January 2004

How to manage smart people

"(...) years at Microsoft, sometimes managing projects, sometimes managing people, but always with a manager above me. I think I'm smart, but many of the people who have worked for me definitely were. Over the years, I've experienced many mistakes and successes in both how I was managed, and how I managed others. What follows is a short distillation of some of what I've learned. There's no one way to manage people, but there are some approaches that I think most good managers share." (Scott Berkun - UIweb) - courtesy of lawrence lee

Posted by PJB on January 31, 2004 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

The typographic contribution to language: Towards a model of typographic genres and their underlying structures

"This thesis presents a model which accounts for variations in typographic form in terms of four underlying sources of structure. The first three relate to the three parts of the writer-text-reader relationship: topic structure, representing the expressive intentions of the writer; artefact structure, resulting from the physical constraints of the medium; and access structure, anticipating the needs of the self-organized reader. Few texts exhibit such structures in pure form. Instead, they are evidenced in typographic genres—ordinary language categories such as 'leaflet', 'magazine', 'manual', and so on - which may be defined in terms of their normal (or historical) combination of topic, access and artefact structure." (Rob Waller PhD. Thesis 1987) - courtesy of karel van der waarde

Posted by PJB on January 30, 2004 | Classification: Typography | Comments (0) | Permalink

What is Zzstructure?

"Zzstructure is a way of representing the structure of information. Zzstructure is very different, for example the concepts of 'file', 'folder' and 'application' are abandoned. Because of this a bit of fantasy, creativity and an ability to forget previous knowledge is needed in order to understand Zzstructure. A Zzstructure structure consists of cells and dimensions. A cell is the basic unit of information of a Zzstructure structure. Cells containing related information can be connected with each other along dimensions, the number of which is unlimited. A Zzstructure structure is separate from its visualisation (= the way the data is presented on the screen), which means that a Zzstructure structure can have many visualisations designed for different purposes. Even though a Zzstructure structure is separate from its visualisation, a Zzstructure structure is not separate from other Zzstructure structures. Every piece of information stored in a digital device using based on Zzstructure is in the same space: the same cells can be connected on several dimensions created for different structures." (Gzz)

Posted by PJB on January 29, 2004 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Indicators for European Content for the Global Networks: Executive Summary 

"We recommend that the EU recognise the importance of developing European focused e-Portals and the addition of a more European focus to international sites and their content. The strong presence of US e-Portals that largely use the English language also has longer-term development implications for those Member States and candidate countries where English is not widely used." (eContent Strategic Studies)

Posted by PJB on January 29, 2004 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Universal Principals of Design

"(...) a must read book by all kind of designers. The principles of design provided in this book are extremely valuable. This is by far one of the best design books I have ever read. It is organized, well written, concise and a great resource for design references. Not only the book explains each principle carefully, it also provides real world example to help readers visually understand the principle presented." (VisualGUI.com)

Posted by PJB on January 29, 2004 | Classification: Visual design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Interface Design Issues #02: Consistency and standards

"Consistency is one of the golden rules of interface design. There can be no question about this. It's important on many levels. When applied effectively in a design, consistency creates a foundation for a user to interact with the product in a predictable manner. Consistency creates usage patterns, offering users the opportunity to succeed in the face of an unknown feature encountered for the first time." (Andrei Michael Herasimchuk - Design by Fire)

Posted by PJB on January 29, 2004 | Classification: HCI | Comments (0) | Permalink

The Joy of Style

"Virginia Postrel, the author of The Substance of Style, argues that we should count ourselves lucky to be living in 'the age of look and feel'." (The Atlantic online) - courtesy of elearning

Posted by PJB on January 28, 2004 | Classification: Interviews | Comments (0) | Permalink

Presidential Campaign Sites: User Experience Analysis

"An in-depth analysis of the nine major Democratic candidates' Websites. Find out how Dean compares to Kerry, Sharpton, and the rest. Learn best practices for supporting grass-roots campaigns, swaying undecided voters, and keeping your core constituents informed." (Adaptive Path Reports)

