News flashes

For suggestions, contact Peter J. Bogaards (pjb at BogieLand dot com).

October 10, 2008

Web Apps Are Dead - Long Live Web Apps

"Edwin Aoki is a Technology Fellow at AOL. Holding a joint degree in Computer Science and Sociology from Harvard College, Edwin believes strongly in the ability of technology to bring people closer together and to make our lives easier. He's worked at Apple Computer, GO Corporation, and Intuit before joining Netscape Communications in 1996. At Netscape, Edwin worked on the Netscape Communicator browser, enterprise products, and web applications prior to the company's acquisition by AOL. Currently, Edwin oversees architecture and technology strategy for many of AOL's consumer facing desktop, web, and mobile products. A published author and California native, Edwin is based out of AOL's Silicon Valley office. When he's not at work, Edwin is involved in wildlife conservation and likes to spend time with big cats." (Future of Web Apps London 2008)

PJB @ 03:00 PM | Classification: Events | Permalink

From: InfoDesign: Understanding by Design

Technology & Psychology

"Suw Charman-Anderson is a social software expert specialising in the use of blogs wikis, and other Web 2.0 tools in business. She's worked with British and American companies - in the tech, pharma, travel, media, financial and public relations sectors - to help them understand how social software can be used both behind the firewall and for customer communications. Suw worked as a freelance web designer and project manager from 1998 to 2002, designing websites and intranet sites for companies such as PricewaterhouseCoopers and Hutchison3G (now 3). She then ran her own internet start-up for two years before turning her passion for blogging into a successful consultancy." (Future of Web Apps London 2008)

PJB @ 02:38 PM | Classification: Events | Permalink

From: InfoDesign: Understanding by Design

October 08, 2008

How do UK banks' websites treat worried customers?

"I'm following the 'credit crisis' with my CXP hat on, and specifically look at how banks try to keep their customers calm, explain what is happening in simple language, and make it easy for worried customers to talk to someone at the bank. Because it is hard to find out what instructions employees are getting to comfort customers, or what mail is being sent to customers, I went to the homepages of the top 20 banks in the UK and checked the experience customers are receiving." (Tim van Tongeren - The Experience Design Scout)

PJB @ 04:52 PM | Classification: User experience | Permalink

From: InfoDesign: Understanding by Design

idea2008 presentations

Various speakers from the idea 2008 conference (Oct. 7-8, Chicago USA) have uploaded their presentations on Slideshare.

PJB @ 02:39 PM | Classification: Events | Permalink

From: InfoDesign: Understanding by Design

October 07, 2008

What is Scenography?

Replace performance with information - "Scenography is the art of creating performance environments; it can be composed of sound, light, clothing, performance, structure and space." (Sceno:graphy)

PJB @ 03:07 PM | Classification: Service design | Permalink

From: InfoDesign: Understanding by Design

Redesigning the Library Experience

"(...) one of the major challenges facing small public libraries today: rethinking the user experience to help bridge the digital and physical realms while enabling library administrators to better respond to patrons’ changing needs." (Michael Magoolaghan - ASIS&T Bulletin Oct/Nov 2008)

PJB @ 09:43 AM | Classification: Information architecture | Permalink

From: InfoDesign: Understanding by Design

October 06, 2008

Roadmap for an European IA Network

"A staged approach to realising a network of IAs in Europe." (Søren Muus et al.)

PJB @ 10:05 AM | Classification: Information architecture | Permalink

From: InfoDesign: Understanding by Design

Extending Card-Sorting Techniques to Inform the Design of Web Site Hierarchies

"Card sorting is a useful technique for discovering user perspectives on site navigation. However, designers or user researchers who conduct card-sorting exercises should be aware of the method’s challenges and assumptions. This column has presented a number of alternative methods that can extend and complement card sorting and thus provide the most comprehensive insights for designing an effective information hierarchy." (Michael Hawley - UXmatters)

PJB @ 10:02 AM | Classification: Information architecture | Permalink

From: InfoDesign: Understanding by Design

In Search of Strategic Relevance for UX Teams

"To make UX strategically relevant - so UX is not an afterthought, but can contribute to strategy - you need to produce stunning results that blow away your stakeholders. Then, you'll be able to hire more world-class researchers and designers. Once you have truly great people onboard, work to build trust. Achieving this, in part, depends on your organizational structure, so demonstrate your thought-leadership by recommending the right model for the organization, not just the model that's right for you at the moment." (Jim Nieters and Laurie Pattison - UXmatters)

