July 2007

The Archives

• Collaboration

  The Six Team Basics

  07.31.07 | Permalink | Comment?

  Perhaps every one has read the Wisdom of Teams and I’m just late to the party, but so far so good.
  Over the next week or so, I am going to explore each of the six “team basics” Katzenbach and Smith have identified in their research and see how they apply to design teams.
  The six team […]

• Tools, Uncategorized

  5 Uses for Draft Dots

  07.30.07 | Permalink | Comment?

  Every once in a while a simple little innovation comes along that is just so useful you wonder how you every lived without it. Draft dots—little round circles of drafting tape, neatly dispensed from a convenient box—are now a can’t-live-without collaboration tool, as critical as sharpies and stickies.

  Draft dots are intended for use in drafting […]

• Creativity, Idealism

  Cultivate Your Barren Soil

  07.27.07 | Permalink | Comment?

  “While a man, infatuated with the promises of greatness, wastes his hours and days in attendance and solicitation, the honest opportunities of improving his condition pass by without his notice; he neglects to cultivate his own barren soil, because he expects every moment to be placed in regions of spontaneous fertility, and is seldom roused […]

• Creativity

  Keeping Your Creative Juices Flowing

  07.26.07 | Permalink | Comment?

  Cecil Vortex, on Conversations About Creativity, interviews artists, writers, and others on their creative process. This month, he has an interview with visual artist Tucker Nichols, creator of Postcards from Vermont and the What a Day web site.
  I pulled out some of the things Tucker, a self-supporting artist, does to keep his creative juices flowing:
  Routine
  Tucker […]

• Creativity

  One Person’s Failure is Another Person’s Progress

  07.25.07 | Permalink | Comment?

  Failure is relative.
  For my friend Brandon, I was looking for quotes on the role of failure in creative work.
  First, I found this definition in the dictionary:
  Fail
  be unsuccessful in achieving one’s goal,
  be unable to meet the standards set by [whatever, whoever]
  Then this in Scott’s book.:
  “The dirty little secret—the fact often denied—is that unlike the mythical epiphany, […]

• Presentation

  Checklist: Tailoring Your Presentation to Your Audience

  07.24.07 | Permalink | Comment?

  In project work, I am frequently called upon to share work in progress with clients and their co-workers. Sometimes the same material is shared with different stakeholders, each with their own personalities, agendas, and pet peeves. When I work with a client in a large organization, the diversity of audience can become even greater.
  I use […]

• Honesty, Methods

  Development by Denial

  07.23.07 | Permalink | Comment?

  Scott Berkun, author of The Myths of Innovation, takes an honest look at the types of development methodologies actually in play in the world of software development. His post, “asshole driven development,” had me rolling on the floor this morning.
  My favorite?
  “Development By Denial (DBD) - Everybody pretends there is a method for what’s being done, […]

• Events

  Come to UX Week 2007

  07.22.07 | Permalink | Comment?

  UX Week 2007 is going to be great - and not just ‘cos I’m the program chair.
  UX Week (Aug. 13-16 in Washington, DC) is Adaptive Path’s opportunity to host smart people with great ideas about user-centered design and user experience. Changes in technology and process are forcing us to re-think some of our favorite tools. […]

• Tools

  Punctuation Bookmarks

  07.22.07 | Permalink | Comment?

  These punctuation bookmarks look like fun. They are intended to be used as bookmarks but they have light adhesion so they could be used anywhere you use stickies. Haven’t tried them myself but love the iconic design. Can’t you see them visually identifying participant quotes in user research analysis or clearly marking question areas in […]

• Experience

  Working With Others

  07.22.07 | Permalink | Comment?

  By nature, I am a solitary being. I enjoy time alone, tinkering, experimenting, and playing with ideas. Early in my user experience career, I was drawn to solitary pursuits - coding, graphics production, site maps and content inventories.
  As I have progressed in my career, working alone no longer seems like a viable, let alone desireable […]

Cartographies of Imagination

Collaboration, creativity, and the collective

about

Cartographies of Imagination, by me, Sarah B. Nelson, is about navigating the world of collaboration, through methods, tools, techniques and ideas. I'll share methods, tools, and ideas to inspire you to draw on the collective wisdom around you. I'm an interaction designer and design strategist at Adaptive Path.

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