A few things going on

So, I’ve had a crazy spring so far — between a brutal travel schedule and some unexpected health stuff (all resolved now), there’s barely been time to draw breath.

There have been lots of good things, including some interesting projects in the works.  A particular good thing recently was a really nice review of the book by Clive Shepherd:

“There’s book a I’ve been meaning to write which I hoped would address the problem. I tentatively called it ‘What every L&D professional needs to know about learning’ (not so catchy I know). But I’ve been beaten to the gun by Julie Dirksen.” – Clive Shepherd

Still giddily fanning myself a bit over that…

For local folks (Minneapolis/St. Paul area), there are a few things going on also:

On Thursday (April 12th, 2012), I’m doing the Design for Behavior Change talk for the local UPA (Usability Professionals Association) chapter.  The event starts at 6:15 PM, and the talk starts at 6:45 PM.  You can get details here http://www.upamn.org/events?eventId=456463&EventViewMode=EventDetails

Also, the fantastic Connie Malamed (author of Visual Language for Designers and http://theelearningcoach.com/) is in town this week, so check out her talk on Friday:

Your Brain on Graphics: Research-Inspired Design, Friday April 13th

Information here: http://www.pactweb.org/ (you can also get details about her 1/2 day workshop at that link)

Program Details: Learning through visuals opens up new pathways in the brain. You can optimize opportunities for visual learning and provide better learning experiences when you understand how people perceive and process visual information. During this presentation, you will learn how graphics can leverage the strengths and compensate for the weaknesses of our cognitive architecture. You’ll learn how to make design decisions based on research. We’ll look at lots of examples in the process. Topics include: * How our brains are hardwired for graphics * How to speed up your visual message * How to make graphics cognitively efficient * How to speak to the emotions through visuals * How to visualize abstractions This presentation is for anyone who selects, conceives of, designs or creates visuals or anyone interested in visual communication.

Location: The Metropolitan, 5418 Wayzata Boulevard, Golden Valley, MN 55418 When: 8:30-11am

(She also wrote a very nice review of the book, btw)

Design For Behavior Change

So, last week I did a keynote at the Humana Learning Consortium conference, which is a  great little internal conference for Humana’s learning and development folks, and I thoroughly enjoyed my experience there.

The topic I spoke on was Design for Behavior Change, which is something I’m pretty passionate about. While I was presenting, the delightful Kelly Young, one of the organizers, tweeted this:

I’m quoting her tweet because I like her summation of what I was saying better than the words I actually used.

“when (lack of) knowledge is not the problem, more information is not the answer”

I think this is going to be really, really, really important for learning and development folks, and I’ll tell you why.

Last weekend, I was having a conversation with the wicked-smaht Elliot Felix about the design of libraries and museums.  He was telling me that museums are waking up to what libraries have already started to figure out — they aren’t in the information supply business any more.  There’s more information available online than anybody knows what to do with.  Libraries and museums need to be about services and experiences if they expect to stay relevant.

Learning and development folks who are currently in the information presentation business are going to have the same problem.  When everyone is walking around with smart phones in their pockets (which is pretty much now), then who really needs information purveyors? (btw — it’s this mistaken view of the job of learning professionals that leads to the messed up idea that Khan Academy can replace good teachers).

So I think that information-deliverers are going to need to add to their skill set pretty quickly, or they’ll find themselves obsolete.  I think we need to think of ourselves as business consultants, experience designers and change facilitators (which means we need to be learning about what the business, UX and change management folks do).  This goes back to some of conversations I’ve been having with Reuben Tozman, and I’ll have lots more to say on this in future posts.

Anyway, the topic I was speaking on was Design for Behavior Change (which I hit on in Chapter 8 of the book).  Here are the slides from the talk:

Design for Behavior Change

View more PowerPoint from Julie Dirksen

Gameful Webinar – Recording

The recording of the webinar that I did for the Gameful folks has been posted – it’s available  here:

http://gameful.org/groups/gameful-webinar-series/forum/topic/gameful-webinar-%E2%80%93-sunday-february-12-2012/

We wound up with a troll in the room towards the end, who kept posting links to -erm- unsavory sites, so be careful about clicking links in the chat (The ones in the actual presentation slides are safe).  Made for a slightly odd experience.

