January 2003

WhatIsFindability?

"The effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction with which specified users can locate and relocate desired pieces of data or information in information dense environments." (IAWiki)

Posted by PJB on January 30, 2003 | Classification: Search | Comments (0) | Permalink

Voice Interfaces: Assessing the Potential

"Visual interfaces are inherently superior to auditory interfaces for many tasks. The Star Trek fantasy of speaking to your computer is not the most fruitful path to usable systems." (Jakob Nielsen - Alertbox)

Posted by PJB on January 28, 2003 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

HTML's Time is Over. Let's Move On.

"Ultimately, I donít see a long term future for HTML as an application development solution. It is a misapplied tool that was never meant to be used for anything other than distributed publishing." (David Heller - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted by PJB on January 28, 2003 | Classification: Technology | Comments (0) | Permalink

Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology December/January 2003

Special Section: Mining the Metadata Quarries (ASIS&T)

Posted by PJB on January 28, 2003 | Classification: Metadata | Comments (0) | Permalink

THE Key to User-Friendly Computers?

"Jef Raskin, who helped design Apple's classic user interface, is working on a new system, THE, that could be a big improvement." (Alex Salkever - BusinessWeek) - courtesy of nooface

Posted by PJB on January 28, 2003 | Classification: HCI | Comments (0) | Permalink

Linux Usability ... Or Why Do I Bother.

"The experience was, shall we say, less than pleasant." (Jamie Zawinsky)

Posted by PJB on January 27, 2003 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

Putting A Bad Interface On Things

"It's as if the user interface folks have had their clocks flashing 12:00 for two full decades." (Fredric Paul - TechWeb)

Posted by PJB on January 27, 2003 | Classification: HCI | Comments (0) | Permalink

Introduction to XFML

"XFML is a simple XML format for exchanging metadata in the form of faceted hierarchies, sometimes called taxonomies." (Peter van Dijck - XML.com)

Posted by PJB on January 24, 2003 | Classification: Metadata | Comments (0) | Permalink

Face to Face With Your Users: Running a Nondirected Interview

"Interviewees are remarkably understanding, and your goal is not to become friends, but to exchange information." (Mike Kuniavsky - Adaptive Path)

Posted by PJB on January 24, 2003 | Classification: UCD | Comments (0) | Permalink

How to Run a Design Critique

"A design critique meeting usually involves a small group of 3-7 to discuss a set of design sketches or prototypes." (Scott Berkun - UIWeb) - courtesy of guuui

Posted by PJB on January 23, 2003 | Classification: UCD | Comments (0) | Permalink

The Role of Online Surveys in the Usability Assessment Process

"I have attended several conferences at which I witnessed a growing debate over the role of survey work in the field of usability." (William MacElroy - STC Usability Newsletter 9.2)

Posted by PJB on January 23, 2003 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

Making Cents from Information Architecture

"One of the most costly short cuts is skipping the development of a sound and highly functional information architecture." (Alan K'necht - Digital Web Magazine)

Posted by PJB on January 23, 2003 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink

User-Centered Design for Large Government Portals

"Web site design for a large federal or state government organization can be chaotic and unpredictable." (Christopher R usay - Digital Web Magazine)

Posted by PJB on January 23, 2003 | Classification: UCD | Comments (0) | Permalink

STC@50

STC's 50th Annual Conference (May 18-21, 2003) Wyndham Anatole, Dallas TX USA (Society for Technical Communication)

Posted by PJB on January 22, 2003 | Classification: Events | Comments (0) | Permalink

Understanding Information Architecture

"(...) a discipline that has a reputation for being a preserve of the hipper-than-thou." (Rusty Foster - Online Journalism Review)

Posted by PJB on January 22, 2003 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink

InformeDesign

"(...) a research and communication tool for designers." (University of Maryland) - courtesy vanderwall

Posted by PJB on January 21, 2003 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Visible Narratives: Understanding Visual Organization