Posted by PJB on January 27, 2004 | Classification: User experience | Comments (0) | Permalink

Project Looking Glass: A Revolutionary Evolution of Today's Desktop

"Project Looking Glass is being created to work with the Solaris and Linux desktop environments using Java technology. When completed, it will work alongside applications designed for a 2D window system, without application modifications." (SUN Microsystems) - courtesy of nooface

Posted by PJB on January 27, 2004 | Classification: HCI | Comments (0) | Permalink

MIT Project Oxygen: Pervasive Human-Centered Computing

"In the future, computation will be human-centered. It will be freely available everywhere, like batteries and power sockets, or oxygen in the air we breathe. It will enter the human world, handling our goals and needs and helping us to do more while doing less." (MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory)

Posted by PJB on January 26, 2004 | Classification: UCD | Comments (0) | Permalink

Web Modeling Language (WebML)

"Designing a data-intensive Web site amounts to specifying its characteristics in terms of various orthogonal abstractions, each captured by a distinct model. The structure, composition, navigation, and presentation models enable the description of read-only web sites. They can be extended to cope with the specification of content management and integration with external services, through the addition of operations, which can be defined and added to the hypertext model. They are invoked as a side effect of navigation and permit one to specify commonly found interaction patterns as data entry, personal data management, and shopping carts." (About WebML.org)

Posted by PJB on January 26, 2004 | Classification: Technology | Comments (0) | Permalink

A conversation with Alan Kay: Dynabook Revisited

"Literacy is not just about being able to read street signs or medicine labels. It means being able to deal in the world of ideas. In a democratic society you need people to be in conversational contact with the important ideas of the past and of the present, which means being able to read about them and write about them and talk about them. (...) Because the music is not inside the piano." (Squeakland essays)

Posted by PJB on January 25, 2004 | Classification: Interviews | Comments (0) | Permalink

Words come before looks in web design

"Advertising agencies tend to design awful websites because they are obsessed with getting attention. When people come to your website, you have already got their attention. They want to do something. They want detail. They want facts. The thing they value most is their time. So don’t waste it." (Gerry McGovern)

Posted by PJB on January 25, 2004 | Classification: Writing | Comments (0) | Permalink

Mars Exploration Rover 2003

"Maas Digital founder Dan Maas created this dramatic, scientifically accurate computer animation to illustrate NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission." (Maas Digital)

Posted by PJB on January 23, 2004 | Classification: Information graphics | Comments (0) | Permalink

Judging the likely Success of an Ontology

"(...) the Semantic web will only work if it is a melange of multiple interoperable Ontologies. What is missing from the debate is a more detailed explanation of what ontologies are good at, how they interoperate, and why systems based on ontologies succeed or fail. From my perspective as a systems designer this last point is the most significant. Debates about theory are nice, but examples of real solutions are more instructive. This essay will begin to examine this question by attempting to define the anatomy of an ontology. I will use this structure in later essays to examine the reasons for success and failure of individual ontologies." (John R. Harris - Virtual Travelog) - courtesy of xblog

Posted by PJB on January 23, 2004 | Classification: Metadata | Comments (0) | Permalink

An interview with Dave Shea

"We've got the momentum, but it’s going to take a few solid pushes to get everyone else over the edge with us. It's a 'When', not an 'If', and developers who haven't bothered to come along will have trouble finding work." (Craig Saila - Digital Web Magazine)

Posted by PJB on January 22, 2004 | Classification: Interviews | Comments (0) | Permalink

Multimodal Interaction on the Web

"Interaction (input, output) between the user and the application may often be conceptualized as a series of dialogs, managed by an interaction manager. A dialog is an interaction between the user and the application that involves turn-taking." (Peter Mikhalenko - XML.Com)

Posted by PJB on January 22, 2004 | Classification: Technology | Comments (0) | Permalink

The Role of Business Analyst - a Need but no Room for HCI?

