How government could hack its way to better UX

The annual GTEC conference that took place in Ottawa last week was about making public sector IT safer, more manageable, more responsive to citizens. So why was Tanya Snook advocating hacking?

Snook, a senior project manager at Treasury Board Secretariat, wrote a blog post that ran the day before GTEC opened on Oct. 6 that was all about “hacks.” Not writing malicious software that could bring down federal government PCs, but tips and tricks to break through common problems. She doesn’t use the word gamification, but she does write about innovating through playful cleverness. At least one of these hacks spoke directly to user experienced design:

Empathize with your user – Do you understand Bill’s business? Find opportunities to be the client, not just the implementer. Go sit with a program team for weeks or months to better understand the challenges they face using systems in their day-to-day work. Take an assignment and see how the other half works and lives: Go work in a central agency to try out enterprise-level projects; leave a central agency to really understand how decisions impact departments.

Snook also suggested public sector professionals stop waiting for approvals on projects and instead form working groups that can benefit the government as a whole. “That’s where the User Experience Working Group came from and they helped develop and implement the GC Web Usability Standard, provide training for UX practitioners and even contribute to (Web Experience Toolkit),” she said. Look for lots more coverage on the GTEC site to see how the public sector is trying to improve UX for citizens.

If you work in marketing and you have to speak about gamification, wouldn’t it be nice to have one slide deck that has almost everything worth showing to prospective colleagues and clients?

That’s exactly what Mike Kujawski offered last week on his blog. The deck, which is based on a variety of publicly-available materials, was used when he recently spoke at the MARCOM 2013 event for public sector and non-profit professionals in Ottawa. At 85 slides, this may be more than what the average person needs for a single talk on gamification, but there’s lots of useful information and examples that could be incorporated as part of a more focused pitch.

 

Most people are familiar with the terms LED and LCD, but experts in the display market may soon be spending more time discussing LPD. That’s a technology created by Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Prysm, and it stands for laser phosphor display. A recent issue of Computer Dealer News (CDN) focused on how Prsym is working with more Canadian companies and how LPD can be used as a differentiator.

It has “ridiculously low” power consumption, which also means it gives off less heat. It can be viewed from more angles, making it idea for large boardrooms and meeting places. And while LCD displays degrade at different speeds, leading to a lack of uniformity when used for a large tiled display, an LPD large video wall (also built with tiled displays) operates on a closed-loop servo, which constantly collaborates the displays for a uniform look.

Elsewhere:

• EConsultancy offers 10 Steps for Improving Mobile Form UX.
• Jason Akeny from Entrepreneur magazine has an in-depth perspective on Why Your Business Should Get In On The Gamification Trend.
• A new brief from consultant John Ryan looks at how bandwidth challenges are hampering banks’ use of digital displays.