March 2004

Information taxonomy plays a critical role in Web site design and search processes

"Information taxonomy is a Web developer's best friend because it can help reach those two most elusive goals of effective Web design: user satisfaction and return on investment. Conversely, even the most efficient search engine cannot completely overcome problems caused by poorly conceived or completely absent information taxonomy." (ZDNet)

Posted by PJB on March 31, 2004 | Classification: Metadata | Comments (0) | Permalink

The high cost of not finding information

"We need to embed both people and information within a system that fits how people in the organization work, that understands the workflow and when the needs for information arise. People need to use information within the context of their jobs and their environment. It's not just the information that is vital to the organization. It's the exchange of information, the information within the context of the people and the situation of the moment that needs to be recorded and tracked so that when people disappear, the reasons why decisions are made remain behind." (Susan Feldman - KMWorld) - courtesy of john rhodes

Posted by PJB on March 31, 2004 | Classification: Search | Comments (0) | Permalink

spiekerblog

The weblog of information designer and information architect Erik Spiekermann - courtesy of jason kottke

Posted by PJB on March 31, 2004 | Classification: Weblogs | Comments (0) | Permalink

The Top 3 Priorities of the Talking Horse

"Anytime somebody does something new with technology, something nobody else has ever done before, that technology goes through a talking horse stage. It's extremely common and, more importantly, it's critical for the design team to recognize that they are in this stage." (Jared Spool - UI Engineering)

Posted by PJB on March 30, 2004 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

The Red Herring of Usability ROI

"Like all of Rosenberg's observant myths, the misguided belief that statements like these can be made (and more importantly believed!) is the great red herring of usability ROI research. Let's rid ourselves of these top-down, macro-level assertions and get down to the real work of analyzing specific usability interventions at the project level. Only through rigorous and in-depth analysis can larger patterns emerge and applications be developed." (Scott Hirsch - Net Now) - courtesy of ia slash

Posted by PJB on March 30, 2004 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

Seven Myths of Usability ROI

"Daniel Rosenberg began his talk by confessing that he doesn't believe in usability Return on Investment (ROI). Having spent 30 years in the field of User Experience (UE), and never having been asked to justify usability by its ROI, Rosenberg raises a question: Why are we still discussing this topic?" (BayCHI) - courtesy of nick finck

Posted by PJB on March 29, 2004 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

Don't make these mistakes when buying content management software

"Most organizations don't need content management software. Unless you have a very busy website with lots and lots of content being published, the return on investment is not there. The majority of those who do require such software need a very simple, streamlined solution." (Gerry McGovern)

Posted by PJB on March 28, 2004 | Classification: Content management | Comments (0) | Permalink

Productivity in the Service Economy

"Yes, it is possible for white-collar workers to work smarter and become more productive. While intranet usability provides substantial initial gains, workflow usability can go much further and will save millions of jobs." (Jakob Nielsen - Alertbox)

Posted by PJB on March 28, 2004 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

Content Mapping 

"Content Mapping is the theoretical framework used by Namahn's information designers to turn traditional, sequential information into manageable and re-usable document-like content objects, ready for multiple purposes." (Namahn Research Notes)

Posted by PJB on March 28, 2004 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Smart style for conveying information 

"The catch is that the style ingredients - content, presentation structure and aesthetics - are mutually dependent. Resolving these dependencies is exactly why graphic design is difficult and the reason that our style has to get smart." (Lynda Hardman)

Posted by PJB on March 26, 2004 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

The End-All Guide to Small-Screen Web-Dev

"The number of wireless visitors using tiny browsers with ever increasing capacities is unlikely to diminish." (Heidi Pollock - Webmonkey) - courtesy of nick finck

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

Technical writers and interaction design

"Technical writers are oft-forgotten constituents in the product development cycle. Although they are rarely tasked with participating in product requirements definition and product design, technical writers are in a unique position to affect product design. However, they will find that subtlety and subterfuge are sometimes necessary to make a politically correct impact in an organization that has not embraced interaction design as a formal part of the development process." (Steve Calde - Cooper)

Posted by PJB on March 25, 2004 | Classification: Interaction design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Metadata? Thesauri? Taxonomies? Topic Maps!

