny showcased  orisinal a site with little, short games that are done with really great illustration styles.

When I returned home, I hit the site and placed Josephine in front of the laptop. After several minutes we selected a game which has a rabbit carrying a turtle which allowed it to shoot the low flying birds. When you switch to have the turtle carry the rabbit it is so the rabbit can swat the snakes from the path. Basically, the object is to proceed forward while avoiding obstacles. A few minutes more and my wife turned around quickly to say, "I thought you said those games were not violent", in response to me repeatedly instructing to "Shoot the bird, shoot the bird!" Pausing briefly, I smiled and said, "They are not, but the birds are dropping bombs!?!"

Boarding the plane in Atlanta I looked over and saw a large, weathered sign posted on the side of the terminal above the conveyor belt used to transport luggage from the tarmac to the baggage claim area. The sign read (my emphasizing):

"A LASTING IMPRESSION. Picking up their luggage is the last experience passengers will have with American Airlines."

This is awesome! The understanding that American Airlines has for the power of creating and delivering a great user experience which involves more than the air travel from point A to point B.  

Yesterday I visited my Dad to assist him in getting his new Dell laptop up (with XP),  a new Linksys Wireless router installed and to publish some "treasures" onto Craigslist. Seems like it would have been an easy enough task for a person who spends a lot of time creating user experiences for a living. In fact, about 3 years ago I was part of a group brought together to brainstorm a feature which would assist users setting up a wireless network with Vista. It seemed pretty straight forward but there always seems to be some "unknowns" that pop-up when you least expect them to.

Yesterdays experience had plenty of "unknowns" which left me shaking my head more than twice. I followed the instructions for setting up the router EXACTLY as they were presented. Even the quick animations about where to plug the cables, despite having set up a few routers in the past. Hovering over the connection icon in the system tray displayed that connection strength was excellent even through it was seeking authentication? This went on for a while and had me unplugging/reconnecting cables, the modem and the router. Strangely, each time I went through the set-up there were new instructions that would appear from the previous time. In addition, the Dell Wireless Assistant kept trying to cut in line. At times, both would display that connection was excellent but no connection to the Internet was available. A task that should have taken minutes was now taking hours. Eventually, I discovered that wireless activity was working and cautiously unplugged the cable coming from the router (a part of the process as defined by Linksys). I restarted the laptop and again - no connection!?!

In the act of throwing up my hands and plugging the cable back in for what was going to be the final attempt - it hit me! The reason for the trouble was a conflict occurring between Linksys and the (not so helpful) Dell Wireless Assistant. Arg! Opening the assistant, I unchecked the box that was giving permission to Dell for controlling the wireless connection. The result - connection! What a mess, a truly horrible user experience. The good news is that if you are in the market for an older Kenwood AM/FM receiver or 10 gallon fish tank, Craiglist has a couple new postings for you to browse through.

Frustrated

For nearly a year, I have been working as the User Experience Lead for the Microsoft Evangelism Network which consists of five community-based web sites each targeting a unique audience.

Channel 8 - for students  | Channel 9 - for developers  | Channel 10 - for technology enthusiasts | TechNet EDGE - for IT Professionals | VisitMIX - for web designers, developers and business decision makers.

My role has been to oversee the "experience" visitors have on/across these sites with a focus on the overall visuals (look and feel), the way information is displayed and the functionality/interaction that visitors experience when navigating the content. I consider myself a generalist who takes on the roll of creative director, information architect and interactive designer depending on the task at hand. I am simplifying this but, most important is the amount of work that we as a small team have accomplished over the 10 months.

The challenge collectively has been to create a platform capable of supporting all sites. What this equates to is the ability for incremental changes/improvements across the entire eco-system. When one site is improved - they are all improved. For those familiar with the development process, this has involved many hours of planning, coding, designing and stabilizing. We utilize "building blocks" for hosting a variety of information types and rely heavily on CSS to create a unique look for each property. While some visitors are critical of our process, the result has been the publishing of 3 beta sites, 2 new sites and 3 re-launches of existing sites. Never mind the countless administration tasks that have been completed. The three guys that make up the development team are amazing to work with and it is truly exciting to see my designs come to life.

Last week, I found myself on the wrong end of a video camera being interviewed where I described briefly my though process behind the new design (and re-launch) of Channel 8 and my approach to design in general. What follows is the interview.

 
The NEW Channel 8’s Designer Speaks Out

If Andy Warhol was right, it appears that I have about 22 seconds of fame left, better make them count!?!

As it is my goal to keep this blog relatively clean in appearance so, I have begun posting images on what I refer to as a "visual supplement" at dshadle.tumblr.com. There I will post cool things where an image alone is worth its own blog entry. When time permits, I will be working to improve the overall design of the site as it is a bit blocky at the moment. Stay tuned.

Back when I was in high school one of the items I collected was watches. I had several and used to display them hanging from individual straight pins above the desk in my room.  This is ironic now as I do not even wear a watch, nor do I rarely know the current time of day. Despite the irony, I still am intrigued by items that display time. Combine that with a fascination for designs that utilize "found objects", specifically of a related theme and magic ensues! Well, not really but it sounded dramatic at the time (no pun intended). One of the many stops on my journey through favorite book marked sites is BLU DOT which sells well designed furnishings from tables, beds, seats, accessories to storage and shelving. In addition, there is a section titled "Good Design is Good" which offers a few cool extras time consumers. It is was in this section that I found the Blu Dot Desktop Clock. Described as " Taking the form of a one-inch square on your computer desktop, the Blu Dot Desktop Clock displays a different image for every minute of the day - 720 in all." So, times a-wasting - install this fun clock today! BTW, This would make a great sidebar gadget is someone had the time!?!

Also, don't miss the short film "Seven Twenty" that (I am guessing) inspired the creation of this fun time piece.

As mentioned in the previous post, this blog site came together with some helpful assistance from Jeff Sandquist. Over the course of the past couple of weeks, I have been making small tweaks to the layout, theme, etc. Being a new user of Das Blog, this has required fixing a lot of elements I have configured incorrectly, or flat-out deleted by mistake. Jeff is out on sabbatical now which leaves me "without a net". This will not prevent me from posting entries, however,  it may lead to a few links that do not go where they should. It is only temporary and fixes are ongoing.

Consider this the obligatory first entry to this version of my blog. As with the last couple of blogs started this one begins with all good intentions for longevity and a state of being current. Unlike the past blog projects, dshadle.com will be a place for me to focus on those things that inspire, educate and provide insight. In addition, I will use this blog as a place to expose my personal thoughts on design, and occasionally, on some concepts keeping me up late at night. Throughout my career, I have been lucky enough to be deliver a variety of creative solutions across a variety of mediums. While I  currently lead the User Experience efforts for the Microsoft  Evangelism Network,  a set of "community based" web site's targeting developers, enthusiasts and students, my passion for Design spans across many boundary's. Along this journey, you will see the site evolve as I continue to explore new ideas.

This site was created with great encouragement from Jeff Sandquist, who has always been a supporter of my work. Thanks Jeff!