Cennydd Bowles on user experience.

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Free editing help

Friday, August 20th, 2010

No it's fine, take it all.

My recent writing endeavours have further kindled my interest in words and language. I’ve chosen to study the fundamentals of editing, work on my grammar, and investigate the nuances of written style (such as global attitudes toward the Oxford comma featured in this sentence). I consumed The Awl’s What It’s Really Like To Be A Copy Editor with empathy and faint envy.

Regular readers will know I’m eager for the British UX community to get the recognition it deserves. I’ve therefore concocted a scheme to combine this cause with my new-found obsession for the written word.

I’d like to volunteer my (free) services as an editor to anyone in the British UX community. Whether you’re writing a blog post, an article for a UX magazine, a book review—hell, even a tweet—just drop me an email and a timescale and I’ll be glad to offer questions, corrections, and suggestions. All I ask is that your piece is somehow related to UX and that it’s for public consumption. Hopefully we can make some great work together, while I get a fantastic opportunity to read more and offer my modest skills to the community.

Photo credit: Wondermonkey2k.

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The making of Undercover UX Design

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

After 200 pages, 50,000 words and over 1000 hours, we’re done. Undercover User Experience Design is now available for pre-order from Amazon UK and Amazon US. It’ll hit the shelves from 17 September on.

The writing process

Writing a book has been the most complex information architecture challenge of my life. The permutations in which you can sculpt, exclude, clarify and link information are staggering. No surprise then that we relied on our familiar design process, heading up the chain of goals, structure, content and surface. We appropriated the tools of our trade: personas, content analysis, user feedback and deep iteration—but it was trial and error that finally unearthed the process that worked for us.

  1. Research. The scale of the project demanded hundreds of hours of research: absorbing other books and articles, recombining miscellaneous thoughts into coherent patterns. The trick was knowing when to stop. The only way to write the perfect book is first to read every book. We repeatedly had to refocus on our audience and mark tight boundaries around curiosity. Several high-level ideas, although fascinating to us, weren’t relevant for the punchy style of the book.
  2. Outline. We then turned our scrappy notes into a hierarchical structure with the help of OmniOutliner. Somewhere between a vast card sort and a minimax search; an exhaustive attempt to craft as coherent a flow as possible.
  3. “Pigeon”. Turning this outline straight into high-quality prose proved too great a step, so first we threw words onto the page without regard for their quality.
  4. First draft. Only then did we turn this “pigeon” prose into tight writing. Even with this narrow remit, this step challenged our writing skills and patience. We reshuffled and excised enormous swathes of text, while juggling minutiae of definitions and style. Here too we finally cast off our Britishness and accepted dollar signs and American spellings, although we’re proud to say we drew the line at “gotten”.
  5. Diagrams. Undercover UX Design is printed using two inks—black and the blood-red Pantone 484U—meaning our illustrations could only use these colours. We had to recreate several deliverables from scratch to suit this setup, and spent many hours struggling with the technical requirements of the printers.
  6. Templating. The first draft then had to go into an awkward Word template for the publisher. Mind-numbing hours of copying, pasting, and style formatting, including smart quotes and other preferred typographical treatment.
  7. Author review. Our two wonderful editors Wendy and Jacqueline then reviewed our work at both the logical and technical level, and returned corrections in a haze of Track Changes. Most points were minor—grammatical or logical errors we kicked ourselves for not seeing—but even at this stage we found ourselves in deep spirals of “What are we really trying to say here?”. Our response was usually to leave the offending sections on the cutting floor.
  8. Proof. Finally, we returned the author review and the compositors laid the text and images out in a PDF which we then proof-read alongside the publishers. Proof-reading was impossibly tedious but immensely valuable, giving us the chance to fix clunky phrases and embarrassing typos.

The tools

I relied on the excellent Scrivener throughout, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. It suited my non-linear writing style and its stability is truly impressive. As we worked concurrently on chapters, James and I shared our work with a hacky Dropbox sync. Only once did we overwrite each other’s work. There’s a strong case for a more formal version control system, but the very thought depressed us. Dropbox worked for us, and again I gladly recommend it.

Our other essential tools included Skype, Illustrator, a good thesaurus, and several Stars of the Lid albums. Trial and error again showed me which albums I could successfully listen to while writing. Anything with vocals or strong percussion was out, creating a last.fm-skewing portfolio.

The effort

Everyone knows writing a book is hard, and I won’t play the martyr. But I will say the extent to which my life ground to a halt surprised me. A writer isn’t just an author; he is a project manager, juggling chapters, drafts, reviews, illustrations and copyright releases, as well as personal time and client time. A book is a constant source of ideas, questions, and worry. The pressure made me regress into quasi-adolescent nail-biting and insomnia, and I’m enjoying the quiet return of my regular life.