"To be faced with a document collection and not to be able to find the information you know exists somewhere within it is a problem as old as the existence of document collections. Information Architecture is the discipline dealing with the modern version of this problem: how to organize web sites so that users actually can find what they are looking for. Information architects have so far applied known and well-tried tools from library science to solve this problem, and now topic maps are sailing up as another potential tool for information architects. This raises the question of how topic maps compare with the traditional solutions, and that is the question this paper attempts to address. The paper argues that topic maps go beyond the traditional solutions in the sense that it provides a framework within which they can be represented as they are, but also extended in ways which significantly improve information retrieval." (Lars Marius Garshol - Ontopia)

Posted by PJB on March 25, 2004 | Classification: Metadata | Comments (0) | Permalink

High Accessibility, High Design: CSS to the rescue

"I'm going to make a sweeping generalization here and say there are two grand reasons why people get involved in Web development: They like the programming and coding (they're technical) or they like visual design on the Web (they're artistic)." (Joe Clark - Naar Voren)

Posted by PJB on March 25, 2004 | Classification: Accessibility | Comments (0) | Permalink

Using the 5Es to Understand Users

"(...) look at usability requirements for different aspects of the user experience. For each of the five dimensions of usability (the 5Es), we think about how it is reflected in requirements for each of the user groups." (Whitney Quesenbery - WQusability) - courtesy of beth mazur

Posted by PJB on March 24, 2004 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

Didier Hilhorst Speaks

"Colors and design are direct interface features. In my opinion the level of attractiveness directly affects ease-of-use, enjoyment and usefulness. A good website, as opposed to just a usable website, should seamlessly blend accessibility, usability and aesthetic quality." (skinnyj) - courtesy of nick finck

Posted by PJB on March 24, 2004 | Classification: Interviews | Comments (0) | Permalink

It's all in the process 

"Information design isn't necessarily about databases, spreadsheets, or even infographics. It's about process - designers and clients working together to solve problems and convey complex information though design systems that are functional and beautiful." (Ann Senechal - Adobe Magazine)

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

The People-Centric web

"I like to say that the Web is about people. It's been one of my many mantras over the years and it's becoming more and more apparent to me that I'm not the only one who feels this way." (D. Keith Robinson - Asterisk)

Posted by PJB on March 23, 2004 | Classification: UCD | Comments (0) | Permalink

New design rules: Yield to consumer

"Now that the consumer is in control, the industry may simply have to come hat in hand and adjust the expectations it's built up over the years" (Brian Fuller - EETimes)

Posted by PJB on March 22, 2004 | Classification: UCD | Comments (0) | Permalink

How to tell people what else you do on your website

"People come to your website on a mission. They want to do something specific. They are tunnel readers. Telling them what else you do - without annoying them - is a major challenge. Doing it well is about relevance and context. It’s about presenting the right content at the right time." (Gerry McGovern)

Posted by PJB on March 21, 2004 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Programmers, designers and the Brooklyn Bridge

"Do engineers design? Can designers engineer? Looking back at great projects throughout history, it seems these kinds of questions never needed to be asked. There was a philosophy that surfaced in many great works that to do anything well required more than one skill set or discipline. On the contrary, unchecked specialization breeds fragile and shallow ideas. As technology has progressed, I think we’ve lost our connections with the great works of the past and the philosophies and attitudes that enabled their creation. The design and engineering of modern technology, software and the web has bred a hubris that anything older than a few years can’t possibly be relevant, and I think it’s a mistake. To argue this point, there is no better place to start as a basis of comparison and learning than the story of the Brooklyn Bridge." (Scott Berkun - UIweb) - courtesy of lawrence lee

Posted by PJB on March 21, 2004 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

The Next Big Thing: From Hypermedia to Datuments

"The concept of a datument as a hyperdocument for transmitting and preserving the complete content of a piece of scientific work is introduced. Currently the scientific publishing process loses almost all of the information environment that the author creates or possesses. It is shown that datuments can record and reproduce experiments and act as a lossless way of publishing science. This is illustrated with specific examples drawn from scientific documents and molecular science, showing how a datument containing molecular coordinates can be viewed in various styles and how typical documents deriving from organic and physical chemistry and expressed in XML can be transformed using XSLT." (Peter Murray-Rust and Henry S. Rzepa - Journal of Digital Information)