PJB @ 09:59 AM | Classification: User experience | Permalink

From: InfoDesign: Understanding by Design

When to Use Which User Experience Research Methods

"Modern day user experience research methods can now answer a wide range of questions. Knowing when to use each method can be understood by mapping them in 3 key dimensions and across typical product development phases." (Christian Rohrer - Alertbox)

PJB @ 07:07 AM | Classification: Design research | Permalink

From: InfoDesign: Understanding by Design

October 03, 2008

Lou Rosenfeld on site search analytics

"We in the user experience community often tend to be a bit uncomfortable when analysing quantitative data; that's not the sort of thing that we learned in design school." (Richard Maven - e-consultancy)

PJB @ 12:51 PM | Classification: Interviews | Permalink

From: InfoDesign: Understanding by Design

Concepts versus Products: Usability is about Execution

"You can have a great plan for a User Experience Strategy, but you should really consider whether your company is able to execute that strategy. The same thing goes for product concepts, I believe. A groundbreaking, radical new product concept is inspiring, but if your company is currently not able to realize it and needs some time to live up to the strategy, by exposing your product concept to the public you have just told everyone in what direction you will be heading in the coming years." (Jasper van Kuijk - uselog)

PJB @ 09:25 AM | Classification: Usability | Permalink

From: InfoDesign: Understanding by Design

October 02, 2008

Why information architects are needed in the kitchen

Better content management through information architecture
Presentation given at EuroIA 2008
"(1) Adopt a holistic approach towards the 'front stage' and the 'back stage'; (2) Apply IA expertise to content management; (3) Advise the organization dealing with the change." (Ruud Ruissaard & Peter J. Bogaards)

PJB @ 01:46 PM | Classification: Special | Permalink

From: InfoDesign: Understanding by Design

Futures, experiences & design

An interview with Nathan Shedroff - "Design processes bring a culture of brainstorming, critique, prototyping, and testing to the product and service development process." (Nik Baerten - pantopicon) - courtesy of markvanderbeeken

PJB @ 09:43 AM | Classification: Interviews | Permalink

From: InfoDesign: Understanding by Design

October 01, 2008

Remember and Share

Judit Pónya writes - "Conference handouts, presentations on SlideShare (tag: euroia2008), photos on Flickr (tag: euroia2008).
Find the people you met and join the European Information Architects Network at Xing (https://www.xing.com/net/euroianetwork) and LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=929067).
And see you next year in Copenhagen!" (EuroIA Blog)

PJB @ 05:03 PM | Classification: Events | Permalink

From: InfoDesign: Understanding by Design

Service Design via the Global Web 

"For international companies, the Internet is an essential but inherently complex interface. In the framework presented here, Brian Gillespie critiques a range of options related to gateways, scope, user research, uniform versus local presence, language, content development, design, site implementation, domains, and URLs. It is an enlightening overview for both executives and managers." (Brian Gillespie - DMI Review)

PJB @ 02:21 PM | Classification: Service design | Permalink

From: InfoDesign: Understanding by Design

Take-away facts and quotes from the 2008 EuroIA Summit

"Over the weekend I've been in Amsterdam attending the 2008 European Information Architecture Summit. It was held at the Tuschinski Theatre, which was a simply amazing venue. (...) I got to see a great selection of presentations." (Martin Belam - currybetdot)

PJB @ 01:43 PM | Classification: Events | Permalink

From: InfoDesign: Understanding by Design

Concept Design Tools

"Designers of digital products and services like ourselves can dramatically improve our work by generating more concepts early in our projects. In this article, I'll try to make concept design easier to learn by illustrating three simple tools for generating concepts." (Victor Lombardi - Digital Web Magazine)

PJB @ 01:28 PM | Classification: Information design | Permalink

From: InfoDesign: Understanding by Design

Bohne Forsberg and The Design Process Manifesto

"On today's show we speak with Bohne Forsberg about the Design Process Manifesto he created from over 20 years experience in the field of design." (Jeff Parks - I.A. Consultants) - courtesy of thehotstrudel

PJB @ 09:25 AM | Classification: Podcasts | Permalink

From: InfoDesign: Understanding by Design

September 30, 2008

Content Analysis Slides from EuroIA 2008

"I wanted to make a big shout out to all the folks who came to my talk at the EuroIA Conference today. Wow! Thanks! I had no idea so many people were interested in content analysis." (Chiara Fox)

PJB @ 05:20 PM | Classification: Events | Permalink

From: InfoDesign: Understanding by Design

Don Norman on Service Design

"Now that I've listened to the lecture a couple times I've got a better idea where Norman is going with this. He makes some good points about the importance of back stage operations but I don't agree with his assertion that operations and design are the same topic. He seems disappointed with much of the existing service design literature and treats Pine and Gilmore with mild disdain. The lecture goes on a rambling tour of theme parks, fast food, hospitals, hotels and banking, with some great anecdotes and pointers toward interesting research." (Jeff Howard - Design for Service)

PJB @ 11:39 AM | Classification: Service design | Permalink

From: InfoDesign: Understanding by Design

September 29, 2008

EuroIA 2008 presentations

Various speakers from the EuroIA 2008 summit have uploaded their presentations on Slideshare.

