Pages
Links
-
Recent Posts
Enterprise Posts-
Archives
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
Engagement Platforms Require Interaction
On January 18th I cleaned up my work bench area in the basement and put up this canvas and set out these tubes of oil paint. That was nearly a month ago to this day. And there they sit. Since then, there has been no engagement. It’s a matter of priority I tell myself. School, work and home stuff have the upper hand for the time being.
The marketing strategy class I’m taking has me working on a white paper whose purpose is to identify areas of engagement in a certain business or industry, the value gained from those engagements, and how to increase the value to those involved. These areas of interaction can be with customers, other businesses, other business units, departments, teams, and coworkers. You get the picture, the blank canvas.
This blog is an engagement platform. It is an unfolding story where we can co-create value. Granted, it’s in the form of page reads and the coveted comment, but there can be value in both writing and reading a blog…and not always at the same time. These types of ramblings aren’t entertaining to everyone. Writing has a certain voice…and some voices are just annoying.
Getting back to creating valuable experiences through things that allow people to connect…
The experience of interaction, the accessibility of information, the structure of an interface, these things play a critical role in creating valuable experiences. An equally critical role, and dependent upon the aforementioned, is the coming together of interface with interested party.
That’s when cool things happen. That’s when an engagement platform becomes the structure to a more meaningful experience, be it a blog, a web site, a portal, a program, computer, a mobile device. At that point they are vehicles connecting people, allowing experience to unfold, allow value to be created collaboratively.
Or it might be a white canvas of potential, waiting patiently for time and attention to come together in a way that engages the soul. It’s a tall order. But being the viewer, and being engaged, should be enough to start with.
Approaching User Experience
As we reach the 1/3 point of this semester, there isn’t much let up. It’s going to be a lot more exercise problems, reading, group meetings, and paper writing.
In between school and the whirling dance of complex interactions that is software development, I find myself making connections to things I’ve studied during the the last 7 semesters1.
Whether I’m talking to a classmate, sharing insights on group dynamics, or discussing how to implement new features in an existing product interface, the principles, questions, concepts, and lessons learned on perception, cognition, architecture, collaboration, design, and innovation all come to mind providing me with words to better articulate or question.
So that’s a long winded way of saying that this school stuff might really work. Education isn’t a tangible thing. Sure, there’s a piece of paper that can be framed and hung on a wall somewhere, but that piece of paper doesn’t solve problems. Education, besides expanding the mind by exploring the depths of the world, builds in our minds a lens that can be used to find new ideas.
The lens in my mind has been focused on how people use technology to get things done. Fundamental to using technology is the interaction, the engagement, the experience of it.
To understand experience is to understand multiple perspectives and circumstances. Insights can come from watching the experiences of others. It can also come from experiencing something oneself. Experience resulting from interactions with products and services all happen within certain constraints. The establishment and modification of these constraints is one side of the innovation coin. The other is finding those ideas nobody else can see.
And that’s where the lens I mentioned comes into play.
Time for me to go to work. I feel a little like I have a cold starting to form in my sinuses and throat. That’s not cool.
Image: Took this in the lowest level of the U of M Law Library while searching for a bathroom. The place is freaky huge. And lots of green carpet.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ 7 semesters = Fall 2006 – Spring 2010 [↩]