October 2002

Book Review: The Elements of the User Experience

"There is something gratifying about picking up a book by an author whose concept is so elegantly displayed, with a message so clear, that you want to share it with everyone you know." (Elisa K. Miller - Digital Web Magazine)

Posted by PJB on October 30, 2002 | Classification: User experience | Comments (0) | Permalink

Information Appliances Herald the New Usability

"This new and emerging area – appliance design – is focused on the development of devices which resemble home appliances in their narrow range of function and ease of use, but resemble computing devices in that they deal with information-based tasks." (Peter Thomas - Usability News)

Posted by PJB on October 29, 2002 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

Grokker: Breaking The Page Barrier

"The application quickly converts data, documents, records, and search results into contextually relevant, graphical knowledge maps." (Groxis, Inc.)

Posted by PJB on October 29, 2002 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web

"Wodtke argues that good site design is complex, nuanced, and context-specific." (Ryan Olshavsky - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted by PJB on October 29, 2002 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink

Talking with Jesse James Garrett

"A journalist and an information architect face exactly the same problem: how to give shape to the pile of information in front of you in a way that will make it easy and natural for people to comprehend." (Erin Malone - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted by PJB on October 29, 2002 | Classification: Interviews | Comments (0) | Permalink

User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0

"(...) guidelines for designing user agents that lower barriers to Web accessibility for people with disabilities (visual, hearing, physical, cognitive, and neurological)." (W3C)

Posted by PJB on October 29, 2002 | Classification: Accessibility - Technology | Comments (0) | Permalink

PhotoSemantic Information Architecture

"As an Information Architect with quite a bit of large scale website IA experience, I wanted to include a section on IA for both discussion and resource purposes." (Miguel Graça)

Posted by PJB on October 28, 2002 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink

XUL Defines New User Interface Options

XUL is a new Netscape/Mozilla XML dialect that describes the elements of a traditional user interface. Faster and cleaner than HTML, it might just be the quickest way yet to code a UI. (Nigel McFarlane - DevX)

Posted by PJB on October 28, 2002 | Classification: Technology | Comments (0) | Permalink

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0

"(...) design principles for creating accessible Web sites." (W3C)

Posted by PJB on October 28, 2002 | Classification: Accessibility - Technology | Comments (0) | Permalink

Celebrating Holidays and Special Occasions on Websites

"Even small holiday decorations can increase joy of use and make websites feel more current and more connected to users' lives and physical environment. The key is to commemorate without detracting from your users' main reasons for visiting the site." (Jakob Nielsen - Alertbox)

Posted by PJB on October 28, 2002 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

Center for Digital Storytelling

"(..) a non-profit project development, training, and research organization dedicated to assisting people in using digital media to tell meaningful stories from their lives." (About CDS)

Posted by PJB on October 28, 2002 | Classification: Hypertext | Comments (0) | Permalink

Making the Visual Verbal

"Many people who do not consider themselves writers are intimidated by the thought of writing." (John Paul Caponigro - Communication Arts)

Posted by PJB on October 25, 2002 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Promoting Visual Thinking

"Works of art have no productive function in our economy. Art is politically dangerous. Contemporary art is too difficult to understand." (Wendy Richmond - Communication Arts)

Posted by PJB on October 25, 2002 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Shneidermann Demands Computing Renaissance

"His goal is systems that are usable, universal (...) and useful." (Usability News)

Posted by PJB on October 25, 2002 | Classification: HCI | Comments (0) | Permalink

The Myth of User-Centered Information Architecture

"One of the first things you learn about information architecture is that your Web site needs to be organized the way users think it should be organized. Unfortunately, this never happens. In fact, it should never happen." (Jeff Lash - Digital Web Magazine)

Posted by PJB on October 24, 2002 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink

Client Centered Design

"Although a Web site development team generally includes a usability expert (...) user centered design is the responsibility of every single member of the team, programmers no less than graphical designers, database wizards no less than usability experts." (Peter-Paul Koch - Digital Web Magazine)

Posted by PJB on October 24, 2002 | Classification: UCD | Comments (0) | Permalink

