To minimise support calls and maximise usage, we must focus on designing around the user. That's true whether you're a learning intervention designer (including online, print and face-to-face), or whether you're a learning systems designer. great model I recently discovered (after a talk with Ben Betts ) is the User Experience Honeycomb from Peter Morville. Within it, he describes seven facets of user experience: Useful. As practitioners, we can't be content to paint within the lines drawn by managers. Usable. In short, usability is necessary but not sufficient. Desirable. Findable. Accessible. MORE >>

As I understand, like many others, life is not about knowing the answers - it is all about asking the right questions. I wrote a post on Asking the right questions in 2009. am still learning how to ask the 'right' questions. And everyday, my questions get better. Here are some of the questions I am asking myself these days: What do I need less of? What keeps me motivated? What do I want to MORE >>

March 1, 2012 to March 30, 2012. Working Smarter  draws upon ideas from design thinking, network optimization, brain science, user experience design, learning theory, organizational development, social business, technology, collaboration, web 2.0 patterns, social psychology, value network analysis, anthropology, complexity theory, and more. Working smarter embraces the spirit of agile software, action learning, social networks, and parallel developments in many disciplines. Every day, Working Smarter Daily  uses social signals to select the top articles from blogs in these fields. Here’s how. MORE >>

Tweet Here are some of the observations and insights that were shared via Twitter this past week. Brain Rule #2 : “ There is no greater anti-brain environment than the classroom and cubicle. John Medina” via @chriscognito. “ When a subject becomes totally obsolete we make it a required course.  ~ Peter F. Drucker” via @montberte. gapingvoid: “ Conversations” are fine and dandy, but eventually one actually has to get some work done. ” How creativity works : What Broadway musicals really teach us about collaboration. – via @TimKastelle. MORE >>

E-Learning Solutions Allow Workers to Access Training Materials from Anywhere, at Any Time. Online learning , or e-learning , offers a number of advantages for people and companies looking to develop a new content program or curricula — none bigger than the ability to offer that training anywhere, anytime. That means whether your trainees are all together in a classroom or scattered all over the country in different time zones, they can still tap into the same course materials, and at a time that’s convenient to them. But those are just some of the benefits of online learning. MORE >>