As those of you on our e-mailing list know, Tuitive is embarking on a campaign to become sought-after public speakers.  While presenting in front of a large group scares the daylights out of most people, for some reason our motley crew is really excited by the chance to get out and share our expertise with the world. 

So in order to prepare for this adventure, we’ve each been developing presentations on our area of expertise as they relate to Tuitive’s core mission – then giving the presentations to each other.  I spoke at my high school graduation and I’ve taught dozens of courses all over this lovely country, but this little group made me more nervous than most.  Something about the fact that they all know my strengths and weaknesses, I'm sure.

I'd worked diligently on my presentation (with the thrilling title “Your Client’s User Experience”), including talking extensively to Jon (our boss), digging up relatable stories, writing notes, rewriting notes, rehearsing, and even learning Prezi (new-fangled presentation software for those unfamiliar).  I put several weeks into it.  But no matter how much thought I put into it, no matter how many hours, I was still bored by the damned thing.  And that boredom came across when I presented to the Tuitive team. 

We have a policy of being brutally honest with each other about our performances.  Not cruel, mind you, but honest.  Our philosophy is (1) it’s better to hear it from a teammate than go out in the world looking like an idiot, and (2) what each of us does in the name of Tuitive reflects on us all.  So they let me have it: it felt rushed, there wasn’t enough audience involvement, there weren’t enough images, and so on.  They were all 100% right.  And I could have handed everyone a list before I even turned on the projector telling them exactly the same things. 

My disinterest in my presentation came through.  It’s not that I didn’t believe what I was saying, but it all seemed so elementary and common sense – like something you could find easily in 20 different business self-help books at Border’s.  It didn’t feel useful and therefore I had no passion for it.

A couple months back, however, I had given a presentation to the team that I was passionate about: grammar.  No laughing – I love grammar.  Perhaps it’s because it’s been hammered into me since I was old enough to talk, but I have a passion for it, and it makes me absolutely insane to hear the English language butchered regularly. 

You might assume that a presentation on grammar would be far more boring to the audience than one about creating a positive client experience, right?  But no, the team really liked the grammar presentation – we spent well over 2 hours going through it and discussing it, and it’s definitely changed everyone’s writing and speaking styles.  Although we still have the same technical skill sets we had before the grammar lesson, we all now sound more intelligent and competent in our writing and speech.  

So why did this presentation have more impact than the one about client experience?  Because I was able to put myself into it.  I'm passionate about educating others on this subject.  (I'm passionate about client experience, too, just not about educating everyone on the subject!)  My enthusiasm was infectious, the audience got involved, they remembered what they’d been taught.

The irony of the poor user experience I'd created for the attendees of my presentation on improving client user experience was not lost on me.  So I'm keeping that client user experience presentation, working on improving its content, getting the audience more involved, slowing down, and finding my passion for educating on that subject as well.  But for the moment, the grammar presentation is out front with me, ready to educate the world about the difference between “that” and “who.”  

Amanda is available for speaking engagements, and would be thrilled to give her presentation “Grammar: Common Pitfalls and Mistakes (Or ‘How I’s Be Larnin’ to Rite Good’).”  Contact her at amanda@tuitivegroup.com for more information.

Last time on the Tuitive blog, I talked about doing one thing well. Today I am going to expand on that. New technologies, especially on the web, have to play well with other programs.
The days of proprietary formats, and disconnected applications are numbered. As more and more applications begin to move to the web, being able to share information and users is becoming vital to success. The idea of making user stick to one tool or another is starting to backfire.
Users want freedom.
“I want to be able to update my tumblr blog with photos from my Flickr account, and then tweet about my new photos and update my Facebook page. Oh, and I want to be able to do it from my cell phone…”

This sounds ridiculous when you type it out (but it is nicely illustrated above), but many of us are doing it every day. I will not take the time to update each of my accounts across all my cyber hangouts. Instead, I want the systems to do it automatically.
Users want to be able to choose their own tools and services online, and they want these tools to work together with services they already have chosen to use. Users want to know what other services will work with a specific service. This interaction with existing services is no longer a luxury feature - it is a necessity. I am not going to sign up for a new online tool if it will not work with my existing Facebook page, personal blog, Twitter account, and my cell phone.
Users also want the ability to move to a new tool whenever they want, without loosing their existing content or the time they have put into that service.
The use of open API’s has helped users weave their preferred services together. The best web services are beating their users to the punch. Flickr, for example, has a blog-ready photo widget you can create and then paste into our blog. When you update Flickr, your latest photos are now on your blog.
In order for a web service to survive, it has to be able to play well with others.

Until next time, keep it usable, Internets.

I’m sure you’ll all be excited when I reveal that my husband gave me a humidifier for Christmas. It’s not a sexy gift, but I was genuinely happy to get it (my static-laden cats were happier than me– in theory, at least). The humidifier is lovely – tall and thin, and fits subtly into any room. It keeps the upper floor of our house nicely humidified (to the cats’ delight), and only goes through a tank of water per day. Despite all these wonderful features, I discovered a huge usability flaw the first time I went to fill the tank.

It has a lovely handle on top, as you can see:

But when I removed the tank to fill it, my user experience became a lot less delightful. The bottom handle is actually the lid to the opening for filling:

When I remove the lid to fill the tank, where do I grip it? Instead of a convenient handle to hold while I fill the tank, I’m left with a few less-than-ideal options. I can hold it by the water-delivery stem, and pray that it won’t get wet and slip – or become overly stressed by the weight and snap off. I can set it in the bathtub to fill, resulting in a great deal of overspray (to the cats’ dismay). Or I can hold it by the lip of the opening (which is kind of sharp). I generally opt for the later, resulting in less mess than option 2 and less danger than option 1. (That’s not entirely true - I generally opt to have my husband fill it, but that really is how he holds the tank.)

Perhaps the humidifier’s designers believed all their users would set this tall tank in kitchen sinks to fill. Nice idea, but I’d have to carry the tank downstairs every day to fill it. And like most consumers, I’m inherently lazy; an extra trip down the stairs every day isn’t appealing. That leaves me to choose between a deep bathtub and a shallow bathroom sink.

Grumble.

So aside from being irritated daily, what can I take away from this humidifier lesson? Requirements.

If a project team doesn’t fully flesh out requirements in the early stages of a project, and doesn’t keep revisiting requirements as the project progresses, that team will end up with an unfillable humidifier.

Or an unusable website.

When starting a project, it’s imperative to take the time to fully consider requirements. Most project teams are eager to get a project rolling – to jump right in and start seeing results. That’s great; we all love results. More importantly, though, we love successful results. Without fully identifying the objectives, scope, and end users, any project’s risk of failing to meet the project’s goals skyrockets. The impact of missed requirements can be huge, and that impact only increases as the project moves through its lifecycle.

That’s why it’s key to hold a team kickoff meeting. To document objectives, scope, personas, and site architecture. To review every deliverable with the team. And to test the product with end users. Because without knowing requirements, how can any project team accurately build any product for anyone?