Archive for September, 2005

At CANUX

Saturday, September 24th, 2005

I’m at CANUX, the Canadian User Experience workshop (organized by yours truly, generously hosted by the Banff Centre). Right now we’re in a session with Marc Rettig, this morning was with Steve Portigal. We’ve got pictures on Flickr, and set up a wiki if you’re interested. I have a panel tomorrow on business and design, […]

Abductive Thinking the special sauce?

Tuesday, September 20th, 2005

So chatting with a friend yesterday about the differences between design thinking and ‘analytical problem solving’. She pointed out that analytical solutions are deductive - working towards a solution based on inputs from different sources (user research, business plan, etc.) while design thinking relies more on abductive thinking - thinking about the possibilities of what […]

About me, and about bplusd

Saturday, September 17th, 2005

Some people have wondered a little about this blog, and me, the principal author. I’m the founder of nForm User Experience, a small but focused Canadian consulting company with mostly local but a few North American clients. I co-founded the Information Architecture Institute, where I currently serve on the Board of Directors. I’ve been interested […]

The Next Business Design Event?

Friday, September 16th, 2005

So, I attended the Rotman Business Design conference last January. Friends attended the Illinois Institute of Design Strategy Conference. I don’t know anyone who attended the New Zealand Better By Design conference. All good events, but where’s the next must-attend business and design event going to happen?
I’ll be attending DUX 2005 and I organized CANUX, […]

‘A Whole New Mind’ a Design Thinking Primer

Friday, September 16th, 2005

Dan Pink’s A Whole New Mind has a lot in common with design thinking. I read it the week it came out, put it down, and haven’t thought a lot about it since…it’s in a preaching-to-the-converted conundrum, where the anecdotes were often familiar. While the title is A Whole New Mind, with a basic premise […]

Scott Hirsch profile in Red Herring

Friday, September 16th, 2005

Scott Hirsch’s profile in Red Herring is up online. Funny spin that Scott is the ‘brains’ of MIG, which I know he would decline to claim, given the smarts shared between the five partners…but hey, that’s journalism chasing an angle. More importantly, the intersection of business and design is strong enough to warrant a “young […]

Business and Design Competitive Landscape

Friday, September 16th, 2005

So in looking at this space, I’ve been thinking about the firms that embrace design thinking and integrate business and design to move beyond simple form and function. I’ve started with consulting firms - so here’s a very rough take on how some consulting firms stack up on the business and design front. These are […]

The Design Thinking Delta

Friday, September 16th, 2005

Is Design Thinking different from other approaches? The casual assumption in the design thinking movement is a resounding YES (that’s why we’re talking about it). I see things like Roger Martin’s excellent comparison of typical business vs. design approaches, and I feel inclined to agree.
That said, I’m still working to clarify the difference between […]

Stanford D.School - the place for a design thinking minor?

Wednesday, September 14th, 2005

So this interview with David Kelley at NextD is interesting - the biggest thing I took away was the focus on simply bringing design awareness to other disciplines as key to d.school policy:
In any given class, we will have professors from several different schools. When students graduate, they will fulfill all the requirements of […]