In part two of my series on Generations and Technology I had the privilege of talking with Mr. Jason Kirby and his class at Hillcrest High School in Ottawa, Canada.

We talked at length about Facebook; online bullying; favorite websites; and how much of the communication being done by kids in high school are through applications and cellular technologies. All of these experiences will forever change the way our future leaders in business and government will expect to be able to communicate.

Working with others in our community, I’m helping to create The UX Workshop. In an effort to extend the conversation beyond mailing lists, the UX Workshop is looking for feedback from everyone in our community, regardless of years experience, published or not, etc.

If you’re passionate about Information Architecture, Interaction Design, Uxer Experience, or Human Factors please provide feedback on wht you’d like a truly global community to be all about. We’re listening…

It looks like I’ll be heading back to the IA Summit this year taking place in Memphis TN to record and publish all of the presentations as I did last year for Boxes and Arrows.

Many thanks to ASIS&T as well as Boxes and Arrows for another opportunity to share ideas and insights with the global community; very kind!

Congratulations to Christina Wodtke and Austin Govella on the recent publication of their new book Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web (2nd Edition). I look forward to the opportunity to interview Christina and Austin on a future podcast about this great publication.

Other conferences that are happening this year that I would highly recommend from my experiences in attending last year, include:

VizThink
MX – Managing eXperience
UX Week

If you’d like to experience these events, you can listen to conversations I had with presenters and attendees. You can also subscribe to the Boxes and Arrows podcast through iTunes for all past and future shows I’ll be producing.

Best wishes to organizers for Interactions ‘09 in Vancouver this year, as well as Web Directions North, taking place in Denver Colorado.

Boxes and Arrows recently published a great article on how Bolt|Peters researched Usability for the video game, Spore.

Authors Nate Bolt and Tony Tulathimutte note:

Consider how video games are currently researched: market research-based focus groups and surveys dominate the landscape, measuring opinion and taste in a controlled lab environment, and largely ignoring players’ actual in-game behaviors. Behavior is obviously the most direct and unbiased source of understanding how players interact with the game—where they make errors, where they become irritated, where they feel most engaged. When Electronic Arts engaged Bolt|Peters to lead the player research project for Spore, we set out to do one better than the usual focus group dreck by coming at it from a UX research perspective.

As an Information Architect, I believe that we need to be paying more attention to not only the words, but also what is not said by clients and customers; and I think the videos below provide a great example of the power of such an approach.

I would rather spend weeks with clients, (read: real people), listening to their thoughts, frustrations, and joys to better structure and label information, then to stare at endless reams of data from web analytics!

Bolt|Peters incorporates both UX and IxD elements in creating a home like setting for gamers when testing. I love this approach. No one-way mirrors, board rooms, or sterile testing areas – just a comfortable place that matches the environment where gamers would likely be playing.

In my opinion, this is a stellar example of how traditional approaches, User Experience (UX) testing and Interaction Design (IxD), can be joined to create more innovative and successful products and services.

This first video shows multiple clips from the UX testing and the reactions from users. Carefully observe the body language and facial expression of the gamers being taped; most of what they are communicating has little to do with the specific words they are saying during the testing process.

To experience this idea yourself, turn off your speakers and just watch the video. Then play the video back again and hear what they said; I think you’ll be surprised by the accuracy of your assumptions.

Spore Research: Outtakes from bolt peters on Vimeo.

The second video provides greater context to the environment in which users were tested and outlines the value of such an approach in creating a great experience for gamers from the first launch.

Science of Fun from bolt peters on Vimeo.

We can learn so much from other disciplines! I’m not saying we’ll always agree on the best approach, but I believe if we genuinely want to learn from others’ experiences, the sky is the limit to what we can create.

I believe most communities “disband” because they “fail” to actively listen to the people for whom the group is intended. I don’t think most describe this in terms of “disbanding” when the community stops meeting. Instead people share their experiences and opinions about why the group failed: “It was good for the first few meetings, but then the topics got stale”; “There wasn’t an opportunity to share in the discussions”; “It’s the same people at every event”; and the list goes on.

I think if community leaders were open to listening to feedback from their members there would be a focus on how to continually improve the process; helping those within the community feel as though they are a part of the community, rather than simply a member of it.

The reason this doesn’t happen, quite simply, is because it’s hard. It takes far more energy to continually engage a community, regardless of its size, about making improvements, than it does for a few people to decide what’s most important and push on, regardless.

We live in the Information Age. Think about this in the broadest context you can imagine. We have at our disposal, the knowledge and experiences of millions of people around the world at our finger tips. There is literally nothing that you can’t learn about if you’re motivated!

I had the pleasure of meeting some of the most innovative and thought provoking people in the fields of Information Architecture, User Experience, Interaction Design, and Human Factors last year.

I hope to make even greater strides in 2009!

I have been in discussions with various members of the Information Architecture Institute; Interaction Design Association; Human Factors communities; and of course, Boxes and Arrows about how we can enable more people around the world to share their ideas and experiences. As we get closer to working out these details, I’ll be sure to share with everyone!