Opinion
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Walking Wikipedias
Experience Design is a constantly changing landscape where many of us get to temporarily step inside the protective bubble of organisations and industries most people only ever read about.
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NZ Govt Set to Mothball Economic Powertrain
In a myopic move the New Zealand Transport Agency has nixed a proposed rescue package that could have saved the long-running Capital Connection rail service. In the process they will be killing-off a productive little economy that has been thriving for over 20 years. Their excuse is that removing the service won’t lead to traffic…
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Keep sucking and carry on
DJ FiESTA! 1995. Photo Otago Daily Times. To others I apparently appear self-confident, but in reality I suffer from a fairly regular sprinkling of self-doubt. Too often I feel like my work might not be good enough, that I don’t spend quality time on things and that there’s someone better than me who could be…
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So it’s about time I updated my blog isn’t it?
Well… …I don’t have a plan but it looks like I’m back. I think I’m going to be less glossy and a bit more gritty from now on. You’ll not only be hearing about my adventures in Experience Design but whatever’s rocking my world right now. I’ll reveal more about my personal life, thoughts and…
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Answers to those Questions
Occasionally I get emails from aspiring User Experience professionals asking a bunch of questions about the industry and how I got into it. Over the years I’ve had people contacting me from around the world including the USA, Europe, The Philippines, India and New Zealand. I thought it might be useful to share some of these questions…
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User Experience Outside the Square
User Experience professionals need to get their heads out of the computer screen and look at the bigger picture.
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11 Must-Follow Kiwi User Experience Evangelists on Twitter
Being down-under often means we are off the radar. But did you know that New Zealand is also brimming with UX (User Experience) evangelists? This is my list of Twitter must-follows for any New Zealander interested in locals talking about usability, user experience, information architecture and interaction design. This is by no means a comprehensive…
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Flying like a Conchord
On my 12-hour flight to San Francisco, Air New Zealand offered a plethora of inflight entertainment including a grumpy hostess, movies, music and computer games. I’m one of those people who feels overwhelmed by too many choices when visiting a record store or bookshop. The Air NZ inflight entertainment system made me feel the same…
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Gadget Neglect
Canon TX1 : Ingenious or insane – I’m not sure which…I’ve been so busy recently that my new (and first ever) digital camera sat unopened on my desk for 7 days… For just $NZ500 (plus an extra $80 for a 4Gb memory card) I’ve now got a camera which not only shoots stills, but also…
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Make Qantas Smarter (and win!)
Qantas have a ‘thick’ online booking system. This came to light when I read an article in The Dominion Post this morning, which reads: A mother says she will never fly Qantas again after her two unaccompanied children were bumped off an overloaded Wellington to Sydney flight and sent to Auckland instead. And here’s the…
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Free, free – set them free…
It has been interesting watching Chandima in action at Provoke since I lured him away from Synergy Fronde (or “Fondle” as some of us affectionately refer to them around here). This man is on the rampage – and we like it like that…By no means is Provoke the perfect company (almost – we’re just doing…
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Narrow Thinking
They’re ripping up the footpath along the Queens Highway on the Kapiti Coast – then laying it down again in pretty much the same place.
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Starving on the main-trunk line
A few weeks ago I ‘treated’ my daughter to her first big train trip – on the Overlander – in what proved to be a scenic experiment in illusion and culinary depravation.
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I’m going off the rails
In an act of hypocrisy I’m abandoning electric rail in favour of a fossil-guzzling car. This was not a light decision, but the Kapiti-Wellington public transport system has literally driven me off the rails… For years I’ve been a staunch climate change warrior. I’d catch a bus from home to the Paraparaumu train station (20…
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BankDirect vs Kiwibank
It’s one of those strange things about my world – every time I criticise a company or Government department the next day they’re nominated for an award (or even actually win something). It happened with Statistics NZ and the Online Census and now it has happened with Kiwibank. Kiwibank wins 2006 Sunday Star-Times Cannex Banking…
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Kiwibank’s Secret Formula?
