UX Intensive Playlist
posted at 4:09 PM on June 22, 2008

We were asked a few times about the music playing during UX Intensive. Here’s the playlist we had running during the Design Strategy, Design Research and Interaction Design days. 

•        Elevator Music | Beck        
•        Budos Rising | The Budos Band        
•        I Feel It All | Feist        
•        Oceans Of Venus | Dengue Fever        
•        Bang On | The Breeders        
•        Chicago Falcon | The Budos Band        
•        Nobody’s Baby | Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings        
•        After It All | Cat Power        
•        Erase You | ESG        
•        Set Yourself On Fire | Charlotte Gainsbourg        
•        I’m Always Drunk in San Francisco | Nancy Wilson
•        52 Girls | B-52’s
•        Hanging on the Telephone | Blondie
•        Sun It Rises | Fleet Foxes
•        I Burn Today | Frank Black
•        Ten Feet Tall | XTC
•        Tiny Spark | Brendan Benson
•        Belle Isle | Grand Ole Party
•        Road Runner | The Modern Lovers
•        In the Heat of the Morning | The Last Shadow Puppets        
•        Dark Lines | The Gossip        
•        Intergration | Dengue Fever        
•        Bryn | Vampire Weekend        
•        People Think They Know Me | Sloan        
•        San Franciscan Nights | Eric Burdon & The Animals        
•        This Time (I’m Gonna Try It My Way) | DJ Shadow        
•        Off The Grid | The Beastie Boys        
•        Australia | The Shins        
•        Making Plans For Nigel | Nouvelle Vague        
•        I Turn My Camera On | Spoon             
•        La la La | The Bird And The Bee        
•        Gronlandic Edit | Of Montreal        
•        Pump it Up | Elvis Costello        
•        Aurora Borealis | Meat Puppets
•        Helen Wheels | Paul McCartney & Wings
•        This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody) | Talking Heads
•        Rats | Sonic Youth
•        Barock - Plastik | Stereolab
•        True Love, Pt. 2 | X
•        Sittin’ on My Sofa | The Kinks         
•        (Do The) Instant Mash | Joe Jackson        
•        Before We Begin | Broadcast               
•        Big Sky |  Kinks                          
•        Fillmore Blues | Chuck Berry        
•        Act Of The Apostle | Belle & Sebastian        
•        The Beat  | Elvis Costello        
•        Black Tambourine | Beck        
•        The Bones Of An Idol | The New Pornographers        
•        Amsterdam | Peter Bjorn and John        
•        All I Need | Radiohead        
•        Artistiya | Amadou & Mariam        
•        A Change of Scene | Citizens Here and Abroad        
•        Another Nail for My Heart | Squeeze        
•        Decatur, or, Round of Applause for Your Stepmother! | Sufjan Stevens 
•        The Actor’s Opprobrium | Of Montreal        
•        Diamond Dancer | Bill Callahan        
•        Birds | Quasi        
•        Don’t You Evah | Spoon     
•        House Of Cards | Radiohead        
•        2 More Dead | RJD2        
•        Earthquake Weather | Beck        
•        Upon This Tidal Wave Of Young Blood | Clap Your Hands Say Yeah        
•        Easy | The Beta Band        
•        Jesus, etc | Wilco        
•        Tell Me | Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings        
•        Failsafe | The New Pornographers        
•        Knee-High Boogie Blues | Richard Swift        
•        A Taste of Honey | Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass        
•        Gut Feeling | Devo        
•        Hang On To Your Ego | The Beach Boys        
•        Held | Smog                 
•        Three-Way | The Magnetic Fields        
•        Catch Yer Own Train | The Silver Seas        
•        If Looks Could Kill  | Camera Obscura        
•        You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb | Spoon        
•        Going On | Gnarls Barkley        
•        No One Listen | Ray Davies        
•        Once Around the Block | Badly Drawn Boy        
•        Ballad of Humankindness | Dears       
•        Mirror In the Bathroom | The English Beat        
•        Police & Thieves | The Clash        
•        Destiny On the Lawn | The Bees (U.S.)        
•        Top Yourself  | The Raconteurs        
•        The Underdog | Spoon       
•        The Way I Walk | Cramps        
•        The Passenger | Iggy Pop        
•        Got To Let Go  | The Bees        
•        Go Places | The New Pornographers        
•        Mr. Tough | Yo La Tengo        
•        Hot Tomale | Jackie Mittoo        
•        Higher Ground | Stevie Wonder        
•        You Might Walk Away |  Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter        
•        Inspiration Information |  Shuggie Otis        
•        Walken | Wilco        
•        The Rat Cage | The Beastie Boys        
•        Back to Black | Amy Winehouse        
•        One Glass of Water | The Bees        
•        Life On Mars? | David Bowie        
•        Punk Rock Girl | The Dead Milkmen        
•        What’s It Gonna Be | Dusty Springfield        
•        The Girl from Ipanema | Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass
•        The Last Time | Gnarls Barkley     
•        Mary Jane’s Last Dance | Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
•        Ladies of Cambridge | Vampire Weekend    

