Management 3.0, Cognitive Load, Prototyping, Objects, Audio, & Broken

Management 3.0 - Here We Are. Now What?

Terrence Seamon writes that we are moving from Management 2.0 to Management 3.0:

• from focus on weaknesses to focus on strengths
• from appraisal to appreciation
• from "our way or the highway" to flexibility
• from "one size fits all" to customization
• from "command and control" to coach and engage

To fully move to Management 3.0 we are going to have to reverse the findings from Watson Wyatt's "WorkUSA 2006/2007" study that show only 49 percent of employees trust senior management, and only 36 percent believe top managers act with honesty and integrity. From Stgephen Covey's The Economics of Trust in CLO.

Reducing Extraneous Cognitive Load by Accounting for Individual Differences - Rob Barton

Tools like chunking, sequencing, imagery, and mnemonics can be utilized by an instructor to help a student process information and build on existing knowledge.

Prototyping with XHTML - Boxes and Arrows

Even if you do not use XHTML, this article provides some good pointers on prototyping, sketching, iteration, etc.

The true power of prototyping really emerges during iteration. This is when users can interact with your prototype. On a recent project, we sketched out a solution in which users could drag videos from a library onto a playlist. Looking at the static illustrations, it seemed a simple and elegant idea. But when users were able to interact with the solution, dragging and dropping video thumbnails, they found that it was a pretty tedious activity, especially for large numbers of videos. In other words, the prototype allowed us to discover a design problem that went unnoticed when looking at a wireframe.

Objectified - Gary Hustwit

Gary Hustwit's Helvetica is a great documentary film about typgraphy, graphic design, global visual culture, and the way type affects our lives. Now he has produced one on objects. This 90-second trailer looks quite interesting — looks as if I will have to add another Hustwit film to my library.

Information Architecture for Audio: Doing It Right - Boxes and Arrows

The inclusion of audio often results in usability issues that make it difficult for users to access and understand content. That is why we need new tools to organize linear content like audio. Luckily, a wide range of techniques employed in information architecture, journalism, usability engineering and interface design are available. All that’s required is the knowledge to combine them effectively. This article presents a practical framework for designing and implementing audio-based content, such as podcasts.

They Broke It

The crystal and ceramics company Waterford Wedgwood, whose roots go back 250 years, has been placed in administration, or what is called bankruptcy protection in the United States. While high manufacturing costs, declining demand for luxury goods and a weak dollar may have precipitated matters, this is not a credit-crunch story - it is a history lesson.

While the product is still good, the marketing is dreadful. The company has been both profligate and miserly - it has hired hot designers, but then has scrimped by not spending money to change the molds; as a result, contemporary design is crudely imposed on 100-year-old shapes.

Can the same be said of today's instructional designers, "learning design is crudely imposed on 100-year-old shapes."