All posts from
November 2008

Deep Search: The videos

Added on 27 November 2008 Peter Bogaards
“Deep Search wants to look at the social and political dimensions of how we navigate the deep seas of knowledge. We want to examine the pursuit of categorizing that data and what it means to relate to the world through digital search technologies. Futuristic applications and computational complexity aside, cognitive technologies deliberately designed to yield results in a limited frame of reference, imbed political philosophy in seemingly neutral code. In the daily reality of information overflow it is crucial to acknowledge both arbitrariness and willful designation, and that hierarchies are not miraculously produced by nature itself. Innocent utilities that blend into the routine of everyday work and leisure subtly bend our perception, and weave threads into the fabric of cognitive reality.” (World-Information Institute)

EuroIA Network Initiative

Added on 24 November 2008 Peter Bogaards
“The EuroIA Network Initiative aims to facilitate the development of a stronger network between European information architects. An large effort is already being made through international orginasitations such as the Information Architecture Institute, it’s European chapter and the local groups. The initiative wish to contribute to this effort, pushing the objectives even further, among other things, by the formation of a legal entity which can contain and support a range of important activities to strengthen our industry and it’s position in Europe.” (Ning network)

Wireframeworks Manifesto

Added on 24 November 2008 Peter Bogaards
“Over the last ten years, the Internet has gone from being the product of technology to the media channel of choice for much of the general public. Designers and developers have forged together innovative, entertaining and essential landmarks that can be accessed by computer, mobile and TV. As the importance of access, effectiveness and ergonomics of the web has become self evident, the role of the user experience professional has become the missing link between technology and people. We aim to make the web more usable, accessible, findable and practical.” (Hammad Khan – Wireframeworks)

Conceptology

Added on 21 November 2008 Peter Bogaards
“The Web is evolving. From an emerging but static, passive library of information to a sharing, talking, recommending, networking, creating, customized, personalized community with a long tail to a more relevant, measurable, helpful, fun, trustworthy, mobile and social place. The industry needs people that are multi-skilled and versed in strategy, creative and technology.” (Karri Ojanen)

Working through Screens: 100 Ideas for Envisioning Powerful, Engaging, and Productive User Experiences in Knowledge Work

Added on 18 November 2008 Peter Bogaards
“(…) a reference for product teams creating new or iteratively improved applications for thinking work. Written for use during early, formative conversations, it provides teams with a broad range of considerations for setting the overall direction and priorities for their onscreen tools. With hundreds of envisioning questions and fictional examples from clinical research, financial trading, and architecture, this volume can help definers and designers to explore innovative new directions for their products.” (Jacob Burghardt – Flashbulb Interaction)

A Universal Declaration of Users’ Rights

Added on 18 November 2008 Peter Bogaards
“We’re coming up on the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10. I’m a big supporter of this, and of Amnesty International, which works to protect these rights. Which got me to thinking: why isn’t there a list of users’ rights anywhere? What is the baseline that all users of every product everywhere should expect? So using the UDHR as a starting point, I drew one up.” (Dan Saffer – Kicker Studio)

Future Practice Interview: Indi Young

Added on 18 November 2008 Peter Bogaards
“Instead of thinking in terms of the organization and all the services and support this organization offers people, think in terms of real life. Look past the clinical kind of data and get to the warm, fuzzy, human heart of how people are making decisions and justifying actions and having emotional reactions to things that get in their way.” (Victor Lombardi – Rosenfeld Media)

User Research Friday

Added on 17 November 2008 Peter Bogaards
“One thing I was really listening for was how people actually use research to do design. In my practice as an interaction designer, I find user research to be extremely important. I’m a strong advocate of ethnographically-inspired fieldwork (…) because it helps me understand how people really work and think.” (Lane Halley – Cooper Journal)

Today is World Usability Day

Added on 13 November 2008 Peter Bogaards
Welcome message by Bill Gates – “It’s about making our world work better. It’s about ‘Making Life Easy’ and user friendly. Technology today is too hard to use. A cell phone should be as easy to access as a doorknob. In order to humanize a world that uses technology as an infrastructure for education, healthcare, transportation, government, communication, entertainment, work and other areas, we must develop these technologies in a way that serves people first. World Usability Day was founded in 2005 as an initiative of the Usability Professionals’ Association to ensure that services and products important to human life are easier to access and simpler to use. Each year, on the second Thursday of November, over 225 events are organized in over 40 countries around the world to raise awareness for the general public, and train professionals in the tools and issues central to good usability research, development and practice.”