Posted by PJB on March 21, 2004 | Classification: Technology | Comments (0) | Permalink

A republic of information designers

"The introduction of an information elite does little to reassure us. Wurman (1995) sees a heroic role for 'a group of people, small in number, deep in passion, called Information Architects', struggling forward through the 'field of black volcanic ash' constituted by current design, in order to save humanity from the 'tsunami of data that is crashing onto the beaches of the civilized world'. This sounds more like a blurb for the next Spielberg blockbuster, with Information Architects as the good guys, than as a serious proposal about the role of information design. However, the conference brochure similarly suggests that the 'Republic of Information' is 'going to be laid out and planned by a new breed of architects, informed with a new level of understanding and purpose'." (Jos de Bruin and Remko Scha - Institute of Artificial Art Amsterdam)

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

Calm Technologies in a Multimedia World

"In an ideal world, computers will blend into the landscape, will inform but not overburden you with information, and make you aware of them only when you need them." (Alexandru Tugui - ACM Ubiquity)

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

Day 2: IA Summit 2004 Wrapup

Trip Report

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

Day 1: IA Summit 2004 Wrapup

"Is there an information architect who doesn’t love facets?" (Boxes and Arrows Staff)

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

Ontology, Metadata, and Semiotics

"The Internet is a giant semiotic system. It is a massive collection of Peirce's three kinds of signs: icons, which show the form of something; indices, which point to something; and symbols, which represent something according to some convention. But current proposals for ontologies and metadata have overlooked some of the most important features of signs." (John Sowa)

Posted by PJB on March 18, 2004 | Classification: Metadata | Comments (0) | Permalink

Towards a Semantic Web for Culture

"New ways are proposed of visualizing knowledge using a time/space horizon to distinguish between universals and particulars. It is suggested that new visualization methods make possible a history of questions as well as of answers, thus enabling dynamic access to cultural and historical dimensions of knowledge. Unlike earlier media, which were limited to recording factual dimensions of collective memory, digital media enable us to explore theories, ways of perceiving, ways of knowing; to enter into other mindsets and world-views and thus to attain novel insights and new levels of tolerance. Some practical consequences are outlined." (Kim H. Veltman - Journal of Digital Information)

Posted by PJB on March 18, 2004 | Classification: Metadata | Comments (0) | Permalink

The Joy of Navigation Design

"Navigation design isn't just about finding things -- it imbues meaning based on the contexts it provides." (Peter Merholz)

Posted by PJB on March 18, 2004 | Classification: Navigation | Comments (0) | Permalink

Vocabulary Mapping for Terminology Services

"The paper describes a project to add value to controlled vocabularies by making inter-vocabulary associations. A methodology for mapping terms from one vocabulary to another is presented in the form of a case study applying the approach to the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) Thesaurus and the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). Our approach to mapping involves encoding vocabularies according to Machine-Readable Cataloging (MARC) standards, machine matching of vocabulary terms, and categorizing candidate mappings by likelihood of valid mapping. Mapping data is then stored as machine links. Vocabularies with associations to other schemes will be a key component of Web-based terminology services. The paper briefly describes how the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) is used to provide access to a vocabulary with mappings." (Diane Vizine-Goetz et al. - Journal of Digital Information)

Posted by PJB on March 18, 2004 | Classification: Metadata | Comments (0) | Permalink

Massacre in Madrid

"The March 11th tragedy in Madrid has given rise to a cataract of information (and of emotions) some of which have been converted into visual representations that bring us closer to the what and the how of what has happened these dreadful days." (Juan C. Dürsteler - Inf@Vis!)

Posted by PJB on March 18, 2004 | Classification: InfoViz | Comments (0) | Permalink

Aristotle's Categories

Original text translated by E. M. Edghill (The Classical Library)

Posted by PJB on March 18, 2004 | Classification: Classics | Comments (0) | Permalink

Information Design: A young discipline 

"Information Design, ID, comprises research on analysis, planning, presentation, and understanding of a message - its content, language, and form. Regardless of the selected medium, a well designed information material will satisfy aesthetic, economic, ergonomic, as well as subject matter requirements. The study of information design can be summarised as a multi-disciplinary, multi-dimensional, and worldwide consideration." (Rune Petterson - Information Design and Product Development, Mälardalen University, Eskilstuna, Sweden)

