All posts from
March 2009

When Life Intervenes

Added on 31 March 2009 Peter Bogaards
An IA Summit Podcast Preview with Samantha Bailey – “Samantha Bailey, the 2009 IA Summit Chair, tells Chris Baum about how she approached creating this year’s IA Summit program, the how the Summit community has morphed over time, and what it means to be a part of this community of practice.” – (Chris Baum – Boxes and Arrows)

The Memphis Plenary

Added on 29 March 2009 Peter Bogaards
“What war is the field of information architecture fighting? The war we still seem to be fighting is the war against information architecture itself as a valid concept, as a meaningful part of design practices. (…) The discipline of information architecture and the role of the information architect will always be defined in conjunction with one another. As long as you have information architects, what they do will always be information architecture. (…) There are no information architects. There are no interaction designers. There are only, and only ever have been, user experience designers.” Great point-of-view. – (Jesse James Garrett)

Big rock, small rock, and chorizo sausage

Added on 27 March 2009 Peter Bogaards
“As it seems to be a common pattern with me in recent times, this post has been long in the making and even longer in the thinking. And I’m not done yet, really, but since the 10th IA Summit in Memphis, Tennessee, seems to have expanded our horizons in novelty ways, I have a feeling the times are ripe for a first attempt at my tuppence on the subject. What subject? IA, IxD, UX, and where we stand, of course. And say thanks to JJG.” Provocative, deep thinking, and milestone article for the discipline of information architecture. Congrats Andrea! – (Andrea Resmini – FatDUX blog)

27 Visualizations and Infographics to Understand the Financial Crisis

Added on 26 March 2009 Peter Bogaards
“If there’s anything good that has come out of the financial crisis it’s the slew of high-quality graphics to help us understand what’s going on. Some visualizations attempt to explain it all while others focus on affected business. Others concentrate on how we, as citizens are affected. Some show those who are responsible. After you examine these 27 visualizations and infographics, no doubt you’ll have a pretty good idea about what’s going on.” – (FlowingData)

5 Universal Principles For Successful eCommerce-Sites

Added on 24 March 2009 Peter Bogaards
“When was the last time you called customer support because you were having problems checking out online? Probably never! Cart abandonment rate is at around 60%, and most of it happens before the user even begins the checkout process. Sometimes, convincing your customers to trust you is your biggest challenge. There is no “Consumer Trust for Dummies”, but as eCommerce designers, we need to focus on some fundamentals. The following topics may seem as obvious as walking into a seven-foot Wookie, but rest assured you will find plenty of websites with a mouth full of fur.” – (Smashing Magazine)

Progressive User Adoption

Added on 24 March 2009 Peter Bogaards
“Users of technology products—from mobile phones to ecommerce Web sites—often stop learning and adopting features long before they’ve mastered those products’ full capabilities. A learning plateau usually occurs once a user has learned the features that meet his minimum product-adoption criteria, when the benefit of adopting more features doesn’t seem worth the extra effort or risk.” – (Mike Hughes – UXmatters)

Including Recommendations in User Interfaces to Enhance Motivation

Added on 24 March 2009 Peter Bogaards
“Motivation is an important factor in any kind of online interaction or transaction. People need a little encouragement when they’re not really convinced they should take any action or are uncertain about what action to take next. As users perform tasks online, they need to understand what’s happening and expect you to help them move forward. This article discusses the responsibility of a user interface to provide recommendations along a user’s path of interaction.” – (Afshan Kirmani – UXmatters)

Behavior is our Medium

Added on 19 March 2009 Peter Bogaards
“Robert Fabricant talks about Interaction Design as a practice beyond just computing technology. He gives examples of Interaction Design as far back as ancient history, all the way to a humanitarian project underway today. He shows that Interaction Design’s primary medium is behavior, extending far past the high technology world into the realm of human behavior and relationships.” – (IxDA Library)