Surreal Notions

Plumkeeper is a new social network focused on parents.  More specifically the mothers of young children.  It’s part social network (share things with friends and family in a closed network) and part scrap blog (different types of data within a journal metaphor).  I worked with Kyrie Robinson and the Plumkeeper co-founders Perry Mizota and David Straus.

Unlike existing social networks, Plumkeeper lets the parents control who is allowed to see or contribute to the information.  This control allows parents to document everything in one place – regardless if the rest of the family and friends should be kept in the loop.

Now, the really cool part is how parents can contribute… however it’s convenient at the time.  Phone, email, IM, SMS etc.  They’re all ways to easily capture the moment, no matter where you’re at or what you’re doing.  This allows parents to capture those cute little moments when a child discovers something, says something or does something.  Once captured, parents can go back to elaborate on the event, add additional content such as pictures, and ultimately create a physical production (e.g., a memory book).  This makes documenting a child’s life for later nostalgia (or diner torture with a date) a cinch.

I had a great time working with this crew and hope to see a spectacular product develop over the next couple years.  Assuming I ever get around to that whole family thing, I know I’d want to use something like this.

Alight Planning was founded and designed by some of the same people behind the successful Hyperion. After Hyperion was acquired by Oracle, a few of these budgeting gurus decided there was a market between Hyperion and simple spreadsheets (e.g., Excel) being under-served.

Alight is currently a desktop application (v5 was released recently).  The next major revision will move away from the old desktop process to a browser-based client-server architecture.  This is being done for a few reasons.

• Support for an increasing number of participants in the budgeting process.
• Improved granular control over users.
• Next generation user interface to increase productivity and decrease learning curves.
• Better security and disaster recovery.

Support for an increasing number of participants in the budgeting process.  Rather than creating organizational bottle necks, line managers can access and update numbers they’re responsible for.  Executives and upper management can review summaries and reports as necessary.  This allows the budget owners to focus on developing a practical budget.  Of course, this means fairly advanced control over users and the content they have access is necessary as well.  The current processes require a lot of manual file (and file version) management.  This becomes cumbersome and ultimately impractical with more than a handful of participants.

Improved granular control over users.  As more users become involved in the process, better controls need to be applied.  The existing controls are cumbersome and, although powerful, difficult to master.  A large portion of the design efforts were focused on creating a simple interface to understand who can access what subsets of data and how they relate.  A substantial amount of time is spent setting up these accounts and, depending on how many people are involved, managing changes in responsibility.  I developed a couple somewhat novel approaches to help the budget managers create and understand groups of permissions as well as identify gaps and overlaps.

Next generation user interface to increase productivity and decrease learning curves.  I reevaluated the primary budget interface to reduce clutter and simplify basic interactions.  When I started there were more than three-dozen buttons on a couple toolbars.  I was able to consolidate and simplify the toolbars into a handful of key functions and contextual access to additional tools.  I also simplified the navigation by adopting an iTunes-like navigation.  Many interactions around creating and editing reports were reduced to simple drag/drop motions in a WYSIWYG editor.

Of course, one of the side benefits of a client-server architecture is centralized management of upgrades, backup, recovery, etc.  This improves security and makes it easier for organizations to manage deployments.

I expect the next version of Alight Planning will have a substantial edge on existing budgeting applications.  Supported by a great team working on the underlying engineering problems, the new interface should offer a refreshing alternative to the existing solutions.  It’s certainly an improvement over Excel, which is typically what new Alight customers are coming from.

For the last few months I have worked with an extremely talented team. We have explored numerous potential product concepts and several innovative UI models to make those products both competitive and unique. My part in this process is drawing to a close, but I expect some amazing products in the near future from Autodesk.

I worked closely with Brent Pennock (product designer) and Brian Souder (product manager). Our product designs focus on leveraging existing Autodesk technologies across the emerging software as a service (SaaS) distribution channel.

SaaS, strictly speaking, isn’t exactly new. It started to show up in common vernacular (well, common for techies) as early as 2000/2001. SaaS differs from application service providers (ASPs) in many ways, but most notably their architectures diverge. SaaS applications focus on web interfaces using a multi-tenant architecture (multiple people running the same application with virtually separated data, while ASP applications consider web interfaces an afterthought and create individual user instances of each application. I’m certain there are some great articles available on the ‘Net to describe the nuances between these two systems. I suggest starting at Wikipedia.

During the project, Brent and I created several different design concepts across a couple product concepts. The more promising design concepts were fleshed out into fairly robust wireframes after several weeks of customer interviews and paper testing. The next step will include developing a working or pseudo-working prototype, which will be used in usability testing.

