While User Experience is, like, at least six occupations rolled into one, it’s still possible to reach a point in your career when you’re asking yourself – “There must be more to it than this!” Time for a bit of a shake-up? 1. Carry on as usual but shift into a different industry While designing […]
Author: Zef
Zef’s Management Ethos
Now that I have over seven years experience leading and managing Design/UX teams, I’m clear on what works and what doesn’t. I’ve never been a “command and control” manager – the type who is authoritative and decisive and usually has their team living in fear. My approach in recent years has been to be the quiet one working diligently behind […]
I’m going on a power trip
After a wonderful five-plus years as the “UX Guy” at Click Suite I’m making a move to the pink palace in Newtown – Powershop HQ. I’ve continuously looked ahead to the next big thing and one reason I joined Click Suite is because I saw the touch-gesture revolution coming. Turns out, good move! I got […]
NZ Govt Set to Mothball Economic Powertrain
In a myopic move the New Zealand Transport Agency has nixed a proposed rescue package that could have saved the long-running Capital Connection rail service. In the process they will be killing-off a productive little economy that has been thriving for over 20 years. Their excuse is that removing the service won’t lead to traffic […]
Keeping sucking and carry on
DJ FiESTA! 1995. Photo Otago Daily Times. To others I apparently appear self-confident, but in reality I suffer from a fairly regular sprinkling of self-doubt. Too often I feel like my work might not be good enough, that I don’t spend quality time on things and that there’s someone better than me who could be […]
So it’s about time I updated my blog isn’t it?
Well… …I don’t have a plan but it looks like I’m back. I think I’m going to be less glossy and a bit more gritty from now on. You’ll not only be hearing about my adventures in Experience Design but whatever’s rocking my world right now. I’ll reveal more about my personal life, thoughts and […]
Answers to those Questions
Occasionally I get emails from aspiring User Experience professionals asking a bunch of questions about the industry and how I got into it. Over the years I’ve had people contacting me from around the world including the USA, Europe, The Philippines, India and New Zealand. I thought it might be useful to share some of these questions […]
World’s First Bearcam
In 1995 I took part in what was arguably one of the first webcams in New Zealand and certainly the one and only bearcam on the planet! The innovation took place at Vidmark Productions – a little TV and video production house based in Dunedin – it was run by Steve Young from the legendary 70s […]
Government to review ‘wild west’
Inquisition, Theosophy and Tools Minister John Wayne has ordered a review into the ”wild west”, he announced today. The Minister will examine the adequacy of regulations around how cowboys and cowgirls interact with the townsfolk. One-armed bandits and outlaws are not subject to any form of regulation or professional or ethical standards, Mr Wayne told […]
My Day Job
During the day I work at Click Suite – a little new media company based in Wellington which picks up some strange and wonderful projects. I frequently write articles for their blog – 360°. Here’s some of my latest posts… Your Place or My Place? Facebook will soon not only track your conversations and interests, […]
Milking the Climate
The above infographic was created for the Science Media Centre to coincide with the launch of the revised New Zealand emissions trading scheme (ETS) which came in to effect last July. New Zealand emissions have grown by over 20% above 1990 levels. The ETS is a first attempt to price carbon dioxide and other greenhouse […]
What’s Hot for UX?
There appears to have been a slight upsurge in recent months of companies looking for User Experience (UX) people in New Zealand. But taking a peek at the advertised jobs you could be left scratching your head when faced with the diversity of job descriptions and increasingly bizarre skill-sets expected of the ever-malleable and super-human […]
The Money In Mining
In March 2010, New Zealand’s Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee and Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson released a discussion paper containing a suite of measures to facilitate development of New Zealand’s mineral estate – this included minerals within national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, marine reserves and protected islands. The Standard argued that the figures for mining […]
50 vs. 80
[+] Enlarge The above infographic is the first I’ve created for the Science Media Centre. Their aim is to promote accurate bias-free reporting on science and technology by helping the media to work more closely with the scientific community. The Story Behind the Infographic The New Zealand Government is considering a proposal to drop the […]
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Good Onya!
