Behavioral Science, Brain Science, And Design, By Susan Weinschenk, Ph.D.
In this Human Tech podcast episode we talk with Sydney Anh Mai from Kickstarter about differences in design between the East and the West.
Sydney grew up in Vietnam, but then came to school and to work in the US. A Product Designer for Kickstarter, we talk about product design, interaction design, and cultural differences.
If you ask someone how much they know about a particular topic they tend to overestimate their own knowledge. And we tend to rely on our social network to fill in our knowledge gaps.
This illusion about how much we know is the topic of the latest Human Tech podcast episode, where we talk with Drs. Steve Sloman (Brown University) and Phil Fernbach (University of Colorado) who wrote the book, The Knowledge Illusion: Why We Never Think Alone.
On this episode of Human Tech we talk with Dean Barker who is the VP for User Experience for United Health Group, and is also a long time friend and colleague. We talk about the challenges of finding UX staff, challenges in doing UX work at a large corporation, and some of the past projects Dean and I worked on together over the years.
These days my workdays often consist of one online meeting after another. Sometimes I have long streams of back to back meetings with less than 30 seconds in between. Sound familiar?
So on a recent call with a client last week I asked if we could all change our meeting settings so that the default is a 50 minute meeting, not a 60 minute meeting. This would give us all time to refill the water bottle, grab a bite to eat, go to the restroom, get up and do some stretching…
I haven’t had any meeting requests for 50 minutes. They are all 30 minutes (and then back to back) or 60 minutes and back to back.
Anyone tried this? Does it work? Does it help? What other ideas have you tried to make these virtual meeting days less stressful and healthier for our mental and physical well being?
WOW, WOW, WOW.
If your job involves designing anything, or communicating information to others, then I think you need to read this book.
On this episode of Human Tech we interview Karl Fast and Stephen Anderson about their recently published book: Figure It Out: Getting from Information to Understanding.
On the episode I act like a fan girl at the beginning, but really, the book impressed me that much. It may change the way you think about thinking and how people process information. It should change the way you present and share any kind of information, whether text, visual, digital or physical.
It’s not a “quick bites” type of read. It’s fairly substantial, but it is so well written and with lots and lots of examples, that I recommend it to everyone involved in any kind of information design/communication.
The publisher, Rosenfeld, has a coupon code for us: Go to this webpage:
https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/figure-it-out/
and when you are checking out use this code: humantechfigure0820
for 20% off through October 31, 2020.
Amy Bucher, Vice President of Behavior Change at MadPow, and author of Engaged: Designing for Behavior Change, joins us for this episode on Human Tech.
And if you are interested in purchasing the book the publisher, Rosenfeld, has a coupon code for us: Go to this webpage: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/engaged-designing-for-behavior-change/
and when you are checking out use this code: HumanTechEngaged0620
for 20% off through August 15, 2020.
I teach courses in user experience as an Adjunct Professor at a campus of University of Wisconsin (the campus in Stevens Point Wisconsin). Like campuses around the world we are shut down because of the Covid pandemic. We’re teaching remotely on Zoom and students are trying to finish their coursework while sheltering at home.
I’m used to working remotely and teaching remotely, but it doesn’t mean that students are used to learning this way.
I’m teaching a class this semester “Evaluating User Interfaces”. The class has been learning about heuristic evaluations, cognitive walkthroughs, and user testing. When the campus closed down we were in the middle of our unit on user testing. The students tried out conducing in person user tests first (using Zoom and doing the tests remotely for the most part).
Then they used Userlytics to run unmoderated tests. Userlytics arranged for the students in the class to have credits so that each student could run 3 tests. For most of the students this was their first experience at planning, conducting, and analyzing unmoderated remote tests.
Because they are all sheltering in place this was especially important to them. It allowed them to continue learning and to do their project even while staying at home.
So a big THANK YOU to Userlytics for providing this opportunity.
When I wrote 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People I, of course, hoped people would like it (every author wants to be a “best seller”!). It has turned out to be even more popular than I had thought and hoped, and I am very grateful to all the readers who have read it and who have reached out to me about it since it was first published.
Over the last few months I’ve been working on a 2nd edition. I wanted to update some of the research and include some new ideas. So I’m happy to say that I’ve finished the 2nd edition and sent it off to the publisher for printing. The official date it will be available is June 30 (2020) but it is available for pre-order now at Amazon.
My publisher has also given me a promo code for 35% off if you pre-order it through their outlet. (good through June 30). The code is 100THINGS.
If your copy is dog-eared and you want a new one, or if you want to buy one for a friend or recommend it to others, try the 2nd edition.
