All posts from
September 2004

Search Engine Technology and Digital Libraries: Moving from Theory to Practice

“This article describes the journey from the conception of and vision for a modern search-engine-based search environment to its technological realisation. In doing so, it takes up the thread of an earlier article on this subject, this time from a technical viewpoint. As well as presenting the conceptual considerations of the initial stages, this article will principally elucidate the technological aspects of this journey.” (Friedrich Summann and Norbert Lossau – D-Lib Magazine) – courtesy of chris mcevoy

Honing Your Usability Testing Skills: An Interview with Ginny Redish

“My philosophy of usability testing has always been that it is the best way to find out how well a draft or prototype or product is doing for its users. I’ve always believed that usability is about helping designers and developers create products where users can quickly and easily find what they need and understand what they find.” (Christine Perfetti – User Interface Engineering)

When it comes to homepages, it is polite to stare

“If it’s your job to design the homepage for a newspaper website, you already deserve sympathy. The organization chart may show you have one boss. But you know better. You must drive traffic from that one page to everything else on the site. So everyone else at your company whose job depends on that traffic becomes your boss when design decisions affect his or her interests.” (Jay SmallEyetrack) – courtesy of jakob nielsen

Interfaces for Staying in the Flow

“Psychologists have studied ‘optimal human experience’ for many years, often called ‘being in the flow’. Through years of study, the basic characteristics of flow have been identified. This paper reviews the literature, and interprets the characteristics of flow within the context of interface design with the goal of understanding what kinds of interfaces are most conducive to supporting users being in the flow. Several examples to demonstrate the connection to flow are given.” (Benjamin B. Bederson – ACM Ubiquity)