Posted by PJB on March 17, 2004 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

An open letter to Jakob Nielsen

"Prove to the world that you understand what it takes to provide the world with good design. Prove that you understand that good design, especially as it pertains to the field of high-technology product design, is also about nuts and bolts, honest, straight-forward usability. Prove to the designers out there you understand the principles of good design by tackling your own little spot on the World Wide Web." (Andrei Michael Herasimchuk - Design by Fire)

Posted by PJB on March 17, 2004 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

Eyetrack Is Not a Solution

"Eyetrack is an effort to show how online news users process information on a Web page. We look through the eyes (literally) of a group of consumers as they view broadband-era news websites and multimedia editorial content." (Poynter Online)

Posted by PJB on March 17, 2004 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

Infolution: Technology in depth and white paper

"Having the right information at the right time is absolutely essential to one's business. 'Information is power!' or so the saying goes. But while information is a valuable resource, overwhelming information can pose a serious problem." (Tarchon)

Posted by PJB on March 17, 2004 | Classification: Search | Comments (0) | Permalink

Fourth Annual Weblog Awards: The 2004 Bloggies

"The Weblog Awards ceremony was held at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival for the second time in Austin, Texas, USA on Monday, March 15, 2004 at 12:30 PM. Webloggers including previous winners and prize donators presented the certificates and prizes to those present." (Fairvue)

Posted by PJB on March 16, 2004 | Classification: Weblogs | Comments (0) | Permalink

SXSW: Web Awards

"During the awards, I sat at the same table as Kevin and Tom from OK/Cancel, a great web site for geeks. I scored two of their trading cards featuring two of my design heroes, Don Norman and Edward Tufte, as superheroes with special powers." (Terrie Miller - O'Reilly Developer Weblogs)

Posted by PJB on March 16, 2004 | Classification: Weblogs | Comments (0) | Permalink

I am USER, hear me roar!

"There are some things, that have been and are done successfully throughout the years of the internet. The biggest one is the big C - content." (Chris Heilmann - Evolt)

Posted by PJB on March 15, 2004 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

Why Consumer Products Have Inferior User Experience

"Physical products, from consumer electronics to cars, are needlessly complex because they're developed by insular companies that continue to ignore the growing usability trend." (Jakob Nielsen - Alertbox)

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

The Geography of Cyberspace Directory

"Does Cyberspace have a geography? What do we know about the nature, shape, size, distribution and geography of the Internet, the World-Wide Web and Cyberspace?" (Cyber Geography)

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

Structure and Style in Use Cases for User Interface Design

"Various styles for writing use cases are presented with examples and discussions of their relative advantages and disadvantages, particularly their consequences for user interface design and software usability. Essential use cases, a variant employed within usage-centered design, are contrasted with conventional use cases and scenarios. For the most efficient support of user interface design and particularly for large, complex projects, a highly-structured form of use case has evolved. New narrative elements and relationships among use cases are introduced. These include means for expressing partial or flexible ordering of interaction, relationships with business rules, as well as a clarification of the often misunderstood concept of extension that recognizes two distinct forms: synchronous and asynchronous extensions." (Constantine & Lockwood, Ltd.) - courtesy of guuui

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

How to design for the tunnel reader

"People may initially scan read on the Web; their eyes moving quickly across a page. However, when they find the keywords they are interested in, they tend to tunnel read. What this means is that they focus on a specific set of content. They basically don’t see anything else on your website." (Gerry McGovern)

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

User Experience in India: State of the Profession 2004

"Overall, the survey reveals the picture of a profession that is rapidly maturing. Many practitioners have more than four years experience. Some institutes are playing a key role in educating students in the field. Practitioners have knowledge of many of the techniques and methods of the field. Practitioners face a number of constraints in their work which seem very similar to those faced by practitioners in other countries and regions. In short, User Experience in India has arrived!" (Uzanto Consulting)

Posted by PJB on March 12, 2004 | Classification: User experience | Comments (0) | Permalink

Emotional about design

"Visceral design is what nature does. (...) Behavioural design is all about use. (...) Reflective design is about the meaning of things." (Guardian Unlimited) - courtesy of lawrence lee

Posted by PJB on March 11, 2004 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