I was initially advised not to partner with a co-author and not to write a book while in full-time employment. Excellent advice, which we ignored. For six months I’ve been fond of saying “Having a co-author doesn’t mean you each write half a book. You each write a book”. It would have been substantially easier for either James or myself to write this book alone, but without my co-author’s inspiration, efforts and motivation, Undercover UX Design would be a shadow of its final form.

The money

Our financial return from Undercover UX Design will depend of course on sales, but we shan’t end up rich. Tech & design books don’t sell in the quantities required to turn huge profits, and what initially seemed a decent advance was quickly demolished by currency conversion, tax, bank fees, and other costs. Both James and I had to register as self-employed, go through the US tax system with its obscene forms and mandatory trips to the US Embassy, hire an accountant, and so on. As a wage slave all my life, it’s been a major upheaval, but money was never a priority for this project. Royalties will be a happy accident rather than the main reward.

The illustrations

Early on, we decided we wanted to make a book that was slightly different to other tech books. We politely insisted on a 9×6-inch format (rather than New Riders’ customary 9×7) for aesthetic and usability reasons, and commissioned my friend Chris Summerlin to produce chapter illustrations for the book.

He did a spectacular job. The results lie somewhere between Kevin Cornell‘s A List Apart illustrations and The Perry Bible Fellowship, demanding a second or third look before the penny drops. They’re quirky, slightly tangential and wonderfully drawn. We hope our readers will love them as much as we do.

The result

Undercover User Experience Design ended up shorter than expected, mostly thanks to rigorous editing. There’s no wasted space, and the book’s concision is definitely a feature, not a bug. As befits the title, we’ve tried to create a down-to-earth, practical book that avoids the more ponderous tendencies of the field. We’re proud of the results and I’m hopeful UUXD will become an essential guide for people who can’t do UX by the numbers.

It’s too early to say whether writing a book has changed me, but it has certainly sparked further interest in writing. I’ve learned a great deal about making a coherent argument and writing well. My client work is suddenly full of content challenges I never previously saw. I’m no longer frightened to wield an axe on my favourite ideas, and I now see a good editor as the solution to most of the world’s communication problems. (More on that later.)

Now we wait, and hope others will respond well to our work. James and I would be eternally grateful if you could spread the word about Undercover User Experience Design. Please feel free point people at the website or suggest they pre-order on Amazon. (Please use these links so we get a small referral fee per sale: Amazon UK and Amazon US. Note that the RRP is still unconfirmed, so there’s a very good chance the book will end up cheaper. Pre-order now and you’ll get the lowest price available.)

Thanks to everyone who supported us, and we hope you enjoy the book!

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UX Fundamentals workshop

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

James and I are holding a User Experience Fundamentals training workshop on Fri 8 October in sunny Brighton.

User experience is rightly seen as a critical way to stand out on today’s competitive web. But how does one go about shaping something as vague and personal as someone’s enjoyment of a website? What does it mean in practical terms?

This workshop gives an outstanding introduction to the world of web user experience design. By learning both the basic theory and practical applications of usability, information architecture and interaction design, you’ll learn how to make websites your users love and your company will profit from.

The workshop covers the entire design process. We begin with the fundamentals of both user and business research, including how to draw out unspoken requirements from both groups. We move on to discuss ways to turn your research into design concepts, and tools that will help you structure the site and pin down its major elements. Finally, we look at how to make effective wireframes and prototypes, test them with users and improve your designs through iteration.

It’s £345 until 10 Sep, or £395 after that. As an added bonus, attendees will get a free copy of Undercover UX Design.

Find out more at Workshops for the Web.

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SXSW 2011 proposal

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

Please forgive some minor self-promotion. Meaningful posts are imminent.

This year’s SXSW was such an enjoyable mix of sunburn, Tex-Mex, beer and intelligent conversation that I couldn’t resist throwing my hat into the ring for 2011. Common sense suggests I should stick to safe topics: user experience, the book, hand-wringing over what is and what isn’t HTML5. Instead, I’ve tossed all that aside and and am seeking permission to indulge my fascination with sports data. If you like the sound of this session, please do pop over to the Panel Picker and add a vote or a comment. I’m also named as a panelist on Perfect Your Web Navigation: Where Am I?, so support for that panel would be appreciated too.

The real-time sporting revolution

The sporting world thrives on prediction, with fans and professionals alike studying the form guides to best predict the outcome of upcoming contests. Until recently, the data that fueled these efforts told us of historical or theoretical patterns: how world records were broken, or the likelihood of being dealt a pair of aces. But modern technology has caused an eruption of real-time data, with profound effects on the sporting world.

