I have been thinking through a series of posts that will culminate in another book, “Application Snapshots: A Working through Screens Sketchbook.” As mentioned in an earlier post, this will be one of two “sketchbooks” that will show ways to bring “Working through Screens” 100 envisioning ideas to life.

Readers have responded positively to the illustrations and new design patterns in Flashbulb Interaction’s creative commons work, so “Application Snapshots” will be a fairly free form sketchbook of design ideas. Mostly showing, rather than telling. None of these ideas will have been vetted through usability research or real world implementation – and that’s not the point. Instead, this project will be about sparking ideas in a technology space where many potential user experience innovations are left unexplored and design often evolves in slow iterations.

So here are 25 groupings with four “Working through Screens” ideas in each cluster. The plan is to create an “Application Snapshot” for each grouping, and then pull them together at some point into a single Application Concepting Series volume (print on demand or free .pdf). I’m sure that I will be editing this rough Table of Contents along the way, and I will also link out to completed posts as this project rolls along.

Snapshot 1
H3. Automated historical records and versions
E1. Offloading long term memory effort
D1. Respected tempos of work
K9. Directed application interoperation

Snapshot 2
L2. Contemporary application aesthetics
E2. Offloading short term memory effort
D7. Eventual habit and automaticity
K3. Recognizable applicability to targeted work

Snapshot 3
J4. Authorship awareness, presence, and contact facilitation
J1. Integral communication pathways
I4. Uncertain or missing content
D6. Alerting and reminding cues

Snapshot 4
L3. Iconic design resemblances within applications
B4. Object associations and user defined objects
A6. Open and emergent work scenarios
M1. Iterative conversations with knowledge workers

Snapshot 5
I2. Comprehensive and relevant search
G4. Workspace awareness embedded in interactions
G2. Levels of selection and action scope
D3. Current workload, priority of work, and opportunity costs

Snapshot 6
M3. Application user communities
I7. Archived information
F8. Representational transformations
B6. Flagged variability within or between objects

Snapshot 7
H2. Extensive and reconstructive undo
E3. Automation of low level operations
E5. Visibility into automation
D2. Expected effort

Snapshot 8
K2. Introductory user experience
I3. Powerful filtering and sorting
H1. Active versioning
C2. Application interaction model

Snapshot 9
B5. Object states and activity flow visibility
F4. Support for visualization at different levels
I5. Integration of information sources
A5. Interrelations of operation, task, and activity scenarios

Snapshot 10
J6. Streamlined standard communications
G3. Error prevention and handling in individual interactions
F6. Instrumental results representations
B10. Object templates

Snapshot 11
J3. Explicit work handoffs
E6. Internal locus of control
E4. Automation of task or activity scenarios
C6. Standardized application workflows

Snapshot 12
K12. Trusted and credible processes and content
F10. Symbolic visual languages
F11. Representational codes and context
A4. Standardization of work practice through mediation

Snapshot 13
K8. Seamless inter-application interactivity
K13. Reliable and direct activity infrastructure
D5. Resuming work
F9. Simultaneous or sequential use of representations

Snapshot 14
K10. Openness to application integration and extension
F7. Highly functional tables
L1. High quality and appealing work products
J7. Pervasive printing

Snapshot 15
B9. Common management actions for objects
K6. Design for frequency of access and skill acquisition
C4. Pathways for task and activity based wayfinding
A9. High value ratio for targeted work practices

Snapshot 16
H4. Working annotations
I6. Explicit messaging for information updates
C3. Levels of interaction patterns
B3. Coupling of application and real world objects

Snapshot 17
K4. Verification of operation
K5. Understanding and reframing alternate interpretations
B8. Explicit mapping of objects to work mediation
A3. Work practices appropriate for computer mediation

Snapshot 18
K1. Application localization
F2. Established genres of information representation
B2. Flexible identification of object instances
A8. Local practices and scenario variations

Snapshot 19
F1. Coordinated representational elements
C8. Defaults, customization, and automated tailoring
L4. Appropriate use of imagery and direct branding
D4. Minimizing distraction and fostering concentration

Snapshot 20
K7. Clear and comprehensive instructional assistance
C5. Permissions and views tailored to workers’ identities
C1. Intentional and articulated conceptual models
A2. Workers’ interrelations and relationships

Snapshot 21
K11. End user programming
G6. Contextual push of related information
B1. Named objects and information structures
M2. System champions

Snapshot 22
M4. Unanticipated uses of technology
G7. Transitioning work from private to public view
F5. Comparative representations
C9. Error prevention and handling conventions

Snapshot 23
J2. Representational common ground
C7. Structural support of workspace awareness
B7. Object ownership and availability rules
A7. Collaboration scenarios and variations

Snapshot 24
L5. Iconoclastic product design
G1. Narrative experiences
F3. Novel information representations
C10. Predictable application states

Snapshot 25
J5. Public annotation
I1. Flexible information organization
G5. Impromptu tangents and juxtapositions
A1. Influential physical and cultural environments

Sound interesting? Have some thoughts on how “Working through Screens” ideas could be illustrated through example “snapshot” sketches? Your input would be greatly appreciated! Please comment on this post, tweet @J_Burghardt or send an email to jburghardt@flashbulbinteraction.com

A: Ideas for advancing user experience in the evolving knowledge workplace.

More specifically, I will be using this space to iteratively write the next two titles in Flashbulb Interaction’s “Application Concepting Series” of publications:

• “Opportunity Mapping: A Working through Screens Sketchbook”
• “Application Snapshots: A Working through Screens Sketchbook”

By iteratively blogging draft content for these publications, I hope to gather feedback from readers like you.

As the titles suggest, each of these publications will be extensions of Flashbulb Interaction’s first book, “Working through Screens: 100 Ideas for Envisioning Powerful, Engaging, and Productive User Experiences in Knowledge Work.”  These two new volumes will showcase a variety of ways that product teams might apply the 100 envisioning ideas to early, strategic phases of application definition and design.

Since “Working through Screens” was an intensive writing project, these next two volumes are going to focus more on visuals – on showing instead of telling. In keeping with the “sketchbook” idea, these projects will also be shorter and more open in format.  In general, both publications will be made up of a series of discrete “sketches,” with each idea presented in a two page “illustration and explanation” spread.  Since each spread of content will be self contained, my hope is that these new works will be especially well suited to being drafted as blog posts, right here at www.ApplicationConcepting.com.

When this blog is eventually full of content, and the two “Working through Screens Sketchbooks” have come together from the sum of all the parts, the plan is to make each publication available as free .pdf files and as print on demand books.

Sound interesting?  Have ideas that you would like to share about compelling new ways to visualize user experience opportunities?  Or maybe you have some thoughts on how “Working through Screens” ideas could be illustrated through example “snapshot” sketches?  Your input would be greatly appreciated! Please comment on this post, tweet @J_Burghardt or send an email to jburghardt@flashbulbinteraction.com