Featured Articles

Here’s some of my articles that I think you’ll enjoy reading.

- Joseph Dickerson

Focus on the outcome, not the tool

by Joseph on February 21, 2012

I’m fighting with Adobe. Not literally, obviously – I’m not having physical altercations with a multinational corporation. I’m fighting with thier apps, specifically InDesign. And InDesign is winning.

The thing is, it shouldn’t be. I’ve used page layout programs for years – one of my first jobs was doing magazine and catalog layouts in Quark Express. I SHOULD be able to use InDesign without difficulty, and pickup on things quickly. Yet I can’t – I can do the simple stuff, but doing the more elaborate and advanced stuff is still eluding me. I’m spending more time learning the app than creating things WITH the app.

So I’m giving up. Adobe, you win. I’m sure that with enough time and patience I can master InDesign and do some great work with it. But to me, such an investment is just not worth it. I’d rather focus on creating, not learning the eccentric rules and details of an application that could do with a good top-to-bottom redesign. I value my time more than that.

A good app not only supports the task, but gets out of the way and lets users focus on the work. This doesn’t mean the application lacks in functionality or complexity… it just means that the app is designed and structured to let the user do the core things they need to do, and anything else is available on-demand in a sensible way. When I am designing something I focus on the tasks, and support what the user wants or needs to do. InDesign, like many of Adobe’s apps, has become more and more complex over the years as they attempt to support multiple usage patterns – trying to support print, web, and interactive design into one app. And it shows.

And a good well-design app not only supports the user, it excites them. One of the main reasons I have been somewhat prolific of late was the release of the iBooks Author app from Apple. It allows me to do a lot of what I was trying to do in InDesign, but it’s SO much better. While far from being a “perfect” app, it has nonetheless got me excited about doing the work again… whereas InDesign provoked the exact opposite response.

I know plenty of people who are incredibly proficient at using apps such as InDesign… and I’m sure they produce wonderful work with the application. To them and all like them, use the tools that work for you… but get your sense of accomplishment from what you do with them, not that you learned how to use the tool in the first place.

So the point of my diatribe is simple – focus on the work, not the tool. And use tools that help you do the work, instead of get in the way. “A poor worker blames his tools,” the saying goes… and as tropes go, sometimes it’s spot on.

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

On pop culture, and drowning in abundance

by Joseph on February 10, 2012

When is the last time you got legitimately excited about a new movie or TV show? When you had a moment where the idea of seeing the premiere genuinely got your energy level up? If you’re like me, it probably happens a lot less than it used to. My reaction, more often than not, is ‘Meh.” And a lot of people are having the same reaction. TV audience levels have been declining for years, and the number of movie tickets sold are down considerably over just three years ago. Not many people seem to be excited about what Hollywood is putting out.

So, why is this happening? Is Hollywood in some sort of creative dry spell? Far from it: I think we are in a feast of riches. Most summer blockbusters aside, the movie studios have released some great movies over the past few years (in all genres), and television is in the middle of a golden age with dozens of great and highly entertaining shows. A core reason for declining sales and viewers, I think, is that we as a culture have lost something: scarcity.

We used to have four TV channels. One newspaper. Hardcover books, paperbacks, and magazines. No computer, no Internet, no home video, no video games. So when a new movie came out, or it was the new “fall season,” it MATTERED. It was a real event for people, and when it was truly new and different, when it was a movie like Star Wars, or a TV show like Twin Peaks… it captured our imagination and made us excited. Not just because it was so new and different, but because there was NOTHING ELSE to compare it to. It was unique. There was only ONE Star Wars, though rival studios quickly tried to copy its success. There was only one Twin Peaks, because it was lightning in a bottle – the mix of the right talent, bonth on and behind the camera, to make an exceptional experience (and the copycats came out for that as well).

Now… Well, we are basically DROWNING in ways to spend our time. On my desk in front of me now is a laptop, an iPad, and an iPhone. Using just these three devices, with a combined weight less than a recent hardback book I bought, I can access thousands of videos, web pages, books… not to mention the 6500 songs and dozens of movies already on them that I can listen to or watch at any time. And with the advancememt in mobile devices We now carry the equivilent of a thousand Libraries of Alexandia around with us, in the palm of our hands.

There is no more scarcity of content, there’s an abundance, and… well, such abundance has changed us. We no longer HAVE to see a movie the opening day… we can always watch it later, cheaper, on our cheap high-definition TVs. And when you have two hundred channels on TV, and the ability to record any program and watch the entire season in one sitting… You don’t have to catch the newest “hot” show when it debuts. And many marketing companies still don’t get that things have changed, and the old ways of promotion don’t work when content is constant and the percieved value of that content is low.

(Though some savvy marketing types have been paying attention to how social media can be used as part of their campaigns – chatting “real time” about a show as it happens is one of the few compelling reasons to watch something live.)

Supply and demand has hit content, hard. Movies, TV shows, magazines, books… the value of all these things is the value that we “assign” it with our interest and our dollars. And prices are dropping, a lot.

The smart creative types know this, and approach the situation in different ways I personally think James Cameron as a writer and director is WAY overhyped and overrated, but the fact that he only does one movie every 8 years or so makes whatever he creates an EVENT. George Lucas, on the other hand… well, he’s more merchandiser than man, now. He’s contributing to the abundance by selling Star Wars in any way he can… and while doing so, he makes the original film he made much less “special.” Now, it’s just another product to sell. That’s his perogotive, of course, but he’s diminshed something that was very valuable to a lot of people by doing so.

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

First world problems

by Joseph on February 4, 2012

When I went back to the US during Christmas (on a break from the project I’m working on overseas) I was greeted with a score of problems. My mail was piled high and deep on my desk. My computer needed multiple upgrades, as did the iPad I left. Music I bought needed to be transferred to the music library drive I kept in the states. Neglected backups needed to be done. Photo libraries needed to be synced. And so on.

I rolled up my sleeves to get started, and as I was working I realized the ludicrousness of the “problems” I had to solve. Oh no! I thought to myself, all of my files weren’t synced across my many computing devices! How could I work under such conditions?!

That I had closely followed the many stories of disaster and strife that had happened over the past year gave me much-needed context and perspective. What I was dealing with was the very definition of “first world problems”… problems that were in no way comparable to those that happened around the world. These problems were ongoing and, even as I type this now, these second- and third-world problems are causing misery and suffering to hundreds of thousands of people. Compared to the lives those people live, our “baseline” is extremely high. In fact, a great website has been created that catalog some of out first world problems, and you can visit it here.

I, and many of us, are extremely lucky to have the lives we enjoy. We have advantages, like running water and plumbing, that a significant percentage of the world don’t. I’ve often read conservative pundits talking about how the poor should not be called the “less fortunate” because with a strong work ethic anyone can succeed. To that I reply… umm, Horatio Alger is dead. And, yes, while the poorest of us in America have better lives than the poorest in scores of other countries do, it’s not all “choice” or a lack of a work ethic. Luck, location, timing, education, parents… all are factors that play a part. To think otherwise is to be dogmatic and wrong.

As I look at my job, and where I am at in my career, I have very little to complain about. I am well-regarding in my domain, am making a very good wage, and get to do what I love – design solutions that help people accomplish tasks and solve problems. Since solving problems is what I do, it definitely helps to have perspective about the severity of these problems. In most instances, they are problems we have created for ourselves, problems that our technological tools have made for us. Problems that should most often be answered simply with the pragmatic response: don’t worry about it.

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Some thoughts on “Gamification” and UX design

by Joseph on December 12, 2011

There’s been a lot of discussion and articles in the user experience space over the past few months on Gamification – that is, using techniques and attributes from video games and applying them to other domains, such as web or productivity apps to better engage users. I have surveyed the many thoughts on this topic and have some of my own:

Try and keep the “score” positive. I just tested a design that used a “score” in a prominent location in the experience. Because it could sometimes be a negative number, it was not as useful as it could be (the number represented assets and liabilities “totaled up”). We ended up abandoning the idea. If a “score” is percieved as negative or judgemental it may “turn off” users. It should represent positive progress, and if progress is slow, don’t take points away, just keep the score “steady.”

Learn from where it’s already being done and done well. Do you have reward points on your credit cards? Or with an airline or a hotel chain? These royalty programs are “scores” that influence behavior – I know I have made different decisions because of the two major rewards programs I use. Look at how successful loyalty programs work and apply appropriate lessons from them in your design.

Use gamification to encourage positive behavior. I just bought an iPod Nano and started using the built-in pedometer. It logs every step, and gives me that “score” every day. It’s a little thing, but having it on my person has made me get up and walk around more than I used to. Awards and points when you accomplish something (on a to-do list, for example) is a great and simple motivator.

Keep the user’s core task in mind. I saw a recent design that “gamified” e-mail, and while it had some good ideas, it didn’t work because it tried to align a game concept with a communication medium – it was the classic square peg/round hole scenario. It didn’t fit. Remember the context of use and the core tasks of an application… and be mindful that gamifiaction may not work.

Avoid timers. Users are time sensitive as is, and if you have a timer you immediately add an additional stress to the user’s life… and you better have a damn good reason to do so. Ticketmaster’s timer (which counts down how long you have to buy a ticket) is a good example of why to do it – but it’s still annoying and pressures the user. If you use timers to try and “increase productivity” in an app, you should ask yourself: Would I want my computer to “time me” doing what I am doing?

