This week my UXmatters column continued with process and tools. In fact, this article was briefly part of the previous article on [[http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2016/09/mobile-ux-design-approaches-workshops.php|UX Workshopping] until it started getting too long.

This time around I talk in some detail about Succeeding with Field Usability Testing and Lean Ethnography. I don't do lab research anymore, not for years. I do field methods, and for years I was jealous of people like Jan Chipchase. Then I realized I could do halfassed ethnography by just changing my mindset and setting aside a few minutes for it. To be all modern, I called it Lean Ethnography. I sorta buy it though, as it's one of those where we get 80% results for 10% effort and cost.

While I am brilliant and you should read everything I writ, there are a few other articles I think you should read this month as well:

• macOS Human Interface Guidelines: Touch Bar Now, I don't entirely like these, and there are some really shocking decisions like suggesting no labels on icons but it is still super interesting to see them. Not so much to see how the Touch Bar will work, but to read guidelines for design of a whole new system. Those who write specifications, or design for unique IoT devices and embedded controllers may enjoy looking at it from that point of view.

• Bulletproof Accessible Icon Fonts Pretty much exactly what it advertises. Pitfalls, fallback methods, best practices in actually using icon fonts, with decent discussion of why and why not SVG and raster methods. Bookmark this one.

• John Lasseter supposedly said "I believe in research. You cannot do enough research; believability comes out of what's real." But man, I'd like to actually see the context of this.

• Speaking of quotes from John Lasseter, "My own partner at Pixar for 25 years, Steve Jobs, never liked market research. Never did market research for anything." This is one we still have to fight a whole, whole lot. UX methods are not marketing methods. I have to explain this for almost every research project. We need a movie where UX research is crucial to the plot so everyone gets it. Someone work on that. From Technology and The Evolution of Storytelling

• “Design has nothing to do with art”: Design legend Milton Glaser dispels a universal misunderstanding and continuing with our misunderstanding and frustration theme, this is a nice article about how art and design are not the same thing. I went to school for aerospace engineering (airplane design), took a lot of graphic design classes, took some industrial design and furniture design classes, and got a degree in art. Skills are shared, but who cares as I use art school skills to speak in public better. The whole concept of art and design is different, and the misconception that design is internalized, and opinion based is a huge, huge impediment to us doing our jobs well.

• On Average "The built world was not designed for you. It was designed for the average person. Standardized tests, building codes, insurance rates, clothing sizes, The Dow Jones – all these measurements are based around the concept of an “average.”" Good overview of all this, and a lot of it is about ergonomics. We live by that, even if you don't know it, so this is super worth understanding.

• https://m.signalvnoise.com/the-art-of-designing-with-heart-f5dc4df21697?gi=b2cbb05f4947#---0-183.bd3fcdl2y Read it. Maybe.

• http://instrktiv.com/en/technical-writing-ux/ manuals... good point since I hate FAQs, help, etc. but they do exist...

• https://twitter.com/stephanierieger/status/776114105656545280 on misapplying research. People treating computers like people doesn't mean you need to anthropomorphize them.

• https://cloudfour.com/thinks/ios-doesnt-support-progressive-web-apps-so-what/ PWAs still worth it, but I say the reason is that anything well considered is good, no PWA specifically. Just consider mobile first, last and mostly. Then everything is more efficient, etc.

• https://medium.com/the-creative-founder/ideation-sprints-for-new-products-services-74f925190b4f#.eusbtiat7 I don't like dot votes, and other stuff but I do like what she calls "freelisting" and it's a nice overview of it.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aygWy0dP3k&list= "My 20min talk-real-fast introduction to the Physical Web. I try to focus on WHAT you can build rather than the WHY" Scott Jenson

• http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/feb/9/soldiers-say-intel-tool-is-too-difficult/ crappy systems kill. There are tech issues (slow) but unfriendly and hard to figure out? That's UX. (KEEP NEAR THE NEXT ENTRY)

• http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/RAB1603.pdf speaking of IoT, we're using web 1.0 practices and keep trying to kill people; how there's no checks, no guardrails. E.g. why not design this to avoid accelerating so fast it hurts people, ever, regardless of commands issued at the moment. This is totally UX, as the intersection of software and reality/people is what the issue is always, but pure s/w devs don't consider reality nearly enough.

• On how R&D pays off http://www.wvgenweb.org/ohio/ww1-kindelberger.htm - I don't like failing fast to the public, and all this speedy lean, MVP stuff really. I say invest in R&D and fail /secretly/. Launch only great products. - Find quote about rabbits!

• https://www.bloomberg.com/technology undisruptable, or self-disrupting... cannot decide. But pick one.

I'll be in China, touristing, doing some work, and speaking at User Friendly 2016 for the next two weeks. If anyone else will be there, or works there, or has a client or friend who should talk to me, tell me all about it.

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