"(...) I certainly believe more than ever that there is room for those with qualifications and experience of customer centred design principles in the position of Analyst. However, finding those with the power and faith to appoint these people to an analyst position will continue to be a difficult task." (David N. Clarke - Usability News)

Posted by PJB on January 21, 2004 | Classification: HCI | Comments (0) | Permalink

What are the differences between a vocabulary, a taxonomy, a thesaurus, an ontology, and a meta-model?

"Taxonomies and thesauri may relate terms in a controlled vocabulary via parent-child and associative relationships, but do not contain explicit grammar rules to constrain how to use controlled vocabulary terms to express (model) something meaningful within a domain of interest. A meta-model is an ontology used by modelers. People make commitments to use a specific controlled vocabulary or ontology for a domain of interest." (Johannes Ernst - MetaModel) - courtesy of xblog

Posted by PJB on January 21, 2004 | Classification: Metadata | Comments (0) | Permalink

The 20th Anniversary of the Apple Macintosh Computer!

"On January 24, 1984 the personal computing movement was changed forever with the Superbowl launch of Apple's Macintosh computer. While the graphical user interface, mouse, and bitmapped display+printing had been around for more than a decade, the Mac represented the first combining of these key innovations into a beautifully crafted package that an ordinary consumer could pick up and use in daily life. The Mac went on to spawn several revolutions including the 'Desktop Publishing' phenomenon of the 80s. This site is a special project of the DigiBarn Computer Museum to bring together some of the rarest artifacts relating to the Mac (many never seen online or published in any way). We will also pull together many materials that will give you an idea of where the Mac came from, predecessor systems, people and organizations, and where the Mac fits today in our evolutionary tree of visual computing." (DigiBarn Computer Museum)

Posted by PJB on January 20, 2004 | Classification: Classics | Comments (0) | Permalink

A longitudinal study of Web pages continued: A consideration of document persistence

"It is well established that Web documents are ephemeral in nature. The literature now suggests that some Web objects are more ephemeral than others. Some authors describe this in terms of a Web document half-life, others use terms like 'linkrot' or persistence. It may be that certain 'classes' of Web documents are more or less likely to persist than are others. This article is based upon an evaluation of the existing literature as well as a continuing study of a set of URLs first identified in late 1996. It finds that a static collection of general Web pages tends to 'stabilize' somewhat after it has 'aged'. However 'stable' various collections may be, their instability nevertheless pose problems for various classes of users. Based on the literature, it also finds that the stability of more specialized Web document collections (legal, educational, scientific citations) vary according to specialization. This finding, in turn, may have implications both for those who employ Web citations and for those involved in Web document collection development." (Wallace Koehler - Information Research 9.2)

Posted by PJB on January 20, 2004 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Where our hypermedia really should go!

"There is something going on called XML. Which some say is HTML done right. I think that is a good description. A wrong thing done to absolute perfection. I have been on the mailing list of the XML linking committee. Which is endeavoring to create some kind of a specification or a standard for  hyper documents that will appropriately represent connected structure. My experience is reading convinces me further, as if I had not known already that I want nothing to do with it. What I am  doing continues in another direction." (Ted Nelson - Engelbart's Colloquium: The Unfinished Revolution)

Posted by PJB on January 20, 2004 | Classification: Hypertext | Comments (0) | Permalink

Metacognition, Distributed Cognition and Visual Design 

"Metacognition is associated with planning, monitoring, evaluating and repairing performance. Designers of elearning systems can improve the quality of their environments by explicitly structuring the visual and interactive display of learning contexts to facilitate metacognition. Typically page layout, navigational appearance, visual and interactivity design are not viewed as major factors in metacognition. This is because metacognition tends to be interpreted as a process in the head, rather than an interactive one. It is argued here, that cognition and metacognition are part of a continuum and that both are highly interactive." (David Kirsh - Dept. of Cogsci, UCSD)

Posted by PJB on January 19, 2004 | Classification: Visual design | Comments (0) | Permalink

A Few Thoughts on Cognitive Overload

"Cognitive overload is a brute fact of modern life. It is not going to disappear. In almost every facet of our work life, and in more and more of our domestic life, the jobs we need to do and the activity spaces we have in which to perform those jobs are ecologies saturated with overload. As technology increases the omnipresence of information, both of the pushed and pulled sort, the consequence for the workplace, so far, is that we are more overwhelmed. There is little reason to suppose this trend to change." (David Kirsh - Dept. of Cogsci, UCSD)

Posted by PJB on January 19, 2004 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Grokker, or Visual Navigation

"The advent of increasingly visual and better structured browsers like Vivisimo, Grokker or TouchGraph is beginning to shake up a world that seemed to be static. A definitive reference point appears to still be beyond the horizon, but we are definitely closer." (Juan C. Dürsteler - Inf@Vis!)

Posted by PJB on January 19, 2004 | Classification: InfoViz | Comments (0) | Permalink

How Big is the Difference Between Websites?

"The average difference in measured usability between competing websites is 68%. This is smaller than expected, but makes sense given the dynamics of design within individual industries." (Jakob Nielsen - Alertbox)

Posted by PJB on January 19, 2004 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

XForms Institute: Interactive XForms School

"Like XHTML, SVG, and RSS, XForms is an XML-based language written with tags that can be identified by surrounding angle brackets. (XML purists perfer to call these elements) Learning XForms is largely a matter of understanding what individual elements do, as well as how they interrelate. One difference is that XForms provides several more elements than form authors might be accustomed to. As a result, several tasks that would have otherwise required complicated scripting can be accomplished declaratively, just by putting the right elements in place." (About XForms Institute)

Posted by PJB on January 19, 2004 | Classification: Technology | Comments (0) | Permalink

From Brick to Click: Bridging the Divide 3/7: eCommerce and Experience Design

"The overarching lesson when considering experience design in the context of eCommerce is that we need to abandon the flatland of our screen." (Dirk Knemeyer- Thread, Inc.)

Posted by PJB on January 18, 2004 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Web design: Never let an ad agency near your website

"The average advertising agency fundamentally doesn't get the Web. Saatchi & Saatchi, BBDO Worldwide, J. Walter Thompson and Ogilvy are great advertising agencies. When it comes to managing their own websites, however, they are rank amateurs. They bring their print and TV thinking to the Web with embarrassing results." (Gerry McGovern)

Posted by PJB on January 18, 2004 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Hot Text: Web Writing that Works

"To help you figure out what will work for you and your audiences when you start tapping out electronic text, we bring together the results of research on usability, readability, reading comprehension, and writing methods." (About HT) - courtesy of elearning

Posted by PJB on January 16, 2004 | Classification: Writing | Comments (0) | Permalink

The User Experience Cosmos

"Some time ago, as a result of my conversations with my friend and colleague, I came up with the idea of appliying the cartesian model to this User Experience world of us: what if we could use a north-south axis to represent the duality between the digital and the analog, and also use an east-west axis to articulate the the duality between the emotional and the rational? Once represented, we could place in this territory anything we could come up with: people, resources, disciplines, webs or products. The experiment became a document named 'The User Experience Cosmos'. As in ancient maps, this is a rather subjective and personal representation of the territory. Therefore, next would be to invite anyone to create its own representation. Even thou this is an idea with a signature, anyone is free to use this model for his own purposes if the original version and his author are refered." ((Javier Cañada - terremoto.net)

Posted by PJB on January 15, 2004 | Classification: User experience | Comments (0) | Permalink

History Flow

"Visualizing dynamic, evolving documents and the interactions of multiple collaborating authors: a preliminary report." (IBM Collaborative User Experience Research Group) - courtesy of chad thornton

Posted by PJB on January 15, 2004 | Classification: InfoViz | Comments (0) | Permalink

