You say theory, I say practice  Christina points out that two-thirds of the companies cited in "In Search of Excellence" have folded. Tom Peters' retort is "My principles have survived intact, it's just that the companies haven't."
Uh. Yeah. Like the golf pro's quote who said, "I did everything right, but the putt didn't drop." Good attitude for consultants to bring to their clients...not.

Ebb and Flow  While negotiating for the past several months for a possible consulting job in UXD, I've just today been confronted with two other possibilities—both involving user experience work, not tech writing. So perhaps I'll have an interview next week, perhaps I'll have several offers...or perhaps they'll all come to naught.
The thing is, it's maddening. Feast or famine.

IDEO (mostly) Gets It  In a Business Week article. The Power Of Design (thanks to Beth for the link), IDEO touts its processless process. Though it's survived the dot-com bust of the beginning of this century, IDEO has shifted away from digital to physical interaction product design. Too, they're interested in changing processes, not just products.

Good on 'em. Still, they seem to fall into the trap of designing products for the people on the project team, not necessarily for the person who actually uses the product. "Often, IDEO will have top executives play the roles of their own customers. Execs from food and clothing companies shop for their own stuff in different retail stores and on the Web. Health-care managers get care in different hospitals. Wireless providers use their own -- and competing -- services." The problem with this approach is the same problem with living history reenacting: the persons doing the role-playing might not have the skills to abstract their experience. I've seen this sort of approach devolve into the "I wouldn't do it this way!" Too little learning can be a destructive thing.


Still, it's good to see user-centered design get mainstream press.

Back to the Mine  After a good week in Baltimore at the STC Conference, and after some motorcycling with Bogo, I'm now back at the office. Ugh.

Back from NOLA  Well, we made it back last night from the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. A lot of fun, even though we missed two days because of rain. But the music was fabulous. You can now even buy some shows thanks to the modern miracle of digitized music. I highly recommend Anders Osborne's set. What a smokin', funky slide guitarist. Who knew a Swede could rock like that?