Empowering Desgin

I was going to write a post tying up a few things I had been meaning to write about, but I've just come across this video:

https://vimeo.com/123488311

after following Bret Victor on twitter.

It's a very interesting video about an important issues that's arisen from the continuing evolution of technology and our lives.

So before I forget, I thought I should post it.

Now I'll work on my post tying up a few things...

Studying User Experience Design

As part of my career change (I've learnt the trendy new phrase is 'pivoting') I've decided to take the plunge and enrol on a course.

It's a very tough decision, as there's so much information out there already on the tinterwebs, you kind of get the feeling you could learn all there is to know online.

But there's limitless information and then there's curated knowledge.

The other main thing is that to get hired - or even noticed - you need a kick-ass portfolio.  And studying the knowledge only works if you practice the craft (left side/right side of brain) to have something to show for it.

So I decided to do General Assembly's part time course (there is a full time, 10 week immersive course, but the cost and time commitment dissuaded me).

So far, so great.  It's taught by Matt Isherwood who's worked at the BBC and recently did One Fine Stay.

And after my first bit of homework doing some user research, I can already feel the huge benefit of doing a course that forces you to "get out of the classroom" (to adapt a Lean Startup phrase) and get practicing the theory in the real world.

So one week down, another 12 or so to go.

I'm pretty sure I've settled on my project idea for my portfolio piece, something I wrote about in the previous post, which is a shopping list app to save shoppers money, called Fate.

I'll be writing much more about the philosophy behind Fate as it ties in nicely with why I started my career change, sorry 'pivot', in the first place.

Supermarket Haze

When you go shopping at the supermarket - what do you feel?

It's something I've been giving a lot of thought as for my User Experience Design course portfolio I'm working on an idea to save shoppers money.

There's lots of overwhelming facts about how much food UK households waste (you can read all about it here http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/) - so why do we do it?

I've done some research at my local supermarket, and even wondering around the aisles and looking at shoppers, it seems the overall feeling of the shopper is:

• confusion
• indecision
• worry

Should I buy this?  Is it a good deal?  Is that Special Offer worth it?

The supermarket experience is currently one of information overload.  The term 'signal to noise ratio' comes to mind - a ton of noise, and no signal to the shopper of what's actually worth buying - what are they likely to eat?

My good friend Sam Zuppardi has very kindly done me some panels to illustrate this point:

Seem familiar?  Many thanks to Sam Zuppardi for sketch.

Is this a situation that you find yourself in?

I would love to talk with you if it is, so please get in touch.

This is an idea that's been brewing in my mind for some time, and I'm excited to finally be working on the project for my portfolio.

p.s.

I personally get the sense that the facts of food waste make us actually switch off from engaging with the topic, they lose all sense of scale and relevance for us and our wallets.  What do you think?

GMail / Inbox & Calendar cross-pollination

I'm confused.

I'm sure I read about a Google Calendar update that finally enabled Calendar to auto-create events based on GMail messages?

An email with this in the subject:

FW: Booking confirmed (7890-WWW/SDPIPER893): Table for 7 at Lunch Munch Restaurant 25 April 2015 at 12:30

would surely be a ripe candidate for context gathering?

There's even a ton more info in the email body.

Nothing in Calendar, nothing in Google Now.

What's going on?