March 2003

Amy Lee's IA Summit 2003 Notes

"Hierarchy isn't the answer and search is even worse. Search is the last resort of a reader. Context is all that matters." (Amy Lee - curiousLee)

Posted by PJB on March 27, 2003 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

Wrapping Up Portland

"Portland was interesting. (...) there was a palpable lack of international attendance, participation, and perspective." (Anne Galloway - Purse Lip Square Jaw) - courtesy of iaslash

Posted by PJB on March 27, 2003 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

Navigation and Hypertext

"Navigation as design driver - it's the wrong driver." (Peter Merholz)

Posted by PJB on March 27, 2003 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

Architectural Design Patterns for XML Documents

This article attempts to document a few whole-document design patterns that have proven themselves in the field." (Kyle Downey - XML.com

Posted by PJB on March 27, 2003 | Classification: Technology | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

Panel on Wayfinding and Navigation in Digital Spaces at the IA Summit 2003

Mark Bernstein's, Andrew Dillon's, and Susan Campbell's position statements (Rashmi Sinha - courtesy of vanderwal

Posted by PJB on March 27, 2003 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

First Impressions of IA Summit 2003

"Only 12 European visitors and more than 225 American and Canadian visitors join the conference. This really amazes me." (Lieke van der Meer - Informaat)

Posted by PJB on March 26, 2003 | Classification: Special | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

Model of Attraction Presentation

"This presentation of the Model of Attraction was given at the ASIS IA Summit in Portland, Oregon (...) The HTML outline version will be available shortly." (Thomas vanderWal)

Posted by PJB on March 26, 2003 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

Usability Myths Need Reality Checks

"Not so very long ago, it was agreed that five to eight users was enough for a good usability test. Somehow, this idea achieved mythic status. We believed it. We preached it to everyone who would listen. It survived in areas where it had been disproved, and was introduced into new situations where it didn't even apply." (Will Schroeder - User Interface Engineering) - courtesy of guuui

Posted by PJB on March 26, 2003 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

IA Summit 2003

"(...) again it was a wonderful affair filled with friends, interesting presentations, and a bit of the ol' controversy." (Victor Lombardi - noise between stations)

Posted by PJB on March 26, 2003 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

Wee Report on the IA Summit

"Spirits were definitely higher than the past two years." (Louis Rosenfeld)

Posted by PJB on March 26, 2003 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

Managing the Implementation of an Enterprise-Wide Information Architecture

"In 1994, a team of faculty and staff at the University of Pittsburgh completed the design of an enterprise-wide information architecture and framework for engaging the University in business process reengineering. The architecture provides the blueprint for developing an integrated set of information services, processes, and technologies. It enables significant efficiencies in business and service processes, and facilitates informed decisions concerning information technology expenditures and acquisitions." (Nicholas C. Laudato and Dennis J. DeSantis - University of Pittsburg) courtesy of heyblog

Posted by PJB on March 26, 2003 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

Designers in Health Network

Information Design Plus: April 25, 2003 - Manchester Metropolitan University, UK (DIHNet) - courtesy of brian parkinson

Posted by PJB on March 26, 2003 | Classification: Events | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

All Those Opposed: Making The Case for User Experience in a Budget-Conscious Climate

"Using a Web site for the first time is an awful lot like going on a first date. It's a one-on-one interaction, and it doesn't always go as planned." (Jesse James Garrett - New Architect) - courtesy of iaslash

Posted by PJB on March 23, 2003 | Classification: User experience | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

The Semantic Web: More than a Vision 

"The technology underlying the web is unprecedented and affords us new opportunities to turn segments of the growing mass of electronic information into new intelligence for both humans and computers." (ASIS&T Bulletin April/May 2003)

Posted by PJB on March 21, 2003 | Classification: Metadata | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

The Processed Book

"The 'processed book' is about content, not technology, and contrasts with the 'primal book'; the latter is the book we all know and revere: written by a single author and viewed as the embodiment of the thought of a single individual." (Joseph J. Esposito - First Monday 8.3)

