Bringing teams together to work on enterprise content products requires intentional and consistent effort. It’s hard to get people sitting in different silos to collaborate, and it’s crucial to gain executive buy-in for an investment in content strategy. Confab 2018 invited me to share some of the approaches I’ve used to break down barriers and …
The care and feeding of your chatbot: Conversational interfaces demand a content strategy
Suddenly, we’re surrounded. From internet-enabled speakers to just-in-time text messages to AI-powered bots of all flavors, we have daily interactions through conversational user interactions. And as with any technology in its infancy, many of those interactions are flawed. How do you begin to create well-designed conversational interactions that take into account both the intent and context?
Friday 5 — 4.14.2017
Facebook’s AI assistant, M, is now rolling out in Messenger with features like sticker, polls, and payment. While some are underwhelmed, others see this start with a limited number of functions as a step to broader AI capabilities. Poor usability affects everyone, but it disadvantages older adults in particular. This excerpt from a new book offers guidelines …
Friday 5 — 3.17.2017
John Maeda and team released the 2017 Design in Tech report. Observations include lessons from Chinese design tech principles and practices; the value of inclusive design; and writing as a must-have skill. The early promise of social media as proxy for inclination to purchase has not been realized. HBR explores the marketing value of social media, and highlights …
Friday 5 — 3.10.2017
Luxury brands have not been early internet adopters — I can recall 1999 meetings with Neiman Marcus execs highly skeptical of the taint of technology. Today, brands are online en masse. Some craft a unique approach to user experience, while others contemplate direct sales via WhatsApp. There’s been endless analysis of the Snap IPO and its non-voting shares this past week. …
Friday 5 — 3.3.2017
Having lived through 1990s website with visit counting tickertapes and dancing babies, and then the 2000s with endless moving carousels, I’m skeptical of movement for movement’s sake. But Nick Babich explains three valid use cases for animation in mobile user interface design. If your email open rates are flagging, consider using emojis. New research finds that …
Friday 5 — 1.20.2017
Within a week, all Slack users will have threaded messaging, an improvement designed to reduce the noise of the non-hierarchical discussions. And they spent a lot of time getting the feature design just right. Only ~3% of apps still have active users 30 days after download. Brian Solis lists 25 ways micro-moments can lead to more useful …
Friday 5 — 10.28.2016
The microcopy in a user interface — the words that go on the buttons, appear in error messages, and guide you through wizards — is too often neglected or left for the developer to fill in. Nick Babich provides guidance on effective writing for your user interface. No more shopping for snake oil: the best search …
Friday 5 — 9.16.2016
Rather than say, “I think users want this feature,” a product manager should ask, “What outcome do you predict this feature will have?” Read more insights from co-VPs of Product (!) at Reddit. There’s a lot of information elegantly packed into the mobile screenshot above: this approach provides an outcome-focused frame for feature decisions. Instagram …
Friday 5 — 7.15.2016
Pokémon fever struck this week with the release of Pokémon Go, an augmented reality app that allows players to catch virtual characters populating physical spaces. Here’s how it works. Om Malik points out that the app has heightened expectations for how we can access information, acting as a kind of gateway drug for broader applications of AR. …