MSN Personas

"We try to understand an audience through numbers, charts and graphs, but often times we lose sight of the people who represent these statistics. The MSN audience is comprised of a broad range of users at different stages in their life, who use MSN in their own unique way. To help better define the people behind the numbers, MSN has created personas for some key audience segments." (MSN Advertising) - courtesy of brett lider

Posted by PJB on March 11, 2004 | Classification: Personas | Comments (0) | Permalink

Optimizing Your Chances with Accessibility

Effectively increasing search engine ranking with W3C Accessibility guidelines and Section 508 (Brandon Olejniczak - Digital Web Magazine)

Posted by PJB on March 11, 2004 | Classification: Accessibility | Comments (0) | Permalink

Taxonomy and Metadata Strategies for Effective Content Management

"There is a lot of mumbo-jumbo like the word 'taxonomy' that is being thrown around to describe how to manage so-called unstructured content like business documents, web site pages, and old fashioned technical reports and articles. On the one hand, we want to remember what we already know about how to create a useful core catalog record to describe a content object so it can be found again later when needed. On the other hand, there are some bad habits and obsolete ideas like inverted file indexes that we need to get beyond. This talk is about what we have seen in dozens of applied information management projects over the past few years, and how you can take advantage of what you already know to solve big problems like these in your own organizations." (Joseph Busch - Potomac Valley Chapter of ASIS&T)

Posted by PJB on March 10, 2004 | Classification: Metadata | Comments (0) | Permalink

Supporting enterprise knowledge management with weblogs: A weblog services roadmap

"Presentation at the Computers in Libraries conference." (Michael Angeles)

Posted by PJB on March 10, 2004 | Classification: Weblogs | Comments (0) | Permalink

Content Management for Information Architecture

Video of presentations at the Fifth IA Summit 2004 - including Poster Sessions and the presentation of Jared Spool (CMSReview) - courtesy of columntwo

Posted by PJB on March 09, 2004 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink

Xanalogical Structure, Needed Now More than Ever: Parallel Documents, Deep Links to Content, Deep Versioning, and Deep Re-Use

"Xanalogical literary structure is a unique symmetrical connective system for text (and other separable media elements), with two complementary forms of connection that achieve these functions -- survivable deep linkage (content links) and recognizable, visible re-use (transclusion). Both of these are easily implemented by a document model using content lists which reference stabilized media." (Theodor Holm Nelson - ACM Computing Surveys Hypertext and Hypermedia Symposium)

Posted by PJB on March 08, 2004 | Classification: Classics | Comments (0) | Permalink

Faceted Access: A review of the literature

"The purpose of this paper is to define what is meant by facet analysis, and to review briefly the history of facet analysis within the context of other types of subject analysis in libraries and within the context of information retrieval research." (Amanda Maple)

Posted by PJB on March 08, 2004 | Classification: Metadata | Comments (0) | Permalink

Ranganathan's Colon Classification: A selected and annotated bibliography

"Classification schemes can be described as enumerative (Library of Congress Classification), hierarchical (Dewey Decimal Classification) and analytico-synthetic or faceted (Colon Classification)." (Nicole Aerts, Jan Green and Lorna McAdam)

Posted by PJB on March 08, 2004 | Classification: Metadata | Comments (0) | Permalink

Understanding visual communication

"They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. Indeed, some pictures are better at conveying some things than words. Still, not all pictures are created equal, and the power of visual communication is sometimes misunderstood, if not misused. Pictures are no panacea; some words may well convey concepts better than a thousand pictures, too." (Jean-luc Doumont - STC Belgium)

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

The complexity principle

"Overly complex interfaces significantly impact usability and must be avoided. While there are plenty of studies researching this issue and plenty of data to point to how complexity hurts a product, in order to truly address the root of problem, designers must understand where complexity originates." (Design by Fire)

Posted by PJB on March 08, 2004 | Classification: HCI | Comments (0) | Permalink

How to make links work for your website

"Quality links from external websites will help get more of the right people to your website. Well written links within your website will ensure your readers can act in a way you want them to. Linking is about driving action. It's about getting the right people to the right content as quickly as possible." (Gerry McGovern)

Posted by PJB on March 07, 2004 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Fundamental concepts of reuse 