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

Use and Abuse of Reusable Learning Objects

"The term Learning Object, first popularized by Wayne Hodgins in 1994 when he named the CedMA working group 'Learning Architectures, APIs and Learning Objects', has become the Holy Grail of content creation and aggregation in the computer-mediated learning field." (Pithamber R. Polsani - Journal of Digital Information 3.4)

Posted by PJB on March 21, 2003 | Classification: Instructional design | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

IA Summit Blog

"Adam and I have set this up so y'all can blog the IA Summit." (Joshua Ellis)

Posted by PJB on March 20, 2003 | Classification: Weblogs | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

BookBlog

"The Writing of a Book on Information Architecture" (Peter VanDijck)

Posted by PJB on March 20, 2003 | Classification: Weblogs | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

A Metadata Primer

"What is missing is information about the information - that is, labeling, cataloging and descriptive information - that enables a computer to properly process and search the content elements. This information about information is known as metadata." (Ann Rockley - CMS Watch) - courtesy of elearningpost

Posted by PJB on March 19, 2003 | Classification: Metadata | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

Design and Emotion

"Research in this area investigates what critical factors of human-product interaction contribute to an emotional experience." (ID-Studiolab IO TU Delft) - courtesy of freegorifero

Posted by PJB on March 19, 2003 | Classification: User experience | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

Applications of Isometric Projection for Visualizing Web sites

by Paul Kahn, Krzysztof Lenk, and Piotr Kaczmarek; published in the 'Information Design Journal, Vol. 1 No. 3 2002' (Kahn and Associates)

Posted by PJB on March 18, 2003 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

Why You Need Your Very Own Taxonomy

"A search engine, on your intranet or at Google, makes use of innovative algorithms and dazzling mathematics. But judging whether these results are any good or not is completely in the eye of the beholder. It's subjective." (Tom Smith - theOTHERMedia)

Posted by PJB on March 18, 2003 | Classification: Metadata | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

The Definitive Desktop Environment Comparison

"This article is a comparison of the UI and usability of several Desktop Environments (DEs), that have been widely used, admired and reviled: Windows XP Luna, BeOS 6 (Dano/Zeta), Mac OS X Aqua and Unix's KDE and Gnome." (Eugenia Loli-Queru - OSnews)

Posted by PJB on March 18, 2003 | Classification: HCI | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

Macro Thinking

"Broader. Deeper. Richer. Demanding that the world shift to meet it. That is what Information Design is all about." (Dirk Knemeyer - Thread Inc.)

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

Do Productivity Increases Generate Economic Gains?

"Usability improvements can save time-on-task, but critics argue that this is not the same as saving money. Others worry that productivity gains cause unemployment. Neither is correct: usable design saves money and saves jobs." (Jakob Nielsen - Alertbox)

Posted by PJB on March 17, 2003 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

Something from Nothing: the Alchemy of Experience

"Great creativity can come from great constraint." (Mark Hurst - Good Experience)

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

Essential Design Reading

"The following books cover many disciplines, from Interaction and Visual Design to Filmmaking to Architecture, but all relate loosely to the various processes, ideologies, visions and practicalities of Experience Design" (Timo Arnall - elasticspace)

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

The Hippie Period of the Web is Over

"Information architecture is all about the definition and organization of content. The fact that there isn't a commonly agreed definition is because the discipline is immature. If information architecture is to solve problems cost-effectively, it will have to become rigorously defined. Just like most other professionals, information architects will require accreditation." (Gerry McGovern)

Posted by PJB on March 17, 2003 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

How To Get the Most Out of Conferences

"This essay gives one perspective on conferences, and how to make them more valuable and engaging experiences." (Scott Berkun)

Posted by PJB on March 17, 2003 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

Kansei Engineering: Incorporating Affection and Emotion into the Design Process

"There is an increasing claim for taking into account subjective issues (emotion, affect, perceptions, sensations...) in user experience, transcending the pure visual design." (Javier Cañada - Terremoto.net)

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

The XML.com Interview: Eric Meyer

One of the key players in the Cascading Style Sheets: "I still sort of retain that perception of the web at my core - as a means of sharing information and not primarily as a tool of commerce." (Russell Dyer - XML.com)

Posted by PJB on March 14, 2003 | Classification: Interviews | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

Conducting International Usability

"This essay draws from my experience leading an international user testing project, and I hope you can learn from my mistakes and successes." (Peter Merholz - Adaptive Path)

Posted by PJB on March 14, 2003 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

Welcome to The HTML Hell Page

"You know you're in design hell when you see "Best viewed with..." -- surest sign of an incompetent web designer." (Eric S. Raymond)

Posted by PJB on March 13, 2003 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

Interview with Web Optimization Expert Andy King

"He's written a wealth of articles on Web development, optimization, scripting and design (...)" (Adrian Holovaty)

Posted by PJB on March 13, 2003 | Classification: Interviews | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

Applied Information Design 2/2

"This week the focus moves toward the more formal and direct application of Information Design in an immersive, professional setting, mindful of our general premise that Information Design is the meta discipline for business." (Dirk Knemeyer - Thread Inc.)

Posted by PJB on March 13, 2003 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

Three Approaches To Intranet Strategy

"Every Intranet is different, and every section of a company's Intranet can be used differently." (Jeff Lash - Digital Web Magazine)

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

Happy Birthday B&A

"Boxes and Arrows was formed to break that code of silence, dedicated to discussing, improving and promoting the work of this community, through the sharing of exemplary technique, innovation and informed opinion. I think we're making some progress." (Christina Wodtke - Boxes and Arrows) - Congrats

Posted by PJB on March 12, 2003 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink

Flash, Usability, and Information Design

"Among the goals of good information design, maximizing local usability is not the highest (...) More important is the quality, relevance, and integrity of the content; making high-resolution comparisons; showing process, mechanism, dynamics, causality, explanation; and capturing in our displays some of the multivariate complexity of the world we seek to understand." (Ask Edward Turfte Forum) courtesy of tremendo

Posted by PJB on March 12, 2003 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Time for another About Face

"About Face 2.0 contains tools, techniques, and ideas to tackle the design problems of today and shape the interfaces of tomorrow." (Cooper Newsletter) - courtesy of iaslash

Posted by PJB on March 12, 2003 | Classification: User experience | Comments (0) | Permalink

Expanding The Approaches To User Experience

"Jesse James Garrett’s “The Elements of User Experience” diagram (...) presents an incomplete picture with some serious omissions - omissions I’ll try address with a more holistic model." (George Olsen - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted by PJB on March 11, 2003 | Classification: User experience | Comments (0) | Permalink

The Future: User-Centered Design Goes Mainstream

"These are the notes I took, it’s a cross between transcription, commentary, summary, and BS." (photo matt) courtesy of vanderwal

Posted by PJB on March 11, 2003 | Classification: UCD | Comments (0) | Permalink

Interview with Jacques Bertin

"Jacques Bertin is one of the fundamental gurus of Information Visualisation since he was the first in articulating a coherent and reasoned theory for the analysis of quantitative graphic representation." (Juan C. Dürsteler - Inf@Vis!)

Posted by PJB on March 11, 2003 | Classification: Interviews | Comments (0) | Permalink

World of Ends

What the Internet is and how to stop mistaking it for something else. (David Weinberger & Doc Searls)

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

Usability Law

"There are a number of ways that the law impacts on the usability of software and its evaluation." (Richard Griffiths) courtesy of webword

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

PR on Websites: Increasing Usability

"Compared with a similar 2001 study, a new study of journalists as they looked for information on corporate websites' PR areas showed significant usability improvements: a 5% higher success rate and 15% increased guidelines compliance." (Jakob Nielsen - Alertbox)

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

Design Research: Why You Need It

"(...) the culprit is an absence of a true understanding of the people who will ultimately use the product." (Steve Calde - Cooper)

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

Generating Explanatory Captions for Information Graphics

"This paper presents three strategies for generating explanatory captions to accompany information graphics based on: (1) a representation of the structure of the graphical presentation (2) a framework for identifying the perceptual complexity of graphical elements, and (3) the structure of the data expressed in the graphic." (Vibhu O. Mittal et al. - Learning Research and Development Center, University of Pittsburg)

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

IT & Society Issue 3, Vol. 1, Winter 2003

Introduction: Web Navigation - Special Editors: Ben Shneiderman, Jonathan Lazar, Melody Ivory (IT & Society)

Posted by PJB on March 07, 2003 | Classification: Navigation | Comments (0) | Permalink

Aifia-Translation -- International Information Architecture

"This list discusses information architecture in an international context." (AIfIA)

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

An Interview with Kelly Goto

"Today, companies large and small have seen the benefits of applying a user-centered methodology to their Web development approach." (Craig Saila - Digital Web Magazine)

Posted by PJB on March 06, 2003 | Classification: Interviews | Comments (0) | Permalink

What Are The Differences Between A Vocabulary, A Taxonomy, A Thesaurus, An Ontology, And A Meta-Model?

"This excellent overview was contributed by Woody Pidcock of the Boeing company. Many organizations and companies are struggling with these terms and the ideas behind them; this set of definitions will help to clarify." (Metamodel) courtesy of elearning

Posted by PJB on March 06, 2003 | Classification: Metadata | Comments (0) | Permalink

Design Elements for Great Web Pages: Readability, Browsability, Searchability Plus Assistance

"This essay outlines these qualities so you, as an information system manager, can incorporate them into your products and services." (Eric Lease Morgan - Infomotions) - courtesy of lucdesk

Posted by PJB on March 05, 2003 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

What Is Usability And Why Is It Important?

"Visitors will leave your web site if they find it difficult to use. The time and money you put into the site will be wasted." (Benefit from IT) - courtesy of cognitive architects

Posted by PJB on March 05, 2003 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

Keyboard Navigation

"(...) one of the fundamental requirements of any application is that users should be able to interact with the application using only the keyboard." (HCIRN Tutorials)

Posted by PJB on March 05, 2003 | Classification: HCI | Comments (0) | Permalink

Gallery of Data Visualization: The Best and Worst of Statistical Graphics

"(...) dedicated to John W. Tukey, who taught us all that seeing may be believing or disbelieving, but above all, data analysis involves visual, as well as statistical, understanding." (Michael Friendly)

Posted by PJB on March 04, 2003 | Classification: InfoViz | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

Applied Information Design: Part 1/2

"Considering that every human activity depends - to some degree - on information, Information Design provides a level of structure and foundation to almost everything." (Dirk Knemeyer - Thread Inc.)

Posted by PJB on March 03, 2003 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

The New R&D: Relevant & Desirable

"Somewhere in the process of evangelizing user-centered design, user experience professionals seem to have forgotten the value of vision-driven design." (George Olsen - Boxes and Arrows)

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

Persuasive Design: New Captology Book

"(...) useful principles on how to think about creating persuasive design, but rarely gives detailed design guidelines. The exception is a section on enhancing website credibility." (Jakob Nielsen - Alertbox)

Posted by PJB on March 03, 2003 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

LOGos: The Weblog of Oskar van Rijswijk

"What you read is powered by just me, a bundle of Open Source software, a connection to the Internet, some well placed mirrors and many cups of espresso." (Oskar van Rijswijk)

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

Why Content Management Software Hasn't Worked

"(...) because it was badly designed and massively over-hyped." (Gerry McGovern)

Posted by PJB on March 03, 2003 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink | TrackBack

Fun, Communication and Dependability: Extending the Concept of Usability

"Designing technology for the home is a stimulus for change but the new concepts will also be applicable in other contexts, e.g., enjoyable software in the office." (Andrew Monk - Department of Psychology, University of York)

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

Do Investor-Relations Websites Make the Grade?

"A new study examines problems with information found on corporate websites." (Eric Hellweg - Business 2.0)

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

High-Quality User Experience

"How well an application is actually used largely depends on the user experience it succeeds to evoke." (Informaat)

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