Emotion Design

"Beauty is important for our lives: beauty in our environment, in our surroundings, in our actions, and yes, in the products we buy and use. Beauty and brains, pleasure and usability - they should go hand in hand. That's the message of 'Emotional Design'." (Donald Norman - ACM Ubiquity)

Posted by PJB on January 14, 2004 | Classification: User experience | Comments (0) | Permalink

Auditory Interfaces: The Use of Non-Speech Audio at the Interface

"The following is the manuscript of a 'work stopped in progress' in 1994.  That is, it is a book that we started, but never finished.  Nevertheless, we used the manuscript in its various forms for tutorials and courses that we taught, always with the expectation that we would finish. Well, the reality is, that is not going to happen. Nevertheless, despite its lack of completion, the manuscript represents a fair bit of work in an area that does not have much of a literature." (William Buxton, William Gaver, and Sara Bly - Buxton Design)

Posted by PJB on January 14, 2004 | Classification: HCI | Comments (0) | Permalink

Re-Visions of Minard

"I use 're-vision' in the sense of both 'to revise' and 'to see again', possibly from a new perspective. (...) There is a great deal more to tell of Charles Joseph Minard." (Gallery of Data Visualization)

Posted by PJB on January 14, 2004 | Classification: Information graphics | Comments (0) | Permalink

Infographics: Exploring Visual Information Design

"Visual information has the difficult task of revealing the vital essence of a situation without needless complexity. Needless is an important word in this context. The danger is over simplification will sacrifice insight into the situation. There is a dynamic tension between simplicity and insight which must be dealt with to qualify as more than graphical data." (Design Crux)

Posted by PJB on January 14, 2004 | Classification: Information graphics | Comments (0) | Permalink

Plans for the BBC Digital Curriculum

"The Digital Curriculum is a new public service from the BBC for schools and learners at home throughout the United Kingdom." (BBCi)

Posted by PJB on January 14, 2004 | Classification: Instructional design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Auditory Information Design

"The prospect of computer applications making 'noises' is disconcerting to some. Yet the soundscape of the real world does not usually bother us. Perhaps we only notice a nuisance? This thesis is an approach for designing sounds that are useful information rather than distracting 'noise'." (Stephen Barrass 1998 - The Australian National University)

Posted by PJB on January 13, 2004 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Panther: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

"It may seem I'm damning Apple with faint praise, considering how much bad I have mentioned. Actually, nothing could be further from the truth. Apple is indeed back. OS X is a fully-usable powerhouse once more, with a free and open future. I'm giving Apple some free advice, from someone whose advice is normally screamingly expensive, on where to go from here. The way is open." (Bruce 'Tog' Tognazzini - AskTog)

Posted by PJB on January 13, 2004 | Classification: Interaction design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Mobile Community Design

Research and design information for mobile community developers - "It is a frequently updated source of research and design information concerning mobile communities." (Jeff Axup)

Posted by PJB on January 13, 2004 | Classification: Weblogs | Comments (0) | Permalink

Five ways to identify intranet usability issue

"Many intranets are under-used. Intranet managers lament the low use and discuss how to get staff to 'use the intranet more', resulting in marketing and promotions activities to increase use." (Donna Maurer - Step Two Designs)

Posted by PJB on January 13, 2004 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

Audio Interfaces for Online Environments

"Sound is one of our most sophisticated senses, from the time we are babies our entire world is filled with sounds designed to stimulate our behavior. We grow to expect pleasure or annoyance as were are introduced to surprising new sounds as well as established ones. Sound has a variety of forms - voice, music, effects, nature, or other communication forms - and these can be incredible rich, complex, and subtle." (Clark MacLeod - Kelake)

Posted by PJB on January 13, 2004 | Classification: HCI | Comments (0) | Permalink

Personalization is not Technology: Using Web Personalization to Promote your Business Goal

