User Experience guru and author now turned editor, former UXnet colleague and - last but not least - good friend Louis Rosenfeld has just launched a brand new initiative for all you UX professionals and practitioners out there: the Future Practice User Experience Webinars.
The webinars will cover the cutting edge of contemporary user experience research and design methods and will be hosted by top nocth UX speakers (such as Modern Web Form Design with Wroblewski - you might also want to take a look at my article Label placement in forms on the same subject).
These 60-minute webinars are initially available as live classes, and then are made available in a recorded, edited format.
There’s a 25% off special discount (for the live and, ultimately, recorded webinars) for the loyal readers of Yellow Line that will use this promo-code:
PENZOWBNR
Lou and his crew are doing a wonderful job with the UX related books adventure; I’m sure they’ll produce high quality webinars too!
Idearium Drinklink
Before the barcamps, before the foocamps, even before Frontiers of Interaction here it stands the Drink Link: just add a part of unconference, some friends (it’s simply matter of case that among these friends you can find some of the brightest minds in Italy) and a cool location. Drink Link to serve you madam!
I received an invitation to the first edition of 2008, organized by Leeander and friends at the Bastard Headquarters in Milan to showcase the new idea they’re working on: an open source hardware technology to let spimes interact with data and people: the Open Spime project.
I’ve seen the early early stage of this technology, even before the first prototype, and I can say it really rocks!
Update April 9: the event will be streamed live on the .
Expert interview for the European R&D Project “Spice”
A couple of months ago I’ve been interviewed by Dario Melpignano, managing Director at Neos Research, for the aim of the SPICE project, with the aim to address the still unsolved problem of designing, developing and putting into operation efficient and innovative mobile Service creation/execution platforms for networks beyond 3G.
here below you’ll find the translated (the phone call wa in Italian) transcript of what I said. Hope you’ll find it useful.
To provide a broader background I think it’s useful to know that I work in Gabetti, the most important real estate operator in Italy which is transforming itself into a full service company, operating also as a new media company thanks to the relevant base of shops widespread all over the country. On each of these sales point or shop, Gabetti has installed interactive touch screens proposing their offer and a number of additional services to the general public. An approach that the company is willing to extend to individuals through mobile local/proximity services. “Considering your industry and market, which services you see as the most successful in a 5-10 years timeframe?”
We see emerging services mostly related to location identification and location based service. E.g. I am physically in a specified location and based on my profile I can find in a specific area the commercial proposals that fit my needs and interests. Given my preferences and economic constraints.
Additional examples can be to link photos to location, as in the case where I take a picture and find available houses that match my profile, etc.
“How do you see the value network structured, which are the players and their role in the perspective of the organization where you are working: telecom operator, device manufacturer, application/service/solution developer/provider, consumer electronics player, publisher, internet/IT leader (such as Google or MSN)?”
My value network is consistent with your view. There’s also a role for a management consulting firm, that in bigger companies like mine usually have a role.
“Are the players envisioned by SPICE a correct representation of this future or would you take into account different or new roles?”
Yes. I think I basically already answered you.
“Which are the most critical requisites that you would consider for a technology platform such as the one that will be implemented in SPICE, designed to provide a unified way to deliver services over heterogeneous execution platforms, network and mobile devices?”
Requirements for billing and charging
Requirements for revenue sharing including advertising revenues
Requirements for non-core business, and semi-professional content providers producing and publishing their content on the platform
Requirements for interactivity features
Other requirements?
Billing is one of the most critical requirements to be supported in SPICE and the space where I see a relevant opportunity for innovation. Considering especially the link between network, content and service provider.
Interaction requirements are not really critical, as on a mobile device you have such a big constraint in terms of user interface that most evolutions failed so far. So I expect that the user interaction would be as low as possible.
“What is the role of personalization in the end users’ perspective? Which are the most critical requirements?”
It is crucial. In essence: give to the user the kind of services he needs, now, without him having to ask.
“Mobile devices are mainly used as mediators in social relationships, a set of specific SPICE enablers will allow users to support social networks and improve their ability to function in their social context and therefore enhance people social effectiveness. Which requirements do you see here linked, if any, to your industry needs?”
We are now interrogating about how to link social networking into our house search and acquisition business. Difficult topic, being the house maybe the most personal product one might need. So it is very difficult to infer recommendations for others. So far the function used to propose a house to a friend was only used as a personal reminder for a potential buyer. So far therefore I see a very limited impact.
