I was bursting with excitement because…Gerry McGovern! I am inspired by his work and his singular focus on solving user’s problems and identifying user tasks. I am the living heart eye emoji when it comes to him.

Top Task Management: Making it Easier to Prioritize – Gerry McGovern

How can we get the information to you as soon as possible Google is about solving problems for you.
i.e. search results – to the info shown IN search results – to the info showing up in the URL.

When you understand the task the speed and expectation becomes faster.

Interesting test results – whichtestwon.com

Smart people sitting in a room – worst way to design a website. There is a huge difference between looking at and using a website. Preferring vs using – a gut instinct isn’t good to listen to.

***Tiny traffic is where the ego lies in an organization*** As if most people care what an organization says about itself. All this tiny traffic garbage damages users getting to actual tasks.

Organizations are really good at getting in the way of people doing what they need.

The most skill we can have is understanding our customer’s needs. Move away from ego towards empathy.

Marketing is like antibiotics; we’re becoming immune to it. More cynical to messages. Brand value is in decline and customer value is rising fast. Consumers and users are less and less trusting of messages.

Intangible assets

• customer base, intelligence
• trust moving away from orgs, moving towards friends and me.

Identify those tasks

• Top 50 search terms
• To 50 pages, files (PDFs count too!)
• Trad. media
• Emails – what are your customers emailing you about?

Discover the user ecosystem, instead of yours.

Web teams must manage the tasks – outcomes as well as components. When identifying tasks, teams must establish target times for completion.

Constantly improving and iterating – digital is never static. Always measure your tasks and environment.The distance between users and org is farthest in digital, and most crucial to understand.

The Physical Interface – Josh Clark

Interfaces are requiring us to be more robotics instead of interfaces being more human.

Interest lies in the mundane technologies (like auto car windows), them becoming:

• cheap
• functional
• accessible

The best interfaces translate intent into action. Mobile gives computing power to immobile devices through bluetooth – everything can be a sensor (diapers, asthma inhalers..)

What if a physical store could do what a online store does? Amazon’s physical store is the start of this. You could touch the product for more info, walk out of the store to buy it (just like Food Innovation Center’s RFID project!)

Where is the universal connector network? The physical web, broadcasting its interface -> like broadcasting a URL. (we could do this for user test screening!)

Objects should speak only when there are important things to say – goal is not to make things talk but to improve the conversation.

We’re moving into surveillance capitalism – at what point are we no longer controlling objects and are being controlled by them (ie. Siri teaching us to say names in a weird way). Our values amplify our humanity.

The Ethical Design Manifesto – check that they values of your creation bend to your lives.