The Experience of Moving

I am unpacking from a move. Last week, my family moved two hours from our old home using our favorite moving service after a last minute decision to pack up and live in another city. Moving is tiresome and confusing. There's so much to do, especially as "stuff" is accumulated, jobs are more demanding, kids growing up, and the sheer pandemonium is frustrating.


We used Local Motion, a small company that provides borrowed moving boxes at no charge (you pay a deposit that is refunded if boxes are returned within 30 days). The movers work so hard that I'm always impressed they can have me living in one place in the morning and another by the early afternoon.


We have two weeks left to unpack and only about 10 boxes left, which is very good. I think we moved 80 of them. Thank goodness we now have a basement for all that "stuff." We did donate three car loads of clothes, shoes, and household goods to Goodwill, sold some furniture, and recycled electronics at Best Buy. And yes, still all those boxes. You wouldn't believe us if you saw our house. It's not a lot of stuff, really. I'm just a cautious packer.


Some thoughts of the experience of moving:


Recycled boxes are super. No need to spend money on expensive, brand new boxes or use dirty and broken ones from the grocery store. The problem is that after two or three moves, they are so marked up that the movers struggle to know what I wrote. This led to several boxes slated for the office in the basement and some meant for the kitchen in the upstairs hall. The current design has three pre-printed sections for indicating the room and contents. Since several boxes had been used long after three moves, it seems like a sticker system might work better. Each customer gets a series of labels with their name and a place for the room and contents. Each new customer can place the new sticker over the old one. No confusion for the movers.


There's always something to fix. Walking through our new house, there were a couple minor things to fix but nothing serious, at least from what I could see (this is a rental, so no home inspection). After moving in, we realized the water had been off for a long time. Our water was a very unnatural color. No way I was taking a bath in that. The microhood is broken. And even though we're on the edge of nowhere, there's traffic at 5am. Honestly, I don't care about the traffic. It isn't noisy or excessive. The microhood will be replaced soon and the water is finally normal. I just wish there was a checklist of obscure things to look for during a walkthrough inspection.


So that's where the pacis are. Moving is a good way to find lost pacifiers. Enough said.


The important stuff will always go missing. We planned well and set aside our "important stuff" like medications, sheets, some clothing, basic food items, diapers, wipes, and the critical stuffed animals, essential bedtime stories, and the car keys. Even still, I couldn't find more than one change of clothes for three days and I never thought to set aside some soap or hand sanitizer. Again with the checklist. I'm sure there's one on the internet. I should have Googled.


Moving, working, parenting, living, and holidays don't mix. In general, moving is a pain. It wasn't always this way. The older I get, the more annoying this gets. I actually don't want to move again, for real. I said this every time. This time, I do mean it. Four days off from work doesn't make a move any easier. A month would be better.


There's so much more but one of the biggest moving experiences that bugs me is getting used to sleeping in a new place. That's why I'm writing this instead of sleeping.


Oh and I apologize but I'm sure I'll miss a few people with holiday cards this year. I was organized, prepared, and then I moved. The first pre-move batch went out successfully but I'm sure I'll lose the stamps, the cards, forget who got a card already, or forget people I should send a card to. If you get two cards from me, please pass it along to someone who could use a holiday pick-me-up. LOL

Seeking Participants for a Quick Study

I'm hoping to speak with people who have used an online messaging system to send a note to a medical provider (MD, nurse, general care team, etc) within the past 6-8 months. If you have some time in the next two weeks, I'd love to hear about your experience!

Details:

• Seeking 10-12 men and women between 18-60 years old who have messaged a provider (or care team) using the internet within the past 6-8 months
• Meet by phone for 30-45 minutes to talk about the messaging experience
• The focus is completely on the experience of using the online system - you will not be asked to share anything about medical conditions, health, or other private and personal details

For more information, or to schedule a time to talk, please email me.

The Inevitable Truth

I have a long list of drafted blog posts. They're all just sitting waiting for me to finish writing and posting but life takes priority sometimes. That and I know that each time I get back to blogging, something bad happens that puts it on hold again. This time I have already planned to have surgery next week and knowing this, I'll try to combat the inevitable disaster that delays active posting (I've heard I'm cursed) by having posts ready and scheduled for several months. I can't go wrong with this plan, unless I get a bit lazy and don't really finish this plan. 

So hopefully you'll finally hear more from me. Perhaps about my experience at the Web App Masters Tour in June, dealing with ridiculous marketing emails from a local pizzeria, and the wonderful experience of taking my daughter for care at Children's Hospital in Minneapolis.

Help with a mobile research study!

Now recruiting for a mobile user experience study!

I'm working on a super cool study looking at how people use mobile devices for making donations. Remember the disasters in Haiti and Japan? Many people gave a few bucks using their mobile device, and those small donations added up to a significant total. I want to know more about the experience of making a mobile donation.

What or who influenced the donation?

How do people decide how much to give?

How long does it take to make a mobile gift?

There's many more questions I want answered but this gives you an idea. My hope is to speak with 5-7 people who have made a mobile donation within the last year (or longer if it was a highly memorable experience), preferably who own a smartphone, iPhone, or iPad, and between 25-40 years old, and have at least a Bachelor's degree. I can be flexible on some of these demographics depending on your mobile phone usage. What matters more is how active you are with your phone (twitter, facebook, gmail, etc).

Spend 30 minutes on the phone with me in the next couple of weeks to help shape the direction of a fresh online giving experience for a major nonprofit research hospital!

If you are interested in seeing what this is all about, email me!