"Content reuse is fundamental to a successful unified content strategy. This chapter defines content reuse and the benefits of its use.It explores how other industries have employed reuse for decades to improve their processes and the quality of their products." (Ann Rockley - The Rockley Group)

Posted by PJB on March 07, 2004 | Classification: Content management | Comments (0) | Permalink

Experience Design and the Design of Experience

"(...) we enter the era of what I’m calling Experience Design. A quick scan of our sociocultural landscape suggests that, in terms of artistic practices, mass entertainment, sports, and emerging technologies of pleasure, productive forces are increasingly targeting experience itself - that evanescent flux of sensation and perception that is, in some sense, all we have and all we are." (Erik Davis - techgnosis) - courtesy of brad lauster

Posted by PJB on March 07, 2004 | Classification: User experience | Comments (0) | Permalink

IA Summit 2004 Presentation Handouts

Materials from the Fifth Annual ASIS&T Information Architecture Summit: Breaking New Ground / 27-29 February, 2004 - Austin, Texas (IA Summit 2004)

Posted by PJB on March 06, 2004 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink

The Risks of Discounted Qualitative Studies

"The discerning usability analyst should employ a mix of both qualitative and quantitative methods when discovering usability problems. The risks of relying heavily on a qualitative approach can lead to a severe misdiagnosis especially when usability problems are difficult to detect. This article is a response to Nielsen’s 'The Risk of Quantitative Studies' and shows how the problems voters had with the 'butterfly-ballot' in the Florida 2000 election would not have been detected with popular discounted qualitative methods. The problems with relying on one-size-fits all usability guidelines such as 'testing with only five users' and the inherent bias of pay-for-hire guru’s are also discussed." (Jeff Sauro - measuring usability)

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

Sparklines or Wordgraphs

"Here are some pieces of the sparkline chapter from Beautiful Evidence. I hope this material will be read carefully. Perhaps several Kindly Contributors will make some beautiful and interesting sparklines (or wordgraphics) with lots of data from a variety of fields." (Edward Tufte - Ask E.T.) - courtesy of peter merholz

Posted by PJB on March 05, 2004 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Information Visualization: Failed Experiment or Future Revolution?

"Many information architects (IAs) are skeptical about information visualization (InfoViz) and its applicability to IA problems. This presentation explores InfoViz from the perspective of IA practice." (Karl Fast) - courtesy of brett lider

Posted by PJB on March 05, 2004 | Classification: InfoViz | Comments (0) | Permalink

Pix from the Fifth Information Architecture Summit

"Feel free to leave your comments on my blog!" (Javier Velasco - mantruc)

Posted by PJB on March 05, 2004 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink

Subway systems of the world, presented on the same scale

Wire patterns of various subway systems. (fake is the new real) - courtesy of vuk cosic

Posted by PJB on March 05, 2004 | Classification: Information graphics | Comments (0) | Permalink

An introduction to personas and how to create them

"Before embarking on any intranet or website design project, it is important to understand the needs of your users. It is then possible to identify the features and functionality that will make the intranet or website a success, and how the design can support users with different goals and levels of skill." (Tina Calbria - Step Two Designs) - courtesy of elearningpost

Posted by PJB on March 04, 2004 | Classification: Personas | Comments (0) | Permalink

Do you 'google'? Understanding search engine use beyond the hype

"Much anecdotal evidence suggests that Google is the most popular search engine. However, such claims are rarely backed up by data. The reasons for this are manifold, including the difficulty in measuring search engine popularity and the multiple ways in which the concept can be understood. Here, I discuss the sources of confusion related to search engine popularity. It is problematic to make unfounded assumptions about general users’ search engine choices because by doing so we exclude a large number of people from our discussions about systems development and our understanding of how the average user finds information online." (Eszter Hargittai - FirstMonday 9.3)

Posted by PJB on March 04, 2004 | Classification: Search | Comments (0) | Permalink

OWL Web Ontology Language

"The OWL Web Ontology Language is designed for use by applications that need to process the content of information instead of just presenting information to humans." - W3C Recommendation (W3C)

Posted by PJB on March 04, 2004 | Classification: Technology | Comments (0) | Permalink

A Recipe for Learning Web Design

"Web design and its related fields are still relatively young in the grand scheme of things and are still developing. (...) There are many different paths one can take to become a professional Web designer, each as different as the individuals that make up the Web design community." (D. Keith Robinson - Digital Web Magazine)

