by jeff@adaptivepath.com
slides: http://www.adaptivepath.com/events/sxsw/veen-sxsw-frontiers.pdf
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Different people categorize things differently
- we want to accomodate as many users' approaches as possible
- categorize figures by shape (square, triangle, circle)?
- or by color (red, blue, yellow)?

Need to accomodate for localization
- colors?, colours?, ¿de colores?
- not only translation, but local content applicable to different users
- german words are huge. tabs run off the screen!

What about accessibility?
- users that can't see the colors
- macys.com: go with a text browser and it says to download a new browser
  - if you have a store with a staircase, do you tell your customers to get
    a new set of legs?

successful design comes from 2 approaches
- top-down
  - interview/observe users
  - develop mental models
- bottom up
  - inventory what you have
  - develop a new model

dept. of agriculture:
- "have hay" or "need hay": understand their users

good way of designing web sites
- we have to talk to users and find out their mental models for tasks they
  want to do on our website
- build a conceptual model out of the users' mental models
- design the website to allow users to accomplish their tasks using
  their mental model
  - take the conceptual model as a basis for the website


process
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categorize user feedback into categories. each piece of feedback is a "task".
the categories are "task groups". the collection of task groups used for a
accomplishing something is a "goal collection".

then take the inventory of your available information and match it up to the
task groups.

some task groups won't have information for them: problem! need to add
information to let the user perform their tasks

some information won't match to a task group: users don't need it.


examples
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- wine.com (serious, hierarchial) vs. winecellar.com (intuitive, useful)
- iokia.com: dynamic selection of photo cameras


discussion
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a website not only reflects the organization's processes. it creates new
processes for customers to interact with the organization. the org. needs to
keep in mind and accomodate the new processes being created for the web site.
(e.g. you let ppl email you questions. then you need a process for answering
those questions)

for finding users: use companies that traditionally put together focus groups.
or use more guerrila tactics: go to where the users are and interview them.