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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss" xmlns:geo="http://www.w3.org/2003/01/geo/wgs84_pos#" > <channel> <title>Boxes and Arrows</title> <atom:link href="https://boxesandarrows.com/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /> <link>https://boxesandarrows.com/</link> <description>The design behind the design</description> <lastBuildDate>Tue, 31 Jan 2023 01:49:43 +0000</lastBuildDate> <language>en-US</language> <sy:updatePeriod> hourly </sy:updatePeriod> <sy:updateFrequency> 1 </sy:updateFrequency> <site xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">43090005</site> <item> <title>Hiatus…indefinitely</title> <link>https://boxesandarrows.com/hiatus/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Amy Jiménez Márquez]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Tue, 05 Jul 2022 21:27:37 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[From the Editors]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://boxesandarrows.com/?p=25324</guid> <description><![CDATA[Updated January 30, 2023 – Amy Jiménez Márquez After much internal debate, I’m placing the publication on indefinite hiatus. It’s a difficult decision, and if you have questions or want to talk about the future of Boxes and Arrows please contact me. Boxes and Arrows will continue as an archive freely available to readers. Thank you so much for your readership over the years. This isn’t the end of Boxes and Arrows. It’s simply a new chapter that is yet The post <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/hiatus/">Hiatus…indefinitely</a> appeared first on <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com">Boxes and Arrows</a>. ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[ Updated January 30, 2023 – Amy Jiménez Márquez After much internal debate, I’m placing the publication on indefinite hiatus. It’s a difficult decision, and if you have questions or want to talk about the future of Boxes and Arrows please <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/contact-us/">contact me</a>. Boxes and Arrows will continue as an archive freely available to readers. Thank you so much for your readership over the years. This isn’t the end of Boxes and Arrows. It’s simply a new chapter that is yet to be written. The post <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/hiatus/">Hiatus…indefinitely</a> appeared first on <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com">Boxes and Arrows</a>. ]]></content:encoded> <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">25324</post-id> </item> <item> <title>Book in brief — Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap</title> <link>https://boxesandarrows.com/book-in-brief-trustworthy-how-the-smartest-brands-beat-cynicism-and-bridge-the-trust-gap/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Margot Bloomstein]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Tue, 22 Mar 2022 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[UX Design]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://boxesandarrows.com/?p=23957</guid> <description><![CDATA[Designers can empower people to make confident decisions. Empowerment goes beyond just basic functionality: we help people meet their needs and gain a sense of fulfillment and knowledge through their interactions with screens, products, and services. Empowerment is the sense of confidence people gain by making decisions and feeling good about the decisions they make. Our users take that feeling into other interactions as well. Empowerment is at the core of trust, too. Today, cynicism undermines trust in the media, The post <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/book-in-brief-trustworthy-how-the-smartest-brands-beat-cynicism-and-bridge-the-trust-gap/">Book in brief — Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap</a> appeared first on <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com">Boxes and Arrows</a>. ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[ <div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="alignleft size-medium"><a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/trustworthycover-1.png"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" width="253" height="300" src="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/trustworthycover-1-253x300.png" alt="Book cover for Trustworthy by Margot Bloomstein" class="wp-image-23964" srcset="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/trustworthycover-1-253x300.png 253w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/trustworthycover-1.png 500w" sizes="(max-width: 253px) 100vw, 253px" /></a><figcaption>Trustworthy by Margot Bloomstein</figcaption></figure></div> Designers can empower people to make confident decisions. Empowerment goes beyond just basic functionality: we help people meet their needs and gain a sense of fulfillment and knowledge through their interactions with screens, products, and services. Empowerment is the sense of confidence people gain by making decisions and feeling good about the decisions they make. Our users take that feeling into other interactions as well. Empowerment is at the core of trust, too. Today, cynicism undermines trust in the media, government, public health, and consumer brands; just ask any organization that teaches, persuades, or engages users through its services or products. To regain the trust of consumers and citizens, we talk about empathy and transparency—but we need to design differently too. By offering a consistent visual and verbal voice, the appropriate volume of information, and vulnerable audience engagement, we can help organizations regain trust and help our users make better choices, self-educate, and engage the world with greater confidence. In this excerpt from <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1989603920/">Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap</a>, Margot Bloomstein explores the role of abstraction in presenting information to inform decisions. Sometimes, more isn’t better—it’s just more, and it’s overwhelming. We can help people navigate that stress. And what better time than amid a pandemic to bring this skill to the table?  <hr class="wp-block-separator"/> Balance fidelity and abstraction to inform beyond the facts “Just because you’re accurate doesn’t mean you’re interesting,” jokes comedian John Mulaney in his special Kid Gorgeous.1 He’s talking about the irrelevance of distracting details, but his statement is a lesson to anyone trying to motivate their audience to act on information. Sometimes, you simplify details so that people can get the big picture. What concepts stand out as faithful to the original? That’s abstraction: the process by which you transform information to simplify and translate it while remaining true to the original concepts. Abstraction helps organizations move beyond overwhelming details to more actionable and trustworthy information. Sometimes the information you have needs to be changed into a new format or context. Sometimes it’s too detailed to be useful, or it focuses on the wrong details; it’s accurate, but not interesting, as Mulaney says. In other cases, people can’t relate to the specific case to understand how it applies to them. Good advice is buried in irrelevant back story. Let’s explore how abstraction helps us communicate the truth with fidelity. Fidelity is the degree to which a new version reflects reality. Do you simplify the story and leave out some details to get to the important part and retain readers? Do you shift the context to make examples more relatable and help the audience empathize? Or do you reframe details in a more familiar format, all to control the message and ensure the audience isn’t distracted by the noise? Actionable communication empowers people by filtering the real world. As a designer, writer, or marketer you can provide users with the power to act with confidence. By abstracting reality, we make the essential information more actionable, useful, and personally relevant. That kind of utility is the most basic level of information design, whether your users are navigating a disease treatment plan, a ballot, or a map. By finding a balance between telling the truth and omitting unnecessary noise, you empower your audience with information that’s both more useful and usable, and worthy of their trust. “What is believed overpowers the truth,” wrote Sophocles.2 Today, perhaps, it’s more accurate to say that what is believed is the truth. Truth is a personal thing shaped by experience and perception, but belief and truth stand separately from reality. Design is a helpful intermediary between reality and truth. All these things are true even if they didn’t happen Abstraction allows us to act with confidence and without overthinking the details. Sometimes, writers and designers can streamline the details or condense the nuances, all in the name of serving a greater good: actionable understanding. Think about maps. Sometimes, they gloss over reality to deliver the truth. “All maps are useful lies,” offers Stanford design instructor [and founder of Boxes and Arrows] <a href="https://eleganthack.com/">Christina Wodtke</a>. “A map’s job is to help someone go from one place to another place. But if your map shows each restaurant, driveway, and side road accurately, it becomes so dense that you can’t navigate with it.” An overly detailed map won’t be useful. So, maps omit details that the artist—or user, if the map is interactive—deems irrelevant. The driveways and side roads still exist; they just aren’t shown. In some cases, details are exaggerated to reflect importance. In other cases, the cartographer changes relationships to serve a greater purpose: the map doesn’t just need to be useful, but it needs to be usable—memorable, even. It needs to fit the user’s mental model. Information architecture pioneer Richard Saul Wurman designed a map3 of two major Tokyo subway lines that crisply contrasts against models that are more representative. Like in standard maps of the city’s transit system, the circular Yamanote Line rings the city and the Chūō-Sōbu Line bisects the ring. There’s a jog in the middle, with the lines shifting further north as they go east. But Wurman smooths the turns—committing lies of omission—and broadens the ring. His map is usable, though it’s not realistic. But do these changes matter on a map? “Underground, you don’t need to know every turn,” comments Christina. “They don’t matter. Instead, Wurman made a concept model of the subway based on a yin-yang. When people familiar with a yin-yang see his map, they update their mental model of the subway system.” Wurman’s choices matter because his model helps visitors remember the relationships between stations and learn approximate distances, contributing to their confidence and trust that they can get around. <div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/RSW_Tokyo_SubwayMap.jpg"><img decoding="async" src="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/RSW_Tokyo_SubwayMap.jpg" alt="Complex map of the Tokyo subway" class="wp-image-23975" width="638" height="640" srcset="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/RSW_Tokyo_SubwayMap.jpg 850w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/RSW_Tokyo_SubwayMap-300x300.jpg 300w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/RSW_Tokyo_SubwayMap-150x150.jpg 150w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/RSW_Tokyo_SubwayMap-768x771.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 638px) 100vw, 638px" /></a><figcaption>© Richard Saul Wurman, Tokyo Access</figcaption></figure></div> But models are not without their baggage. As communication theorist Paul Watzlawick4 noted, we cannot not communicate. To western tourists, the model may be helpful—but to others, the yin-yang as a graphic element, divorced from its meaning of dualism, just feels like reductive, clichéd orientalism. “Mental models help people remember and attain new information,” continues Christina. That process is vital for giving people ownership over their learning and confidence in their own ability to self-educate. When we abstract ideas to aid attention, comprehension, and retention—the process of learning that Christina describes as her “teaching trifecta”—those ideas have more impact. We remove the friction of unnecessary details and sticking points. If TED champions “ideas worth spreading,” abstraction and simplification enable that spread. “Look at info memes,” says Christina. “They’re models so small and easy to draw that they can travel. They’re simple enough that when you’re talking to your boss, you can grab a whiteboard marker and throw it up there.” These concepts are so simple that they can be sketched and passed on without losing information. Map design offers a compelling example of the ethics of abstraction that span the distance between a daunting, overly detailed reality and an actionable truth. Sometimes information is too detailed to be actionable. “Information anxiety is the black hole between data and knowledge, and it happens when information doesn’t tell us what we want or need to know,” wrote Wurman.5 Maps help reduce that anxiety for some people. They tell us where we are, where we can go, and how to get there. Maps abstract reality by sacrificing some detail to be more useful. That tradeoff reduces anxiety, the killer of confidence. But is that enough to inspire confidence in the source of information and, ultimately, to inspire trust? Offer enough detail to be plausible but leave space to be relatable Abstraction offers another benefit: by sacrificing detail, the essence of your message becomes plausible, believable, and relatable. Good storytellers value being believable: they give us enough detail to see what they mean, but ensure that those details are relatable enough to be relevant to the audience. The empathy of shared experience orients us and fills the space between the storyteller’s narrative and how we relate it to our own adventures in the world. “Stories are good audio maps,” says Christina Wodtke. They focus your attention, facilitate comprehension, and aid retention—or our ability to organize new information into the concepts we already grasp. At the most basic level, metaphors work in the same way: they offer a shorthand mental model that anyone can relate to their own experiences and things they already know. “The project was a rollercoaster” conveys the abrupt highs and lows of an assignment, even though the team never set foot in an amusement park. “That presentation was a slog” calls to mind trudging through a muddy hike or slushy winter sidewalk, even though everyone sat through it without getting out of their seats. Fidelity to the details matters far less than the point: that presentation was tiring, arduous, and took forever! You’re lucky you didn’t have to sit through it. When you cut distracting details, empathy fills that gap—but empathy is more than a byproduct of minimalist design or concise writing. It’s a core product—and a Trojan horse for trust. By allowing space for the audience to overlay their own memories on a story or image, you make the information more valuable to them, because now it’s more relevant. Realtors apply this method when they stage a home, leaving a few inviting landscape paintings but hiding the personal vacation photos. They keep the details that illustrate specific common experiences, but cut the bits that prevent prospective buyers from seeing themselves in the space. Moreover, they retain the décor and furniture that hints at relatable lifestyle aspirations and adequate storage. Abstraction is different from generalizing. Don’t cut the details that convey central concepts and core truths, or there won’t be anything that the audience can relate to their own lives. While illustrations and stories are no substitute for data, they help us connect with bigger concepts. Those concepts can feel familiar if they relate to our own experiences, and it feels safe to build new knowledge on familiar concepts. We use data, but we trust humans. By sharing enough specific detail, you can ground the truth and key takeaways in concepts familiar enough to encourage your audience’s trust and interest. When imagery or content focuses too much on the wrong details, viewers lose the bigger concepts. Airbnb’s early work with video tours offered too much detail. They painstakingly gathered all the features visitors look for in search queries—hairdryer! laundry on site!—and went overboard showing each of these details, which could have come through just as well in bulleted lists. Video tours were well produced, but it was too much. Their professional polish and scripted content made them informative—but they didn’t feel authentic. “Our early videos were minute-long stories that reflected common search queries,” explains <a href="http://www.ssprockett.com/">Shawn Sprockett</a>, a former design lead at Airbnb. “They were beautifully shot and well produced—but the way they answered questions looked like marketing.” The scripted, anticipatory manner of fully explaining house listings proactively answered questions for prospective guests, but the videos came on too hard. “They made the listings look less authentic,” he adds. Rather than looking like the work of real people showing off their apartments or vacation rentals, the videos looked and sounded slick. They were driven by search engine terms, not property owners’ passion for their town or pride in a newly remodeled kitchen. All that polished content overwhelmed potential guests and property owners and put them in a defensive mindset, pushing them to move on to other listings and other rental sites. “The next version of those videos looked more real,” he continues. The hosts focused on the details they thought were important and filmed without format guidelines or keyword lists from Airbnb. “No more scripting—we had people just answer questions in their own words.” Gone was the professional camerawork, or at least the qualities that hinted at it. Instead of reminding hosts to film with the camera in a horizontal orientation, they let them hold the camera or phone vertically, the default for most people who don’t have a background in photography. “We rotated from horizontal cinematic filming to vertical, like Snapchat,” he says. That change might make some photographers cringe, but it speaks the language of people who aren’t professionals and just want to grab a snapshot or shoot a quick video. It’s more relatable and authentic. “Authenticity builds trust, and we don’t want to undercut our own goals,” Shawn notes. The details that came through revealed more of the hosts’ passion and less of user search queries. The simple change of switching from horizontal to vertical in the videos signaled that the values of the person (or brand) making the video may be more aligned with the values of visitors who don’t care about such details, or are more attuned to Snapchat than to professional videography. By focusing attention elsewhere and seemingly letting those details slip through the cracks, Airbnb affects a younger, more digital-native-friendly posture. Here, authenticity builds on a carefully studied apathy. “We never intentionally made anything look bad,” cautions Shawn. “But we realized that something that looks great to a designer could just get in the way.” By considering the finer points in camerawork and content creation, Airbnb created something more accessible and useful to a potential guest. One of Airbnb’s central motivations is to help travelers connect more meaningfully with their destinations. If you’re looking outside of standard, generic hotel chains for something more authentic, a homestay through Airbnb offers interaction with local hosts and the comfort of a home. By focusing on details like video that maintains the voice and style of hosts, Airbnb ensures that their production style doesn’t distract from the main points of their value proposition to visitors. <hr class="wp-block-separator"/> 1 Scraps from the Loft, “John Mulaney: Kid Gorgeous at Radio City (2018)–Full Transcript,” May 5, 2018, http://scrapsfromtheloft.com/2018/05/05/john-mulaney-kid-gorgeous-at-radio-cityfull-transcript. 