Karyn's blog

I sometimes get asked about our name, why Analytic Design Group. People get confused and think maybe it has to do with site analytics. I will admit it is a little awkward, especially that confusion between analytics and Analytic. Every now and then someone tells me I need to rebrand, the name is just no good, they say.

"I hate Facebook, Facebook is stupid." This quip came from a 17 year old who was responding to the question of whether he thought it was good to be 'Facebook official' or not.

The City of Vancouver finally launched their redesigned website. I say finally as it was at about a two year long project and it was something that was long overdue.

Full disclosure: Analytic Design Group did the in-depth usability and accessibility assessment on both the mockups for the redesign as well as a prototype.

Several years ago (2003 - 2005) when I was an Information Architect at Creo (a once-upon-a-time tech darling in BC that got bought out by Kodak) I learned a very valuable lesson about the weight that data and evidence carried over my in-depth knowledge of the content and IA (information architecture) of the site.

I have been doing a fair amount of speaking at various groups and conferences lately and have noticed that while I am telling the story of some deep-dive research there are always some people in the audience who are shaking their head or giving a bit of a tsk tsk when I talk about the unexamined assumptions some of our clients have made.

There is talk of innovation everywhere. Governments and business are talking about ways to close the innovation gap, to stimulate the economy and growth through innovation. Within this talk there is a great deal of focus on development: developing new apps, developing new technologies, developing a culture of innovation.

Today I stopped by a favourite local bakery (Uprising Breads) to get an iced latte and Avocado and Hummus sandwich. The people there are always friendly and that sandwich always terrific. The problem arose when the barista served me my coffee.

For April Fools this year I swapped the home page photos of the team for pictures of dogs. They are a dogged group: hard working, great spirit, determined, fun, and smart (able to do cool user expereince tricks!).

Last week Justin and I went to the University of Washington Human Centered Design & Engineering Corporate Affiliates Day. (See my post about that event)

A couple of weeks ago Justin and I went to the Corporate Affiliates Day at University of Washington’s Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE) program.