Metadata and Taxonomies for a More Flexible Information Architecture

"The presentation (...) illustrates how an information architecture based on taxonomies and metadata can be used to make a number of basic Web site and Intranet functions more flexible and dynamic." (Amy J. Warner - Lexonomy)

Posted by PJB on October 24, 2002 | Classification: Information architecture - Metadata | Comments (0) | Permalink

Introduction to XFML Concepts

XFML is an XML language to share hierarchical faceted metadata. (Peter van Dijck - Evolt)

Posted by PJB on October 24, 2002 | Classification: Metadata | Comments (0) | Permalink

VoiceUI

The Art and Science of Voice Dialogue Design (Sam Horodezky)

Posted by PJB on October 24, 2002 | Classification: HCI | Comments (0) | Permalink

It's Everywhere and Nowhere, Baby!

"(...) 2002 seems to have been a good year for IA." (Andrew Dillon - ASIS&T Bulletin 9.1)

Posted by PJB on October 24, 2002 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink

The Limits of Usability are Challenged Again

"Definitions of usability are part of the problem (...). They not only influence how usability specialists market themselves, but also colour public perception of the profession." (Louise Ferguson - Usability News)

Posted by PJB on October 23, 2002 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

Transforming Unstructured Content into Meaningful XML

"Most people who have thought about XML at a high level haven’t thought too much about the problems inherent in converting unstructured content into a meaningful XML format." (Rizwan Virk - CambridgeDocs)

Posted by PJB on October 23, 2002 | Classification: Technology | Comments (0) | Permalink

Seductive Design for Web Sites

"We used to think it was impossible to design a web site that successfully supported both information retrieval and browsing. We now believe a site can do both — but only when designers know what their audience is interested in." (User Interface Engineering)

Posted by PJB on October 23, 2002 | Classification: User experience | Comments (0) | Permalink

Transitional Volatility in Web Navigation

Usability Metrics and User Behavior (David Robert Danielson)

Posted by PJB on October 23, 2002 | Classification: Navigation | Comments (0) | Permalink

The Dynamic Duo of Information Architecture

An Interview with Peter Morville and Lou Rosenfeld (John Rhodes - WebWord)

Posted by PJB on October 23, 2002 | Classification: Interviews | Comments (0) | Permalink

Building Online Communities

"The Internet exists to improve communication. Communities can grow anywhere communication occurs." (chromatic - O'Reilly Network)

Posted by PJB on October 22, 2002 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

The Politics of User Experience

"(...) a few of the more ubiquitous political influences, most of which are not seen outside of government." (Steve Fleckenstein - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted by PJB on October 22, 2002 | Classification: User experience | Comments (0) | Permalink

The Elements of User Experience

"There is probably no better book on the market that so clearly and rationally covers the entire area of user experience." (Jeff Lash - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted by PJB on October 22, 2002 | Classification: User experience | Comments (0) | Permalink

Ergonomics Standards & Legislation

"Getting to grips with national and international standards in HCI is more of a black art than a science." (System Concepts)

Posted by PJB on October 21, 2002 | Classification: HCI | Comments (0) | Permalink

Enemies of Usability

"I know lots of usability advocates who speak the language of business quite fluently." (Peter Morville - Semantic Studios)

Posted by PJB on October 21, 2002 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

A Taxonomy Primer

"Taxonomies, thesauri, classification systems, synonym rings. (...) All of the terms mentioned above are controlled vocabularies." (Lexonomy)

Posted by PJB on October 21, 2002 | Classification: Metadata | Comments (0) | Permalink

Meet The Elements 

Sample chapter from 'Elements of User Experience' (Jesse James Garrett)

Posted by PJB on October 18, 2002 | Classification: User experience | Comments (0) | Permalink

First Principles: Some Rules of Thumb, and Some Thumbing of Rules 

Sample chapter from 'Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web' (Christina Wodtke)

Posted by PJB on October 18, 2002 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink

Educational Programs in Information Design

"More than graphic design, more than technical writing, but not really in the information architecture or interaction design space, the ideal information design program combines coursework that may touch all of these fields." (STC Information Design SIG)

Posted by PJB on October 18, 2002 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Interview: Marissa Mayer - Product Manager of Google

"(...) how Google creates and improves its customer experience." (Mark Hurst - GoodExperience)

Posted by PJB on October 18, 2002 | Classification: Interviews | Comments (0) | Permalink

Usability Must Die

Usability has grown into a monster. (Chris McEvoy)

Posted by PJB on October 17, 2002 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

Plumb Design Visual Thesaurus Version 2.0

"An experiment in language and interface, Plumb Design's Visual Thesaurus is both an artistic exploration and a tool to explore, study, and analyze the structure of language." (Plump Design)

Posted by PJB on October 17, 2002 | Classification: Visual design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Beauty is Only Screen Deep

"People use the web to buy things, find information, make contacts, and what they notice is whether they can successfully buy things, find information, and make contacts." (Sarah Horton - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted by PJB on October 17, 2002 | Classification: User experience | Comments (0) | Permalink

Back to the User: Creating User-Focused Websites

Collective Lessons Learned from Listening to and Observing Users (Tammy Sachs - Digital Web)

Posted by PJB on October 17, 2002 | Classification: UCD | Comments (0) | Permalink

Color in Scientific Visualization

"The goal of scientific visualization is to enhance scientific productivity by utilizing human visual perception and computer graphics techniques." (HPSC Group of the University of Colorado)

Posted by PJB on October 11, 2002 | Classification: InfoViz | Comments (0) | Permalink

Interview with Taylor and Pennington from Red Hat's UI Team

"(...) the new unified UI on Red Hat 8 was the talk of the town for the whole summer since the Limbo betas." (OSNews)

Posted by PJB on October 11, 2002 | Classification: Interviews | Comments (0) | Permalink

Making Online Information Usable

"Usability problems fall on a continuum. On one end are the nuisance problems, like typos or incorrect grammar. Users may not notice these issues, and can ignore them if they do." (User Interface Engineering)

Posted by PJB on October 11, 2002 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

An Interview with Peter Merholz and Nathan Shedroff on User-Centered Design

"The primary benefit of user-centered design is that, when performed well, it ensures that the product is useful, usable, and meaningful to the end-user." (Meryl K. Evans - Digital Web)

Posted by PJB on October 10, 2002 | Classification: Interviews | Comments (0) | Permalink

Mac User Interface Design for New Developers

"The key to usability for Mac applications is consistency with existing Mac applications." (Brook Conner - O'Reilly's Mac OS X Conference 2002 Presentations)

Posted by PJB on October 10, 2002 | Classification: HCI | Comments (0) | Permalink

TextArc, Visualising Text

"Visualising the structure of the raw text of a document helps greatly in its analysis and compliments techniques like computational linguistics by using the pattern finding capability of the human brain." (Juan C. Dürsteler - Inf@Vis!)

Posted by PJB on October 10, 2002 | Classification: InfoViz | Comments (0) | Permalink

Faceted Metadata Search and Browse

"Metadata is information about information: more precisely, it's structured information about resources." (Avi Rappoport - Search Tools)

Posted by PJB on October 09, 2002 | Classification: Metadata | Comments (0) | Permalink

Hypertext Links: Whither Thou Goest, and Why

"This paper explores the semantic and rhetorical principles underlying link development and proposes a systematic, comprehensive classification of link types that would be of use to researchers and Web production teams." (Claire Harrison - FirstMonday 7.10)

Posted by PJB on October 09, 2002 | Classification: Hypertext | Comments (0) | Permalink

Global Concerns and How Artificial Intelligence Will Effect Information Design

"What matters is that information designers know how to apply the applications to their quest for high quality knowledge experiences." (Peter Simlinger & Ludwig Haskins - infodesign ed 2002)

Posted by PJB on October 08, 2002 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Persuasive Architecture: How to Get Your Visitors to Take Action

"Architecture as a discipline is a merger of science and art, joining the breadth of engineering and aesthetics with human use." (grokdotcom)