“What are the most critical issues and most relevant requisites to enable rapid service creation and composition for the end users within your specific content/media perspective?”
For rapid service creation, what is needed is the possibility to personalize service creation at the API level. Provide application primitives and functions to be combined. And providing APIs is even more relevant than providing open code, as it shortens my time to market.
“How would you adopt and use, if any, tools for intellectual property protection, such as DRM (Digital Rights Management)? Which benefits and hurdles do you see in adopting DRM?”
I am against DRM, I see Creative Commons as a much more interesting approach. This approach if pushed will eventually end up in a more ethical society. Also technically speaking this approach is more consistent with the possibility of transforming content in a controlled way.
“How do you see the evolution of the content/industry with reference to the mobile industry? More specifically do you envision a converging future (fixed, mobile, triple play, etc.) or a diverging one? Why?”
I see both a converging and diverging future. It is converging at the device level in my personal experience. I do not believe at all in mobile TV, but for very short video clips and more in general in the possibility of using video in a mobile device, because of the high level of attention required. I spoke with a number of 3 people (video mobile operator in Italy) who are convinced about this being a big opportunity, but I don’t believe in it.
“Would you see meaningful complementing content with context information, such as georeferencing and tagging by allowing open categorization approaches (folksonomy)?”
Context value around a piece of content will be of bigger value than the content itself
a digital photo has a value
a digital photo uploaded online acquires a much more significant value
a digital photo online and positioned on a map acquires an even greater value
Paraphrasing Metcalfe, I would say for joke, but not so much of a joke, that the value of a piece of content equals the square of the point of its context.
“How much should the end user be active and participate to the media fruition process?”
The user should be active, and be able to select, but only if he wants to. Let the user choose whether to be active or not.
“Which is the role, if any, of long tail (e.g. personal media, such as blogs) content production and distribution models, of open delivery models within your industry? Who do you expect to pay whom and for what?”
In my industry the content producer is the client, and my role is basically as a “publisher” to mediate among users. If de-intermediates happens, I disappear.
“What are your ideas about content adaptation? Would consider appropriate that a third party dynamically adapt your content (e.g., to match the capabilities of a network or a mobile device)? Or would you prefer a system to automatically control the adaptation process and when would you prefer the end-user to manually control that process?”
Ideally content must be able to follow me not only in space, but also in its form and format. I expect to be able to play the same piece of audio or audiovisual on any device of what you depicted as distributed communication sphere.
“What are your ideas about users using different devices to receive different parts of the same multimedia transmission (e.g., a cell phone to receive the audio part and a wall-mounted display to receive the video part)? What are your ideas about receivers dynamically switching between these devices (e.g., by dynamically transferring a video stream from a cell phone to a near-by TV screen)?”
I see that this approach is relevant and will be in the future. Like in Firefox Web browser I can centralize and access my bookmarks on any computer I use. The same should happen to content. In the future I expect to be able to grab a video stream from a tv with my device and bring it with myself while moving to another place to resume playing.
Merry Christmas to everyone!
This year my greetings come through this wonderful video from Kallideas intelligent virtual assistants! (and - by the way - yes Santa its me)
Idearium: new season now online
Idearium is the premiere interaction design online magazine in Italy; since year 2001 the site has gathered a strong community of designers, usability experts, managers, programmers and smart people and it has its derivations in the Interaction Frontiers event organized by your truly and Leeander (the founder of Idearium).
In its 6th year Ideairum comes with a brand new site and a whole innovative SecondLife presence on a nice islet with all the things you need to spend some good time among friends.
“UXnet was formed to help make connections between the people and organizations that represent User Experience disciplines, and to encourage interchange and cooperation.”
The whole interview has been recorded and is available as podcast (MP3 file), worth a look… ehm… listen.
Taxiguerrilla: the (e-)book
Here’s the cover of the first book (also available for download in electronic format) from my pal Simone. It’s actually my present for Christmas and his birthday: it’s been a tough work which involved his girlfriend (who took care of the editorial stuff) and our friend Livio (who created the wonderful artwork for front/back covers. Francesca’s gone through the whole Taxiguerrilla archives (nearly 3 years of writings) and has chosen the best pieces, then reorganized them in a form suitable for a book. The book (Italian only) is self-published and available for FREE download (Simone is takin a full review of the book, so it’s not available anymore. Stay tuned.) on taxiguerrillathebook.hotmc.com; a preview (PDF file) is available here.
Idearium is the premiere interaction design online magazine