UX Week 2006: Jeff Veen Keynote Notes

The ideas behind Web 2.0 are very powerful. It's unfortunate that it's getting mixed up with hype and raising VC money.

How boom and bust cycles happen: In the 17th century in the Netherlands, an innovation happened: shipping runs brought tulips from Turkey. Soon, a run happened on tulips and eventually, a bust as well. The steam engine did the same thing: a tech innovation, a boom, a bust, a correction, and then sustained growth.

We've been through this once on the web. And we're going to see this again. It's a cycle. What can we learn and take with us through the cycle?

Putting the Elements of User Experience to use in Web 2.0:

Surface Layer
How do we let go of complete design experience on the visual level? Allow users to control the data--their data--especially the scale and type. Give control to users, but don't discard good design techniques. Trust on the surface: Visual appeal is important. It's the place where cognition meets emotion. All in under a second!

Think of your users as peers. Hopefully we're away from the idea of corporations as machines that spew out messages. Instead, it should be a conversation.

Skeleton Layer
Ajax changed the way we think about interaction design on the web. Browsers are more mature--and so are audiences. It makes the user experience much more fluid. It allows users to explore without the penalty of navigation. The core principles of interaction design have shifted on the web. Be careful about innovating on crucial features. Help users not make mistakes, not just recover from mistakes.

Internal capabilities are an issue here. Is there enough internal competencies to create and support an Ajax interface?

We need to rethink feedback: how do we show changes to the page?

Structural Layer
Allow users to create their own architecture to a site. Algorithms create clusters and create a semi-editorial structure that is created via user data.

Scope
Scope is interesting because of commoditization. In 1996, you had to have $10m and be a category changer. Now, with a small amount of money, it's easier to try out an idea. The scope of the idea doesn't have to be so large.

All the old problems still exist. But with new platforms, we're able to solve them in different ways and with participation from the audience. Using simpler solutions and reduced scope to solve problems. APIs allow for participation.

Strategy
Your site is just one piece. You have to play well with everyone else. Now there are powerful tools in the hands of passionate amateurs. We need to make users experts in what we do.

Originally posted at Wednesday, August 16, 2006 | Comments (0)