Posted by PJB on October 08, 2002 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink

Ranganathan for IAs

An introduction to the thought of S.R. Ranganathan for information architects. (Mike Steckel - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted by PJB on October 08, 2002 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink

The Best IA Tool You Never Heard Of

"A good IA tool should work like your brain. Is there one? Yes. It's called Tinderbox." (Sean Carton - ClickZ)

Posted by PJB on October 08, 2002 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink

Designed for Life

"Don Norman on (...) why gadgets in the real world are still so hard to use, and why computers need emotions." (Wendy M. Grossman - New Scientist)

Posted by PJB on October 07, 2002 | Classification: Interviews | Comments (0) | Permalink

Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville Interview

"(...) we invested in growth at precisely the wrong time." (since1968)

Posted by PJB on October 07, 2002 | Classification: Interviews | Comments (0) | Permalink

Improving Business Through User-Centered Design

An Interview with UCD Innovators Scott Isensee, Carol Righi and Karel Vredenburg. (Kerrie Green - Righi Interface)

Posted by PJB on October 07, 2002 | Classification: Interviews | Comments (0) | Permalink

Information Overload: It's Time To Take Your Time

"The technology industry has a blind and zealous faith in speed and innovation. Society in general has bought into the change is good mantra." (Gerry McGovern)

Posted by PJB on October 07, 2002 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

14 Principles of Polite Apps

"Software should respond to your obvious needs, not just your commands. Use these 14 principles to create accommodating software." (Alan Cooper - DevX)

Posted by PJB on October 07, 2002 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

Common Principles: A Usable Interface Design Primer

"When users perform a transaction or action, their cognition is often split between learning and operating the system or user interface." (Rick Oppedisano - UPA)

Posted by PJB on October 07, 2002 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

A Hypertext History of Instructional Design

"From before 1920 to 1990 and into the future." (S. McNeil)

Posted by PJB on October 03, 2002 | Classification: Instructional design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Principles of Good GUI Design

"Graphical user interfaces (GUIs) have become the user interface of choice. Yet despite the GUI's popularity, surprisingly few programs exhibit good interface design." (James Hobart - CCI)

Posted by PJB on October 03, 2002 | Classification: HCI | Comments (0) | Permalink

The Life of Charles Joseph Minard (1781-1870)

A translation of Minard's obituary by Dawn Finley (Edward Tufte)

Posted by PJB on October 02, 2002 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Instructional Design in eLearning

"(...) the role of instructional design in elearning is often misunderstood - due to the perceived complexity of the process and to poor understanding of the pedagogical requirements of elearning." (George Siemens - elearnspace)

Posted by PJB on October 02, 2002 | Classification: Instructional design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Information Technology: Trojan Horse of Information Overload

"Information technology has become the problem. The solution is to invest in people again." (Gerry McGovern)

Posted by PJB on October 01, 2002 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Email Newsletters Pick Up Where Websites Leave Off

"In usability testing, success rates were high for subscribe and unsubscribe tasks, but users were frustrated by newsletters that demanded too much of their time." (Jakob Nielsen - Alertbox)

Posted by PJB on October 01, 2002 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

The New Computing

"The user experience with information and computing technology could be dramatically improved. Successful technologies are those that are truly useful and therefore in harmony with users' needs. They must support relationships and activities that enrich the users' experiences." (Ben Shneiderman - HCIL)

Posted by PJB on October 01, 2002 | Classification: User experience | Comments (0) | Permalink

The Evolving Mobile User Interface: Strategies for the Wireless Internet

"New and more powerful user interfaces are just as crucial to the success of 3G wireless as applications and radio technology." (Information Gatekeepers Inc.)

Posted by PJB on October 01, 2002 | Classification: HCI | Comments (0) | Permalink

Designing for Real People: Additional Lessons for Web Design from Mall and Retail Design

"This installment explores additional tactical issues in design, such as refurbishing websites and the downside of online communities." (Saul Carliner - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted by PJB on October 01, 2002 | Classification: UCD | Comments (0) | Permalink