Slides and links can be found here: http://usablelearning.wordpress.com/about/presentations/leef/

Gameful Webinar

Hey — what are you doing on Sunday?  I’m doing this:

The concept of Flow has gotten a little overused in game design, but there are still useful insights and subtleties that can be applied to experience design.  And, it’s free! And we’ll look at a PET scan of your brain on Tetris! And, it’s free! And, we’ll play Plants vs Zombies! And, free!

More info here: http://gameful.org/groups/educational-games/forum/topic/gameful-webinar-%E2%80%93-sunday-february-12-2012-2013/

 

Ridiculously Smart Stuff on Behavior Change

So I’ve probably mentioned in the past that Sebastian Deterding is one of my professional crushes.  I’ll try not to gush excessively, but he’s really smart.

Here’s his latest slideshare on research for behavioral change, and it’s fantastic stuff:

The MAO Model: Research for Behavior Change.

View more presentations from Sebastian Deterding

He’s got some interesting critiques of the rider / elephant metaphor (from Jonathan Haidt’s Happiness Hypothesis) which I’m really curious about.  I’ve used that metaphor a lot, and I think it’s useful for learning design, but I’ll definitely investigate his points — for example, he points out that shifting all the emphasis to the elephant isn’t the right strategy either (I’m sure that there’s a lot that isn’t in the slides — will have to see if there’s a recording of the talk).

Want Attention? Talk to the Elephant.

Do you want to capture and maintain your learners’ attention?  You need to talk to the elephant.

The elephant metaphor is from Jonathan Haidt's book, The Happiness Hypothesis (http://www.happinesshypothesis.com/)

Peachpit (my publishers) just posted an article I wrote based on Chapter 5: Design for Attention. You can read the entire article here.

Love these: Mental Notes

So, still need a gift for the design geek on your holiday shopping list?*

I’ve mentioned Stephen Anderson before (I’m a big ol’ fan), but I particularly love his Mental Notes cards, which cover dozens of psychology principles that impact how we design. Need to jump start your design process?  Pull a few cards out the deck, and talk about how you can incorporate those ideas.

You can order them here: http://getmentalnotes.com/

I particularly mention it now because (aside from the fact that these are awesome) Stephen is donating half the proceeds right now.

* Yes, I know it’s a little late to order holiday presents (story of my life), but you can print some sample cards to use a placeholder gift until the real ones arrive.

Toolbar Podcast #9: Usability. Don’t Be a Moron.

The Toolbar is a podcast by Brian Dusablon and Judy Unrein that involves talking about the tools that e-learning practitioners use (and also beer). It’s just the kind of satisfying shoptalk that usually only happens at professional conferences or the like.

I got to be a guest on this week’s episode, talking about things like usability, feedback loops, quick and dirty user testing, and what’s fundamentally broken about e-learning development.

Go have a listen: The Toolbar Episode #9: Usability. Don’t Be a Moron (and even if you don’t have time for the whole episode, go check out the great list of links Brian compiled in the show notes).

The Inspiration Bookshelf

One of the things I had while writing the book was an inspiration bookshelf.  These were books that not only inspired the content of Design for How People Learn, but also the style of it.

None of these are instructional design books, but they are all books that instructional designers should read.

The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman (and also his book on Emotional Design)

The Non-designer’s Design Book by Robin Williams

Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud

Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug

The Art of Game Design by Jesse Schell

The Head First Books by Kathy Sierra, et al (really, any of the Head First books would work to look at.  You can learn more about their approach here: http://headfirstlabs.com/readme.php)

A Theory of Fun by Ralph Koster

This one is more recent, but it’s a great book too:

Seductive Interaction Design by Stephen Anderson

How about you?  What’s on your inspiration bookshelf?

Design for Motivation – Free Sample Chapter

Hey folks,

There’s a free sample chapter of the book (Design For How People Learn) available here:

http://usablelearning.wordpress.com/the-book/sample-chapter/

It’s Chapter 8: Design for Motivation

(In which we learn that we don’t always learn the right thing when we learn from experience, and that the elephant is a creature of habit)

If you are a reader of this blog, some of the ideas might be a bit familiar, but there’s some new stuff too

And, just a reminder, you can enter to win a free copy (until Midnight 11/12/11 Central US Time) by commenting here:

http://usablelearning.wordpress.com/2011/11/15/get-a-free-copy-of-the-design-for-how-people-learn-book/

Thanks!