Because the project is still in early stages, I don’t want to go into too much detail. First, there are nondisclosure agreements and business plans to consider. And second, I’m not sure what will happen in the next few months as usability testing uncovers flaws in the current design (hopefully there aren’t many of those). Once a beta of the product is released, I’ll speak about it in more depth. Check out Autodesk Labs for more information over the next few months.

UPDATE (2009-05-24):

It looks like Dragonfly is getting some public wings.  Check it out at dragonfly.autodesk.com.

Designed a calculator for MyCorporation and Intuit partners (e.g., preferred CPAs and related businesses). The calculator will help business owners understand the tax benefits of incorporation, offering one data point in the business entity decision process. I spoke to several friends and colleagues (mostly CPAs, business owners, and lawyers) before deciding on an entity. I hope this calculator will help other startups make the right decision the first time to avoid unnecessary expenses or problems. After all, the last thing a startup needs is unnecessary expenses when the precious capital available could be spent on more important things.

The calculations involved are fairly simple, but (like so many things tax related) require a fair amount of domain knowledge to understand. Unfortunately, accounting tends to be rife with jargon–jargon that is very specific and unforgiving. For example, confusing net revenue (revenue after expenses have been removed) and gross revenue (revenue before expenses have been removed) will generate two very different numbers.

This calculator needed to guide people through the jargon (and avoid it whenever possible), require the minimum information possible, and provide a reasonably useful answer. Of course, it had to do all of this very simply, because the calculator is primarily a marketing piece.

I will include screenshots and a link to the calculator in action as soon as possible. It should be released sometime early Q2 of 2008.

Thanks to Philip, I started a new project at Autodesk today.  Hurrah!

As I’m sure you’re aware, Autodesk is the company behind numerous CAD and 3D rendering applications.  They started with AutoCAD a couple decades ago and have since expanded into specialized CAD programs, BIM programs (like Revit), and general 3D rendering (they acquired 3D Studio MAX and Maya in the last few years).  In fact, AutoCAD is a de-facto standard in most engineering fields.  ProEngineer, TurobCAD, and other competitors basically follow the Autodesk lead when it comes to CAD.  So at least I’m in the right place to make a difference

We’re still in the very early stages of the project and I can’t really talk about it much anyway.  However, it’s a great group of people, so I should at least have fun and learn a few interesting things.

Despite my short stay at Northern Natural, I was able to help point them in the right direction.  Philip once mentioned that internal projects tend to be less profitable and less likely to have a lasting impact than commercial projects.  He is, no doubt, absolutely correct.  However, I enjoyed working with the team at Northern Natural… and a good team will go a long way no matter what challenges they might face.

I was pulled in to offer advice and help make some of the bigger UI decisions.  More than anything, I tried to give the main architect and developers a crash-course in interaction design.  I gave them lots of thoughts, but I also tried to help them understand the thought process in UI.  How to approach problems from a user perspective rather than a business or technical perspective.  It’s not as easy as you’d think.  In fact, I believe it’s one of the keystone skills a good interaction designer brings to the table.  Furthermore, I’m not certain this is the kind of skill that can be taught in a book or a series of reproducible steps.

Both Jennifer (architect) and Loren (developer) have excellent instincts concerning interaction and usability.  My fear is they get too much push back from the customers and try to please the end users by adding features rather than solving problems.  A subtle distinction I try to emphasize, but I don’t think it is very obvious sometimes.  It’s very easy to add a widget, change a color, move a button, or create a report because a customer asks for it.  It’s not as easy to fully understand the reasoning for the request and solving the root problem, which frequently has little or nothing to do with the requested feature.  But, I am confident Jennifer and Loren are on the right track for now.  I’ll check in every now and then just to make sure they don’t run into any trouble.

I’ve officially started working with Sojern.  We’re still ironing out a few of the contract details, but things should be finalized shortly.  This should be an interesting experience, to say the least.

And people say I’m ambitious.  Sojern has set out with a defined goal of creating $1 billion of shareholder value over the next 3-4 years.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great group of people with lots of talent.  They’ve got the resources and management with enough business acumen and sales experience to probably pull it off.  However, that’s one hell of a goal to start out with!

If nothing else, Sojern should be an interesting ride.  I’m not convinced the business is ready (maybe in six months) for my skill-set yet; however, I’ll do everything I can in the meantime.  Hopefully, I’m wrong and they will need to develop all of the components currently being discussed in parallel.  I suspect quite a few components and concepts will fall into v3, v4, and v5 discussions, because this project strikes me as substantially larger than most people involved want to admit.  I have been accused of biting too much off at the same time, but I’ve never seen an entire office do it at the same time.  I hope I’m wrong, but it’s hard to not notice some of the signs.

