kuniform

thru my school i had the chance to volunteer at the nielsen norman group’s conference in chicago (opens in new window). it was cool to get the chance to see what they’re about after all this time, but it was a little depressing, too.

i had been to the conference in 2000, and back then it struck me as this huge big mindblowing thing. This time around, it felt like i was watching an athlete who’s past their prime but still trying to play, a la Michael Jordan. There wasn’t much new under the sun from any of these folks, and I left with the distinct feeling the younger speakers were at least taking chances with their presentations. Most favorable comments I heard concerned presentations by peter morville and b.j. fogg.

I saw tog do his interaction design piece, and the keynote speakers, tog, norman, nielsen, and their testing lady, coyne. Tog is still microsoft-bashin’ and os X bashin’ and nielsen is still reciting usability statistics and guidelines like a sniping film critic.

Norman had some really interesting stuff to say about designing for emotion, and apparently b.j. fogg’s spiel on persuasive technology was interesting, from what attendees had to say.

The thing that made me sad was that the more the conference went on, the less enthused i was to be involved with user centered design. In programming, people are judged by their ability. Not solely by their ability, but primarily by it, since the results of their work is a tangible artifact. In UCD, people are judged by their ability to promote themselves, which is usually related to their egos. I think this is in part because there is no tangible, interactive artifact from their work, just a bunch of diagrams, typically.

Fogg’s persuasive technology is basically the study of using computers to change people’s behavior. Stanford’s Dean is blowing it up as a whole new field of inquiry. Maybe this is some bitter salad from me, but I can’t see it as anything other than marketing + computers= automatic evil.

Norman’s early emphasis was on strategic design, which sounded like a re-hash of Larry Keeler’s Doblin Group stuff. Maybe the book will be better.