Be careful about making your app too competitive. If you make a social web app competitive then you are going to stratify your user base, and potentially end up creating an experience that alienates new users who don’t have the same “experience points” as older users. Good game “worlds” has “silos” that group users of similar level, and so there is less “class warfare” between the 1% and the other 99%…

Finally, apply “ego-driven design.” I wrote at length a while back about “ego-driven design” and many of those ideas align perfectly with the gamification concept. Check this article out here.

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Yesterday is forever

by Joseph on October 23, 2011

I grew up in a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama. We would visit my dad’s parents every month, a 45-minute drive away, and I looked forward to every visit. It wasn’t because I liked my grandparents… Like my father, they were cold distant people who had no idea how to deal with a hyperactive boy like me, a kid who loved to read, explore and dream. No, the reason the visits excited me was because of what they had.

They would have the latest issues of Grit Magazine.

Grit was a weekly newspaper/magazine that was a compendium of various news and special interest stories that farmers and rural dwellers read. It was the New York Times of middle America. It was a window into a wider world, a Wikipedia in print.

And it had the Star Wars comic strip.

I loved it.

I’d take each issue and read it in the voracious way that all young boys do… Speed reading, without any grace or focus. And then I’d read it again. I’d cut out the articles that interested me, ones I wanted to keep for posterity. Because, if I didn’t save it, how would I ever be able to see/read it again?

Times change. No need to clip and save and paste into a scrapbook articles. We bookmark, and even hen we shouldn’t bother… It’s always just one search away.

Everything. At least, that’s what it seems like. And I think that’s both good and bad.

The good is obvious: instant ubiquitous access to the worlds knowledge. The bad… Well, I remember the excitement of discovery that I had, that adrenalin knowing that I was going to get that latest issue of Grit.

I think we have lost something…. that urgency and focus, because everything is available to us now. In real-time, we can see what people are thinking and saying, what is going on. We don’t need to wait for a weekly newspaper. We know everything NOW, and anything that happened before, our history, it is just a click away.

Yesterday is forever, now.

But… The moment, those transient moment that we have everyday… It’s not available on the Internet. It’s gone, in a flash… In an instant. We can take photos or videos but all those are are reflections of the thing. Ghosts. Because of this I’m scared that we are becoming a culture that doesn’t embrace the now, that doesn’t pay enough attention…

Because we could always Google it later.

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

“Settling” is not a dirty word… Unless you hate your job

by Joseph on October 16, 2011

I was having an interesting conversation with some coworkers over drinks on Friday night, and the topic turned to time… Specifically, how everyone’s “day jobs” were getting in the way of what they really wanted to be doing. For one friend, it was making a documentary. For another, it was writing music. By the time their 9-to-5 days were over they had no energy or time left to dedicate to what they love.

Now, I could be supercool and spout off all kinds of ideas around how my colleagues could be more efficient, and how they need to realign their priorities… But that would ring false. Because, as much as Iove my job, I feel that twinge of regret as well. Like my coworkers, I have “settled” for a less risky life, exchanging comfort for my dreams.

To one extent or another we have all “sold out.”

Is that a bad thing? Not at all… Unless you truly hate your job. If you do, then you are burning through the finite hours you have on this earth doing something you don’t like… If that’s the case, you have to decide if you can live with it. If the pain and frustration are worth it. Me, I’m fortunate enough to do work that fulfills me creatively and I still have enough “gas in the tank” at the end of my work week to do this, my core passion: write.

Will I ever be a best-selling writer? Probably not. But that’s not what it’s about… Even if I only have 10 readers, I still get to put thoughts down in words and express myself. I love writing, playing with words. I write because I have to, I’m compelled to. I sometimes write about things and am more forthright and open than I probably should be. Sometimes that writing stays in a file on my computer, never to be posted publicly. Usually, it’s all here, all out there. I’m an open book.

Any success, if it comes, that i will ever have writing is a byproduct of the work. It’s a indication that someone (usually many someone’s) have deemed the work to have value. That my words are worth paying for. That’s nice to know… But I’ll keep writing whether that happens or not. It’s what’s I love to do.

So, my advice to you, kind reader: don’t beat yourself up if you “settle.” You have to take care of you and yours. But don’t settle for mediocrity, and don’t do a job you hate because you “have to pay the bills.” As a famous fictional Vulcan once said, there are always possibilities. Even in a down economy there are things that you can do that aligns with your dreams, and makes you happy. Love what you do, and you will be happy doing it.

{ Comments on this entry are closed }