2 Sententiae Antiquae, “What Is Believed Overpowers the Truth: Sophoklean Fragments on Lies and Truth,” June 23, 2015, https://sententiaeantiquae.com/2015/06/23/what-is-believed-overpowers-the-truth-sophoklean-fragments-on-lies-and-truth. 3 Richard Saul Wurman, Tokyo Access (Los Angeles: Access Press, 1984). 4 Paul Watzlawick, Janet Beavin Bavelas, and Don D. Jackson, Pragmatics of Human Communication: A Study of International Patterns, Pathologies, and Paradoxes (New York: W.W. Norton, 1967). 5 Richard Saul Wurman, Information Anxiety (New York: Doubleday, 1989). The post <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/book-in-brief-trustworthy-how-the-smartest-brands-beat-cynicism-and-bridge-the-trust-gap/">Book in brief — Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap</a> appeared first on <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com">Boxes and Arrows</a>. ]]></content:encoded> <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">23957</post-id> </item> <item> <title>Designing Respectful Tech: What is your relationship with technology?</title> <link>https://boxesandarrows.com/designing-respectful-tech-what-is-your-relationship-with-technology/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Noreen Whysel]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Thu, 24 Feb 2022 12:00:00 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Foundational Thinking]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Social UX]]></category> <category><![CDATA[UX Design]]></category> <category><![CDATA[privacy]]></category> <category><![CDATA[safety]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://boxesandarrows.com/?p=23714</guid> <description><![CDATA[You’ve been there before. You thought you could trust someone with a secret. You thought it would be safe, but found out later that they blabbed to everyone. Or, maybe they didn’t share it, but the way they used it felt manipulative. You gave more than you got and it didn’t feel fair. But now that it’s out there, do you even have control anymore? Ok. Now imagine that person was your supermarket.  Or your doctor.  Or your boss. Do The post <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/designing-respectful-tech-what-is-your-relationship-with-technology/">Designing Respectful Tech: What is your relationship with technology?</a> appeared first on <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com">Boxes and Arrows</a>. ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[ You’ve been there before. You thought you could trust someone with a secret. You thought it would be safe, but found out later that they blabbed to everyone. Or, maybe they didn’t share it, but the way they used it felt manipulative. You gave more than you got and it didn’t feel fair. But now that it’s out there, do you even have control anymore? Ok. Now imagine that person was your supermarket.  Or your doctor.  Or your boss. <h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="do-you-have-a-personal-relationship-with-technology">Do you have a personal relationship with technology?</h3> According to <a href="https://ooqc943yvdw4abzes1q1ezta-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/abstract-1.pdf">research at the Me2B Alliance</a>, people do feel they have a relationship with technology. It’s emotional. It’s embodied. And it’s very personal. How personal is it? Think about what it would be like if you placed an order at a cafe and they already knew your name, your email, your gender, your physical location, what you read, who you are dating, and that, maybe, you’ve been thinking of breaking up. <figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Shop-Assistant.png"><img decoding="async" width="1024" height="768" src="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Shop-Assistant-1024x768.png" alt="" class="wp-image-23743" srcset="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Shop-Assistant-1024x768.png 1024w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Shop-Assistant-300x225.png 300w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Shop-Assistant-768x576.png 768w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Shop-Assistant-1536x1152.png 1536w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Shop-Assistant.png 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a><figcaption><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYZtHIPktQg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Source</a>: “If your shop assistant was an app (hidden camera),” Forbrugerrådet Tænk (Danish Consumer Council), December 2014 (YouTube).</figcaption></figure> We don’t approve of gossipy behavior in our human relationships. So why do we accept it with technology? Sure, we get back some time and convenience, but in many ways it can feel locked in and unequal. <h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="the-me2b-relationship-model">The Me2B Relationship Model</h3> At the Me2B Alliance, we are studying <a href="https://me2ba.org/flash-guide-4-introduction-to-me2b-relationships-and-me2b-deals/">digital relationships</a> to answer questions like “Do people have a relationship with technology?” (They feel that they do). “What does that relationship feel like?” (It’s complicated). And “Do people understand the commitments that they are making when they explore, enter into and dissolve these relationships?” (They really don’t). It may seem silly or awkward to think about our dealings with technology as a relationship, but like messy human relationships there are parallels. The Me2BA commitment arc with a digital technology resembles German psychologist George Levenger’s ABCDE relationship model 1, shown by the Orange icons in the image below. As with human relationships, we move through states of discovery, commitment and breakup with digital applications, too. <figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Dig-Me2B-Lifecycle-Inv-Dataflow.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="568" src="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Dig-Me2B-Lifecycle-Inv-Dataflow-1024x568.png" alt="" class="wp-image-23746" srcset="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Dig-Me2B-Lifecycle-Inv-Dataflow-1024x568.png 1024w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Dig-Me2B-Lifecycle-Inv-Dataflow-300x166.png 300w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Dig-Me2B-Lifecycle-Inv-Dataflow-768x426.png 768w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Dig-Me2B-Lifecycle-Inv-Dataflow-1536x852.png 1536w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Dig-Me2B-Lifecycle-Inv-Dataflow-2048x1136.png 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a><figcaption>Source: Me2B Alliance, 2021</figcaption></figure> Our assumptions about our technology relationships are similar to the ones we have about our human ones. We assume when we first meet someone there is a clean slate, but this isn’t always true. There may be gossip about you ahead of your meeting. The other person may have looked you up on LinkedIn. With any technology, information about you may be known already, and sharing that data starts well before you sign up for an account. <h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="the-invisible-parallel-dataverse">The Invisible Parallel Dataverse</h3> Today’s news frequently covers stories of personal and societal harm caused by digital media manipulation, <a href="https://darkpatterns.org">dark patterns</a> and personal data mapping. Last year, Facebook <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/03/technology/whistle-blower-facebook-frances-haugen.html?referringSource=articleShare">whistleblower</a> Frances Hauser exposed how the platform promotes content that they know from their own research causes depression and self-harm in teenage girls. They know this because they know what teenage girls click, post and share. Technology enables data sharing at every point of the relationship arc, including after you stop using it. Worryingly, even our more trusted digital relationships may not be safe. The Me2B Alliance uncovered <a href="https://me2ba.org/did-you-know-which-is-leakier/">privacy violations in K-12 software</a>, and described how abandoned website domains put <a href="https://me2ba.org/dangling-domain-from-sdk-installed-in-150-apple-apps-putting-kids-families-and-crypto-traders-at-risk/">children and families at risk</a> when their schools forget to renew them.  Most of the technologies that you (and your children) use have relationships with third party data brokers and others with whom they share your data. Each privacy policy, cookie consent and terms of use document on every website or mobile app you use defines a legal relationship, whether you choose to opt in or are locked in by some other process. That means you have a legal relationship with each of these entities from the moment you accessed the app or website, and in most cases, it’s one that you initiated and agreed to. All the little bits of our digital experiences are floating out there and will stay out there unless we have the agency to set how that data can be used or shared and when it should be deleted. The Me2B Alliance has developed <a href="https://me2ba.org/flash-guide-3-the-me2b-rules-of-engagement-our-ethical-foundation/">Rules of Engagement</a> for respectful technology relationships and a <a href="https://me2ba.org/library/">Digital Harms Dictionary</a> outlining types of violations, such as: <ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Collecting information without the user’s awareness or consent; </li><li><a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/adhesion_contract_%28contract_of_adhesion%29">contracts of adhesion</a>, where users are forced to agree with terms of use (often implicitly) when they engage with the content; </li><li>Loss or misuse of personally identifiable information; and </li><li>Unclear or non-transparent information describing the technology’s policies or even what <a href="https://me2ba.org/flash-guide-5-online-me2b-deals-currencies-in-the-digital-world-and-the-price-of-free/">Me2B Deal</a> they are getting.</li></ul> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><img decoding="async" src="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/respectful.png" alt="Respectful relationships. Data minimization includes: No gossip, no eavesdropping, no stalking. Individual control and autonomy includes: No manipulation, no coercion. Respectful defaults includes Progressive Consent."/><figcaption>Source: Noreen Whysel, Me2B Alliance 2021. Image (right): <a href="https://pixabay.com/service/license/">Pixabay</a></figcaption></figure> Respectful technology relationships begin with minimizing the amount of data that is collected in the first place. <a href="https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/security/definition/Data-Minimization">Data minimization</a> reduces the harmful effects of sensitive data getting into the wrong hands.  Next, we should give people agency and control. Individual control over one’s data is a key part of local and international privacy laws like GDPR in Europe, and similar laws in <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB375">California</a>, <a href="https://legiscan.com/CO/drafts/SB190/2021">Colorado</a> and <a href="https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacodepopularnames/personal-information-privacy-act/">Virginia</a>, which give consumers the right to consent to data collection, to know what data of theirs is collected and to request to view the data that was collected, correct it, or to have it permanently deleted. <h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="three-laws-of-safe-and-respectful-design">Three Laws of Safe and Respectful Design</h3> In his short story, I, Robot, Isaac Asimov introduced the famous “Three Laws of Robotics,” an ethical framework to avoid harmful consequences of machine activity. Today, IAs, programmers and other digital creators make what are essentially robots that help users do work and share information. Much of this activity is out of sight and mind, which is in fact how we, the digital technology users, like it.  But what of the risks? It is important as designers of these machines to consider the consequences of the work we put into the world. I have proposed the following corollary to Asimov’s robotics laws: <ul class="wp-block-list"><li>First Law: A Digital Creator may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.</li><li>Second Law: A Digital Creator must obey the orders given by other designers, clients, product managers, etc. except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.</li><li>Third Law: A Digital Creator must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.1</li></ul> Mike Monteiro in his well-known 2014 talk at An Event Apart on <a href="https://vimeo.com/122022963">How Designers are Destroying the World</a> discusses the second and third law a lot. While we take orders from the stakeholders of our work—the client, the marketers and the shareholders we design for—we have an equal and greater responsibility to understand and mitigate design decisions that have negative effects. <h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="a-specification-for-safe-and-respectful-technology">A Specification for Safe and Respectful Technology</h3> The Me2B Alliance is working on a <a href="https://me2ba.org/library/recommendation-attributes-of-safe-respectful-me2b-commitments/">specification for safe and respectfully designed digital technologies</a>—technologies that Do No Harm. These product integrity tests are conducted by a UX Expert and applied to each <a href="https://me2ba.org/flash-guide-8-digital-me2b-commitments-deals/">commitment stage</a> that a person enters. These stages range from first-open, location awareness, cookie consent, promotional and loyalty commitments, and account creation, as well as the termination of the relationship. Abby Covert’s <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/AbbyCovert/information-architecture-heuristics/10-10_Heuristic_IA_Principles">IA Principles</a>—particularly Findable, Accessible, Clear, Communicative and Controllable—are remarkably appropriate tests for ensuring that the people who use digital technologies have agency and control over the data they entrust to these products: Findable: Are the legal documents that govern the technology relationship easy to find? What about support services for when I believe my data is incorrect, or being used inappropriately? Can I find a way to delete my account or delete my data? Accessible: Are these resources easy to access by both human and machine readers and assistive devices? Are they hidden behind some “data paywall” such as a process that requires a change of commitment state, i.e. a data toll, to access? Clear: Can the average user read and understand the information that explains what data is required for what purpose? Is this information visible or accessible when it is relevant? Communicative: Does the technology inform the user when the commitment status changes? For example, does it communicate when it needs to access my location or other personal information like age, gender, medical conditions? Does it explain why it needs my data and how to revoke data access when it is no longer necessary? Controllable: How much control do I have as a user? Can I freely enter into a Me2B Commitment or am I forced to give up some data just to find out what the Me2B Deal is in the first place?  Abby’s other IA principles flow from the above considerations. A Useful product is one that does what it claims to do and communicates the deal you get clearly and accessibly. A Credible product is one that treats the user with respect and communicates its value. With user Control over data sharing and a clear understanding of the service being offered, the true Value of the service is apparent. Over time the user will come to expect notice of potential changes to commitment states and will have agency over making that choice. These “Helpful Patterns”—clear and discoverable notice of state changes and opt-in commitments—build trust and loyalty, leading to a Delightful, or at least a reassuring, experience for your users. What I’ve learned from working in the standards world is that Information Architecture Principles provide a solid framework for understanding digital relationships as well as structuring meaning. Because we aren’t just designing information spaces. We’re designing healthy relationships. <hr class="wp-block-separator"/> 1 Levinger, G. (1983). “Development and change.” In H.H. Kelley et al. (Eds.), Close relationships (315–359). New York: W. H. Freeman and Company. https://www.worldcat.org/title/close-relationships/oclc/470636389 2  Asimov, I. (1950). I, Robot. Gnome Press. The post <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/designing-respectful-tech-what-is-your-relationship-with-technology/">Designing Respectful Tech: What is your relationship with technology?