On Friday night I was the proud recipient of an ONYA – awarded to this website for ‘Best content (personal)’. The other finalists in the category were Alison Green of WebWeaver for The Gathering Archives, and Jared Gulian for Moon over Martinborough. Sorry guys! What makes the ONYAs so special is that the judging panel […]
The Pollinator
Click Suite // Auckland Museum: The Pollinator from Click Suite on Vimeo. Using touch-screen technology visitors could tap into a world of pollination. Auckland Museum and Click Suite took three common New Zealand insects – the honey bee, monarch and native hoverfly – and set them loose in an amazing virtual rose garden. The Pollinator, […]
A Suite Makeover
Ever heard the saying “you’re your own worst client?” In our industry it’s common knowledge that a DYO (or “Design Your Own“) website is one of the trickiest things a web/interactive/design company can undertake. First of all, paid work always comes first. So despite your best efforts the DYO falls by the wayside, only to […]
I Like Visuals
Here’s some of the information graphics I created in 2009 while working at Click Suite. These featured in various reports such as online strategies and concepts. I started to experiment a bit more, beyond the usual bar-graph, but I have a long way to go before I’m in the same league as the visualisation gurus […]
Tap Dancing on Paper
When it comes to creating a user experience specification for a website, it\’s usually a straight forward exercise. You create wireframe diagrams and show the web pages in different states. But how do you specify user interactions for a touch-screen that\’s ever-changing, highly interactive and has unpredictable curious creatures influencing the user navigation? This was […]
User Experience Outside the Square
User Experience professionals need to get their heads out of the computer screen and look at the bigger picture.
Tsunami Early Warning Information Graphic
When the recent 6 metre tsunami hit the Samoan region, killing 189 people, there unfortunately wasn’t time to warn their people. But there was time to warn their neighbours in the South Pacific. We failed. New Zealand had several hours to crank-up the tsunami warning machine. The police did their best to round up […]
Tsunami of Confusion
The information graphics created to inform people on the Samoan tsunami about to hit New Zealand didn’t send a clear message. When disaster hits it spreads on the internet like wildfire. But the information graphics the public are served up are next to useless for making an informed decision on whether or not you’re in […]
Get Real!
Digital content should be there to enhance and extend an already compelling real-world experience, not replace, clutter or dominate it.
Card Sorting Doesn’t Cut the Custard
Why I don’t use Card Sorting Card sorting is a simple technique in User Experience Design where a group of users are guided to arrange subject-headings under pre-determined categories or into groups which make sense to them. For example, a card labelled “apples” might logically sit under a category labelled “fruit”. It can be […]
11 Must-Follow Kiwi User Experience Evangelists on Twitter
Being down-under often means we are off the radar. But did you know that New Zealand is also brimming with UX (User Experience) evangelists? This is my list of Twitter must-follows for any New Zealander interested in locals talking about usability, user experience, information architecture and interaction design. This is by no means a comprehensive […]
Gimme Good Service
Those companies who wrap a service around their product are doing a roaring trade.
Tabatha the Service Design Goddess
Business owners, service delivery managers, business analysts and user experience consultants could learn a lot from tacky reality TV shows like ‘Tabatha’s Salon Takeover’. The straight-talking Ozzie, Tabatha Coffey lends her sound advice and styling expertise to help make over America one salon at a time in this new series (Friday’s, 9.30pm on TV3). In […]
User Centred Design with Microsoft Expression
A presentation from my archives – many of the points made in these slides are still relevant today. A brief presentation I did at ‘Microsoft Expression for Art’s Sake‘ – a 3 Day Silverlight Camp held in Wellington, New Zealand in April 2009. It makes the simple point that, while Expression is a great tool-set, […]
Power to the People!
