Google AdWords: How to tell a story about interface changes
Users don’t tend to ask for large-scale site overhauls; massive changes mean having to learn a new UI, and that’s rarely something that folks get excited about. Massive changes also tend to feel unnecessary (it worked before, why fix it?) and arbitrary (why did this thing change and that other thing didn’t?) How, then, to explain to users why changes were necessary, why you made the changes you did, and how to effectively use the new UI?
(Twitter didn’t do a great job of explaining why it made a small but significant change last week, and users staged a minor revolt.)
The Google AdWords team made a smart decision to make a video about changes to the AdWords administrative interface. Team members describe how they collected user feedback to inform changes to the interface, and how these changes make the user experience better. The video makes the interface changes feel necessary (they significantly improve site performance) and human (real people put lots of thought into how to make this better, and the new features represent their best efforts).
Will Wright on game design and identity
In the future, “games are going to be one possible dimension of your personality.”
Via fora.tv
How to give a commencement address
I don’t remember much about my college commencement address other than that it was really long and it was a cold morning in Pennsylvania and the stupid graduation hat kept popping off of my head. I wasn’t inspired, just cold and annoyed.
I just read the commencement address that David Foster Wallace gave at Kenyon College in 2005 and was floored. You should read the whole thing.
Excerpt:
Learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed… This, like many clichés, so lame and unexciting on the surface, actually expresses a great and terrible truth.
Oldest memory: my first house
This is the first place I ever lived, in Austin, Texas. I haven’t been back in 26 years. The night was quite dark; I put the camera on the hood of the car, set it for a 10 second exposure, and crossed my fingers that it would work.
SXSW: Tori Amos and PJ Harvey
Two highlights of SXSW were seeing both Tori Amos and PJ Harvey in concert.
Tori Amos at La Zona Rosa on 2009-03-19. Canon EOS 5D, 70-200 mm lens at 89 mm, f/4
PJ Harvey at Stubbs on 2009-03-21. Canon EOS 5D, 70-200 mm lens at 200 mm, f/4
Taking a shot at fashion photography
From a photo shoot for Bouclé SF. Photo by me, post-processing by Laura Brunow Miner, bag by Schauleh Sahba.
Calling all web designers to Cincinnati
In June, AIGA will be holding “In Control 2009,” a conference in Cincinnati for web designers. The two days of workshops will give participants a solid grounding in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, design standards, and user research.
The roster of speakers includes some pretty great names, and I’m honored to be on the list.
(And you can use my discount code, INCMELT, to get $50 off the early bird discount rate!)
Boulder and the Flatirons
A view of Boulder (to the left) and the Flatirons from near the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Canon EOS 5D, EF 16-35mm lens at f/2.8, 16.0 mm
Now Scheduled: SXSW Panel “Tools to Know Your Users”
SXSW is just around the corner! Our panel, “Developing Super Senses: Tools to Know Your Users” has been scheduled for Monday, March 16 at 5pm. Come hear me, Mark Trammell, Nate Bolt, Carla Borsoi, and Andy Budd duke it out over user research best practices.
Here’s the panel description:
You know you need to do user research, but how? Should you write surveys, do focus groups, or develop personas? And how do you act on what you’ve learned? We’ve been in the trenches and have concrete suggestions on what you can, and should do NOW to conduct effective user research.
We expect your attendance. And come equipped with a good question or two. 
Reflections on Web Directions North
Last week I traveled to Denver to participate in the annual Web Directions North conference. I’m a fan of web conferences, and this one was particularly enjoyable. From watching the sun set behind the Rockies while snacking on still-warm doughnuts to debating the future of SVG with new friends, this was a good week.
On Monday, Mark Trammell and I led a workshop on user research. We focused on helping the workshop participants understand what key challenges their organizations face and how different research methods could help address these challenges. The participants were engaged and thoughtful and really inspiring as I think about my own organization and the user research that I do as part of my daily life.
I also gave a talk about how three companies made significant changes to products and processes based on user research and customer feedback, and how they knew which findings and feedback to act on. I’m still collecting stories of how companies make smart choices about acting on user research findings, so contact me if you have a good story to share.
Many, many thanks to John Allsopp for putting on an awesome conference in a tricky economic environment, and to the friends and colleagues who contributed so much to making this such a great event.