"Visual designers working on the web need an understanding of the medium in which they work, so many have taken to code. Many have entered the usability lab." (Luke W roblewski - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted by PJB on January 21, 2003 | Classification: Visual design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Interview: Elizabeth Peaslee, VP, Customer Experience, Travelocity

"Equally important to the customer experience group are the less frequent and more subjective metrics that we get through user tests." (Mark Hurst - Good Experience)

Posted by PJB on January 21, 2003 | Classification: Interviews | Comments (0) | Permalink

ASIS&T IA Summit 2003 'Making Connections'

March 21-23, 2003 (Portland Oregon, USA) - Full programme available (American Institute of Information Science and Technology)

Posted by PJB on January 20, 2003 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink

Model of Attraction (or Information Magnetism)

"The navigation is the common model used to explain how users interact with the Web. The navigation metaphor tries to provide a framework to explain users moving to and through an information space." (Thomas Vander Wal)

Posted by PJB on January 20, 2003 | Classification: Navigation | Comments (0) | Permalink

Recruiting Test Participants for Usability Studies

"Many people believe in user testing, but in real design projects, not much testing takes place." (Jakob Nielsen - Alertbox)

Posted by PJB on January 20, 2003 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

Visualisation in the 20th Century

"The 20th century has seen many advances in different fields. Visualisation hasn't been immune to these changes that paved the way to its transformation into Information Visualisation in the two decades that preceded the new millennium." (Juan C. Dürsteler - Inf@Vis!)

Posted by PJB on January 20, 2003 | Classification: InfoViz | Comments (0) | Permalink

Information Mapping

"Built into the human brain is a high-performance pattern recognition engine, and nothing can feed that engine data faster than maps can." (Jon Udell)

Posted by PJB on January 17, 2003 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

The User Experience of Government Online Recommendations for a Citizen-Centric Future

"This report presents the results of an independent study into the waypeople interact with government online and the way they would like to interact with government online in future." (The Hiser Group) - courtesy of webword

Posted by PJB on January 17, 2003 | Classification: User experience | Comments (0) | Permalink

Usability Guru

"Jakob Nielsen is the world famous expert on web and computer usability." (Victor Keegan - The Guardian)

Posted by PJB on January 17, 2003 | Classification: Interviews | Comments (0) | Permalink

Future of Information Architecture

"This survey is part of an effort to identify important trends and possible futures for information architecture." (Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture)

Posted by PJB on January 16, 2003 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink

UX Roles & Titles: Trend or Profession?

"I recently embarked on a non-scientific study to aid in the formulation of my thoughts on the current and future User Experience Design professions in the Web space and the roles and titles that fall within." (Challis Hodge - UXblog)

Posted by PJB on January 16, 2003 | Classification: User experience | Comments (0) | Permalink

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.1 Specification

"(...) a modularized language for describing two-dimensional vector and mixed vector/raster graphics in XML." (W3C)

Posted by PJB on January 15, 2003 | Classification: Technology | Comments (0) | Permalink

Designing for the Multiple Personalities of Users

Underestimation is a two-way street.

Posted by PJB on January 15, 2003 | Classification: UCD | Comments (0) | Permalink

Printing the Web

"Despite predictions to the contrary, it doesn't seem that the advent of networked information sharing has reduced human consumption of paper." (James Ka lbach - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted by PJB on January 14, 2003 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Top 5-25 UX Position Titles and Job Roles

(as manipulated by Lou) (Louis Rosenfeld)

Posted by PJB on January 14, 2003 | Classification: User experience | Comments (0) | Permalink

Information Architecture for the World Wide Web

First edition (Feb. 1998) - full online version (Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville) - courtesy of elegant hack

Posted by PJB on January 13, 2003 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink

Interface Design as a Life or Death Proposition

"In safety-critical systems, a thorough understanding of user needs and goals helps to establish workflows, environments, and behaviors that need to be supported." (Doug LeMoine - Cooper) - courtesy of cognitive architects

Posted by PJB on January 13, 2003 | Classification: HCI | Comments (0) | Permalink

Scientific Visualization and Information Architecture

"Design of line graphs, contour and pseudocolor plots, and a wide variety of other user-generated graphics." (John P. Boyd - University of Michigan) - courtesy of tremendo

Posted by PJB on January 10, 2003 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink

Questions Information Architects Ask

"These might be helpful if you're preparing an IA seminar yourself, or, if nothing else, they're an interesting snapshot of what folks were interested in during late 2002." (Louis Rosenfeld)

Posted by PJB on January 10, 2003 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink

Usability of Open Source Software

"In this paper we review the existing evidence of the usability of open source software and discuss how the characteristics of open source development influence usability." (David M. Nichols and Michael B. Twidale - First Monday 8.1)

Posted by PJB on January 10, 2003 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

Return on Investment for Usability

"Development projects should spend 10% of their budget on usability. Following a usability redesign, websites increase usability by 135% on average; intranets improve slightly less." (Jakob Nielsen - Alertbox)

Posted by PJB on January 09, 2003 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

Book Review of 'The Elements of User Experience'

"Get this book. Read it. Understand it. Apply it. You'll be a better user experience designer because of it." (John Rhodes - WebWord)

Posted by PJB on January 09, 2003 | Classification: User experience | Comments (0) | Permalink

Book Review of 'Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web'

"(...) it is a non-intimidating introduction to a field that has become an integral part of effective Web design." (James McNally - Digital Web Magazine)

Posted by PJB on January 09, 2003 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink

Alan Newell Assesses HCI and the Health of the Discipline

"Because the major problems about disciplines is understanding what the other people's constraints and motivations are. Psychology is completely different from computer science, because a psychologist wants to understand the world and a computer scientist wants to change it." (Ann Light - Usability News)

Posted by PJB on January 09, 2003 | Classification: HCI | Comments (0) | Permalink

Usability Requirements: How to Specify, Test and Report Usability

"(...) a guide for how to specify, test and report usability requirements as part of a contractual relationship between a supplier and acquirer." (The PRUE Project) - courtesy of guuui

Posted by PJB on January 08, 2003 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

Five Tips to Reduce Knowledge Loss

"In today's job market, organizations have come to realize the impact of knowledge Loss. More and more of their best employees leave every day. Even when new people and their knowledge are brought in, chances are that those new people will leave within four years." (Brian Frank - KMPro) - courtesy of elearningpost

Posted by PJB on January 08, 2003 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Interface Gets The Point

"Getting computers to understand humans the way humans understand humans is a tremendous challenge." (Technology Research News) - courtesy of lucdesk

Posted by PJB on January 08, 2003 | Classification: HCI | Comments (0) | Permalink

Prognostication Digitalis

"2002 was the year the rubber hit the road." (Chris tina Wodtke - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted by PJB on January 07, 2003 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink

Faceted Approach to Web Redesign

"A site's information architecture is not usually the first thing that comes to the minds of web developers. Most of the time it is only after a site is built that the deficiencies are noted and solutions are sought. At that point an assessment of the information architecture becomes a task that should be considered." (Barbara Gulten & Jonathan Broad - IAWiki)

Posted by PJB on January 07, 2003 | Classification: Metadata | Comments (0) | Permalink

Merging Spaces: From Digital Information Architecture to Narrative Imagination

Peter Anders in conversation with Sabine Breitsameter (AudioHyperspac e)

Posted by PJB on January 07, 2003 | Classification: Interviews | Comments (0) | Permalink

Predictions for 2003

"Information architecture will grow in importance. More organizations will recognize that organizing information efficiently is one of the key challenges they face." (Gerry McGovern)

Posted by PJB on January 06, 2003 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink

Usability Testing: Myths, Misconceptions and Misuses

"In this article, I identify and try to straighten out some common misconceptions about usability testing." (Richard F. Dillon - HOT Lab, Carleton University) - courtesy of elearningpost

