What is the MAYA Podcast about...?
This podcast is a series of recordings of roundtable discussions of the human sciences group of MAYA Design.
These discussions involve some combination of the following participants:
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WARNING: These recordings aren't professionally produced. It really is as if you were in our office eavesdropping on these conversations. Don't be surprised if you hear intercom pages in the background, or a slight buzz from the HVAC equipment.
Episode 12 - Notes on the Synthesis of Form
- 04 June 2007
- direct download: MAYA_12.mp3 [ 32.2mb (36:43) MP3 ]
- Discussants today: David, Erik, Francine, Sandi
- This is a discussion of Christopher Alexander's "Notes on the Synthesis of Form".
Episode 11 - Human Centered Design - Analysis/Synthesis
- 28 March 2007
- direct download: MAYA_11.mp3 [ 12.8mb (27:43) MP3 ]
- Discussants today: Erik, Francine, Sandi
- This is the second in a series where we are looking at particular aspects of human centered design. Today's session is about processing the data you have collected through observations, interviews and evaluations.
Episode 10 - Human Centered Design - Observation
- 20 March 2007
- direct download: MAYA_10.mp3 [ 12.4mb (27:02) MP3 ]
- Discussants today: Erik, Francine, Amy David
- This is the first in a series where we are looking at particular aspects of human centered design. Today's session is about observation as an element of design research.
Episode 09 - "Simple" User Interfaces
- 12 December 2006
- direct download: MAYA_09.mp3 [ 35.00mb (25:10) MP3 ]
- (Note: So far, this is the unedited audio).
- Discussants today: Erik, Francine, Sandi David
- Today's discussion covers the topic of whether interfaces can truly be made simple in a world where products often compete on the number of features they have.
Episode 08 - World Usability Day
- 30 October 2006
- direct download: MAYA_08.mp3 [ 11.00mb (11:58) 128kbps 44.1kHz ]
- Discussants today: Erik, Francine and Sandi
- Today's discussion covers the topic of World Usability Day on 14 Novemeber 2006.
- Call us for a free usability audit on WUD
- Submit photos of products with usability problems at [http://foundry.maya.com/wud/][http://foundry.maya.com/wud/]
- Join us on the 14th at the SouthSide Works for a fun usability gameshow
Episode 07 - Comparative Usability Challenge, part 2 of 2
- 07 August 2006
- direct download: MAYA_07.mp3 [ 26.60mb (57:53) 64kbps 44.1kHz ]
- Discussants today: Erik, Amy, David, Francine and Sandi
- Today's discussion is part 2 in a 2 part series of a comparative usability challenge. We've run the tests, now we are discussing the results along with a bunch of other nuggets of usability goodness. And Sandi lets the rest of us know how users are like pancakes...
Episode 06 - Comparative Usability Challenge, part 1 of 2
- 06 July 2006
- direct download: MAYA_06.mp3 [ 25.11mb (52:08) 64kbps 44.1kHz ]
- Discussants today: Erik, Amy, David, Jon, Francine and Sandi
- Today's discussion is part 1 in a 2 part series of a comparative usability challenge. We are putting to the test the claims that have been made about the value of traditional task based usability tests versus a more open, interview based test.
Episode 05 - Information Architecture and Inforcentric Design
- 27 April 2006
- direct download: MAYA_05.mp3 [ 26.1mb (53:29) 96kbps 44.1kHz ]
- Discussants today: Erik, Amy, David, Nathan and Sandi
- Today's discussion is about information architecture and inforcentric design and how these concepts are used at MAYA.
Episode 04 - Recording Life
- 11 April 2006
- direct download: MAYA_04.mp3 [ 26.1mb (37:55) 96kbps 44.1kHz ]
- Discussants today: Erik, Amy, and Sandi
- Today's discussion is about capturing and recording the life of users. We discuss lab setup and methods for both handheld devices and computer based products. We also discuss field recording methods ranging from paper and pencil to audio and video. We end our discussion today with a quick dive into the topic of using audio and RSS as a means of internal project documentation. What would it mean to be completely transparent and conduct our work "in the nude..."
Episode 03 - Home Studies: What works and what doesn't work
- 11 January 2006
- direct download: MAYA_03.mp3 [ 29.0mb (1:13:18) 64kbps 44.1kHz ]
- Today's discussion is about the DO's and DONT's of conducting a homestudy. A loose definition of a home study for this conversation: A study of a determined length where a number of participants install and use a product in their home where it is integrated into their lives, and a researcher gathers information about it using various methods. During the discussion we discuss the issues of Recruiting, Compensation, NDA's, Protocol design, Making arrangements for shipping kits, Communicating with users before the home study starts, Follow-up interviews for a month-long test, Managing the calls, and writing the final report among other things.
Episode 02 - User Incentives and Compensation
- 05 January 2006
- direct download: MAYA_02.mp3 [ 31.0mb (45:12) 96kbps 44.1kHz ]
- Today's discussion is primarily about the incentives and compensation of users during usability tests and exploratory research such as contextual inquiry.
Episode 01 - Gaining Access to Users
- 20 December 2005
- direct download: MAYA_01.mp3 [ 30.2mb (43:58) 96kbps 44.1kHz ]
- Today's discussion is an ongoing conversation that many of us have about the difficulty of accessing real users. We discuss the barriers we have encountered and some of the creative solutions we have come up with to overcome these barriers and actually get valuable feedback from real users.