Posted by PJB on March 04, 2004 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

To Think Bigger Thoughts

"Why The Human Cognome Project Requires Visual Language Tools" - Talk given by Robert Horn at the Converging Technologies for Human Performance (Nano, Bio, Info, Cogno) Conference, 2003 (Robert Horn)

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

Incorporating Navigation Research into a Design Method 

Presentation by Victor Lombardi at the Information Architecture Summit 2004 (Noise Between Stations)

Posted by PJB on March 02, 2004 | Classification: Navigation | Comments (0) | Permalink

A Tangible Interface for Organizing Information Using a Grid

"We present a new tangible interface platform for manipulating discrete pieces of abstract information, which attempts to combine the benefits of each of these two alternatives into a single system. We developed interaction techniques and an example application for organizing conference papers." (The Open Video Project)

Posted by PJB on March 02, 2004 | Classification: HCI | Comments (0) | Permalink

Faceted Browse

"(...) collection of stuff about faceted browse." (Keith Instone) - courtesy of ia summit blog

Posted by PJB on March 02, 2004 | Classification: Metadata | Comments (0) | Permalink

Notes from the 2004 IA Summit

"I realized this is the first conference I've ever attended that actually has something to do with what I do." (Dan Saffer) - courtesy of ia summit blog

Posted by PJB on March 02, 2004 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink

Concept Maps

"Conceptual Maps are simple and practical knowledge representation tools that allow you to convey complex conceptual messages in a clear, understandable way. They facilitate both teaching and learning. Moreover they are represented naturally as graphs." (Juan C. Dürsteler - Inf@Vis!)

Posted by PJB on March 02, 2004 | Classification: InfoViz | Comments (0) | Permalink

Cooperative brands: The importance of customer information for service brands 

"Focusing on a critical aspect in the relationship with consumers, Rob Waller and Judy Delin urge designers to create 'cooperative' communications - media that are relevant, clear, concise, thruthful, and informative. These attributes strengthen brand and build loyalty. Ignoring them causes confusion and doubt, weakening the connection with customers. Violating them - a 'final straw' experience - can end the customer relationship." (Rob Waller)

Posted by PJB on March 02, 2004 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Nathan Shedroff: The InfoDesign Interview

"Nathan is one of the pioneers of experience design and popularized the term with the first dedicated book on the topic. He is an expert and leader in the fields of information architecture, interaction design and online and interactive media, with extensive professional experience as an innovator." (Dirk Knemeyer)

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

The problems with training (and what to do about it)

"Many famous people became famous for things other than their public speaking ability. Despite this, many famous people are asked to speak at events, and they suck. In the case of most conferences, it’s not famous people, but its experts in some field or domain who do most of the speaking. It follows that many of them, when public speaking is concerned, might also suck." (Scott Berkun - uiweb) - courtesy of lawrence lee

Posted by PJB on March 01, 2004 | Classification: Instructional design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Taxonomy Stategies: Bibliography of Resources

"Most of the items selected are written for a general business audience, or are a basic primer on the particular topic. Much of the material is freely available on the web. Some of the material is analyst reports that are accessible only to subscribers, but may be particularly persuasive in larger organizations. All web citations indicate the date they were last checked, but web content is not always persistent. Items have been organized under the following topics: information architecture, information retreival, search research, meta data, semantic web, and taxonomy." (Taxonomy Strategies)

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

Human-Centered Innovation: A conversation with Patrick Whitney

"Companies and other organizations have traditionally focused on advancing their knowledge of technology and business models in order to be competitive. They are now phenomenal at combining technology and business ideas to create innovations." (Garry K. VanPatter - NextD Journal Three)

Posted by PJB on March 01, 2004 | Classification: Interviews | Comments (0) | Permalink

Risks of Quantitative Studies

"Number fetishism leads usability studies astray by focusing on statistical analyses that are often false, biased, misleading, or overly narrow. Better to emphasize insights and qualitative research." (Jakob Nielsen - Alertbox)

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

J-Flow @ IA Summit 2004

"This is where you can download a version of the presentation (5.5 Mb) that we did during the IA Summit. We have also included the HTML deliverable that we created during the demonstration." (Peter Boersma and Jacco Nieuwland)

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