Posted by PJB on January 06, 2003 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

Wu

"Wu is a pattern language for designing and building usable web sites." (Ian Graham et al.) - courtesy of iawiki

Posted by PJB on January 06, 2003 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

Mapping Web Sites

Chapter 4: Web Site Planning Diagrams (Paul Kahn - Kahn & Associates)

Posted by PJB on January 06, 2003 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink

IDblog: an information design blog

"IDblog is Beth Mazur tilting at power law windmills. A little bit Internet, a little bit technology, a little bit society, and a lot about designing useful information products." (Beth Mazur)

Posted by PJB on January 03, 2003 | Classification: Weblogs | Comments (0) | Permalink

A Wandering Tread: Exploring Hyperfiction

"Hyperfiction is a narrative form that makes use of the characteristics of the Internet to tell a story." (Carolien van den Bos) - courtesy of hypertextkitchen

Posted by PJB on January 03, 2003 | Classification: Hypertext | Comments (0) | Permalink

IA: Educating Information Architecture

Chapter from 'Information Architecture: an Emerging 21nd Century Profession' (Earl Morrogh) - courtesy of iaslash

Posted by PJB on January 03, 2003 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink

Business-Centered Design: The Fusion of Usability and Marketing

"In traditional user-centred design, focus is on users' needs and their use of the product, while marketing is left to the marketing department. On the web, usability and marketing go hand in hand." (Henrik Olsen - guuui)

Posted by PJB on January 03, 2003 | Classification: UCD | Comments (0) | Permalink

Faceted Metadata Search and Browse

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

Posted by PJB on January 03, 2003 | Classification: Metadata | Comments (0) | Permalink

The History of Visualization

"The history of visualisation is that of the search for new artefacts to amplify the ability to know; it's the history of writing and of maps, the history of knowledge." (Juan C. Dürsteler - Inf@Vis!)

Posted by PJB on January 03, 2003 | Classification: InfoViz | Comments (0) | Permalink

Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do

"In this thought-provoking book based on nine years of research, B.J. Fogg, director of the Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford University, reveals how Web sites, software applications and mobile devices can be used to change people's attitudes and behavior." (B.J. Fogg - ACM Ubiquity)

Posted by PJB on January 02, 2003 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

The Glass Wall: BBCi Design Process Document

"(...) here is a document detailing the design process behind the BBC homepage. The research methods and synthesis they went through is pretty interesting, and hopefully some of the process, artifacts and outcomes documented might be useful for web design practitioners." (Matt Jones)

Posted by PJB on January 02, 2003 | Classification: UCD | Comments (0) | Permalink

Multimodality: The Next Wave of Mobile Interaction

"Multimodality is new technology that hopes to enhance the mobile user experience by enabling network operators to combine speech, touch and onscreen displays for intuitive and powerful mobile applications." (James Colby - Speech Technology Magazine) - courtesy of nooface

Posted by PJB on January 01, 2003 | Classification: Interaction design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Archiving Experience Design

A Virtual Roundtable Discussion (AIGA Loop 6)

Posted by PJB on January 01, 2003 | Classification: User experience | Comments (0) | Permalink

Top Ten Web-Design Mistakes of 2002

"As the Web grows, websites continue to come up with ways to annoy users. Following are ten design mistakes that were particularly good at punishing users and costing site owners business in 2002." (Jakob Nielsen - Alertbox)

Posted by PJB on January 01, 2003 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

iknovate

"Balancing the kinetic energy between people, process, and technology requires a cognitive ability to step 'inside' the box and not be blinded by the walls. It requires the ability to iknovate." (Paula Thornton)

Posted by PJB on January 01, 2003 | Classification: Weblogs | Comments (0) | Permalink

Gorilla Usability

"The hardest part about Gorilla Usability is getting that initial contact with your users." (D. Keith Robinson - Evolt) - courtesy of lucdesk

Posted by PJB on January 01, 2003 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink