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What I didn’t get round to writing about in 2009

A lot of people send me ideas and suggestions for the blog, for which I’m very grateful indeed, but which I don’t always get round to investigating or posting or dealing with in a timely manner. Or sometimes I note them, use them as examples elsewhere, or in conversation with people, but never actually get [...]

Featured Post

The Design with Intent Toolkit v.0.9

■ How to influence user behaviour ■ 12 inspirational design patterns in poster form (plus 35 more) ■ Grouped into 6 ‘lenses’ giving different perspectives Download the poster (it’s a 1.3 MB PDF) – now also includes A4 pages for each lens, for easier printing  [Alternative link] Start with the problem You have a product, service or environment—a system—where users’ [...]

Asides

• The deadline's fast approaching (mid-day 17th Dec) for the UK Technology Strategy Board's 'User-centred design for energy efficiency in buildings' competition [PDF] - there's an introduction from Fionnuala Costello here. This is an exciting initiative which aims to bring together (in a 5-day 'sandpit') people from different disciplines and different sectors to address the problems of influencing user behaviour to improve the energy efficiency of offices and other non-domestic buildings, and generate commercially viable collaborative solutions to develop, some of which will then be part-funded by the TSB. Fionnuala's blog, People in Buildings has some great posts and discussions exploring aspects of how human factors and technology together might be used to help people use energy more effectively. If you or your organisation are interested in these kinds of issues - and using design to address them - it'd be well worth getting an application in over the next few days. #
• Design for Conversion: The Mobile Edition - taking place on 11th of December in Amsterdam - looks like a great conference. Organised by Arjan Haring, it's described as "a mashup of persuasive design, principles of persuasion and evidence based marketing" and brings together user experience design, analytics and online marketing, with a 'persuasion' focus. For this edition, it centres on using mobile technology, including speakers from Nokia, Symbian and Sagem and a multidisciplinary team-based challenge based on a real persuasive design problem - as Arjan puts it, "Design for Conversion is not for the faint at heart as there is no escaping the interactive nature of the format." (I understand a card-deck version of the Design with Intent toolkit, not yet released, will be involved in the team challenges - it's great to be able to help out like this, and have a different kind of audience try it out). Some of the testimonials from speakers at previous editions, such as Eric Schaffer, Andrew Chak and BJ Fogg are especially complimentary about how refreshing the interactive format is. All in all, Design for Conversion seems like a colourful, exciting, friendly and relatively intimate (150 people) event, and until 11th November there is a discounted early-bird registration fee. Thanks to Arjan for letting me know about this, and I hope it all works out well. Next year's edition, taking place in New York, also sounds interesting, with Dan Goldstein among the speakers. #
• Been a little busy round here, continuing for the next week or so, but in the meantime I thought I'd share a post I was invited to write for Greengaged, the fantastic programme of events at the Design Council on sustainability, which took place this week. Thanks to Kate Andrews for the opportunity. Next week: Design for Persuasion in Brussels; after that, I'll be back on a schedule more suitable for blogging, for a while at least, and hope to get round to some of the great suggestions and ideas readers have sent in. Thanks for your patience! #
• On 1st October I'll be talking about How to influence user behaviour: Design with Intent at the Design for Persuasion event in Brussels, alongside some great speakers including BJ Fogg, Richard Sedley and Christel De Maeyer. There are still some last-minute tickets available. Here's a video from Christel and one from BJ about the event. I'm looking forward to it! #
• Over on the Design & Behaviour list/group, Jamie Young of the RSA has started a discussion about the UK's 'smart meter' plans, on which the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is running a consultation. (more...) #