Design literacy

literacyliteracyD E S I G ND E S I G N

Wednesday, September 11, 13

Dear AmericanAirlinesI redesigned your website and I'd like to get your opinion....

Dustin Curtishttp://dustincurtis.com/dear_american_airlines.html

(A design villain)


http://dustincurtis.com/dear_american_airlines.html




Fire your entire design team... [who] is obviously incapable of building a good experience. Get outside help.

Dustin Curtishttp://dustincurtis.com/dear_american_airlines.html




Dear Dustin Curtis,

I saw your blog post titled “Dear American Airlines,” and I thought I’d drop a line. Sorry for the length of this email, but let me sum up the gist of what I’ve written below: You’re right. You’re so very right. And yet…

Mr. X (via Dustin Curtis)http://dustincurtis.com/dear_dustin_curtis.html


http://dustincurtis.com/dear_dustin_curtis.html

http://dustincurtis.com/dear_dustin_curtis.html

2 hours


365 days365 days


Why would Dustin publish this?


Calling, sending a text, writing a letter.

Write a Yelp review, etc.

Publish a tweet, a blog post, etc.

Take out a newspaper, billboard ad, etc.

...Consulting.


LiteracyLiteracy


Literacy, in any medium, means not just knowing how to read that medium, but also how to create in it, and to understand the difference between good and bad uses.

Clay ShirkeyForeword to Mediactive by Dan Gillmor

“


QualitativeQUANTITATIVE QUANTITATIVE QUANTITATIVE

QUANTITATIVE QUANTITATIVE QUANTITATIVE

QUANTITATIVE QUANTITATIVE QUANTITATIVE






Design literacy requires that we...

๏ Design effectively with existing media.

๏ Understand the psychology of people.

๏ Understand our “limitations.”

๏ See the potential in new media.

๏ Prudently leverage these, over time, to teach.



discover define develop deliver

1 2 3 4


WRITINGPieces together thoughts

Expands our understanding

READINGWednesday, September 11, 13

consensusDesign for commerce

Adversarial design

DissensusWednesday, September 11, 13

CONSENSUSCONSENSUS


eCommerceA/B testing conversions


Civic LiteracyField Guides to Ensuring Voter Intent


Health LiteracyHealthfinder.gov, Telling Kids About Cancer


dissensusdissensus


Bi!er Pill


ONE ACETAMINOPHEN

TABLET COSTS 1.5¢.

YOUR HOSPITAL MARKS IT UP

10,000%


The culture we created as a consequence, though, was – and still is in some ways – profoundly unattractive. What was supposed to be fairness can become callousness or, at the very least, can feel that way when read from the other side.

Nick HarkawayThe Blind Giant

“


Million Dollar Blocks



At any level of abstraction, design can either be a gesture of consent or

dissent. A statement of fact or a rhetorical question.


Designing forLiteracy

Designing for Literacy


AccessibilityWednesday, September 11, 13

1. Obtain literacy2. ???3. Profit


<img alt=”description” />

no yes



experts developers

Designer


MAGIC

experts developers


experts wanted testsA government that ensured

accessibility compliance.


magic: design for consensusDesign to facilitate accessibility

compliance.

What’s the relative contrast of color pairings on your webpage?

What’s relative contrast?

What are color pairings?

What’s a webpage?


devs wanted understandingA government that ensured

accessibility literacy.


adversarial designHelp culture see the ways in

which its system wasn’t working.

Testing is not teaching.


If you are coming from outside the usual pool of people who work in Field X, you’re going to hit [cultural] barriers. Some of those barriers need to be rattled and eventually demolished, but some are just about a lack of shared context. Open secrets are the hardest ones to crack when you’re coming in from outside, because no one will take you aside and whisper them in your ear. They’re the air everyone else is breathing.

Erin Kissane Wednesday, 12 June 2013 – The Pastry Box


Journalism principles

๏ Thoroughness. Learn to speak the language.

๏ Accuracy. Avoid errors; they undermine trust.

๏ Fairness. Talk to users and stakeholders.

๏ Independence. Construct your own narrative.

๏ Transparency. Ask people to corroborate.

Adapted from Dan Gillmor’s principles of trustworthy media creation in “Mediactive”


A plea for content strategy

๏ Problem

๏ Vision

๏ High-level strategy

๏ Content roadmap

๏ Caveats & Open questions


What this means for us

What this means for us


fashion

commerce

infrastructure

governance

culture

natureWednesday, September 11, 13

fashion

commerce

infrastructure

governance

culture


fashion

commerce

infrastructure

governance

culture


fashion

commerce

infrastructure

governance

culture

nature

Visual design

Interaction design

Information architecture

Content strategy

User-centered


JOURNALISM

TEACHING

1 2


What this means for users

What this means for users


We’re in an industry that initially focused on having users not think

when there’s a ton of merit in considering what we want users

to think about.


The “literacy” bar

Book awesome

2,000 BOOKS

BLUE SKY

User awesome

NOISY & BLOODY

BLUE SKY

Adapted from Kathy Sierra at Business of Software 2012. Building the Minimum Badass User.


Don’t focus on the thing, focus on the user. Enable literacy through design.



@[email protected]

http://bit.ly/10Mdelj

Nerds rejoice!

There’s a bibliography available!


mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]