Despite all of this, the monstrous goals, the gargantuan challenges, the short time-line, I still think Sojern will probably succeed.  It is just a matter of time.  Given the collection of experience already in the room and the several million dollars in angel investment already acquired, I doubt it’ll take very long for success to find Sojern.

“Struggle is good.”  Or so my high school English teacher quipped on a regular basis.  I suppose part of me, a big part perhaps, agrees.  It’s a bitter sweet thing when Intuit closed the Omaha office.  On the one hand, there is much I left unfinished.  On the other hand, it forced me to find something different, which might be better in the long run.

I enjoyed my brief time at Intuit; however, with rising prospects elsewhere leaving opens up innumerable opportunities I would have either overlooked or bypassed while at Intuit.  There is something to be said for constantly throwing oneself into the raptures of change and chaos.  It might be crazy… or it might be brilliant.  Haven’t decided which just yet

Maybe I’ll still have a chance to work on some of those lingering projects as a contractor in a few months.  And, if nothing else, I learned a few things, made some improvements in a few products, and met some really great people.  Any experience with all of that must have been worth it.

On the plus side, a majority of the people from the office are joining a new startup called Sojern.  I’m not a big fan of the misspelling of sojourn (to have a safe and successful trip or journey); however, the business plan is interesting.  I’m negotiating a part-time contract with Sojern along with a couple other possible clients.

Of course, I have every confidence that the entire group will land on their respective feet without any trouble.  The whole office was comprised of experienced professionals with more than a bit of entrepreneurial spirit.

Intuit initially hired me as a staff UI Designer to support TurboTax® Estimated Taxes.  Although I designed interaction for numerous projects while at Intuit, this project represents the majority of my time and effort.  I worked closely with a talented team of engineering, QA, support, domain experts, and product management personnel.

We conducted several usability and marketing studies from late 2006 to early 2007.  Each study focussed on different aspects of the user experience ranging from SEO to help the user find the application to specific tasks a returning user wants to accomplish.  Among the many learnings from this research, we found the majority of our users were elderly retirees.  In fact, the initial offering had substantial negative feedback around navigation and confidence.  Basically, users had trouble finding where the tasks lived and weren’t sure when they were done with the task.  We also saw high rates of abandonment during setup.

To mitigate these concerns, I started by redesigning the setup user experience from a 14 step process to 3 steps.  This reduced the abandonment rate and initial confusion.  It also allowed users to get into the product and use it before deciding if the product solves for their specific needs.

Once in the product, the home page redesign used a checklist metaphor to help guide the users to the tasks necessary for their specific needs.  The checklist or action list guided users to next steps required by the IRS, errors that must be corrected, and points of concern within their account.  Several variants and metaphors were tested during usability, but the checklist metaphor clearly rang with the majority of subjects.

I went on to simplify the filing process to a single screen from a 4 step process; simplified the account management and reports sections; and improved navigation and confidence within the estimated taxes calculator.

Although these improvements were met with resounding positive feedback, technical changes with a third-party component has forced Intuit to temporarily deactivate the product.  Plans are moving forward to work around the third-party component and open TurboTax Estimated Taxes up to the public again or imbed the functionality within TurboTax desktop products.

Designed interaction for two of four teams assigned to TurboTax® Business 2007.  While conducting several usability studies, I helped the team of tax experts improve form selection, expenses, and other areas particularly confusing or troublesome for users.  One thing to note here, the TurboTax Business product is built upon Intuit’s professional product.  It is a fairly complete solution, but still contains quite a bit of content originally written for accountants.

The form selection process was reduced to a single screen.  With the help of tax experts and a copyrighter, we improved the layout and reduced confusion between the different options.  For instance, a few rare instances require unusual filing practices.  Rather than making these possibilities differentiated selections (giving them equal weight to the more common options), we improved the help content and limited the user to simpler options.  Although this might create confusion for the odd-ball filer, our studies found the percentage of filers with those conditions to be well below 5% and a majority of them understood their situation and didn’t require help.  Usability indicated users not only found the correct form faster, but were much more confident in their selection and the rest of the product.

The single biggest problem small business owners have when filing taxes, assuming their books are accurate, is correctly assigning business expenses.  To improve this process, we decided to use a novel way of customizing examples in each expense section to better represent the type of expenses the user is likely to have.  For instance, if the user indicates his/her business is a manufacturing plant, expenses commonly associated with manufacturing are displayed in the respective expense sections.  It’s not likely a consultant has farming expenses, so we leave them off-screen in the help section and concentrate on travel and office expenses.  Usability firmly supported our hypothesis that users are more confident of choices when one or two examples exactly match their needs.

I look forward to picking up a copy of TurboTax Business 2007 when it becomes available to see how everything works for my business.