…was the main topic of last week’s first meeting in the Danish UX-network. I hoped that we would have discussed which UX-methods to apply to social software, because as I see it (from my limited experience though) UX and social software has different implications than if you’re doing more traditional stuff. I truly believe that when doing user research you have to focus more broadly on culture, communication, networks, relations, social capital in other words, because the technology has to be designed with relations in mind instead of “just” people or features for that matter.
However we ended up discussing the phenomena of web2.0 more than UX and web2.0- I’m to blame, I know - and it turned out interesting anyway. At least I’m glad that we (Wemind) was invited by 1508 to join in, and I look forward to contributing to the goals of the network: To share knowledge and make professional standards for UX in Denmark.
3 comments so far
A UX group starts up and you don’t tell me? Shame on you. Sounds like my kind of party. Any idea why they started something on their own without hooking up with some international org (such as UXnet)? So far the social web has been mostly driven by passionate technologists. By their very nature they design for people like themselves. If you look at the social technologies that are finding a large audience, you’ll see they are accessible, useful and meaningful to other groups of people besides the tech elite.
Boxesandarrows has a nice “piece” on the discussion too:
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/the-trouble-with-web
What I think is one of the main problems here - not only for UX-people, but for people in general - is that we are facing a real paradigm-shift here.
Some of us see that, some of us don’t - maybe the problem is that each and everyone of us are paralysed by old mental models, our educational backgrounds and laziness toward learning……and seeing the world with different perspectives….?
@Kars: Sorry :-), I would have told you if it wasn’t for the fact that all the meetings are in Danish. Otherwise it is definitely your kind of party. I promise to fill you in on everything.
I don’t know why they started something on their own, but my guess is that they saw a need for a Danish platform before doing anything else.
@Hans Henrik: I tend to agree with you. I just don’t understand why we keep having a discussion on the premise that 2.0 doesn’t exist and that we can somehow choose it or not, but I still see the need for a discussion of what 2.0 means. Even if the scope is UX, because as I mention in the post, I do think that at least some part of the user research has to be taken on differently. And I find it interesting to figure out the methods that point towards relations rather than just people or features.