Face Time

Not-so-full Circle Having had a good exchange with the legendary Alison J. Head about her great article on personas, I've been seriously wondering just where and how people are able to actually practice this craft (this craft being user-centered design, experience design, information architecture, whatever).
Certainly not in Central Virginia. Having decided to leave IconMedialab at the end of 2001, I thought somehow that my years of experience would stand me in good stead and propel me to bring the gospel to Richmond.
Alas, it was not meant to be. Instead of bringing the fledgling Sokohl & Associates to renown, I've retreated in my career to my humble beginnings—I've returned to technical writing.
It's a bit sad, really. I moved away from tech writing in the late '90s during my stint with mpct Software. Writing HTML-based help for a NeXT-based banking software system, I began applying stuff like Don Norman's affordances and Ginny Redish's user and task analysis. It was a great inspiration for me. Because of my move toward human-computer interaction, I got the job with IML.
More than two years later and with a bunch of experience such as SOS Children's Village, Siemens Medical, and other projects...plus pitches and usability tests and heuristic reviews and such.

It was a great time, an inspiring time, and a fun time. When I returned, I thought my experience plus willingness to live out of a suitcase would raise my star in the contractors' heavens.
Doesn't seem to be working out that way, though. I grow old, I grow old....

A Cold Day in Hell A great shout-out to Jenny Berger: You gave me a great laugh, today, girl!
My question, though, is this: on what basis do souls have mass?

another man done gone As you probably already know, Eric E. "Rick" Stanley died yesterday morning. Here're a couple of notices about it:

The Richmond Times-Dispatch article

50-Plus had a great bio on Rick last year

A memorial service (削除) is tentatively planned for Monday, August 18 (削除ここまで) occurred Wednesday, August 19, at the Arthur Ashe Center on North Boulevard next to the Diamond. (削除) When I know more, I'll certainly let you know. (削除ここまで)
It was a great service, opening with a New Orleans-style band composed of members of the Richmond Jazz Society. Opening with "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" and closing with "When the Saints Go Marching In," the service was a celebration of Rick's life and impact. Nicely done.
Also, you might like Andy Garrigue's tribute.

My Head Is Gonna Explode The great Molly has once again said what I think. Seems that the great Bruce Tognazzini has written a polemic creating a new UXness: interaction architects.

Indeed. Just what this field needs—more fragmentation of our job description.

Useless but OK Well, although I know my role is still considerably diminished, I'm much more resigned and less angry. Thanks to the anonymous poster who reminded me not to whine so much. So I've toned it down. Depression is quieter, anyway.

Don't Mess with Me I'm pissed off today.
Not your fault, but I'm still totally torqued. I spend hours researching something as detailed as whether a menu list should be alphabetical, geographic, or ordinal. I conclude that alphabetical is best, based on such sources as Stuart Card, Ben Schneiderman, and Karen Schriver, among others. I specify it so. My PM receives the info, though he doesn't concur (he feels it should be geographic, based on current practice and politics...organizing interaction around organizational charts, not usage models). He goes into our bosses office, He discusses with him. They agree on a result. They never ask me, they never inform me. They just do it.
Then, in a meeting today with the developers (a different internal org), I discover their decision. "Joe, you won't like this, but...."
So, bottom line, I'm pissed. Guess my irrelevance should work to my advantage—perhaps a policy of coming in late, leaving early, and taking long lunches will at least improve my quality of life.

Helpful Help Often written help carries the reputation of being unhelpful. Here's a technique to creating more helpful error messages in your online, Web-based presence. If you can get the appropriate rights, you can edit the type of 404 and 401 messages users receive--the dreaded File Not Found and the unauthorized access messages. Thanks, Heiko!

Who Can Attend Conferences Anymore? A note I sent to Molly:

Hi Molly,

we've never met but have mutual friends/acquaintances in Peter Merholz, Christina Wodtke, and some other IA/UX folks. I've been reading your blog with delight most days.


One question, though: how are you able to do all the travel that you do? That is, in this economy vis-a-vis our profession, how are you able to attend so many conferences and also do so much flying around? My curiosity is primarily professional. Having left Germany in December 01 and returned to the States, I've seen a marked downturn in corporate support of conference attending. In addition, despite what airlines would like us to believe, travel (especially internationally) continues to be expensive.


