↪ Replying to @TrueFactsStated
@TrueFactsStated It's must be great when you're a platform company and can choose to ignore all the environmentally unsound companies that exist by using your platform for business.
Per Axbom
To paraphrase Alan Cooper: We have a lot of soul-sucking digital services that have been delivered on time. Meeting a deadline does not keep you from flooding the world with malfunction and pain. On the contrary, if budgets and deadlines are how you measure success, you generally have no qualms about releasing services that are detrimental to well-being.
↪ Replying to @unknown
@hugofroesUX Agree. I see my work as consultant as essentially working until I'm obsolete (doesn't always work out that way). More to my point, in the latest @uxpodcast ep. with @stephenanderson we talk about the designer becoming more of a coach. uxpodcast.com/219-facilitati…
Sometimes I get really good questions, and sometimes my answers turn into blog posts. Yesterday was one of those moments.
"Per what do you think about harnessing basic findings about how to frame a problem; for example, if you set as default during employee benefits onboarding to deduct money from the paycheck, it is well known that employees are more likely to save for retirement."
Here is my response:
↪ Replying to @rnadworny
@rnadworny Damnit!! But I'm already sitting here with my Laphroaig. 🥃
x.com/axbom/status/1…
↪ Replying to @unknown
@thepixelgrid Running a café designed for companies to meet their users would be a pretty cool venture.
↪ Replying to @unknown
@thepixelgrid Exactly. Now what do I do with my life? 😅
↪ Replying to @johnliungman
@johnliungman I'll be coaching them in their progress to work a bit differently. :)
Just told someone to ask their users instead of me and they thought that was a brilliant idea.
My work is done .
Follow up to this. After they slept on the matter, I am now in discussion with the client to help coach the entire team on finding a way to perform regular research sessions.
Next step underway. 👊
↪ Replying to @gfscstudio
@gfscstudio Ah, those images!! This was a dark rabbit hole. I blame the Dutch for inventing the clogs. 🤪
Kicking myself regularly in the shin is a good tactic when reading stats. I'm all like "Wow, these visitor stats seem to point towards this language and day..."
*kicks shin*
"Oh yeah, there are about a gazillion other factors and circumstances I haven't taken into account...".
Also, shin-kicking is a British martial art form.
I know you think I made that up.
I did not.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin-kick…
"Traditionally they wear white coats, representing shepherds' smocks. They typically attempt to strike the opponent's shin with the inside of the foot as well as toes. Success requires the ability to endure pain, the loser crying out "sufficient" when they've had enough."
Remembering an old bit from a comedy show in the 90s where a person is trying to learn to be illiterate. He is tired of the awfulness he keeps being reminded of because he can’t avoid reading text in front of him.
You can guess why I started thinking of it...
”We love our phones, but we do not trust them. And love without trust is the definition of an abusive relationship.”
This is your phone on feminism by @mariafarrell | The Conversationalist conversationalist.org/2019/09/13/fem…
↪ Replying to @Scott_Matter
@Scott_Matter Great point. I was so focused on how the suggested action departed from good design practice I didn’t really stop to dissect what the mentioned ”rule” really is warning you of.
Elvira Hancock: ”Maxim number two, don’t get high on your own supply.”
youtube.com/watch
↪ Replying to @MissIG_Geek
@MissIG_Geek Thank you! I just realized the thread you're referring to gets detached from the first tweet since it's not all responses to myself, but I linked it now within my first set of tweets. Twitter hacking 🤪
@MissIG_Geek Some texts are more easily digested in blog format :)
axbom.blog/persuasive-def…
↪ Replying to @StrDesign
@StrDesign Good point. And something that a lot of designers (and others) also fail to test before sending out surveys. In general I'd argue the industry as a whole is pretty poor at testing our own setups and processes before we do the live research. ;)
↪ Replying to @StrDesign
@StrDesign (1) This is an excellent example. There are many ways in which defaults are taught in design as a way to encourage specific behavior. I’m gonna try and break down my process using your example. Bear with me.
@StrDesign (2) First. We are assuming that it is better for employees that we take responsibility for saving for their retirement. To identify risks with this assumption I would run a session asking for situations where this could be considered wrong or harmful.
@StrDesign (3) For example:
i. A person is terminally ill and money is of value now but not later.
ii. A substantial inheritance is known about as a future installment and there is no need for saving.
iii. The person is more adept at investing and can make money grow faster elsewhere.
@StrDesign (4) Now these scenarios were off the top of my head. But I’m a middle-aged white privileged dude. So this is where it becomes immensely important to bring in people who are experts at understanding risk, because they are themselves always at risk. I don’t fit that profile.
@StrDesign (5) I try to help people understand this in general when I work with usability and accessibility issues. By bringing in those who are experts at seeing how people could get hurt (because they are the people who keep getting sidestepped) we can identify many more risks.
@StrDesign (6) Once we have a list of risks we evaluate impact of each:
Who is potentially harmed?
How vulnerable are they?
How serious is it?
How likely is it to happen?
How much of this effect is our doing?
@StrDesign (7) By mapping out the impact we can get a better understanding of how much sense it makes to ignore a risk or take actions to avoid it. Generally if a person is vulnerable and the effect is serious, that is a stronger case to take action.
@StrDesign (8) Sometimes we won’t be able to find risks that would motivate a change in the assumption, and sometimes we will. By doing the exercise we will feel much better about the decision, and we have documentation to prove our efforts.
@StrDesign (9) BUT, it doesn’t end there of course. Our assumption now is that we’ve done our due diligence. To disprove that we have to set mechanisms in place for listening. This exercise or similar needs to be repeated regularly with feedback solicited actively and passively.
@StrDesign (10) One thing I’d add is to not only involve the risk experts but also leadership and other stakeholders. By participating in impact assessment they also feel more ownership of the outcome. And positive impact can be mapped as well to find a sensible balance.
@StrDesign (11) In the end, it’s all about communication. We get a feel for the room and communicate our message. Then we listen. We listen to see if our message is received and understood. And if it benefits the recipient. Or even harms them.
@StrDesign (12) In many projects, products and services people stop listening at one point or another. And that’s when the discovery of harm is left to chance and whatever happens when trust deteriorates. If we’re lucky, people get angry. Worst case they disappear.
@StrDesign (13) Design is a powerful force. And defaults are extremely powerful if we have a large user base. It’s easy to get distracted by that power and miss the many people at the edges of our research. The best we can do as designers is to promise ourselves to not ignore them.
@StrDesign (14) To protect people we have to assume there are weaknesses in our assumptions. By making people aware of our assumptions there is a greater chance they give us something to listen to. If we hide our assumption from them, not so.
@StrDesign (15/15) Hope this was useful. You’ve obviously provided me with fodder for my next blog post. Thank you for that. I love how Twitter works when you listen ;)
@StrDesign Now in blog format :)
axbom.blog/persuasive-def…
↪ Replying to @SteverRobbins
@GetItDoneGuy @jmspool Thanks for the input Stever, I really agree with you here. In my talks I also reference the people who are excluded from -a digitized society and can not do things they previously could do.
And I've felt compelled to add this to my own thread:
x.com/axbom/status/1…
Yeah, sorry, I chuckled. twitter.com/hugdispencer/status/11…