A presentation from my archives – many of the points made in these slides are still relevant today. Extracts from a workshop at GOVIS 2007. This one-day intensive workshop taught attendees how to incorporate user goals and agency needs into the web design process. Workshop presenters: Zef Fugaz, Bob Medcalf, Elyssa Timmer. Feedback from the […]
Kids Clothing Online: Shopping Experience
A presentation from my archives – many of the points made in these slides are still relevant today. Extracts from a 2006 presentation to one of the world’s largest manufacturers and retailers of kids clothing. We investigated their in store experience and how this might be translated online. E-Commerce for Kids Fashion Clothing from Zef […]
Notes From User Experience Week 2008
A presentation from my archives – many of the points made in these slides are still relevant today. Notes From User Experience Week 2008 from Zef Fugaz
Be Very Afraid…
With around 75% of New Zealand homes online that leaves about a million people who do still do not have access to the internet in this country. Worldwide an estimated one billion people have access. That’s leaves around 5.7 billion who don’t. The main reasons are they can’t afford it, are too young to pick […]
People to the Power
The electricity industry is undergoing a revolution in New Zealand and overseas. Here’s a look at some of the latest activity…
Ze Frank: Hot or Not?
A big hit of Webstock was internet phenomenon and chief chef of Earth Sandwiches, Ze Frank. Ze Frank is an online performance artist, composer, humorist and public speaker based in New York. He rose to internet fame ever since his “How to Dance Properly” viral video (born as a party invite for 17 friends) – […]
Feeding the Suite Spot
The SUITE SPOT (as seen at Webstock) takes live data feeds from blogs, Twitter, Flickr and SMS messages then ‘repurposes’ all of this into an exploratory scene. The feeds might look simple enough on screen but deciding what appears on the timeline, where and when were all challenges faced during the design and development. The […]
Where’s Your Suite Spot?
Who knew swimming with data could be such fun. In 2009 my employer, Click Suite, is a major sponsor of Webstock. Webstock is a series of workshops and seminars held in Wellington from 16- 20 February focusing on web technologies and attracting major international speakers. As part of our sponsorship we are providing an experimental […]
It’s Semantic
Throughout 2009 you’ll probably hear a lot of talk about the semantic web, aka “Web 3.0”. The semantic wave embraces previous stages of internet growth. The first stage, Web 1.0, was about connecting information and getting on the net. Web 2.0 is about connecting people – the web of social networks and participation. This was […]
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Gadget Neglect
Canon TX1 : Ingenious or insane – I’m not sure which…I’ve been so busy recently that my new (and first ever) digital camera sat unopened on my desk for 7 days… For just $NZ500 (plus an extra $80 for a 4Gb memory card) I’ve now got a camera which not only shoots stills, but also […]
Free, free – set them free…
It has been interesting watching Chandima in action at Provoke since I lured him away from Synergy Fronde (or “Fondle” as some of us affectionately refer to them around here). This man is on the rampage – and we like it like that…By no means is Provoke the perfect company (almost – we’re just doing […]
Radio NZ Rocks Online
I’m probably a tad younger than the core Radio New Zealand demographic, but in recent years it has become my station of choice – thanks in part to my fabulous retro 1950’s transistor radio (which only picks up the AM frequency). The station makes me feel connected to the flavour of New Zealand I identify […]
Software Specifications With Vision
When it comes to building software many New Zealand companies unnecessarily struggle with design and development issues. Much of this is due to software specifications without adequate pictures. Below is the specification a building architect has written for a new house: …the total floor area of the building is to be approximately 250 square metres […]
NZ Firms Need to Catch Up with Overseas
More time for usability now development tools are more efficient An interview with Zef Fugaz by Stephen Bell, Computerworld (November 2004) If New Zealand developers are to increase exports of software and maintain an edge against overseas competitors then they would be well-advised to catch up on usability practice, says Zef Fugaz, a specialist in […]
Designing for Loyalty
Astute web designers do more than just design with your customers in mind- they actually design with your customers- in person. Zef Fugaz looks at ways to get your users on board, and looks at New Zealand success stories. This article originally appeared in Unlimited Magazine (June 2004) The dotcom crash taught the young web […]
Kissing the Lips of E-govt
Achieving e-Government compliance for public sector websites will require a makeover that’s greater than skin-deep. Zef Fugaz looks at the realities of putting public service websites on the operating table and making them skip to an e-Government beat. Trevor has spoken. By 2006 all public service websites will have to be well and truly on […]
Rise of the Usability Guru
Your next Guru could be a usability practitioner. It was only a few years ago that the term “usability” was widely categorised as a misspelling or another lunatic fringe concept being pushed by idiosyncratic web designers. But a change is in the air and usability is increasingly becoming “the secret weapon” for many web and […]
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