Copyright and Google

Recently, I discovered someone is republishing my entire blog on another website. I was pretty miffed and did some homework, finding that Google owns the blog app the offender uses. I reported this problem and received a response:


Hello,

We have received your DMCA complaint regarding
http://botanyfree.appspot.com/www.perfecttuna.com/ dated 2/6/2011. In
order for us to investigate the appropriate content and take further
action, please provide us with the specific URLs of the posts where the
infringing content is located. You can obtain the post URL by clicking on
the title of the post or the time-stamp found at the bottom of the
allegedly infringing post(s).

Thank you for your cooperation in this regard.

Sincerely,

The Blogger Team


Apparently, it wasn't clear that every single post and the look and feel of my site is copied. I wrote back and explained this.


Another response:


Hello,

We have received your DMCA complaint dated 2/6/2011. Upon recent review of
the website(s) mentioned in your complaint, we were unable to locate the
allegedly infringing content on the page(s) in question. If this matter is
still a concern, please reply to this email with detailed information to
enable us to locate the allegedly infringing content.

Sincerely,

The Blogger Team

Once again, I have asked them to compare the two sites and see the obvious problem. What am I doing wrong here? Any suggestions?

User Experience is an Infant

Many of the basic principles of good experience design can be found by observing infant behavior.


1. Just try to ask a 9-month-old what she wants to have for dinner. There are two principles here. First, it's difficult to communicate everyday desires in words. Second, wants and needs are very different. That little baby probably wants cheerios for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. What she needs is a balanced diet.


Educate yourself on what your users need by observing them, by asking experts, and reading past research. Don't end up with a baby who lives on chocolate chip cookies.


2. Babies have a hard time communicating. Crying can mean so many things - frustration, hunger, sadness, exhaustion, a smelly diaper, overstimulation of the senses, etc. When a user cries out, whether in the form of a message board comment, a nasty email, a frustration-based tweet, seek out the truth.


Don't assume what the user says is wrong is really the problem. Frustration often has deeper, less obvious roots. Probe for information. Ask to watch the user demonstrate the what's happening and be an active listener.


3. Not all babies are alike. Okay, so many newborns all look a bit goofy, but over time, appearances and personalities change. Babies are unique. So are your users.


Don't assume that soccer moms can't change a tire or that the ditzy teenager at the mall isn't an honor student. Get to know your users. What inspires them? What do they want to accomplish? Help them to have the best experience possible with your product or application.


4. At most first birthday parties, parents learn that the best gift is the wrapping paper.


Never make assumptions on how your product will be used. Consider an ice cream scooper used to make cookies, an old cell phone as a toddler toy, or even shampoo used as bubble bath. Don't force your users to use a product they way you intend. Design the product to be used they way they need.


5. Babies are messy. That 2am diaper blowout. The snot dripping down the nose. Chocolate covered faces (yes, I do give my baby a chocolate chip cookie occasionally). Well, users make messes too.


It's our job as designers to do two things. We first need to do whatever we can to help prevent the mess in the first place. Guide the user down the best path. Make sure they are aware and understand what's going on. Second, when something goes wrong, prevent the problem from becoming a mess. Provide simple solutions to get out of a sticky situation. Easy to understand, actionable error messages are critical. A way out is mandatory. Knowing what went wrong and how to fix it can help keep that user coming back after a "mess" has happened.

Two Sisters Striking Out: A College Application Experience

I am 15 years older than my super genius sister (she hates when I call her that). Super Sister had perfect grades, near perfect SAT scores, perfect scores on so many AP tests I lost count, and showed promise in gymnastics and dance. She enjoys hard work, loves to learn, and on top of all that, she's not a dork. People like her. She's funny. She's cute. She's perfect for any school who wants to balance out their male geekness with a nice, intelligent girl.

She also likes math and science. MIT should have been knocking down her door.

Super Sister visited colleges all over New England, New York, Virginia, and Minnesota (because I live here). She fell in love with Amherst and Dartmouth. I figured it was a gimme. They had to accept her. She's awesome. She didn't make any assumptions and worked hard to prepare super thorough applications and interviewed well. She wasn't accepted.

I'm not too sad because she also really liked the school she chose, an outstanding small school less than an hour from my house. It's like the Amherst of the midwest. She's getting an awesome education and I'm sure will get a chance to do research with professors and intern at top hospitals or research labs. She'll be just fine (though I think she still pines for Amherst).

When I was in high school, I wanted to do "something with art, design, photography, and communications". I had the photography and design experience to have a shot at art school but also applied where I was expected to - or had a random interest because my friends would be there. If I list everywhere I remember applying to between 1994 and 1999 (not counting grad school), I think it goes something like this:

• Evergreen State College - for some sort of self-defined communications degree
• Art Institute of Boston - for photography
• Skidmore - was thinking a combo of design and communications
• Mount Wachusett Community College - took a class there one summer
• NYU's Tisch School - photography
• Concordia (in Canada) - for "art"
• Savannah College of Art and Design - originally as a graphic design major
• UMass - family expectations of attending the honors college 

I also considered:

• McGill (because my dad wished he'd gone there) - I could have been an architect!
• George Washington - to become a photojournalist for the Washington Post
• University of Vermont - all the cool kids went there
• Johnson and Wales - I also wanted to be a chef
• Blaine - For cosmetology - hairstyling is a passion of mine
• Yale - pipe dream, wanted to be a writer 

Of all those, only one stood out as the place I had to go. It was Savannah College of Art and Design but I didn't figure that out until four years after high school.

What I know is I had a good chance at all the schools I actually applied to. My sister should have had a chance as well. Things have changed and schools are more competitive. She was focused. She knows what she wants, where she wants to be, and she'll damn sure be successful. For some reason, her dream school didn't agree. I'd say they suck but in case she wants to transfer, I'll just say, hey out there in Amherst-land - look for the little girl with the cute smile and the dream to create medicines that save the world.