These are not the only tunes that were playing, as Leon, our sound guy ventured outside of the ‘conference tunes’ playlist on the AP iPod. We have no control over what you may have heard during those times :-) 

Details from the Design Strategy day
posted at 8:36 PM on June 16, 2008

Thanks everyone for your participation in yesterday’s workshop. I appreciate the smart questions, and the interesting ideas you shared about design strategy. Here’s a PDF file of the slides from the workshop; and here’s a list of many of the references and ideas that were brought up in the workshop and during discussions:

• A blog post detailing one of my examples of experience strategy, the Target ClearRX drug delivery system. There’s several links within to articles and the backstory behind the pill bottle redesign.
• I made a couple of references to Michael Porter and his seminal essay, “What is Strategy?” Unfortunately it’s $6.50 from Harvard Business Review, but it’s also a great read. Also a good read is a recent interview Michael Porter did with the Wharton School of Business explaining why “being the best” isn’t a strategy (requires sign-up).
• I shared the User Experience Value Chain that was a part of Adaptive Path’s Leveraging Business Value report. The report includes one of my favorite tools that we didn’t cover during the workshop: it’s called linking elephants, and it’s a great tool for establishing ROI for UX.
• And if you want to use numbers to help you make your case for design and UX, Henning Fischer’s essay on Business Case Modeling for Design Initiatives is a great how-to, plus you can download his spreadsheet that shows all his math.
• The value curve example comes from Blue Ocean Strategy, but the authors prior article in HBR is cheaper and a faster read, if you’re looking for short cuts. Another example of a value curve is Scott Weisbrod’s example of the value curve for the Wii.
• I talked about the value of creating tangible expressions of he strategy to define what the strategy is or could be. One of my favorite examples of prototyping and testing new experience-based strategies comes from Kevin Cheng’s presentation on Communicating Concepts through Comics.
• Here’s the Charmr video that I shared, a great example of creating a clear vision of what an experience could be. Here’s more on the Charmr project.
• One way to quickly get to Definition is the sketchboard technique. Here’s an essay on sketchboads with details behind that movie on how we do it and downloads to the tools we use.
• For more thinking on the Long Wow, you can see the related essay or a presentation from the IA Summit including audio.
• If your interested in more content on design strategy, I suggest my presentation on Strategic Experience Design from the Business to Buttons conference last year (accompanying slides), Jess McMullin’s b+d blog, Scott Weisbrod’s experience planner blog, and of course my blog, brandonschauer.com.
• And in Adaptive Path’s latest book, Subject to Change, we cover the long wow, experience as a product, understanding people as people, and iterative design as you can see in this introductory slideshow.

– Brandon

Tip for this week: think about guest experiences
posted at 3:04 PM on June 13, 2008

A little tip for getting in the zone for UX Intensive this week. Several of the hands-on exercises we’ll be doing (especially for Design Strategy and Design Research) have to do with the guest experience around hotels. From planning and booking, to arrival, to the stay, to the departure and any future relationship with the hotel.

So whether you’re traveling to Minneapolis and staying in a hotel, or just there during the day for the experience of meeting in a hotel, keep your eyes open and think about: What is the experience of being a hotel guest? Where does that experience start and end? How and when do you know what the hotel experience might be like? And how do they create value for the business and for the customer?

We’re looking forward to rolling up our sleeves together to work on and think about creating great experiences!

Evening Events Schedule
posted at 9:28 AM on June 4, 2008

Monday, June 16th: 5:30-7pm
Winter Garden, The Depot
225 Third Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55401

Tuesday, June 17th: 5:30-7pm
The Endless Bridge Bar, Level 4, Guthrie Theater
818 South 2nd Street, Minneapolis, MN 55415

Wednesday, June 18th: 5:30-7pm
space150
212 Third Avenue North #150, Minneapolis, MN, 55401

Thursday,  June 19th: 5:30-7pm
Stone Arch Bar, The Depot
225 Third Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55401

The Conference Social Network: CrowdVine
posted at 7:11 PM on May 20, 2008

As part of UXI, we’re offering a social network where attendees can meet and connect before the event. It’s a large event this year and we want to make sure you get as much out of networking in the lobby as you do from the sessions.

Browse the network and sign up for an account!

What should you do once you’re in?

• Add a picture. That’ll help people put a name to a face.
• Fill out your profile. This will help people find you.
• Find people you want to meet. From their profile you can let them know that you are a “fan” or that you “want-to-meet.” Or you leave a comment with something more specific.

We’re working with CrowdVine to provide the social network. They’re here to provide support, answer your questions, and give tips on how to make the most of the experience. They’ve provided a moderator who you can contact directly: Tony Stubblebine, < tony at crowd vine dot com>

Tag your photos uximn2008 on flickr.com

Location

The Depot Minneapolis
225 South Third Avenue
Minneapolis, MN