For the last six weeks I’ve been working as an undercover agent – posing as a new customer for Kiwibank – New Zealand’s big little bank. Secret Spy Profile Having been a customer of several other banks in previous occupations, at first I found this assignment a cinch. The undercover role was surprisingly similar to…
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Statisfaction
A few months ago I kicked up a fuss about the usability and interaction design of the first New Zealand Online Census. Just having completed my own design projects for the SJS registration forms and E-Government compliance for Grants Online, I was surprised at how the Online Census differed so radically from what I considered…
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A Cultivated Census
In my blog a few days ago (about the poor design and usability of the New Zealand online Census), drew bundles of feedback and criticism from various quarters. Comments I received via email and on other websites included: Agreements… ” I have to agree with the blog – a simple URL is a lot easier…
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Holding the Online Census to Account
The online version of the New Zealand 2006 Census is littered with unnecessary design and usability issues. For the first time New Zealand citizens have the option of doing the census online – which is brilliant news. So I thought I’d give it a go. I was truly expecting a slick, web savvy and usable…
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King Kong of Usability Stuff Ups
Last Wednesday I was setting up a usability test environment for a new website. Somebody commented on the computer monitor – “It’s fuzzy” – and proceeded to try and adjust the monitor settings. But, as I pointed out, the target market for the website is students. Our field research has shown that a fair percentage…
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Radio NZ Rocks Online
I’m probably a tad younger than the core Radio New Zealand demographic, but in recent years it has become my station of choice – thanks in part to my fabulous retro 1950’s transistor radio (which only picks up the AM frequency). The station makes me feel connected to the flavour of New Zealand I identify…
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TV3 Website Gives Me Nightmares
Just when I thought the web was actually going through a revival with usability, web standards, AJAX taking hold – and New Zealanders actually starting to churn out some pretty decent websites – TV3 had to come along and trash the party. Obviously TV3′s web designers needed a ‘What’s Hot/What’s Not’ list – so I’ve…
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Flashy Breakable Fisher & Paykel
Great news for Kiwi design – appliance maker Fisher & Paykel Appliances has joined the ranks of global brands like Bose, Playstation, Stella Artois, Blackberry, Audi and Chanel – based on a list of “CoolBrand Leaders for 2005” says an article in the NZ Herald. The articles says F&P “has long been a firm favourite…
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Insincerity Sucks
An article in the Sunday Star Times (‘Insincerely yours’, Oct 9 2005) claims that New Zealand companies “are robbing their customers, robbing their staff, and robbing themselves with an insincere approach to customer service”. The article goes on to say: The good experiences were powerful – but so were the bad ones: “Some people were…
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Thematics
My customer experience today at a ‘Theme Basics Store’ in Wellington… [ZEF] Hi, do you sell shower curtains? [TBS SHOP ASSISTANT] Yes – over there… (points) [ZEF] (looks over) They look great – can you tell me what length they are? [TBS] Hang on (finds a brochure) 180cm or 190cm – it depends – we’ve…
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Foto Blotto
It was my first exploration into the brave new world of ordering photo-prints online. I thought the experience would be simple… Visit a website Upload a bunch of photos I want printed Choose the size and format Enter my address and credit card details Then forget about it a for a few days… …until “viola!”…
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Blind Greens
While travelling from Ohakune to Paraparaumu the other day I became obsessed with the plethora of political party billboards lining the highway. To the point…The National Party takes the cake for effective design (and billboards per mile), and the Social Credit party billboard in Wanganui wins the prize for sheer audacity… (won’t they ever give…
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Trade Me Your Region
The Trade Me ‘change my region’ feature assumes New Zealanders are hermits – never leaving the comfort of their internet device, home, street or town. I live and work in more than one region.The purpose of ‘change my region’ is to allow people to search for goodies in ‘their region’ (or, alternatively, over the whole…
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NZ Firms Need to Catch Up with Overseas
More time for usability now development tools are more efficient An interview with Zef Fugaz by Stephen Bell, Computerworld (November 2004) If New Zealand developers are to increase exports of software and maintain an edge against overseas competitors then they would be well-advised to catch up on usability practice, says Zef Fugaz, a specialist in…
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Rise of the Usability Guru
Your next Guru could be a usability practitioner. It was only a few years ago that the term “usability” was widely categorised as a misspelling or another lunatic fringe concept being pushed by idiosyncratic web designers. But a change is in the air and usability is increasingly becoming “the secret weapon” for many web and…
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