Halloween Costumes for the Parade

It's best to wear layers for the cold.

And not to wear anything too big that could get caught on someone else in the crowd. 

And plan to be there early. And carry very little in terms of valuables or weight.

And over-organize with your friends.

Craziness will ensue!

A New Coworker presenting at UXPA

I had wanted to encourage everyone at work to attend.

But Manhattan is too far of a commute, whether you do it everyday or not. Everyday is too much, and to go that far on a day during the week (a Tuesday) is just beyond imagining.

And so the day came and went, as if it were a parallel event in another career.

But I'd like to think it would have been fun to watch.

The Best Commute Ever

I love the idea of flexibility of locations in my working life. Being forced to travel is one thing, and having the autonomy to express freedom is another.

Boston and New York (or NJ) for me in my current UX Researcher role.  Going back & forth, the variety is the thing I'm after.

Taking the ferry from NJ to Wall St to Brooklyn.

The distance I travel going to and from exposes me to the electricity of the city. And to remember who I am now.

As a job experience, it is HUGE. 

The UX of all the things around your job, and you you see yourself as.

The skyline of Brooklyn & Queens is changing.

In my commute in the suburbs of Boston,  I know all the streets. All too well. And there is not this variety.

UX of Opportunity

Combined with the ideas of Inherent Fallacies, opportunity seems to be the greatest moment for UX.

What is the easiest moment of any transaction to actually act on a decision.  This is after the choice.  When a person, customer, user wants to do something, and then see feedback from the system to know that are doing what they intend.  Confirmation, and knowing where they are in the process.

Microinteractions.
-Feedback (clear communication of what you are doing, relationship of the computer)
-Modes (what stage are you in? where are you?)
-Triggers (Clear call to actions)
-Rules (Things should not be a surprise, there are rules in this world)

And everything you design, you should remember the person who wants to break it.  True for life and true for programming.  You are focusing on getting things to work, but the world wants you to be sophisticated.

Cognitive Bias Towards Victims

In American society, there are a lot of ingrained biases.  In the NYTimes article below, the authors of the study grouped people according to "individualizing" or "binding" preferences. The first prilioritizes care of the individual, the second is about group loyalty and cohesiveness. 

The findings go deeper than race, or class or religious or even political affiliation.  And they determine how people view the victim of a crime, and even a perpetrator!  

Excellent example of finding a new way to take apart an age old problem. Imagine if there were a way to evaluate jurors on this basis, rather than leaving it up to the skill of lawyers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/26/opinion/sunday/who-blames-the-victim.html?_r=0

UX of Crime

So if you turn your keys over to someone who claims to be a Valet, and then your car is stolen, are you at fault?

Or to rephrase, how much are you at fault?

If you see a website which looks like a reputable bank, and you give over all your info, how can you prove that it is genuine?

And if a bank has a reputation for "convenience" and your account gets frozen/flagged because you used an online tool which you have never used before-how convenient is it to prove that it was you?
If you must call an office only between 8-5 on weekdays (unlike their other offerings), and you end up spending an hour on the phone to get the right number, is that false advertising of convenience?

If the User Experience/Customer Experience is essentially a bait and switch routine, would that ever get reflected in a revision of the procedures? (Doubtful indeed)

Presidential Candidates & UX: The Ease to Act Upon A Choice

UX should be looked at from a larger perspective on its identification of how efficiently someone can act upon a choice.

Involving speed and accuracy and confidence that the action initiated has been completed.

Buying a tshirt, forwarding a work object, solving a problem, issuing a complaint.

Propaganda, marketing, salespeople want to have you give them money, make a choice & press the button.

Voting, a popularity contest on a certain day. But how do we KNOW who we are electing?  It's a giant bait and switch. The best speechifier is not the best policy person.  It's the strongest & most vivid character, not the strongest politician. It's acting, but also its playwrighting.