I miss it, actually. I miss the flying from Hamburg to Chicago to San Francisco to Seattle to Newark in order to test an information architecture. I miss the frequent travel from Hamburg to Munich and Innsbruck for projects. I miss the travel to Gotheburg and Stockholm....and I miss the international give and take with folks at the IA summits, STC (yes, even STC), CSCW, and other conferences.


So what's yer secret?

Anyone else have the same question?

Ain't No Such Thing As Job Security So today 51 positions were eliminated, 25 currently filled. That puts in jeopardy 25 mortgages. 25 credit ratings. 25 families. Maybe more than 25 children who won't go to college...or whose choice of college is severely limited.
Meet the new boss...

Does Usability Matter? Some random thoughts...

• Usability is a quality of something, not a thing in and of itself
• Despite ROI claims to the contrary, businesses still don't get the need to worry about what users think
• Customers and users are two different (though often intersecting) groups

Goin' to the Show We went to the opera last night—the first time I'd ever been! My wife's first time, too. It was extraordinary. I especially loved the sets and the acting. A lot of my impression about opera is built on popular myth—divas posing on stage and hardly moving, much less really acting. Yet Errol and I agreed on the connection between silent movies and opera—the ability for actors to act without talking is a skill rarely seen in an age replete with the technobabble and gratuitious eye-snapping action of matrices.

Let the People Decide Peter Merholz has a great photographic discussion of paths people take.

Feats Still Don't Fail Me On the 7th of May I went to see Little Feat in concert at the pasture they call Innsbrook Pavilion in Short Pump/Glen Allen, Virginia (a suburb of Richmond). Man o man o man did the Feat rock!
They started with a killer version of "Cadillac Hotel," with Shaun Murphy belting out the vocal gymnastics the song requires. They then proceeded to play for 90 minutes straight. Tunes such as "Time Loves a Hero" and "Day or Night" sounded timeless and clear and poignant. Pulling out the Band's "Rag Mama Rag" (which the Feat covered on Chinese Work Songs) delighted the audience of largely 40+ listeners. And the acoustic trio of songs included one they'd just written and recorded for their next album.
If you wanna hear the music again, go see the Feat on their current tour!

Valves are Better.... Well, thanks to some folks on the Enfield Bullet listserv, I was able to get some good advice. I've since learned how to fixt the dang things...or at least how to adjust them. The bike's running fine now, even taking me on a wonderful circle last Saturday--Richmond to Hanover Court House to Montpelier and back to Richmond.
Man, it don't get no better than that!

Setting Valves I hate the fact that I have so little skills at mechanical things. I was trying to set the valves on my Royal Enfield this morning. I screwed up. I mean I really, really screwed up. So I couldn't ride to work this a.m., I couldn't enjoy this beautiful 82-degree/23-degree day. I feel so frustrated in being such a klutz at wrench-turning, board-sawing, and wire-connecting. Meanwhile, my skills in organizing information architecturally or visualizing interactions or writing words doesn't amaze me...or anyone else, for that matter. What the hell am I worth?

He Who Has Ears... Our fervent pursuit of war with Iraq is driving us to squander the international legitimacy that has been America's most potent weapon of both offense and defense since the days of Woodrow Wilson. A wonderful, must-read letter of resignation from a State Department diplomat....

Bored and Depressed So now I'm bored with my job, bored with user experience evangelism, bored with trying to make a difference. It seems others are, too—Peter has dropped out of blogging, Christina's not well, and others seem to say it just doesn't matter. From my perspective, user experience attention does matter&e#151;it's just that we are Cassandra on the walls of Troy....

Mailer Nails It Although I'm sooo not a Pat Buchanan fan, this article in his magazine is a nice interview with octegenarian Norman Mailer. Love him or hate him, Mailer's always fun to read.

When It All Slips Away So it seems that "the powers that be" are looking for someone to be the user experience architect. Trouble is, I think I'm very qualified for it—I'm the only one in the team with any experience in this area. Yet no one bothered to talk to me. Maybe I've got it wrong—maybe it's just one guy's opinion that they should appoint/hire/anoint someone as the UEA....but if it's true what I think is true, then there'll be hell to pay....

Doing What I Ought Too bad that I rarely get to do what I should be doing here. Instead, I find myself formatting Microsoft Word docs and Excel spreadsheets (people, Excel is a spreadsheet program, not a word processing program!). Instead of writing them or editing them, I'm just...well...formatting them. Not exactly the best idea for my skillset, I'd say. Rather than being a technical writer or, even better, a user-experience architect, I'm a glorified admin.