</a> appeared first on <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com">Boxes and Arrows</a>. ]]></content:encoded> <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">23714</post-id> </item> <item> <title>Introduction to Ontology Concepts and Modeling</title> <link>https://boxesandarrows.com/introduction-to-ontology-concepts-and-modeling/</link> <comments>https://boxesandarrows.com/introduction-to-ontology-concepts-and-modeling/#comments</comments> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Bob Kasenchak]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Tue, 02 Nov 2021 13:00:00 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Content Strategy]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Foundational Thinking]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Information Architecture]]></category> <category><![CDATA[content]]></category> <category><![CDATA[ontology]]></category> <category><![CDATA[taxonomy]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://boxesandarrows.com/?p=23074</guid> <description><![CDATA[What is ontology? An ontology is a formal system for modeling concepts and their relationships. Unlike relational database systems, which are essentially interconnected tables, ontologies put a premium on the relationships between concepts by storing the information in a graph database, or triplestore. (The following examples use data derived from PLOS, which makes all of its Open Access data and content available.) Relational databases are good at representing tabular data for one-to-one relationships: However, real-life data is seldom this tidy; The post <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/introduction-to-ontology-concepts-and-modeling/">Introduction to Ontology Concepts and Modeling</a> appeared first on <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com">Boxes and Arrows</a>. ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[ <h3 class="wp-block-heading">What is ontology?</h3> An ontology is a formal system for modeling concepts and their relationships. Unlike relational database systems, which are essentially interconnected tables, ontologies put a premium on the relationships between concepts by storing the information in a graph database, or triplestore. (The following examples use data derived from <a href="https://plos.org/">PLOS</a>, which makes all of its <a href="https://sparcopen.org/open-access/">Open Access</a> data and content available.) Relational databases are good at representing tabular data for one-to-one relationships: <div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_1.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="604" height="107" src="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_1.png" alt="tabular data with article, journal, author, and topic columns" class="wp-image-23076" srcset="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_1.png 604w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_1-300x53.png 300w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_1-600x107.png 600w" sizes="(max-width: 604px) 100vw, 604px" /></a><figcaption>Figure 1: Data with one-to-one relationships is easily represented in tabular form </figcaption></figure></div> However, real-life data is seldom this tidy; many-to-one and one-to-many relationships abound, which require additional tables and key-value pairs to represent data. Moreover, the relationships between the data elements is implied by the column headers but nowhere made explicit; you have to infer that “article number 1009086” “has the topic” “Cancer”. So while the information below would require several (at least two) tables to represent: <div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_2.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="591" height="237" src="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_2.png" alt="table columns labeled article, journal, author, topic for many-to-one relationships" class="wp-image-23077" srcset="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_2.png 591w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_2-300x120.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 591px) 100vw, 591px" /></a><figcaption>Figure 2: Data with many-to-one relationships requires multiple tables and gets messy quickly</figcaption></figure></div> …the same information is easily represented in a graph: <div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_3.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="462" height="422" src="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_3.png" alt="A radial graph depicting topics, authors, journal, and article with relationships illustrated. Caption: Figure 3: A graph-based approach is a natural fit for this data" class="wp-image-23078" srcset="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_3.png 462w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_3-300x274.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 462px) 100vw, 462px" /></a><figcaption>Figure 3: A graph-based approach is a natural fit for this data </figcaption></figure></div> Crucially, the relationships between the objects (data elements) in the graph are, explicitly, objects in the system; they are represented by the lines, or edges, between the round nodes. Further, we can expand any node on the graph to see additional connections. <div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_4.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="510" height="513" src="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_4.png" alt="multiple radial graphs showing complex relationships. Caption: Figure 4: This information network modeled as a graph is easy to apprehend at a glance." class="wp-image-23079" srcset="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_4.png 510w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_4-298x300.png 298w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_4-150x150.png 150w" sizes="(max-width: 510px) 100vw, 510px" /></a><figcaption>Figure 4: This information network modeled as a graph is easy to apprehend at a glance.</figcaption></figure></div> Lastly, note that the edges (relationships) in the graph are labeled and (potentially) directional. The relationships in the graph aren’t implied through columns with headers, but rather represented directly as objects in the graph (and in the system!). That is to say: in an ontology, both the Boxes and the Arrows are of equal importance. We might also say that objects and relationships are both first-class data citizens. Additionally, ontologies are: <ol class="wp-block-list"><li>Extensible and customizable: existing ontologies may be reused and customized</li><li>Shareable: ontologies are designed for re-use</li><li>Interoperable: ontologies can be shared between systems (because they are standards-based)</li><li>Machine-readable: ontologies are expressed using URIs (or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Resource_Identifier">Uniform Resource Identifiers</a>) for identifiers which can be resolved using any compatible system</li><li>Amenable to inferencing: ontologies allow reasoning over the graph to discover new, implied relationships and make them explicit; this can be used for machine learning-type applications</li></ol> Ontologies are stored in <a href="https://www.w3.org/RDF/">RDF</a> (short for Resource Description Framework), a <a href="https://www.w3.org/">Worldwide Web Consortium</a> (or W3C) standard designed for this purpose. RDF is based on the concept of <a href="https://www.synaptica.com/triples-triads-and-semantics/">triples</a>, which store information in a simple three-part format describing the two objects to be related (the Subject and Object) and the relationship (Predicate) linking them. <figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-style-default"><a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_4a.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="681" height="158" src="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_4a.png" alt="Simple table showing subject, predicate, and object." class="wp-image-23080" srcset="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_4a.png 681w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_4a-300x70.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 681px) 100vw, 681px" /></a></figure> In this way, simple factual information can be modeled in a way that resembles how we understand facts. A graph is essentially the sum total of all of the triples in the system showing all of the concepts and relationships. <div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_5.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="442" height="427" src="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_5.png" alt="Figure 5: large, complex radial graph" class="wp-image-23081" srcset="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_5.png 442w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_5-300x290.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 442px) 100vw, 442px" /></a><figcaption>Figure 5: Many graphs are, of course, much larger than this one.</figcaption></figure></div> <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Is an ontology just a fancy taxonomy?</h3> Yes and no. All taxonomies can be expressed as ontologies, but ontologies admit more relationships between concepts than standard taxonomic hierarchical and associative relationships. This is outlined in the simple table below: <figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-style-default"><a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_5a.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="608" height="147" src="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_5a.png" alt="Simple table showing taxonomic/thesaural relationships and ontological relationships. Column 1 says Taxonomic (Thesaural) Relationships with rows reading Broader Term-Narrower Term, and Related term. Column 2 says Ontological relationships with one row reading Anything you can think of." class="wp-image-23082" srcset="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_5a.png 608w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_5a-300x73.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 608px) 100vw, 608px" /></a></figure> An ontology may include one or more taxonomies. A useful (but incomplete) way to begin thinking about ontologies is to imagine several taxonomies linked together. This example (an upper ontology) from scholarly publishing illustrates the classes of objects and their relationships in a model of the data in that ecosystem: <div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_6.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="562" height="356" src="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_6.png" alt="Figure 6: An upper ontology is the empty data model showing the permitted relationships between schemes of objects, including both inter- and intra-scheme relationships." class="wp-image-23083" srcset="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_6.png 562w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_6-300x190.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 562px) 100vw, 562px" /></a><figcaption>Figure 6: An upper ontology is the empty data model showing the permitted relationships between schemes of objects, including both inter- and intra-scheme relationships.</figcaption></figure></div> Circular lines represent relationships of a class with itself, so the UNESCO Thesaurus (a topical taxonomy) is permitted to have Broader-Narrower concepts, while the list of Journals is flat. Note that this scheme does not have any concepts; it is the upper ontology only: the model of abstract relationships between classes of objects. To complicate matters further, <a href="https://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/">SKOS</a> is an RDF-compliant ontology data model designed to structure and share taxonomies. Ontologies essentially comprise two parts: the upper ontology, which is the schema used to define objects, their attributes, and relationships in a general way; and the lower (or domain) ontology, which is the data populating the schema(s). As noted, lower ontologies may be one or more taxonomies, flat lists (for example, of people), or any other collection of objects, each with its own set of properties (fields) and permitted relationships. Here is an example of an upper ontology I devised to model whisk(e)ys. Note that there is no information about individual whiskies, distilleries, and so on; the model merely shows the classes of objects and the permitted relationships between them: <div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_7.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="414" height="480" src="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_7.png" alt="Figure 7: Modeling your upper ontology requires explicating attributes and relationships for each scheme. " class="wp-image-23084" srcset="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_7.png 414w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_7-259x300.png 259w" sizes="(max-width: 414px) 100vw, 414px" /></a><figcaption>Figure 7: Modeling your upper ontology requires explicating attributes and relationships for each scheme. </figcaption></figure></div> SKOS is therefore an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_ontology">upper ontology</a> (an empty taxonomy schema) used to describe and store elements of a taxonomy, the terms and relationships of which comprise a lower ontology. In essence, the upper ontology is the schema describing the permitted objects, attributes, and relationships, while the lower ontology comprises the objects, attributes, and relationships themselves. Many upper and lower ontologies are published as open data and can be adopted and re-used (given the appropriate permissions, if applicable). <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Why would I need an ontology?</h3> Ontologies are useful for expressing data in which the relationships between objects are important. In relational database systems (which are, to be clear, exceedingly useful for many applications) relationships between data in fields are implied by, for example, column headers, as shown above. In an ontology, those relationships are made explicit and exist as objects in the system. This makes certain types of queries less expensive (in terms of processing time and power) and allows the traversal of information. Ontologies, as mentioned, also allow for inferencing: the addition of new triples implied by, but not explicitly depicted in, the graph. The stock example is still a good one. If I have triples stating <figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-style-default"><a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_7a.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="352" height="145" src="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_7a.png" alt="Table columns read Subject, Predicate, Object. Row says John, lives in, London." class="wp-image-23085" srcset="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_7a.png 352w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ont_image_7a-300x124.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 352px) 100vw, 352px" /></a></figure> …as a person I can infer that John lives in England. I can also query this information and, if I like, add the triple “John lives in England” to my graph. Graph querying is done using a language called <a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/">SPARQL</a> (for which you can find learning <a href="http://www.learningsparql.com/">resources</a>) that allows you to ask questions about and add information to your graph. Ontologies are great for modeling,and storing information about, complex information ecosystems, workflows, products, customer information, and anything else that requires an emphasis on the relationships between objects. <h3 class="wp-block-heading">How do I get started modeling an ontology?