Tyler Thompson has redesigned the Delta boarding pass. I love it!  Who among us hasn’t noticed the awkward, missed opportunity that is this piece of paper millions of people interact with everyday.

His new design is clean and pretty. He thought about how he uses it and how it could become a useful tool for navigating the airport and boarding the plane.

It’s successful for the most part, although I think the target audience for this is me, you and Tyler and maybe not the general public, as we are used to seeing design like this, it may be a bit sophisticated and hard to read for the average flyer. Actually let me correct myself,  the non-average traveler, the most general of the public.

I was thinking though, aside from solving usability issues which would be great. There is an amazing missed opportunity in boarding passes.

Boarding passes represent a specific moment and place in time.

I’d like to see the airlines take full advantage of this. Let’s see the day’s news headlines or ‘It happened today’ facts. How about local history, art and statistics. What about statistics or facts about the relationship between the two locations you are traveling. Ooooh, the poetry of local poets on seasonally appropriate topics. I could keep going, but you get the point.

Some airlines are using the unused portion of the print at home boarding pass to provide travel information, this is nice, but my ideas could turn these into collectibles, kinda like posted stamps. Have some imagination Mr and Mrs Airline.

A: KEXP

I’ve noticed that the best creative minds tend to work in multiple mediums. They have a primary focus, something they really do well, but they always have something else going on on the side or regularly try new creative endeavors.

Keeping my creative pursuits diversified is really important to me. I find it particularly important for those of us who work primarily in the digital realm to spend time working with physical materials. This isn’t a problem for me I love to sew and make art of all kinds, but recently I’ve been a bit stuck and haven’t be able to decide what to work on, so last week I ran a little contest. I guess I was crowd-sourcing inspiration.…

I asked my twitter friends to submit their favorite word. I randomly selected one of the words and made something for the winner inspired by the word.  It worked. I went down into my studio and created something that night.  Here’s what I made inspired by the word ABUNDANCE.

It may not be the most amazing thing in the world but it was fun to survey all the materials I had, consider the word and make something for someone else.

I mailed it off to Noah and he received it today. “He said it was, “cheery and delightful”,  so I may have missed the mark creating something “Abundant” but I’ll take it

So what diversified creative thinkers do you admire?

You may also like to read:  Traits of the Creative Thinker: Notice the Less Than Obvious

What I’ve always thought to myself when looking at these particular moments in time and place is how completely unique each spot is. I could never recreate it and I will never see it again, but all of these little views add up to a larger sense of what happens in a particular place. Not sure what I learn from it, maybe nothing but I believe in NOTICING THINGS.

The people I know who have great ideas and amazing creative vision are all NOTICERS. They look for the OUT-OF-FOCUS THINGS and make LESS THAN OBVIOUS CONNECTIONS. They allow the unimportant to seep into their daily narrative.

I’ve learned that spending time contemplating things you already understand or expect, does nothing to stretch an exercise your mind. To be a true creative thinker you have to take the many opportunities available to NOTICE SOMETHING NEW…..you have to develope an original perspective from these opportunities.

Yossi Milo has a series of photographs that embody this concept of noticing.

These are all stolen moments from driving down the highway. Brilliant.

I found this artist via: NOTCOT

From: Strategic Aesthetics

This diagram and the associated definitions is wonderful. I think I’m going make a large print out and hang it at my desk.

What strikes me is how useful it could be in one, setting up a team, but two realizing who you are in a team make up so you can be the best you. I imagine we all have a bit of all of these, although I think as soon as you read the article you will immediately see yourself in one of them. I also think that the other people we work with will influence which of these actually manifest in us. If your naturally a dreamer and there are two other dreamers on the project, either the project is going to fail or someone is going to have to shift to one of the other types (at least try too)

The other thing I really like about this is that it provides a methodology for building good design teams, a methodology that isn’t fixed on particular job titles but what you bring to the creative table. A well balanced multi-disciplinary team is beautiful thing but often, the confines of our particular roles and the lack of attention paid to the less concrete (our creative personalities) results in the assembly of a wobbly group of mismatched characters trying to work together.

Nice job Michael. I’m looking forward to reading the follow up posts about how each of these personalities work together.

So which one are you??

He makes and illustrates a lot of great points about the role of beauty and attractiveness in the effectiveness of interfaces.