PJB @ 03:49 PM | Classification: Events | Permalink

From: InfoDesign: Understanding by Design

Thoughts on the Euro Information Architecture Summit 2008

"At the moment I'm trying to pull back and see information architecture as a new but somewhat established field. Invention used to be necessary of everyone, but now it's only needed from a few. Compare it to another field like electrical engineering. At the beginning there was a lot invention, but now we know enough to simple do it. Today, some engineers continue to push the envelope in the design of microprocessors while others specify the wiring in the next model of speaker phone. I would expect IA to settle into the same spread." (Victor Lombardi - Noise Between Stations)

PJB @ 10:57 AM | Classification: Information architecture | Permalink

From: InfoDesign: Understanding by Design

About Us Information on Websites

"We found a 9% improvement in the usability of About Us information on websites over the past 5 years. But companies and organizations still can't explain what they do in one paragraph." (Jacob Nielsen - Alertbox)

PJB @ 10:24 AM | Classification: Usability | Permalink

From: InfoDesign: Understanding by Design

September 25, 2008

Activity-Centered Design

"Apparently the forces of interaction design have been facing off against the forces of information architecture in an epic battle for quite some time. I was flying a flag I didn’t know I was flying." (Joshua Porter)

PJB @ 02:24 PM | Classification: Information design | Permalink

From: InfoDesign: Understanding by Design

Is Adam Greenfield A Communist Or...?

"Having been to 'The Web and Beyond 2008' and hearing about Adam Greenfield's keynoting at the coming EuroIA Summit in Amsterdam, I started thinking about what he said at the time and what his words could mean. I also took into account two of the other main presenters: Ben Cerveny and Jyri Engeström." (Jeroen Elstgeest)

PJB @ 02:02 PM | Classification: Information design | Permalink

From: InfoDesign: Understanding by Design

September 23, 2008

The Study of Visual Aesthetics in Human-Computer Interaction

"Given the evidence and potential for aesthetics' overarching effect on human-computer interaction, it would seem timely to explore the themes summarized above in more depth. While a lively debate is to be expected in this workshop, the overriding goal is to define and formulate a possible HCI research agenda on these topics. To achieve this, the seminar will bring together seasoned researchers who share a deep interest in aesthetics; prominent designers who are grappling with the concept theoretically and in practice; and graduate students who are likely to provide fresh perspectives." (Seminar site)

PJB @ 10:58 AM | Classification: User experience | Permalink

From: InfoDesign: Understanding by Design

Beauty Matters: Usability and Aesthetics

"Usability is an approved quality when designing interactive products. Another factor becomes more and more important: the hedonic quality, which includes the aesthetic of a product. The long-time experiences in user-friendly design convinced the initiators of Beauty matters that the combination of usability and aesthetics ensures the success of a product. Usability alone ist not enough. Most people associate the aesthetics of a product with its beauty. The beauty is also decisive whether a product represents a special value for us." (Michael Burmester, Marc Hassenzahl and Franz Koller)

PJB @ 10:51 AM | Classification: Usability | Permalink

From: InfoDesign: Understanding by Design

Is Your Organization Experienced?

"While the report is 4 years old, our experience is that the findings are relevant still today, and we use the models in this report often in our client work. It’s satisfying that Forrester's report seems to validate Janice and Scott's research, and we're happy to share it with you free of charge." (Peter Merholz - Adaptive Path)

PJB @ 09:16 AM | Classification: User experience | Permalink

From: InfoDesign: Understanding by Design

September 22, 2008

Social Networks Going Global

"I'm giving a presentation on Taking Social Networks Global, at the EuroIA Summit in Amsterdam. I was working on it the past days, and I'm pretty happy with how the talk is turning out. As a preview, here are my slides (so far, they might still change slightly)." (Peter Vandijck)

PJB @ 03:53 PM | Classification: Information architecture | Permalink

From: InfoDesign: Understanding by Design