Live performance statistics now inform us about the state of the game as it’s played: a quarterback’s pass completion, the heart rate of a cyclist, the likelihood of an incoming storm. The data hints at the story hidden behind the surface, giving us valuable insight into who’s struggling, who’s in form and how this might affect the outcome.

The real-time phenomenon isn’t limited to the stadium. Live betting markets rise and fall dramatically with each event of the game, giving an aggregated view of the watching public’s expectations. But we needn’t just read the mathematical tealeaves, since the backchannel chatter of Twitter and other social networking sites also provide a live public commentary on the game. Drop an easy catch, take a heavy punch and people will be sure to let you know.

This cavalcade of data is changing the face of sport, giving us revolutionary ways to understand the ebb and flow of the sporting struggle. This session will explore the power of sporting data, and how design can turn this data into meaningful insight.

The questions we’ll answer:

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On writing

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

Writing is a jealous lover. Every hour I’m apart from her, she saddles me with guilt. Time is my new currency, a precious gemstone traded on rare occasions.

Writing is about control. I’ve learned to suppress my florid linguistic tendencies – hence this brief stretching of the legs – and tolerated the cruelties of American English until they became mere indiscretions. I’ve learned that the tyranny of the blank page can only be defeated with words, and that structure is the heart of the battle. I’ve learned to spot ambiguous pronouns at ranges of up to a mile.

Writing is as punishing, as unglamorous, as stressful as any author warns. Would I do it again? Absolutely.

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Happiness in numbers

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

Prompted by a mention in Stephen P Anderson’s recent article, I’ve been playing with Track Your Happiness. Part application, part experiment, it’s an idea I’ve always found fascinating. A scrobbler for emotion so that, by matching patterns, we can try to understand what drives us.

I’ve learned that Sundays fill me with dread, that sleep makes no difference to my mood and that my leisure activities don’t make me happy. Am I wasting my time on them, or is happiness not my motivation? Let’s take the example of games, marked Playing at the foot of the graph.

Games can be infuriating. I’m frequently shot by teenagers, eaten by ravenous Turing machine monsters or beaten courtesy of a defensive howler. So why play? Because games provide other rewards. They’re an outlet for stress, and provide the challenge of competition and a feeling of mastery. By focusing on their unimportant syntax, I can break from quotidian thoughts without idly wandering into boredom, and experience emotions that contrast my collaborative professional work.

So do games make me happy? Apparently not. But they’re important vitamin supplements, making up for the deficiencies in my mental diet.

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Making SXSW beautiful

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

Spring’s finally poking its head round the corner: I fly off for my first South By Southwest in less than three weeks and I’m hoping that winter will have finally given up by the time I return. From the outside, SXSW gives off a Glastonbury-like vibe: an enormous cauldron of distraction, where carefully-planned itineraries are discarded within hours. With so many sessions and the endless attractions that “geek spring break” bring, I never knew how people chose which sessions and parties to attend.

Fortunately, this year the SXSW team have introduced curated workshops, which bring together panels under a common theme, meaning when Jason Beaird asked me to present my talk Beauty In Web Design as part of his curated theme, I jumped at the chance.

Great web design is all around us, but can we go beyond ‘cool’, ‘usable’ & ‘fun’ to create something truly beautiful? This session examines our changing attitudes to beauty, art and meaning, and why the web is ideally suited to become a vehicle for true beauty in the Information Age.

To add to the pressure, I’m the first thing on: 2pm on Friday 12 March. Directly following me are the talented Samantha Warren, presenting Get Stoked on Web Typography, and Matthew Smith of Squaredeye with Simple Steps to Great Web Design.

So if you’re heading Austin-wards, grab your conference pass early and join us in the glamorously-named Ballroom E for an afternoon of beautiful thrills.

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!?

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

It’s said there are more books about chess than all other games combined.

To non-players, a chess book is an arcane mystery of jumbled letters and references to openings with such exotic names as the Nimzo-Indian Defence, the Nescafé Frappé Attack, and the Sicilian Najdorf Poisoned Pawn Variation.

But notation is deceptively simple. Each move simply lists the moving piece and the co-ordinates of its destination. Be4 is a bishop move to a central square. Rxa8 tells us the rook is capturing whatever’s in the top-left corner.

So far, so functional. However, chess notation also provides means of passing judgment on the moves. Expert annotators earn their living by peppering games with punctational shorthand:

These symbols can be combined. ?! denotes a dubious, but not awful, move. !? is used to mark an novel idea that looks promising but may prove to be unsound.

It’s the !? moves that I’m most interested in.

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