What I really like about the article is that is supports the need for “complete collaboration” between the UXer and the Graphic Designer. Neither one exclusively holds the power or skills to create the most successful experience. The work is so intricately joined. I’m starting to think you can’t do your best work unless you are actually sitting next to eachother working each step of the way together.

I have a little dream of finding the perfect design partner, someone to develope the ultimate collaborative relationship with and create mind bending experiences together (maybe even take over the world). What if no one hired a single designer, you had to come with your design twin? Could be fun.

A few good passages from the article:

“As user experience professionals, we must consider every stimulus that might influence interactions”

“In other words, aesthetics is not just about the artistic merit of web buttons or other visual effects, but about how people respond to these elements. Our question becomes: how do aesthetic design choices influence understanding and emotions, and how do understanding and emotions influence behavior?”

“Basically, when we are relaxed, our brains are more flexible and more likely to find workarounds to difficult problems. In contrast, when we are frustrated and tense, our brains get a sort of tunnel vision where we only see the problem in front of us.”

Head on over and have a read.

It’s really no frills in terms of visual design, you can’t tell what is a link and it doesn’t have a way to quickly jump to the first page, but what I do like is, “View as a Single Page”. I like this for two reasons.

1. I would prefer to scroll, so it is lovely to have the option of doing that. It also feel particularly appropriate for this content, reading the New Yorker shares more in common with reading traditional print than say browsing camera reviews.

2. The word “Single”. What a beautiful, simple, conversational, content appropriate way to to say “One Page”. Just think about it. It feels romantic to me….

“The entire story fit on a single sheet of crisp white paper, which allowed me to fold it neatly and fit it squarely into the small pocket of my jeans, giving me a secret to carry around and produce throughout the day when every I needed a jolt.”

what just happened when you saw this image?

here’s what happened to me.

I noticed the colors and that it was kinda 60’s. I liked the flowers…thought about blooming and blossoming

I thought about how my future seems bright..hey that was a realization, cool…I wonder who the artist is….I need to get back to painting…

then i heard the song. i don’t really like the song but there was nothing i could to do keep it out, then i saw the “shades”…yucky I thought. My nice moment is over. I then continued humming the song in my head.

Couple things I’m thinking about.

1. I like that the image successfully took a very well know phrase and actually got me to respond to the original message not immediately jump to my old perspective and yes, dislike of the song and it’s cliche message.

2. We all know the power of a song to evoke feelings and memories. What can I do to create experiences that are memorable and powerful. So much of my work is about the accomplishment of goals; users and business…tasks, processes, engagement…blah blah blah. If you’ve spent anytime with me recently you know I can’t stop talking about how the true power in this world is held by those who sit in the Creative seat. Us Uxers can’t forget that we sit in that seat and we should aim high with each project. It is possible to make an impact on someone that will haunt them for ever, like this dumb song.

image via: Design is Mine by Andy J Miller

I came across this room today and immediatly thought it was great inspiration for web design. Don’t you agreee? I am thinking about what is important when we design a room and what about that process to the interaction design table.

1. Sub Navigation and Supporting Content
2. Primary Navigation and Promotions
3. The company, here to help, ready to serve, happy that you are here
4. This is where you plug in. The opportunities. The two way conversation.
5. The trusted adviser. Why you come back again and again. The heart of the Brand.

*The Kitty = the hidden gems you find stuck in your mind long after you leave and that pop up again from time to time.

photo: via 7×7

Post Secret is on tour. Check the site. You have to scroll down to find the schedule.

I just watched this really wonderful presentation from last years UX Week. It’s given by Katherine Jones and Randall Macon from Milkshake, on the subject of Brands that are appropriate platforms for fostering community.

They walk us through how they think about Brands and how they uncover if community building/expanding/supporting is a viable or useful endeavor for a specific orgainization.

Livestrong and the Blanton Museum are used as casestudies. These stories are both perfect and very different illustrations, both completely engaging and enlighting.

Milkshake uses a process of identifing three distinct pieces of the community picture. Belonging. Connecting. Enduring. I’ll let you watch the video for the details, but I will say that I am excited to try this process out.

My big take aways are:

• External Influences can’t be ignored and are extremly powerful, effecting the way in which your Brand is being perceived. This is especially true when your Brand is carried and shaped by a community.
• You can’t just flip a switch if the switch doesn’t exist.
• Find out who they trust.
• I would love to work at Milkshake. Smart. Thoughtful people.