John Rhodes has an interesting article published on his blog about individuals being passionate, dedicated, and focused on design and UX…

It is hard to develop something amazing if you don’t care about it, when there’s no interest or passion…If you talk to people who do great work, they will tell you that there is dedication based on the inner need to craft something wonderful. It isn’t money or external rewards that drive the best people…it takes special people doing special work to make usability a reality. If you’re doing UX work, you need to actually care about the work you’re doing, and the people that will feel the pain if the design isn’t right.

I know from experience that this also applies to corporations as much as individuals. Individuals can lack passion about design because the organization itself is not focused on building great UX. Is it the company that’s not passionate about design or is it the individual?

Organizations like individuals can either care about the work they are producing or be focused on a myriad of other issues like time to market or ROI. With the later, I see individuals in organizations just doing what it takes to make the buck and get by or just doing what they’re told to do to meet the next deadline. It’s hard to motivate people in organizations to be passionate about their products if the organization hasn’t built a culture that rewards employees building great user experiences.

It’s the holiday season, and most companies are doing their year end bonuses now but I wonder how many of these bonuses are based on usability UX metrics? When organizations are passionate, dedicated, and focused on delivering great design and usability, everyone benefits.

Photosynth Demo

Using photos of oft-snapped subjects (like Notre Dame) scraped from around the Web, Photosynth creates breathtaking multidimensional spaces with zoom and navigation features that outstrip all expectation. Its architect, Blaise Aguera y Arcas, shows it off in this standing-ovation demo. Curious about that speck in corner? Dive into a freefall and watch as the speck becomes a gargoyle. With an unpleasant grimace. And an ant-sized chip in its lower left molar. “Perhaps the most amazing demo I’ve seen this year,” wrote Ethan Zuckerman, after TED2007. Indeed, Photosynth might utterly transform the way we manipulate and experience digital images.

XL Touchscreen Invisible Interface

Jeff Han, a research scientist for New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences demonstrates an intuitive, “interface-free,” touch-driven computer screen, which can be manipulated intuitively with the fingertips, and responds to varying levels of pressure.