"Web personalization is a strategy, a marketing tool, and an art. Personalization requires implicitly or explicitly collecting visitor information and leveraging that knowledge in your content delivery framework to manipulate what information you present to your users and how you present it." (Christian Ricci - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted by PJB on January 13, 2004 | Classification: User experience | Comments (0) | Permalink

Designing for Limited Resources

"Good online experience design must accommodate real-world limitations." (Laura S. Quinn - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted by PJB on January 13, 2004 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

From Brick to Click - Bridging the Divide 2/7: Effective Virtual Salespeople

"(...) it really comes back to the human touch. Making the interaction as personal and attentive as possible. Creating and locating content in a way that questions and concerns are answered even before they are asked, to simulate the value that an in-store salesperson brings." (Dirk Knemeyer - Thread Inc.)

Posted by PJB on January 12, 2004 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

From Brick to Click - Bridging the Divide 1/7: Understanding eCommerce

"We have only barely begun to take advantage of the opportunity presented by eCommerce. This is despite the power of broadband connection and the seemingly ubiquitous presence of personal web-enabled devices. Despite visionary and innovative eCommerce companies. Despite the best efforts of traditional companies to best leverage and even transition over to an eCommerce-centered model." (Dirk Knemeyer - Thread Inc.)

Posted by PJB on January 12, 2004 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Web content management predictions for 2004

"This is the year when web content comes of age. Organizations will slowly stop viewing content as some cost that needs to be managed. Instead, they will begin to see content as an asset that can drive profits and productivity. A new role will emerge within many organizations: the publisher/editor." (Gerry McGovern)

Posted by PJB on January 12, 2004 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Information Design of Community-Building

"This article will speak to the issue that there are certain design considerations which are critical for successful, long-lasting community building on the web that may have no importance or may have lesser importance in a non-community-oriented web site." (Sandra Maddox - Lazarus)

Posted by PJB on January 10, 2004 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Where/What Vision Systems and Visual Design

"You can increase the effectiveness of your visual web designs and graphics by getting a little understanding of two human vision systems researched and written about by Margaret Livingston (a neurobiologist)." (Heather Quinn - evolt.org)

Posted by PJB on January 09, 2004 | Classification: Visual design | Comments (0) | Permalink

An Introduction to Information Architecture

"The aim of the seminar, which will probably be one of the first information architecture seminars in the UK, is to exchange ideas, visions, and practical experience about information architecture, and explore the potential roles of AIFIA and CILIP in developing a greater awareness of information architecture principles and good practice in the UK." (March 3rd, 2004 London UK - UKOLUG)

Posted by PJB on January 09, 2004 | Classification: Events | Comments (0) | Permalink

On the economy of Web links: Simulating the exchange process

"In the modern Web economy, hyperlinks have already attained monetary value as incoming links to a Web site can increase its visibility on major search engines. Thus links can be viewed as investment instruments that can be the subject of an exchange process. In this study we build a simple model performed by rational agents, whereby links can be bought and sold. Through simulation we achieve consistent economic behaviour of the artificial Web community and provide analysis of its micro– and macro–level parameters. In our simulations we take the link economy to its extreme, where a significant number of links are exchanged, concluding that it will lead to a winner take all situation." (Boris Galitsky and Mark Levene - First Monday 9.1)

Posted by PJB on January 08, 2004 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

What is Web Design?

"A compilation of issues, process and practice in design for connected interactive experiences." (Review by Shelley Evenson - ACM Ubiquity)

Posted by PJB on January 08, 2004 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Seven Resolutions for 2004

"In those inevitable moments when my enthusiasm wanes, I'll remember how much I love this field of work—that it’s important, and meaningful, and fun." (Adaptive Path)

Posted by PJB on January 08, 2004 | Classification: User experience | Comments (0) | Permalink

Content Management for Information Architects

"This full-day workshop (sponsored by AIfIA) focuses on the link between information architecture and content management. Presentations by the industry's leading experts and relevant case studies will provide attendees with well-grounded knowledge and numerous opportunities to participate. Special emphasis will be placed on the integration of IA knowledge and deliverables into the CM process." (IA Summit 2004) - courtesy of louis rosenfeld