</h3> As with any data modeling, begin with the objects you want to model and their attributes. Brainstorming the types (or classes) of concepts (nodes, boxes) and their relationships (edges, arrows) is a good way to begin. For example, you may be representing People (customers, users, employees) which will require fields like name(s), email, location information, birthdate, or whatever other information is relevant to your systems and project. Another class of object might be Organizations (companies, clients, competitors, educational institutions, or whatever is relevant) which will require different fields (that is: a different set of fields) than People, which is what distinguishes them as a type of object. Commonly (although certainly not universally) some kind of conceptual or topical vocabulary—probably a taxonomy or thesaurus—may be used to classify content, expertise, products, or anything else. This will require another set of attributes with data to describe the concepts like definitions, links to Wikipedia or some other source with additional information, and Linked Data URIs to places like <a href="https://www.dbpedia.org/">DBpedia</a> or <a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Main_Page">Wikidata</a>—essentially, hooks to other ontologies to assert equivalence. After drafting out the classes and their attributes, you can define the relationships (edges, lines) between the nodes. This can be basically anything you can imagine. Be precise; ontological relationships can be as richly descriptive as you like, so feel free to model exactly the useful relationships between objects in your information ecosystem. Remember, though: you don’t need to get everything in on the first try. Ontologies are extensible, so it’s sensible to try to model and solve for some specific problem as you can always extend the ontology to include more later on. It’s also crucial to remember that many upper ontologies (bundles of attributes and relationships, and often classes) are open and free to reuse. There’s no sense in inventing a field called “Title” for your content when <a href="https://dublincore.org/">Dublin Core</a> already has such a field; it’s also easier to link your ontology to other ontologies if you reuse common and existing attributes and relationships. Essentially, to create your ontology you can mix-and-match existing attributes and relationships gathered from other ontologies and combine them with your own attributes and relationships to create the data model you need. Since ontologies are interoperable (essentially: everything is a URI, following Linked Data principles) you can extend and customize your ontology schema as your needs grow. We hope this serves as a good introduction without getting bogged down in the overly technical. We are always happy to talk ontologies; please reach out to <a href="mailto:bob.kasenchak@synaptica.com">bob.kasenchak@synaptica.com</a> or <a href="mailto:ahren.lehnert@synaptica.com">ahren.lehnert@synaptica.com</a> if you like. <hr class="wp-block-separator"/> Bob Kasenchak and Ahren Lehnert work for <a href="https://www.synaptica.com/triples-triads-and-semantics/">Synaptica</a>, a leading vendor of taxonomy and ontology solutions. <hr class="wp-block-separator"/> Featured image: <a target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/34427470616@N01/5361759700">“The Flavour Thesaurus”</a> by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/34427470616@N01" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">duncan</a> is licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/?ref=ccsearch&atype=rich" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CC BY-NC 2.0</a> The post <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/introduction-to-ontology-concepts-and-modeling/">Introduction to Ontology Concepts and Modeling</a> appeared first on <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com">Boxes and Arrows</a>. ]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>https://boxesandarrows.com/introduction-to-ontology-concepts-and-modeling/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>5</slash:comments> <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">23074</post-id> </item> <item> <title>Activating Change: A Designer’s Guide to Systems Thinking</title> <link>https://boxesandarrows.com/activating-change-a-designers-guide-to-systems-thinking/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Jaime Goff]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Tue, 19 Oct 2021 13:00:00 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Process and Methods]]></category> <category><![CDATA[User Centered]]></category> <category><![CDATA[systems thinking]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://boxesandarrows.com/?p=22948</guid> <description><![CDATA[This past year we became acutely aware of how interconnected we all are. The toilet paper shortage gave the world a glimpse at supply chains, and the pandemic as a whole was a crash course in how our healthcare system can handle crises. It can be difficult to envision how we can make a difference even if we know the systems we live in don’t function well for everyone. But what does this have to do with design? Designers make The post <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/activating-change-a-designers-guide-to-systems-thinking/">Activating Change: A Designer’s Guide to Systems Thinking</a> appeared first on <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com">Boxes and Arrows</a>. ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[ This past year we became acutely aware of how interconnected we all are. The toilet paper shortage gave the world a glimpse at supply chains, and the pandemic as a whole was a crash course in how our healthcare system can handle crises. It can be difficult to envision how we can make a difference even if we know the systems we live in don’t function well for everyone. But what does this have to do with design? Designers make choices that other people have to live with. It’s up to us, as designers, to make those choices count. Even though it may not feel like we have the agency to make these decisions in a way that benefits all, we do have the ability to think critically about the impact of the products and services we design for society. We won’t always have all the answers or always get it right. For systems thinking in design to work, there have to be strong partnerships to overcome complexity and make a difference. Systems thinking is one way to think about how we can make more ethical and holistic choices as designers. It helps us “push beyond the immediate problems to see the underlying patterns, the ways we may leverage the system, and how we can learn and adapt as the system continues to change. It doesn’t make these challenges any less complex, but it gives us a way to embrace that complexity and work toward a healthier system” (Omidyar Group). Before we get into some practical ways to apply systems thinking to your practice, let’s define what systems thinking is. To understand systems thinking, we must first understand what a system is. A system is the interaction or relationship of essential parts that are organized in a way that achieves something. A system must have parts that are somehow related to each other and there must be a purpose or function. The relationship of elements is integral to a system. And the outcome of all the interconnected parts is the function or purpose of the system. Furthermore, systems exist within systems. Where most of us rely on clocks throughout the day to wake up or get to a Zoom meeting on time, accurate time is essential for the internet or GPS to work. Let’s take for example, an old-school wrist watch — the kind with an hour and minute hand. A wrist watch is typically made up of many small parts that work together to keep and display time anywhere you go. If we were to take a watch apart and lay the pieces all out on a table, we’d find springs, wheels, gears, gaskets, seals, rotors, etc. Once taken apart, the watch pieces are no longer a system because they are not working together for the purpose of telling time. Without the relationships, it is merely a collection of parts. Replacing parts within a broken watch may not be as simple as it sounds. If the battery was dead, you wouldn’t grab a triple A. Even if you were able to connect the watch to a larger battery, it wouldn’t be as portable as it was before and now we’d be dealing with a slightly different system. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“Very often, this is the way we humans try to solve problems — by fixing the parts without accounting for how they work together and hoping that it improves the whole.”  <cite>Dr. Leyla Acaroglu</cite></blockquote> This is where systems thinking comes in. Systems thinking is an approach which includes mindsets, processes, and tools that allow us to design more holistically.  <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Mindsets</h3> Have you found that you learn best by taking things apart or do you learn by building? For many centuries, scientists learned by taking things apart. In fact, this reductionist way of thinking is what led to the different specialties of science. It wasn’t until modern times that researchers began to pay more attention to patterns themselves and sometime around the 1920s, general systems theory was born (Kaufman).  <div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Systems-Thinking-Mindsets.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="768" src="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Systems-Thinking-Mindsets.png" alt="Systems Thinking Methods: See the whole picture; engage different perspectives; see new leverage points; look for relationships; look for consequences; think circular; embrace complexity; question assumptions." class="wp-image-22951" srcset="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Systems-Thinking-Mindsets.png 1024w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Systems-Thinking-Mindsets-300x225.png 300w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Systems-Thinking-Mindsets-768x576.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a><figcaption>Inspired by <a href="https://www.leylaacaroglu.com/disruptive-design-method">Leyla Acaroglu’s Disruptive Design program</a></figcaption></figure></div> Someone who engages in a systems thinking approach: <ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Sees the whole picture</li><li>Engages different perspectives to see new leverage points in complex systems</li><li>Looks for relationships and how parts interact</li><li>Looks for unintended consequences</li><li>Thinks circularly; not linearly</li><li>Embraces complexity</li><li>Questions assumptions</li></ul> <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Process</h3> There is no one way to do systems thinking. We like to use a process similar to Design Thinking.  <div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Systems-Thinking-Process.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="496" height="457" src="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Systems-Thinking-Process.png" alt="Systems thinking process. Circular diagram showing the words "discover, describe and define", then "create meaningful change", then "measure"." class="wp-image-22952" srcset="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Systems-Thinking-Process.png 496w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Systems-Thinking-Process-300x276.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 496px) 100vw, 496px" /></a><figcaption>Inspired by Design Thinking processes</figcaption></figure></div> <ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Discover, describe and define In order to create effective solutions, we need to have a deep understanding of what is going on.</li><li>Create meaningful change In systems thinking lingo, you might call this an intervention. </li><li>Measure  Continually learn from and adapt the system</li></ul> <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Tools</h3> Look in a systems thinker’s toolbox and you’ll find many different tools. This is a great opportunity to integrate both systems and design thinking tools. For example: <ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Mapping</li><li>Iceberg model</li><li>Theory of change</li></ul> <div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Systems-Thinking-Toolbox.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="437" src="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Systems-Thinking-Toolbox.png" alt="The Beginner's Systems Thinking Toolbox - image showing diagrams for Mapping, Iceberg Model, and Theory of Change." class="wp-image-22953" srcset="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Systems-Thinking-Toolbox.png 1024w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Systems-Thinking-Toolbox-300x128.png 300w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Systems-Thinking-Toolbox-768x328.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a><figcaption>Inspired by <a href="https://www.leylaacaroglu.com/disruptive-design-method">Leyla Acaroglu’s Disruptive Design program</a></figcaption></figure></div> <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“At its best, the practice of systems thinking helps us to stop operating from crisis to crisis, and to think in a less fragmented, more integrated way.”<cite>Sweeny, Meadows</cite></blockquote> If you are a designer who is looking to make more positive, holistic change through your craft, keep reading for practical ways to begin practicing systems thinking. <hr class="wp-block-separator"/> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">How to Use Systems Thinking</h2> <h3 class="wp-block-heading">One: Understand the Big Picture</h3> Mapping We like to use mapping to understand the complexity within which our problem or project lives.  Mapping level-sets the playing field because it’s visual and offers all stakeholders involved the chance to understand it. Maps can be a living document used to understand the current state, to find solutions, and plan for the future. We recommend it as a collaborative effort. Create your maps with stakeholders. Share them early and often to ensure you have captured everything. There are different ways to map — whichever flavor you use, it’s important to get down everything you and your stakeholders know. Maps can exist in any fidelity and importance should be placed on defining the relationships between elements because it’s the relationships that make a system.  Mapping types to try: <ul class="wp-block-list"><li><a href="https://www.betterevaluation.org/en/evaluation-options/richpictures">Rich Pictures</a></li><li><a href="https://medium.com/disruptive-design/tools-for-systems-thinkers-systems-mapping-2db5cf30ab3a">Cluster Maps</a></li><li><a href="https://medium.com/disruptive-design/tools-for-systems-thinkers-systems-mapping-2db5cf30ab3a">Connected Circle Maps</a></li></ul> Once you understand the lay of the land, it becomes easier to know where you are going and how you are going to get there. <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Two: Create Meaningful Change </h3> <h4 class="wp-block-heading">Identify Points of Leverage</h4> Even the most simple and straightforward solutions have downstream impacts. American systems scientist Peter Senge remarked many of the problems we face today are yesterday’s solutions. Solving a problem in a microcosm will feel like playing whack-a-mole, where we solve one only to have three more appear. Finding leverage points can help us with this risk by zooming in to find opportunities that make sense for the whole once we see the big picture and how it all fits together.  In order to identify these leverage points or areas for most opportunity or the best places to make impactful interventions, we need to analyze the patterns, structures, and beliefs that are all working to influence the problem area. In other words, we need to go below the surface. We’ll get more meaningful change if we go deeper into our systems maps and understand root causes. <h4 class="wp-block-heading">Analysis</h4> Mapping can be used to understand a clearly defined problem, and it can also be used to articulate or uncover problems. While mapping may help to clarify the problem(s), further analysis is needed to understand why it is happening. <div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/iceberg-current-reality.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="791" src="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/iceberg-current-reality-1024x791.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-22954" srcset="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/iceberg-current-reality-1024x791.jpg 1024w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/iceberg-current-reality-300x232.jpg 300w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/iceberg-current-reality-768x593.jpg 768w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/iceberg-current-reality-1536x1187.jpg 1536w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/iceberg-current-reality-2048x1583.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a><figcaption>Image by <a href="https://waterscenterst.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Waters Center for Systems Thinking</a></figcaption></figure></div> Frameworks for analysis to get you started:  <ul class="wp-block-list"><li><a href="https://waterscenterst.org/resources/iceberg-graphics/">Iceberg model</a></li><li><a href="https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_5W.htm">5 Whys</a></li></ul> When making decisions about which problem areas to pursue, an understanding of behavioural insights can be useful. It is also helpful to agree on measures that will allow you to test your design hypotheses and provide evidence that the system improves. Once you identify the areas or leverage points where the system can benefit most, you can design interventions focused on them, hopefully avoiding negative consequences elsewhere.  <h4 class="wp-block-heading">Theory of Change</h4> After zooming in and out in order to understand the system and identify leverage points, you are in a position to design the changes you wish to see. A number of tools can be used to assist in imagining what change might look like. A theory of change can be helpful in this process. Like an if/then exercise, a Theory of Change provides a framework for thinking about change interventions. There’s no set way to construct a theory of change, which can be either simple and small or very complex and large. The key is to start with outcomes, then work backwards to solutions. <div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Theory-of-Change.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="437" src="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Theory-of-Change.png" alt="Theory of Change. Image showing a process from Input to Activity to Output to Outcome. Text reads "If we do this...then we expect these results." " class="wp-image-22955" srcset="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Theory-of-Change.png 1024w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Theory-of-Change-300x128.png 300w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Theory-of-Change-768x328.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a><figcaption>Based on Theory of Change Method</figcaption></figure></div> This theory of change canvas outlines a<a href="https://diytoolkit.org/tools/theory-of-change/"> thoughtful framework</a>. <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Three: Learn and Adapt</h3> Systems thinking recognizes that all elements of a system are intertwined, creating constant flows. System structures contain feedback that inform the system’s behavior. “Everything we do as individuals, as an industry, or as a society is done in the context of an information-feedback system” (Forrester). Our daily interactions with systems involve a variety of feedback loops.  If you are driving a car, for example, you can tell how fast you’re going, if you’ve got enough fuel, and how much you’ve used the car by checking the dashboard. Feedback loops are vital to finding out where to make changes because they offer clues for what is happening within the system. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“At every stage of the design process we need to both zoom in on the user needs and zoom out to consider the systemic implications, oscillating continuously between these two equally critical perspectives.” <cite>Ellen MacArthur Foundation (<a href="https://archive.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/explore/circular-design" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">archives</a>)</cite></blockquote> In <a href="https://youtu.be/A_BtS008J0k">A World of Systems</a>, developed by the Donella Meadows Project, we learn how we engage in many systems everyday. One example in the video zooms in on a fish prepared for dinner from a local market which comes from a school of fish. Schools of fish are typically a self-balancing system, where the number of new fish (babies) help keep the population balanced as other fish die as a result of natural causes or predators. In the case of fisheries, there are often rules in place that help to balance the economic systems surrounding the stocks of fish, but with overfishing, the natural balance of the school of fish is thrown off. “The people who made those rules only had imperfect information on how many fish were left … and the system has been set up to deplete itself.” At the local market, the price of the fish surges as it becomes more difficult to source demand. This is one example of a feedback loop.  How might the price of the fish, types of fish available, or health of the fish change had the system been designed to respond to imbalances?  As you begin designing for change, consider how you might include ways to measure and respond to outcomes and include it as part of your solution.  <hr class="wp-block-separator"/> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Activating Change</h2> The news is filled with stories about “broken systems” and it can often feel like the systems we interact with as designers are too broken and we have too little power to actually make positive change. But since it is the elements and relationships that make a system, there is no such thing as a broken system. The function of elements and relationships working together is the system. This is why we need to design with more intention and more attention to the out-of-bounds implications and impacts. We need to focus on the human element of a system and how it connects people, rather than solely designing for or fixing the ‘things’ we deem as broken. Regardless of how big or small it may seem, everyone has the power to make a positive impact on the world with their “sphere of influence,” or the space they can reach at any given moment. As Donella Meadows has said, “a small shift in one thing can produce big changes.” We have an opportunity to drive positive change because we influence the outcomes of the products and services we design that influence the behavior of people who use them.  We can activate change by using systems thinking. In a world with really messy and complex systems, staying curious is the most hopeful thing we can do. In the middle of the frustration, it means encouraging each other to keep thinking intentionally about complex problems, courageously believing that with open minds we can actually make a difference and make these systems a little better for everyone.   <hr class="wp-block-separator"/> <h4 class="wp-block-heading">Sources</h4> <ol class="wp-block-list"><li>“Systems Practice Workbook.” Omidyar Group. </li><li>Kauffman, Draper L. Systems One: An Introduction to Systems Thinking. Second ed., Future Systems, 1980. </li><li>Sweeney, Linda Booth; Meadows, Dennis. The Systems Thinking Playbook: Exercises to Stretch and Build Learning and Systems Thinking Capabilities. Kindle Edition. </li><li>Jay W. Forrester, Industrial Dynamics (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1961), as cited in Meadows, Donella H., and Diana Wright. Thinking in Systems: A Primer. Chelsea Green Publishing, 2015. </li><li><a href="https://donellameadows.org/a-visual-approach-to-leverage-points/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">A Visual Approach to Leverage Points</a>, The Donella Meadows Project</li></ol> <hr class="wp-block-separator"/> Featured image by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@charlesdeluvio?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Charles Deluvio</a> on<a href="https://unsplash.com/s/photos/arrows?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText"> Unsplash</a> The post <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/activating-change-a-designers-guide-to-systems-thinking/">Activating Change: A Designer’s Guide to Systems Thinking</a> appeared first on <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com">Boxes and Arrows</a>. ]]></content:encoded> <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">22948</post-id> </item> <item> <title>The Dream of a More Human Navigation Realized</title> <link>https://boxesandarrows.com/the-dream-of-a-more-human-navigation-realized/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Lis Hubert]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Tue, 05 Oct 2021 12:00:00 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Information Architecture]]></category> <category><![CDATA[UX Design]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://boxesandarrows.com/?p=22939</guid> <description><![CDATA[Using the customer intentions method to humanize our virtual worlds In the 2010 Sci-Fi film Inception a professional thief is offered a chance at erasing his criminal history if he implants one person’s ideas into the subconscious of another person. He aims to do this by crashing the second person’s dreams. He hires a graduate architecture student to design the dreamscapes.  To design each space of the dream, she must align with the thief/dream crasher’s need to easily and intuitively The post <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/the-dream-of-a-more-human-navigation-realized/">The Dream of a More Human Navigation Realized</a> appeared first on <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com">Boxes and Arrows</a>. ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[ <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Using the customer intentions method to humanize our virtual worlds</h3> In the 2010 Sci-Fi film <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inception">Inception</a> a professional thief is offered a chance at erasing his criminal history if he implants one person’s ideas into the subconscious of another person. He aims to do this by crashing the second person’s dreams. He hires a graduate architecture student to design the dreamscapes.  To design each space of the dream, she must align with the thief/dream crasher’s need to easily and intuitively move about the dream in order to implant another’s ideas into the dreamer’s subconscious. This architect’s job was not very different from ours as Information Architects. She designed virtual spaces to meet the intentions of those using them.  So we asked ourselves, what if each page of a website was a metaphor for a real-life space? What if each page of said website had to help someone meet their intention? This line of questioning inspired us to develop the <a href="https://cxby.design/designing-website-navigation-for-customer-intentions/">Designing for Customer Intentions</a> method. In Part I of this series, <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/forget-the-trail-of-breadcrumbs/">Forget the Trail of Breadcrumbs,</a> we explained the concept and method in general terms. We continue here with “How.” <h4 class="wp-block-heading">It begins with users</h4> The method begins with understanding what your users intend to do when they visit your website. This isn’t an exercise of guessing; it involves data.  This means talking to loyal customers or gathering as much data on them as you can to determine why, when, and how they do business with you. We recommend gathering this data through a combination of direct research methods like 1-on-1 customer interviews and by reviewing as much quantitative data (e.g. analytics, server logs, surveys) you have available.  Revisiting the Patagonia example from Part I, we can imagine Patagonia exploring why/when/how their loyal customers use their website. Perhaps they find their customers come to learn what makes Patagonia products special (why), usually when they pick up a new outdoor hobby or when their other gear wears out (when), using either their desktops/phones (how).  From this why/when/how insight, Patagonia can extract a customer intention like:  When a customer comes to the website they intend to learn about how a specific product is made and/or ensure it meets their expectations of sustainability.  Keep in mind, intentions are not directly related to an individual persona or customer type. Many times we’ll use personas to generate our list of intentions. But instead of thinking of intentions on a persona by persona basis, the list of intentions should include ALL customer types’ intentions for visiting your website. We usually end up with a list of anywhere from 6 – 10 intentions.  For Patagonia, we might end up with something like:  When a customer goes to the website they intend to… <ol class="wp-block-list"><li>Buy an item</li><li>Learn how a product is made</li><li>Understand a product’s impact on the environment</li><li>Return a product</li><li>Learn more about the company’s values/mission</li><li>Find environmental volunteer opportunities</li></ol> From this list of intentions we source ideas for what content or features our site needs to include to empower users to meet their intentions. By creating our list using intentions, we provide content and features we know our loyal customers need to be successful, instead of yelling company information at them. This creates a website that makes customers feel autonomous and competent versus overwhelmed or unsupported.  For example, if we know users come to the website to learn more about how a specific product is made, we need to: A. ensure this information is on the website B. brainstorm ways the information can be presented.  <h4 class="wp-block-heading">Business values are key</h4> Next, we need to understand business values along with how the content and features of the website align with these values. This is important because the content and features we provide must be possible from the business point of view (i.e. the business needs to have the resources available to make the content and features a reality).  One of Patagonia’s business values is “preserving the planet.” To align with this value they can use their editorial, design, and technology resources to put stories, activism events/methods, product sustainability information, etc. in targeted places on the website to inform others and spread the word.  Bonus tip: to secure long-term customer loyalty, you want to ensure that business and user values align. But that is a <a href="https://www.compassandnail.com/the-compass-and-the-nail">whole other topic</a> that others have covered quite well. <h4 class="wp-block-heading">A Marriage of Understanding</h4> When we have a list of customer intentions and business values and have gathered the content, information, or features that our website needs to include to meet intentions, while aligning with values, that’s when the information architecture comes in. We marry customer intentions and business values through: <ol class="wp-block-list"><li>Concept models – These are visual representations of the relationships between content on the website. Use them to model an answer to the question “What is this website for?”</li><li>Content/Site maps – These are hierarchical maps of the content on your website. Use these to plan out the hierarchy of the spaces/pages your website world will need, then marry each space or web page to at least one customer intention.  </li><li>Content Architecture – This is a more detailed look into your Content/Site Map. In it, define all the elements of the page that will be needed to meet the customers’ intentions (e.g. a Buy Button, Fair-trade information, etc). </li><li>User Flows – These show the linear navigation of your site. Use these to map how users might move through the website world (i.e. which doors or paths they could take to meet their intentions.) </li></ol> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/InText_Image1.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="803" src="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/InText_Image1-1024x803.png" alt="" class="wp-image-22942" srcset="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/InText_Image1-1024x803.png 1024w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/InText_Image1-300x235.png 300w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/InText_Image1-768x602.png 768w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/InText_Image1-1536x1204.png 1536w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/InText_Image1-2048x1605.png 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a><figcaption>Examples from <a href="https://cxby.design/portfolio/designing-complex-website-navigation/">Designing Complex Website Navigation</a> presentation given at a Firecat First Friday event.</figcaption></figure> <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Is this all a dream?</h3> Let’s take a moment to return to the Inception architect structuring a dreamscape. She first considers all potential reasons anyone would use the dreamscape. This becomes her list of user intentions.  Then she provides the objects, landscapes, etc to ensure each possible intention can be met in each space at any time.  Our architect also has to think about the dream crasher’s values. A dream crasher intends to use open communication and trust to plant the necessary information into the dreamer’s subconscious. The architect needs to consider what her dreamworld can provide that aligns with this intent. She has to include elements that make the space seem real-world, safe, and calm enough to keep the dreamer asleep and dreaming. For example, in a dream, a dreamer may intend to go on a guided hike in Chile. This means there will need to be a guide who intends to take her on said hike.  The guide will need to guide the hike in such a way that the dreamer doesn’t recognize they are dreaming (which would cause them to wake up and ruin the entire plan!), and the landscape will need to have elements that induce trust.  Here, our architect marries user intention needs with dream chaser values, by modeling a lifelike Patagonian hiking trail that includes all the relevant fauna and flora plus a real-life seeming guide who points out all the twists and turns along the way.  Finally, she ensures all the flows through the world are intuitive and organic, including ensuring the trail connects effortlessly through the fields, mountains, and trees but also includes little side paths from previous hikers who’ve cut through to different parts of the trail.    <h3 class="wp-block-heading">How is this different from what we already do?</h3> Framing is key. It’s all in how you look at it, literally.  With the intentions method, you’re no longer viewing pages as elements in a hierarchy that are linked together in a way that allows a user to go “forward” and “backward”. Instead, you’re viewing each page as an independent place that users can navigate between.  Imagine that each page had to meet the user intention it was assigned on a standalone basis. From each page, the user must be able to progress with, or fulfill, their intention(s).  Consider that you’re building space for another person to fulfill a purpose.  For example, with their website Patagonia is building a space where customers intend to learn about and buy their products. Users need to be able to meet these intentions from any relevant place on the site they choose to wander, not solely in the “Product” section of the hierarchy. This means for each page Patagonia needs to consider how the page helps meet user intentions. Then they need to make sure the page has the right amount of information the user needs to meet said intention.  For example, this may mean product pages have information on how products are made. Conversely the pages with information on how products are made should link to relevant products. This infrastructure allows users to move throughout the site on their own terms, meeting intentions as they go.   In our Inception example, we imagine the dreamer could step off the hiking trail at any time. If they do, it’s all good because our architect designed a place that is interesting and real-life enough to keep the dreamer dreaming, and has equipped our guide with the skills needed to continue to move our hiker along the hike, but maybe down a more interesting part of the trail. The dreamer’s intentions of going on a hike are supported no matter where she chooses to wander.  <h3 class="wp-block-heading">From builder to architect</h3> When we update our framing to see pages of a site as standalone places, each needing to marry business values and user needs in a specific way, our resulting websites change.  Each element of the site becomes intentional and impactful.  We create a world where users can wander, even change their intentions, but still get their needs met at every step of the journey. When designing for customer intentions you still do the research, understand the customer and business needs, and marry these with information models. What changes is how you think about and frame the world.  This new framing is nuanced but critical. It’s what moves us from simply stepping through the process to create a “good website,” into using the process to create a place our customers want to visit again and again. It’s what transforms us from builders to architects while making our spaces more human.  When we design for intentions, we create the worlds we want to see. And, that’s why many of us got into this work in the first place.  <hr class="wp-block-separator"/> Featured image by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@jplenio?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Johannes Plenio</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a> The post <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/the-dream-of-a-more-human-navigation-realized/">The Dream of a More Human Navigation Realized</a> appeared first on <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com">Boxes and Arrows</a>. ]]></content:encoded> <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">22939</post-id> </item> <item> <title>Running Design Sprint Kickoffs Remotely</title> <link>https://boxesandarrows.com/running-design-sprint-kickoffs-remotely/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Ana Peralta]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Tue, 10 Aug 2021 15:00:00 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Career, Industry & Enterprise]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Process and Methods]]></category> <category><![CDATA[UX Design]]></category> <category><![CDATA[design sprints]]></category> <category><![CDATA[remote work]]></category> <category><![CDATA[UX design]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://boxesandarrows.com/?p=22692</guid> <description><![CDATA[As the workforce decentralizes through the increased availability of remote employment options, teams have to learn to compensate for the lack of in-person collaboration to tackle the daily work challenges. Currently, I am the Senior UX Designer for my division and am based in the United States along with our Program Managers, Leadership and Stakeholders, reporting to my Product team based in Europe, and handing over designs to the Development, based in India. However, just because the team is not The post <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/running-design-sprint-kickoffs-remotely/">Running Design Sprint Kickoffs Remotely</a> appeared first on <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com">Boxes and Arrows</a>. ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[ As the workforce decentralizes through the increased availability of remote employment options, teams have to learn to compensate for the lack of in-person collaboration to tackle the daily work challenges. Currently, I am the Senior UX Designer for my division and am based in the United States along with our Program Managers, Leadership and Stakeholders, reporting to my Product team based in Europe, and handing over designs to the Development, based in India. However, just because the team is not capitalizing on in-person interactions anymore, does not mean that the quality of the meetings, output, deliverables, roadmap creations, and product iterations must suffer or get lost in translation. Productivity and engagement can be restored through the help of some organization skills, best practices, and cloud-based collaborative tools.  I’ve restructured my approach to hosting online design sprints with my globally dispersed team that have helped keep the dynamic positive and the engagement high using the techniques I’ll outline in this post. <hr class="wp-block-separator"/> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Pre-Meeting Prep</h2> <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Schedule according to work-life balance</h3> First meetings of the day for the US land in the early afternoon for Europe, and late afternoon for India. Adhering to this as a scheduling rule of thumb allows everyone to meet during work hours without intruding on social lives and preserves work life balance. Always include a clear and concise agenda to the meeting invite, outlining the following: Summary, Objectives, Action Items, Attendants. This way, attendees can assess the priority level against current bandwidth, reschedule any conflicts, and prepare for your meeting. Make sure to send the meeting invite 24-48hrs prior to kick off date Pro tip: With the team’s permission, record your meetings for context, future reference or to share with those who were absent or had to leave early or attend late. <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Collect all the info</h3> Gather all relevant research, statistics, performance metrics, reports, or customer feedback that supports the issue ahead of time in order to review collectively as a team during your meeting. Request that your stakeholders/attendees submit artifacts from their end ahead of time as well. This will later help to create the problem statement. <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Plan and organize your workspace</h3> Set-up the private collaboration whiteboard space that will be used from Day 1, as a public “team file” aimed to track all progress, rough drafts, comps, notes, etc., and keep it always accessible. Compartmentalize all your lists, topics for review, research, agenda, and attendee list, etc., into individual art boards with a label. This practice will keep organization as the project progresses and turns into a sandbox of creative mess. Most whiteboard tools provide handy features that track edits and auto-save any changes made to files. This way, stakeholders and attendees can refer back to any notes, leave follow up information to outstanding questions and add resources that build the case towards the design solution. Pro tip: Remember to keep your whiteboard easy-to-read and navigable by pairing data with visual aids like charts, graphs, headers, descriptions or images.  <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Use collaborative tools</h3> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/figjam.jpeg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="581" src="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/figjam-1024x581.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-22744" srcset="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/figjam-1024x581.jpeg 1024w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/figjam-300x170.jpeg 300w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/figjam-768x436.jpeg 768w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/figjam.jpeg 1340w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a><figcaption>Image from <a href="https://www.figma.com/blog/introducing-figjam/">“Introducing FigJam”</a></figcaption></figure> I have had success with the following tools for whiteboard collaborative space sessions. Most offer a free version that you can try with your team to feel out which works best for you: <ul class="wp-block-list"><li><a href="https://www.figma.com/figjam/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Figjam</a> An online whiteboard made for designers to ideate and brainstorm with their extended teams. It’s for defining user problems, looking for inspiration, and exploring ideas. There’s a ton of functionality built in making it a great space to ideate, share, discover and build ideas together.</li><li><a href="https://miro.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Miro</a> This online collaborative whiteboard platform to bring teams together, anytime, anywhere. With the ability to integrate with usual suspect workflow tools such as Slack, Miro is able to assist with Research and Design, Agile Workflows, Strategy and Planning and Mapping and Diagramming tasks.</li><li><a href="https://www.awesomescreenshot.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Awesome Screenshot Google Chrome Extension</a> Awesome Screenshot is one the best screenshot extensions for Google Chrome I’ve used. Not only can it be used to capture a web page, but also record activity in a video with the option to capture the entire web page or selected area. This is perfect for documenting pain points in a user flow.</li><li><a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/sharepoint/collaboration" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">SharePoint </a>SharePoint is a web-based collaborative platform that integrates with Microsoft Office to share files and other data with an emphasis in security. It encourages endless collaboration and teamwork with dynamic and productive team sites for every project team, department, and division and your SharePoint site can even be customized to streamline your team’s line of business. The bonus here is that it is accessible across PCs, Macs, and mobile devices.</li><li><a href="https://www.invisionapp.com/freehand" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Freehand by InVision</a> Freehand is a white-boarding tool by the team at InVision. You can use it in meetings to sketch with other participants in real time.</li></ul> <hr class="wp-block-separator"/> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">During Meetings</h2> <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Delegate tasks and assign roles</h3> Delegation and specific assignments increase team participation, attendance, engagement and hold colleagues accountable to the success of the outcome and/or final product from the beginning. This will come in handy when listing action items and next steps at the end of your meetings. This step prevents unequal participation from taking place and shares the responsibility amongst all participants, while ensuring everyone has an equal stake in the solution. Typically, there are Sprint Masters, Designers, Engineers, Product Owners, Project Managers, and Subject Matter Experts (SME) present in sprints. Sprint Masters usually hosts the sessions and guides participants through the Design sprint process (including assigning roles) and guides the conversation in order to keep focus. They may organize the workspace and all set activities expected to take place. Designers are responsible for creating and testing all possible solutions discussed in sprint sessions that could address the problem statement according to the Design library and preserve design integrity according to company brand guidelines. They advocate for the user and focus on the functionality and user-friendliness. They also serve as the secretary for all design drafts and scrapped ideas. Engineers are the responsibility for chiming in on the level of efforts and feasibility of the design prototypes. They can share their knowledge on how a product is built on the back-end as well as the front-end, therefore, understanding how the solution will be implemented in order to operate successfully. Product Owners typically work with the Engineers, organize their workload and are savvy with knowing the ins and outs of their portfolio projects. During sprints, they can coordinate the Engineers bandwidth and resourcing and ensure all received deliverables are parched into Dev ‘language’ so that they build on time and in the quality in which the Business needs it. Project Managers (sometimes referred to as Technical Project Managers, or TPM) usually oversee the budget and schedule of the larger division and ensure that all resources involved are collaborating within their means and on time (against larger company goals and fiscal deadlines). Should a project drag on too long or should the scope of the solution increase, Project managers make adjustments or make the call to pull back. Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) are sometimes referred to as ‘The Business’ or the Stakeholders. They fund the operation and often request for Development and Design resources to assist with a solution in their division. They understand the space more than anyone and can flag any questions or concerns surrounding the environment, its audience, its order of operation etc. <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Define the problem statement</h3> Come together and define the problem statement as a team. According to <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/author/sarah-gibbons/">Sarah Gibbons</a> at the <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/">Nielsen Norman group</a>, a problem statement is… <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"> “an actionable problem statement used to summarize who a particular user is, the user’s need, and why the need is important to that user. It defines what you want to solve before you move on to generating potential solutions, in order to 1) condense your perspective on the problem, and 2) provide a metric for success to be used throughout the design thinking process.”<cite>Sarah Gibbons, <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/user-need-statements/">User Need Statements: The ‘Define’ Stage in Design Thinking</a></cite></blockquote> Work with the team to create a problem statement that is a simplified, clear and concise statement that frames the issue and how the end end-user will benefit. For example, the team can collectively discuss. It is best to document each version in a dedicated art board space as it gets refined for reference and context, you never know which version may capture the issue at hand, the best. Please note that without having a problem statement, the meeting will have no north star to guide conversations and validate all work against, therefore, this is crucial to get right. <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Review the research collectively</h3> This step is crucial and acts as an orientation and onboarding process for the team. Without reviewing the research collectively, different participants will have different levels of understanding and opinions of the issue at hand and it’s level of severity to the user experience and its impact on the Business. Present the collected qualitative data (such as performance reports, stats, customer reviews, screenshots, or videos) of the issue in real time. Data and numbers are typically well-translated among cultural and language barriers, so all formats are encouraged to be presented via screen share in order to align everyone on what needs addressing by the end of the sprint. This helps move the team to witness, to watch user experience recordings and to listen to customer recorded feedback calls, create discussion around the cause and weigh the pros and cons to possible solve for the solution against the Business goals. Reviewing the research as a group helps the team visualize the problem and builds the case that all resources’ expertise and input are welcome to come to a solution. <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Define the success metric</h3> In defining the success metric as a group, the sprint has an agreed upon variable that determines its success or shortcomings. Fortunately, you can always edit this to align with the business goal but it’s important to set it sooner rather than later. Without having a success metric defined, it won’t be possible to determine whether the designed solution or test plant was successful or effective and defines whether there is more work to do. Also, having a defined success metric is typically easy to circulate among all involved parties and resources via communication channels or email to check against all their contributing efforts to the solution, it helps parties ask themselves “Will what I am doing help us get closer to the XYZ?” Typically, the success metrics are defined by company business goals or internal <a href="https://www.userzoom.com/ux-library/what-metrics-and-kpis-do-the-experts-use-to-measure/">Key Performance Indicators</a> (or KPIs’) that will be easily recognizable but the team, for example, higher click rate, more return purchases, increase downloads of software updates, etc. <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Use communication soft skills</h3> As the leader of the remote session, it’s important to monitor for unproductive communication and emphasize a safe, nonjudgemental space that will encourage all attendees to participate and contribute. At the beginning of the sprint, where order of operations are explained, I include a brief speech where I express what is and is not encouraged to share. I encourage voicing questions and concerns, never dismissing a colleague’s stated opinion, and permitting the team to provide constructive feedback and critique in defending the solution and not from a personal standpoint. Sessions that do not encourage using soft skills tend to evolve into discouraging work environments and impact the inclusive work dynamic and result in decreased participation levels. Establishing these rules early on ensures a smooth start for your design sprint. Sprint masters or moderators need to employ their <a href="https://uxdesign.cc/soft-skills-in-ux-what-makes-a-mediocre-designer-great-13dd8898c739">soft skills</a> to avoid allowing biases, unconstructive criticism and shaming out of the meeting communication. It is best that communication be used to build buy-in, increase impact via persuasion, and generate engaging stories that present research insights and design ideas. <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Start at the end</h3> Once journey maps have been drawn, I recommend applying a backwards design technique — often used <a href="https://www.edglossary.org/backward-design/">in education</a> — where teams work their way backwards through user flows starting from the ideal resolution back to where exactly the pain points lie and dissect an issue through the end users’ eyes. This activity allows a creative level of critical thinking that encourages visualizing a simplified solution at different points in the user journey with limited dependencies. This activity is typically done last and is the catalyst for building design ideas that lead to a beneficial solution proposal. <hr class="wp-block-separator"/> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Post Meeting</h2> <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Open communication</h3> Establish the preferred communications lines for follow ups to your attendees (i.e. Slack, MS Teams) so that the creativity and productivity lives on beyond the sprint session. In this channel, you can share meeting notes, export your artboards into PDFs and circulate meeting recordings. The best practice is to share whole whiteboard spaces or individual artboard links with editing privileges, this way, attendees can fill in notes and comment boxes independently at their convenience without the pressure of time constraints or witnesses. Remember to schedule the next meeting at the end of your session in order to continue the momentum in your sprint. <hr class="wp-block-separator"/> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Conclusion</h2> Momentum and quality of work do not have to be sacrificed and nothing needs to be lost in translation with the proper tools and techniques. As the workforce decentralizes and reshapes over time, employees are having to learn to compensate for the lack of in-person collaboration to tackle the daily work challenges in silos. Through a combination of organizational skills, best practices, and cloud-based collaborative tools, there are techniques that can be put in place to maintain the quality of meetings, communication, output, deliverables, roadmap creations, and product iterations while maintaining productivity and engagement, as if you were on cohesive team working alongside each other in real life. This approach to hosting online design sprints with a globally dispersed team helps keep the dynamic positive and the engagement high <hr class="wp-block-separator"/> This post was inspired by Ana V. Peralta’s UX Camp Summer Home Edition talk organized by Chicago Camps. The talk was titled “Running Design Sprint Kickoff Meetings Remotely with a Global Team”. <a href="https://vimeo.com/user47291241">View Ana’s talk on Vimeo</a>. <hr class="wp-block-separator"/> Feature image by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@visuals?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">visuals</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a> The post <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/running-design-sprint-kickoffs-remotely/">Running Design Sprint Kickoffs Remotely</a> appeared first on <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com">Boxes and Arrows</a>. ]]></content:encoded> <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">22692</post-id> </item> <item> <title>Flawed Products Harm – A Framework to Respond</title> <link>https://boxesandarrows.com/flawed-products-harm-a-framework-to-respond/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Lisa D. Dance]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Tue, 06 Jul 2021 13:00:00 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Discovery, Research, and Testing]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Process and Methods]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://boxesandarrows.com/?p=22678</guid> <description><![CDATA[Technology products are embedded in every aspect of daily life from homes, cars, phones, schools, workplaces. They’re in entertainment, healthcare, safety, and beyond.  While technology is often billed as making things easier, faster, cheaper, and fairer, it can cause harm at scale.  People face frustration, harassment, financial loss, physical harm, and more.  What are “Flawed products?” Flawed products are products, services, and technologies developed without considering, including, and understanding the needs of underserved consumers expected to buy and use them. The post <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/flawed-products-harm-a-framework-to-respond/">Flawed Products Harm – A Framework to Respond</a> appeared first on <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com">Boxes and Arrows</a>. ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[ Technology products are embedded in every aspect of daily life from homes, cars, phones, schools, workplaces. They’re in entertainment, healthcare, safety, and beyond.  While technology is often billed as making things easier, faster, cheaper, and fairer, it can cause harm at scale.  People face frustration, harassment, financial loss, physical harm, and more.  What are “Flawed products?” Flawed products are products, services, and technologies developed without considering, including, and understanding the needs of underserved consumers expected to buy and use them. I use the term “flawed” because if we are practicing user centered design, human centered design, customer centricity, design thinking, or similar methodologies we need to root our research and design in understanding and meeting the needs of users. If users are not being considered, included, and understood, there is a flaw.  With the historical and present-day pattern of creating products with little or no consideration of underserved groups, deliberate and sustained focus on designing products that meet the needs of underserved groups is an imperative. Flawed products particularly result in harm to racial minorities, the poor, the disabled, and in some cases women. <h4 class="wp-block-heading"> Negative Impacts of Flawed Products</h4> <ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Consider one follow up care recommendation tool used by hospitals that research showed inaccurately classified 82% of white patients as needing follow up care vs 18% of black patients that were just as sick or sicker.1 This flawed tool used insurance claim data instead of the patient’s actual health data, ignoring well-known health disparities in the US healthcare system.  </li><li>Slack Connect was designed initially to allow Slack users to send messages to users in other Slack groups as long as they had their email address. Users did not have an opt out option and the ability to customize messages coming from a generic email address left them vulnerable to harassment, spamming, or phishing. In online spaces where women and minorities are often the targets of online harassment, this was a problematic design.</li><li>Research on facial recognition software has shown it misidentifies people of color at much higher rates than whites. Yet, it continues to be used in law enforcement, recruitment, education, and unemployment benefits decisions.  Despite facial recognition software leading to the false arrest of several black males, police departments are still using them.2</li></ul> <hr class="wp-block-separator"/> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Increasing Backlash</h2> <div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/liam-edwards-x15GAQNepcQ-unsplash-scaled.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/liam-edwards-x15GAQNepcQ-unsplash-683x1024.jpg" alt="Peaceful protestors holding a sign that says "enough"." class="wp-image-23054" width="342" height="512"/></a><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@liamedwards?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Liam Edwards</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure></div> With social media and rapid news cycles amplifying the stories of people who have been negatively impacted by flawed products, consumers are demanding stronger protections against flawed technology products. To date a small number of state and local governments have banned harmful products like facial recognition software.4  Companies are also being pressured internally by employees and externally by advocacy groups and investors to reign in technology products. This push has strengthened and become intertwined in the broader racial justice and economic justice movements over the last few years, requiring individuals, teams, and companies to design products better. <hr class="wp-block-separator"/> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">How to ensure that you aren’t making flawed products?</h2> We need a framework to proactively address common issues with product design and flawed products: <ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Lack of diverse input in the product design and/or testing</li><li>Ignoring how historical and present-day racism, sexism, classism, ableism, etc. relates to their product</li><li>No examination of what harm the product could create or how it could be misused</li><li>Lack of consideration of what could go wrong within the context of customers’ lives</li><li>Lack of accountability for the problems the product created</li><li>Poor implementation and poor problem resolution</li></ul> In 2019, I created the “Three Questions Do No Harm Framework” or “3Q-DO NO HARM Framework” to help individuals, teams, and organizations identify and mitigate potential harms before a product was released.  While the framework is deceptively simple with just three questions, the hard work is to not just ask the questions but answer them and act on the issues identified to avoid or mitigate harm. The 3Q-DO NO HARM Framework can be applied on the individual, team, or organizational level. <figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-style-default"><a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/serviceEase.png"><img decoding="async" src="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/serviceEase.png" alt="3Q-Do No Harm Framework. Showing the framework to as "Who's not here?", "How will vulnerable groups be negatively impacted?", and "When things don't work, how will it be quickly resolved?"" class="wp-image-23055"/></a></figure> <hr class="wp-block-separator"/> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Applying the 3Q-DO NO HARM Framework</h2> <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Question 1: Who’s not here? </h3> To actively identify and resolve your knowledge gaps, ask research, design, and development teams as well as research participants, “Who’s not here?” A lack of awareness, understanding, and representation of different groups and their needs contributes to flawed products that create problems. <h4 class="wp-block-heading">Actions to Take: </h4> <ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Expand team diversity by eliminating hiring barriers such as the over-reliance of employee referrals or cultural fit that perpetrate hiring people similar to the current team.</li><li>Conduct research with underrepresented groups to develop a nuanced understanding and avoid stereotypes.</li><li>Expand your research pool by ensuring research opportunities are accessible. Offer research times, locations, and methods convenient for a wide range of users.</li></ul> It’s the responsibility of all team members to be aware, knowledgeable, and focused on inclusive research. <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Question 2: How will vulnerable groups be negatively impacted? </h3> Identify unintended consequences and mitigate beforehand, designers must actively consider what harm their product might do particularly for vulnerable groups. <h4 class="wp-block-heading">Actions to Take: </h4> <ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Use a systems approach to map the impact of your product. Take a broad look at the context as well as core elements, interconnections, and structures that your product will operate in. Brainstorm what would go wrong and how your product could be misused. For example, an online communications platform for a neighborhood may make it easier to share relevant news, it can also exerbate tensions between neighbors when larger systemic issues like gentrification, racial profiling, and redlining aren’t considered. </li><li>Discover and consider the constraints vulnerable groups live under. For example, consider whether a product change requires time, money, technology, transportation that some users may have little or no access to. </li></ul> Take corrective action to eliminate or mitigate any harms before the product is launched. <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Question 3: When things don’t work, how will it be quickly resolved?</h3> Planning for the unhappy path by ensuring the path to resolving problems is clear and fast. While the intent is to design so everything works perfectly, technology often doesn’t work as designed for all users. <h4 class="wp-block-heading">Actions to Take: </h4> <ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Incorporate into your research questions on how users have resolved issues with the technology in the past. Find out what did and didn’t work. Integrate solutions into your design.</li><li>Advocate for a role in implementation and continue to monitor and iterate to take the onus of customers to resolve problems.</li></ul> The “3Q-DO NO HARM Framework offers a simple structure to help individuals, teams, and organizations to take action to avoid the harmful effects of poor product decisions.  There’s an urgency brought on by consumers, advocacy groups, and governments demanding companies provide better products and eliminate harmful patterns. <hr class="wp-block-separator"/>  1<a href="https://www.statnews.com/2019/10/24/widely-used-algorithm-hospitals-racial-bias/"> https://www.statnews.com/2019/10/24/widely-used-algorithm-hospitals-racial-bias/</a> 2 <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/facial-recognition-local-police-clearview-ai-table">https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/facial-recognition-local-police-clearview-ai-table</a> 3 <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00868-5">https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00868-5</a> 4 <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/05/18/tech/amazon-police-facial-recognition-ban/index.html">https://edition.cnn.com/2021/05/18/tech/amazon-police-facial-recognition-ban/index.html</a> Featured photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/jfR5wu2hMI0" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Headway on Unsplash</a>. The post <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/flawed-products-harm-a-framework-to-respond/">Flawed Products Harm – A Framework to Respond</a> appeared first on <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com">Boxes and Arrows</a>. ]]></content:encoded> <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">22678</post-id> </item> <item> <title>Forget the Trail of Breadcrumbs</title> <link>https://boxesandarrows.com/forget-the-trail-of-breadcrumbs/</link> <comments>https://boxesandarrows.com/forget-the-trail-of-breadcrumbs/#comments</comments> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Diana Sonis]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Mon, 05 Jul 2021 14:05:32 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Content Strategy]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Findability]]></category> <category><![CDATA[information architecture]]></category> <category><![CDATA[nsvigation]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://boxesandarrows.com/?p=22669</guid> <description><![CDATA[Enterprises often have a simplistic understanding of navigational structures in UX Design. Companies shy away from messing with known organizational schemas for fear that their users or customers will become confused and run away. We don’t give our users enough credit. As a result, most software navigational structures either reflect hierarchical departmental company/brand organization (because how can users be confused by that?), or a very top-heavy list of bucketed themes loosely based on general product “themes”  (hello Amazon!).  Besides thinking The post <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/forget-the-trail-of-breadcrumbs/">Forget the Trail of Breadcrumbs</a> appeared first on <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com">Boxes and Arrows</a>. ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[ Enterprises often have a simplistic understanding of navigational structures in UX Design. Companies shy away from messing with known organizational schemas for fear that their users or customers will become confused and run away. We don’t give our users enough credit. As a result, most software navigational structures either reflect hierarchical departmental company/brand organization (because how can users be confused by that?), or a very top-heavy list of bucketed themes loosely based on general product “themes”  (hello Amazon!).  Besides thinking about the actual organizational structure, we also know that a user must have some guideposts to retrace their steps if lost. Thus, today, “leaving a trail of breadcrumbs” really means allowing the user to get back to where they came from in a linear path by backtracking their steps. How cumbersome it is to hierarchically retrace steps or click the browser back button like a well trained monkey.  Taking all this into account, we got to thinking: What if a navigational structure could shapeshift to fit a user’s intention at any moment at any place? What if a user could apparate to any point of the website/product from their current location based on their intention/need? Isn’t that what hyperlinking is all about anyway? To do this, a proposed navigational structure would have to (1) understand what the user intends to do at all times and (2) be flexible enough to transport the user to any place in the software based on the current user intention. Let’s examine these two requirements separately.  <h3 class="wp-block-heading">1. Understanding what the user intends to do</h3> Understanding user intentions requires fulfilling the pervasive user expectation that digital properties should behave in a more “human” way, where websites, products and services we design have an “organic conversation” with the user. An organic conversation is a bridge of understanding between the customer and brand within the digital medium where they meet; a conversation that flows naturally just as between two friends.  This organic conversation can be created by designing intent-based navigation through a process we call <a href="https://cxby.design/designing-website-navigation-for-customer-intentions/">Designing for Customer Intentions</a>. To do this, we must understand, document, and design from the viewpoint of what customers intend to do when interacting with a digital medium, rather than cataloging and rearranging the content businesses currently have to be more “user-friendly.”  An example of this can be seen on Patagonia’s individual product pages. After all the expected product information, there are doorways into learning how and where the item is made. Given the well-documented eco-consciousness of Patagonia customers, it’s likely that one of their intentions is: when I purchase a product, I want to ensure/learn about how it’s made. Patagonia was started on the premises of, and intentionally appeals to, customers’ minimalist or sustainable ethos.  <div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-medium"><a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Patagonia-product-page-example_red-lines.png"><img decoding="async" src="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Patagonia-product-page-example_red-lines-215x300.png" alt="Patagonia product page" class="wp-image-22757"></a><figcaption style="font-size: 10px; text-align: center;">Patagonia product page</figcaption></figure></div> To satisfy their user’s intent to discover the impact of available goods for purchase,  the navigational structure of the page includes an “Impact” section, detailing fair trade, materials, and other informational elements their customer may care about. This reinforces the customer’s perception that the business “understands” them. This, in turn, leads to increased customer feelings of autonomy and competence regarding their purchase, and therefore to higher purchase rates and increased loyalty. <h3 class="wp-block-heading">2. Apparating the user </h3> Imagine wandering around a well designed house. Rarely is there a need to go back to the front door to find the pantry or the bathroom, because there are well-designed ways to take you to the right room at the right time. Similarly, there is no reason to force the user to retrace their steps in a digital product to move forward. If we think about navigation as an organic conversation between the digital property and the user, navigation takes on new meaning. It’s no longer just a well-organized hierarchy of content, but a lateral, intentions-based structure that shifts to accommodate user intentions in the moment. You’ll see examples of this with text-heavy content sites like Wikipedia where you have contextual links to further research related content. Likewise, in the product space, you can observe this lateral, intention-based navigational structure in good CRMs (customer relationship management systems) that allow the user to access all needed functions without having to go back to the main dashboard.  <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Why Navigation Needs to Evolve</h3> Creating an intentions-based navigation is required for our software navigational structures to evolve with our users’ expectations.  Users expect digital products to understand them as other humans do and we must innovate to fulfill, and eventually exceed, this expectation.  Let’s imagine, for a moment, that there are generally two types of personas that describe 70-80% of all users of a digital property or website: 1-people with a singular goal who know what they want; 2-explorers who meander and delight in discovery.  <div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/InText_Image1.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/InText_Image1.jpg" alt="Meandering map of a suburban mall" class="wp-image-22760" width="400" height="269"></a><figcaption style="font-size: 10px; text-align: center;">©<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/uxcrank/5730905552/in/photostream/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2011 Dan Willis</a></figcaption></figure></div> Our solution so far, has been to rely on breadcrumbs, but no more! Whether exploring or focused, users expect technology to “understand ” what they want – which really means people expect the business to magically guess their intentions, and help them apparate (or transport) to wherever they need to go to fulfill those intentions.  Designing intentions-based navigation structures helps the customer and the business. Businesses are better served when users dive deeper into their online ecosystems through continuously fulfilled intentions. Ever take 3 minutes to watch a YouTube video, only to come up 45 minutes later from the rabbit hole of those similar videos offered up on the right side? You have intentions-based navigation to thank. Intentional navigational design serves the business because users enjoy autonomy and competence in using the site or service. They become loyal users, intrinsically motivated to return to this business again and again. Tracking user navigational patterns further allows the business to learn more about the user, which in turn allows them to provide better service. <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Defining User Intentions Is Key</h3> Designing for customer intentions decreases the amount of information that the customer needs to consume, decreases their cognitive load, increases their success rate of fulfilling their goals, and improves the overall positive perception of their experience with a business. Over time this creates happy, loyal customers.  We will explore how to design for user intentions in Part II, the key takeaway here is: Serving up the right content at the right moment to meet, or exceed users’ goals and  expectations, UX experts serve both the user and the business in a more thoughtful, profitable way.  UX designers create impactful spaces that sit comfortably at the intersection of business, technology, and design by creating flexible, adaptable navigational structures around well-defined user intentions. This helps the designer create and retain loyal customers. A win-win.  <div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/ashley-batz-betmVWGYcLY-unsplash-scaled.jpg"><img decoding="async" src="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/ashley-batz-betmVWGYcLY-unsplash-1024x683.jpg" alt="Person walking through a maze made of small stones so that it's easy to navigate." class="wp-image-22761"></a><figcaption style="font-size: 10px; text-align: center;">Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@ashleybatz?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Ashley Batz</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure></div> <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Evolve or Die</h3> The Designing for Customer Intentions method is not the only way to evolve the design of digital product navigation. For example, there are plenty of articles written about “jobs to be done” and other methods. We encourage you to research these methods and develop your own viewpoint on how to evolve your practice. The main idea is to evolve, or risk losing your users to other, more intentional, competitors.  So, dear reader, how will you choose to humanize navigation to align with what users intend to do in your digital space? The choice is yours.  Featured photo Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@syinq?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Susan Q Yin</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a>. The post <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/forget-the-trail-of-breadcrumbs/">Forget the Trail of Breadcrumbs</a> appeared first on <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com">Boxes and Arrows</a>. ]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>https://boxesandarrows.com/forget-the-trail-of-breadcrumbs/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>2</slash:comments> <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">22669</post-id> </item> <item> <title>Architecting Your Future: Conquering Imposter Syndrome</title> <link>https://boxesandarrows.com/architecting-your-future-conquering-imposter-syndrome/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Shara Rosenbalm]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Sat, 17 Apr 2021 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Career, Industry & Enterprise]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Professionalism]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Workplace and Career]]></category> <category><![CDATA[imposter syndrome]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://boxesandarrows.com/?p=22650</guid> <description><![CDATA[Imagine walking into a packed conference room (or jumping on a zoom call) for a meeting on a pressing topic. As you find your seat, you start to feel like the temperature is rising and your heartbeat quickens, your mind races through the questions that could be thrown your way. The meeting starts and things begin on a good note. The discussion is moving forward and then it happens: someone directs a question at you. It feels like a game The post <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/architecting-your-future-conquering-imposter-syndrome/">Architecting Your Future: Conquering Imposter Syndrome</a> appeared first on <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com">Boxes and Arrows</a>. ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[ Imagine walking into a packed conference room (or jumping on a zoom call) for a meeting on a pressing topic. As you find your seat, you start to feel like the temperature is rising and your heartbeat quickens, your mind races through the questions that could be thrown your way. The meeting starts and things begin on a good note. The discussion is moving forward and then it happens: someone directs a question at you. It feels like a game of hot potato and all you want to do is get that question out of your hands! You answer quickly, gauging the faces in the room as you respond, wondering who here will expose you as a complete and total fraud.  As two designers new to the tech and product space, we both have had our fair share of experiences with imposter syndrome. Shara is a high achiever, woman of color who made the switch to tech late in her career. Attending bootcamp with peers 10 years her junior, she often felt insecurity about her decision to transition into product design. Would anyone take her seriously? Madeline spent over 7 years working in documentary film. When she wasn’t filming interviews, she was cleaning camera lenses. Making a complete career shift into UX design not only felt like she was jumping into a deep ocean without any swimming lessons, but that she was up against olympians with established records and achievements. <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Conquering Imposter Syndrome</h2> Many of us have felt that familiar feeling: the fear of being exposed or being seen as incompetent or incapable to our peers. That feeling is imposter syndrome. It’s an internal experience of feeling inadequate and phony, compounded by the feeling that we don’t belong. The assumption that one’s achievements are dumb luck often takes the place of feeling accomplished.  Imposter syndrome can cripple the confidence of the most established professionals. The phenomenon can induce a lack of confidence, depression, and anxiety, not to mention missed professional opportunities. Have you ever turned down a speaking engagement or not raised your hand to lead a special project? Our inner critic can keep us from taking on tasks that can propel us forward and stunt our professional growth. That false narrative may sound like this: “I don’t know what I’m doing.” “No one is going to take me seriously.” “I think they’re going to find out that I’m a total fraud.” “Glad that worked out. Pure luck I guess.” So, how does this impact our future? Understanding imposter syndrome, what it is and who it affects, allows us to empathize, recognize triggering situations, and reframe the perception of self so that we can actively work towards changing the narrative.  <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Personality Assessments</h2> Personality assessments offer clues about our behaviors and our relationship with self that unlock valuable insights. Shara’s go-to assessment is <a href="https://www.16personalities.com/">16 Personalities</a>. This assessment dives deep into general tendencies, our relationship with others, where we thrive and struggle in the workplace, and touch on our parenting tendencies. There is also the <a href="https://discpersonalitytesting.com/free-disc-test/">DISC assessment</a> and the <a href="https://assessment.yourenneagramcoach.com/">Enneagram</a>. The DISC assessment Breaks down four main personality profiles: (D)ominance, (I)nfluence, (S)teadiness, and (C)onscientiousness. Assessment results will outline our behavioral style, motivational style, and drivers exposing how we prefer to get things done and why we’re motivated to do them. Similarly, Enneagram is a system of nine interconnected personality types that outline how we interpret the world and manage our emotions. <a href="https://www.truity.com/">Truity</a> has all these assessments in one place, complete with blogs and other resources to leverage. Shara’s motto is to take what’s helpful and leave the rest. <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Framing Challenges with “5 Whys”</h2> The “5 Whys” technique, often used in UX Research, can help us discover the root of the problem we are facing. This method helps us better understand where a challenge stems by uncovering blockers that continue to persist in our life. For example, Madeline found that she persistently held back and didn’t speak up in large meetings with key stakeholders. With this exercise, Madeline was able to identify the reason why she stayed quiet during meetings: she held an underlying assumption that she shouldn’t speak on issues because she had never talked about them in front of the group before. With clarity around the root problem, Madeline was able to take back control over the deception she had been unwittingly telling herself. <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/linkedin-sales-solutions-Xh_MFNzpEDw-unsplash.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/linkedin-sales-solutions-Xh_MFNzpEDw-unsplash-1024x683.jpg" alt="Young man sitting at a booth typing on his laptop." class="wp-image-22653" srcset="https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/linkedin-sales-solutions-Xh_MFNzpEDw-unsplash-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/linkedin-sales-solutions-Xh_MFNzpEDw-unsplash-300x200.jpg 300w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/linkedin-sales-solutions-Xh_MFNzpEDw-unsplash-768x512.jpg 768w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/linkedin-sales-solutions-Xh_MFNzpEDw-unsplash-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/linkedin-sales-solutions-Xh_MFNzpEDw-unsplash-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://boxesandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/linkedin-sales-solutions-Xh_MFNzpEDw-unsplash-120x80.jpg 120w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a><figcaption>Journaling is a low-fidelity method that allows us to spot the moments when our inner critic is most visible. (Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@linkedinsalesnavigator?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">LinkedIn Sales Solutions</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a>)</figcaption></figure> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">360-Degree Review</h2> When we are working to silence our inner imposter, gaining outside perspectives is a great way to grasp a variety of perspectives aside from our own. A collection of  feedback from direct reports, peers, managers, and senior leaders, the 360-degree review is a great way to dispel assumptions we have about our contributions to our teams. Using Google Forms, <a href="https://www.typeform.com/templates/t/360-degree-feedback/">Typeform</a> or <a href="https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/360-employee-feedback-survey-example/">SurveyMonkey</a>, we can quickly compose a survey to collect unbiased perspectives. Ask peers, ‘When working with Madeline, how would you describe her interpersonal skills?” Let the inner UX researcher conduct interviews for quick access to feedback. We might gain perspective on our efficiency and ask if our approach is seen as effective, and consistently improving. Oftentimes, we’ll find that our colleagues have a different perception of ourselves. The imposter may feel that we are not completing tasks efficiently, but our colleagues actually see us as a pragmatic and thorough problem solver.  <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Hire a Career Coach</h2> Coaching offers an opportunity to dive deeply into our strengths, opportunities, and our relationship with ourselves. A career coach helps establish our coaching goals, identify self-sabotaging behaviors and destructive patterns, and gain insights that would have otherwise gone unnoticed. Working with a coach has given Shara a clear understanding of her leadership strengths, her communication style, and a heightened self awareness. She feels empowered to own her career and a vision of the type of leader she wants to be. <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Seek Mentorship</h2> Additionally, identify a mentor, someone to trust and respect in or around an area of expertise, who can provide transparent and direct feedback. Mentors help direct us towards opportunities for growth and keep us from straying down unproductive paths. A potential mentor could be a former manager, a leader within our current organization, or even a LinkedIn connection. Casually reach out to them to begin developing a relationship. It’s a process! The dynamic between mentee and mentor will evolve over time. Be sure to be prompt to meetings, have clearly defined topics to discuss, and always thank them for their time. <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Journaling</h2> Journaling is a great vehicle for cathartic expression and reflection. With consistency, this exercise reveals patterns and trends, exposing the origins of fraudulent imposter feelings. In her journal, Shara captures significant events that occurred during the week. Her journal helps uncover patterns that would otherwise go unnoticed, like incessant feelings of insecurity when presenting and defending her designs. By identifying patterns, Shara overcomes her own challenges of imposter syndrome.    Build consistency by creating a journaling habit. A successful habit consists of three parts: a cue, a routine, and a reward. For Madeline, her cue is to journal on Fridays, the routine is to reflect for 5 minutes, and the reward is to step away from her desk and have a cup of tea. Creating new habits can be difficult, but strong habits are realistically reproducible. Start with simple micro-commitments to build a journaling routine into an effective habit. Ultimately, journaling is a low-fidelity method to reflect and uncover patterns, and highlight themes that reveal the moments when our inner critic shows up. <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Architecting Your Future</h2> Imposter syndrome is complex and can show itself at any stage in our careers. We can leverage these methods and tools to help us understand and conquer the falsehoods we unconsciously hold onto. With each gained perspective, we reclaim some control over our deceptions and take action to become the architects of our futures. <hr class="wp-block-separator"/> <pre class="wp-block-verse">Madeline Packard and Shara Rosenbalm are presenting a workshop on this topic at the <a href="https://www.theiaconference.com/iac21-emergence/workshops/">2021 Information Architecture Conference</a>. They'll explore design methods and offer a few tools to battle imposter syndrome and subdue your inner fraud.</pre> <hr class="wp-block-separator"/> Featured photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@jae_escobar?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Jose Escobar</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a> The post <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com/architecting-your-future-conquering-imposter-syndrome/">Architecting Your Future: Conquering Imposter Syndrome</a> appeared first on <a href="https://boxesandarrows.com">Boxes and Arrows</a>. ]]></content:encoded> <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">22650</post-id> </item> </channel> </rss>