Posted by PJB on January 08, 2004 | Classification: Events | Comments (0) | Permalink

Grammar, Punctuation, and Capitalization: A Handbook for Technical Writers and Editors

"This publication is directed toward professional writers, editors, and proofreaders. Those whose profession lies in other areas (for example, research or management), but who have occasion to write or review others' writing will also find this information useful. By carefully studying the examples and revisions to these examples, you can discern most of the techniques in my editing 'bag of tricks'; I hope that you editors will find these of particular interest." (Mary K. McCaskill - NASA Langley Research Center) - courtesy of lucdesk

Posted by PJB on January 07, 2004 | Classification: TechCom | Comments (0) | Permalink

Design by Fire

"Welcome to the personal web site of Andrei Herasimchuk and Donna Driscoll, dedicated to their interface design work and various other personal interests." (Andrei Herasimchuk & Donna Driscoll) - courtesy of dirk knemeyer

Posted by PJB on January 07, 2004 | Classification: Weblogs | Comments (0) | Permalink

Don Norman on PowerPoint Usability

"PowerPoint is NOT the problem. The problem is bad talks, and in part, this comes about because of so many pointless meetings, where people with – or without – a point to make – have to give pointless talks. The problem is that it is difficult work to give a good talk, and to do so, the presenter has to have learned how to give talks, has to have practiced, and has had to have good feedback about the quality of the talks - the better to improve them." (Cliff Atkinson - Sociable Media) - courtesy of xblog

Posted by PJB on January 07, 2004 | Classification: Interviews | Comments (0) | Permalink

History of the Tube Map

"The striking symbol that is recognised across the globe was the brainchild of Underground electrical draughtsman, Harry Beck, who produced this imaginative yet stunningly simple design back in 1933." (London Underground)

Posted by PJB on January 06, 2004 | Classification: Classics - Information graphics | Comments (0) | Permalink

Design Differences: VUIs versus GUIs

"Voice User Interfaces (VUIs) are a new concept to many who now have the task of doing everything it takes to develop a VoiceXML application. This article describes the difference between the VUI and the long-familiar GUI." (Rick Beasley et al. - informIT) - courtesy of nooface

Posted by PJB on January 06, 2004 | Classification: HCI | Comments (0) | Permalink

Ten Steps for Cleaning Up Information Pollution

"Better prioritization, fewer interruptions, and concentrated information that's easy to find and manage helps people become more productive and stop wasting their colleagues' time." (Jakob Nielsen - Alertbox)

Posted by PJB on January 05, 2004 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

Key Research Findings Related to User-Centered Design (2002–2003)

"It is NOT enough to just design from intuition and good intentions. We need the benefit of these scientific insights. As we move toward mature usability engineering, institutionalized in organizations, we must have resources to constantly incorporate these insights into our practice." (Kate Straub - Human Factors International) - courtesy of usability news

Posted by PJB on January 05, 2004 | Classification: UCD | Comments (0) | Permalink

How to Make a Faceted Classification and Put It On the Web

"This paper will attempt to bridge the gap by giving procedures and advice on all the steps involved in making a faceted classification and putting it on the web. Web people will benefit by having a rigorous seven-step process to follow for creating faceted classifications, and librarians will benefit by understanding how to store such a classification on a computer and make it available on the web." (William Denton - Miskatonic University Press)

Posted by PJB on January 05, 2004 | Classification: Metadata | Comments (0) | Permalink

Dive Into Accessibility

"This book answers two questions. The first question is 'Why should I make my web site more accessible?' If you do not have a web site, this book is not for you. The second question is 'How can I make my web site more accessible?' If you are not convinced by the first answer, you will not be interested in the second." (Mark Pilgrim) - courtesy of guuui

Posted by PJB on January 05, 2004 | Classification: Accessibility | Comments (0) | Permalink

What is Information Design?

"While I am greatly generalizing to drive my point, I advocate that visual communication work is conceived and designed according to the good principles of Information Design listed above and not according to the visual taste and preference of anyone." (Robin Good - Master New Media)

Posted by PJB on January 03, 2004 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Consumers go adrift in sea of unfiltered data: Longer we're connected, the more we create

"Digital cameras let us snap more shots cheaply and spontaneously. But instead of keeping the best for posterity, we often clutter our computers by saving all, good or bad." (Anick Jesdanun - Seattle Post-Intelligencer) - courtesy of jakob nielsen

Posted by PJB on January 03, 2004 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Richard Saul Wurman: The InfoDesign interview

"What is critical is to understand what it is like not to understand. My definition of learning is to remember what you are interested in. If you don't remember something, you haven't learned it, and you are never going to remember something unless you are interested in it." (Dirk Knemeyer - InfoDesign: Understanding by Design)

Posted by PJB on January 01, 2004 | Classification: Special | Comments (0) | Permalink

Ontology development 101: A guide to creating your first ontology

"Sharing common understanding of the structure of information among people or software agents is one of the more common goals in developing ontologies (...)" (Natalya F. Noy and Deborah L. McGuinness - Stanford university) - courtesy of kottke

Posted by PJB on January 01, 2004 | Classification: Metadata | Comments (0) | Permalink

Emotion design

"Final manuscript: Except for proofing. Do NOT tell me about mistakes. These files are riddled with errors. I believe that all have been found and corrected. And if not, well, it is too late." (Don Norman - NN/g) - courtesy of ben hyde

Posted by PJB on January 01, 2004 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

Why machines should fear

"Once a curmudgeonly champion of 'usable' design, cognitive scientist Donald A. Norman argues that future machines will need emotions to be truly dependable." (W. Wayt Gibbs - Scientific American) - courtesy of lucdesk

Posted by PJB on January 01, 2004 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

Multimedia Web Forms

"Multipage tax input forms with calculations and validations; Web shop order forms (...) anything that needs user interaction within Web document formats." (Kari Pihkala, Mikko Honkala, and Petri Vuorimaa - SMIL Europe 2003)

Posted by PJB on January 01, 2004 | Classification: Technology | Comments (0) | Permalink

Educational curriculum survey 2003

"This survey was conducted in November and December 2003. Instructors listed on our list of IA programs were invited to participate. A total of 19 responses were collected." (Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture) - courtesy of victor lombardi

Posted by PJB on January 01, 2004 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink

Widgetopia

"Collection of widgets and UI elements from various websites, with notation of their sterling or plate metal qualities." (Christina Wodtke - Elegant Hack)

Posted by PJB on January 01, 2004 | Classification: HCI | Comments (0) | Permalink

IA Summit 2004 program at a glance 

"As always, the IA Summit focuses on connecting with peers. You can take advantage of frequent opportunities to catch up with colleagues and meet others in the field. And if you are new to IA, the Summit is the best way to begin your involvement in the exciting discipline of Information Architecture." (IA Summit 2004) - courtesy of victor lombardi

Posted by PJB on January 01, 2004 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink

Guild of Accessible Web Designers

"The Guild of Accessible Web Designers will promote a vision of the future that assumes accessible web design to be, relevant, obtainable, and not at odds with successful business practice, or good visual and usable design." (About the GAWDS) - courtesy of lucdesk

Posted by PJB on January 01, 2004 | Classification: Accessibility | Comments (0) | Permalink

A steady dose of realtime interruptions is toxic to anyone's health

"Respected technology commentators say that they now prefer instant messaging (IM) over e-mail as their medium of choice for computer-mediated communication. The main reasons are that e-mail has become an overloaded channel for readers and that you can't be sure to get a timely response from the recipients of your e-mail." (Jakob Nielsen - ACM Queue)

Posted by PJB on January 01, 2004 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink