July 2005

Key benefits of a single intranet or public website

"A single website is more connected and credible. It is more consistent and cost effective. It is easier to manage and measure." (Gerry McGovern)

Posted by PJB on July 31, 2005 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Open Tech 2005 Lecture Theatre Audio Recordings

July 23, 2005 - including Ted Nelson, Mobile and Wireless, and Jeremy Zawodny - "We are planning on making both video and audio recordings available of as many sessions as possible." (Open Tech 2005) - courtesy of currybetdotnet

Posted by PJB on July 26, 2005 | Classification: Events | Comments (0) | Permalink

Problems in Navigating Online Help: Clues from User Search Patterns

"The problems, we found, were not in these users, but in the Help system." (Robert Krull - WritersUA)

Posted by PJB on July 26, 2005 | Classification: TechCom | Comments (0) | Permalink

The Economist Style Guide

"This guide is based on the style book which is given to all journalists." (The Economist) - courtesy of jesse james garrett

Posted by PJB on July 26, 2005 | Classification: Writing | Comments (0) | Permalink

Europe's first information architecture conference

October 15-16, 2005 (Brussels, Belgium EU) "'Building our community' is the theme of this inaugural European Summit. No, we are not talking about the EU. We are talking about our professional community - information architects and other people involved in structuring information for electronic media. (...) sponsored by the American Society for Information Science and Technology." (ASIS&T Euro IA)

Posted by PJB on July 26, 2005 | Classification: Events | Comments (0) | Permalink

Amazon: No Longer the Role Model for E-Commerce Design

"Many design elements work for Amazon.com mainly because of its status as the world's largest and most established e-commerce site. Normal sites should not copy Amazon's design." (Jakob Nielsen - Alertbox)

Posted by PJB on July 25, 2005 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

Have you got too many websites?

"Too many websites are nearly always a bad idea. Getting your customer to remember one web address is more than enough of a challenge." (Gerry McGovern)

Posted by PJB on July 24, 2005 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Human-Centered Design Considered Harmful

"Human-Centered Design has become such a dominant theme in design that it is now accepted by interface and application designers automatically, without thought, let alone criticism. That's a dangerous state — when things are treated as accepted wisdom. The purpose of this essay is to provoke thought, discussion, and reconsideration of some of the fundamental principles of Human-Centered Design. These principles, I suggest, can be helpful, misleading, or wrong. At times, they might even be harmful. Activity-Centered Design is superior." (Donald Norman)

Posted by PJB on July 23, 2005 | Classification: UCD | Comments (0) | Permalink

A Study of Blogs and Usability

"Our analysis sheds light on a variety of heretofore neglected, user-experience related design challenges associated with blogs' potential to become a mainstream medium for Internet users." (John Franklin - Catalyst Group Design)

Posted by PJB on July 22, 2005 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

Information and knowledge: An evolutionary framework for information science

"Many definitions of information, knowledge, and data have been suggested throughout the history of information science. In this article, the objective is to provide definitions that are usable for the physical, biological, and social meanings of the terms, covering the various senses important to our field." (Marcia Bates - Information Research 10.4)

Posted by PJB on July 20, 2005 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

fac.etio.us

"(...) faceted navigation of del.icio.us feeds. An experimental service." (Siderean Software) - courtesy of marcel van mackelenbergh

Posted by PJB on July 20, 2005 | Classification: Metadata | Comments (0) | Permalink

Learning to haggle: Moving information architecture from design to implementation

"David Moore talks to information architecture expert Louis Rosenfeld about the problems with search features, why CMS Silver Bullets don't work, and why information architects need to be better at horsetrading." (iQ Content)

Posted by PJB on July 20, 2005 | Classification: Interviews | Comments (0) | Permalink

Why Do Current Graphical User Interfaces Not Work Naturally & How They Can Be Fixed?

"User interface design, a part of the broader field of ergonomics, has been a challenging field to work in since man first tried making a tool for somebody else. Consider the lowly garden trowel. A trowel is simply a piece of wide metal connected to a handle, whereby its wielder may move small amount of earth to place seeds or seedlings in a garden." (Warren M. Myers - ACM Ubiquity)

Posted by PJB on July 20, 2005 | Classification: HCI | Comments (0) | Permalink

Social Machines

"The underlying hardware and software will never become invisible, but they will become less obtrusive, allowing us to focus our attention on the actual information being conveyed. Eventually, living in a world of continuous computing will be like wearing eyeglasses: the rims are always visible, but the wearer forgets she has them on—even though they’re the only things making the world clear." (Wade Roush - Continuous Computing)

Posted by PJB on July 17, 2005 | Classification: Weblogs | Comments (0) | Permalink

The Effects of Line Length on Reading Online News

"This study examined the effects of line length on reading speed, comprehension, and user satisfaction of online news articles. Twenty college-age students read news articles displayed in 35, 55, 75, or 95 characters per line (cpl) from a computer monitor. Results showed that passages formatted with 95 cpl resulted in faster reading speed. No effects of line length were found for comprehension or satisfaction, however, users indicated a strong preference for either the short or long line lengths." (A. Dawn Shaikh - Usability News 7.2 2005)

Posted by PJB on July 17, 2005 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Designing for the Personal InfoCloud

Presentation at WebVisions 2005 July 15, 2005 in Portland, Oregon USA (Thomas Vander Wal)

Posted by PJB on July 17, 2005 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Recall ability: Web content versus print content

"People are extremely task-focused on the Web. That means they are much less open to content that is not directly related to the task at hand." (Gerry McGovern)

Posted by PJB on July 17, 2005 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Using Ajax for Creating Web Applications

"In the past few years, developers could choose between two approaches when building a web application. The first approach was to create a screen-based system with very rich interactions using a sophisticated, powerful technology such as Java or Flash. The alternative approach was to create a page-based system using easier-to-learn core web standards like XHTML and CSS whose more basic capabilities force less-rich interactions. A new technological approach, dubbed Ajax, might just be the right mix between the two." (Joshua Porter - UI 10 Conference)

Posted by PJB on July 15, 2005 | Classification: Technology | Comments (0) | Permalink

Underground Typography

"There are few more obviously functional forms of environmental typography than the signage in a subway or other transit system." (John D. Berry - Creative Pro) - courtesy of kottke

Posted by PJB on July 14, 2005 | Classification: Typography | Comments (0) | Permalink

Every user is new and different...

"Every reader is new and different. And as long as the user is new, then the experience of their interaction with the product, service, book... is new and different. Every new user breathes new life into what we create and deliver." (Kathy Sierra - Creating Passionate Users)

Posted by PJB on July 14, 2005 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Scrolling and Scrollbars

"Despite posing well-known risks, websites continue to feature poorly designed scrollbars. Among the ongoing problems that result are frustrated users, accessibility challenges, and missed content." (Jakob Nielsen - Alertbox)

Posted by PJB on July 11, 2005 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

Prove the value of your content with numbers

"Getting senior management's attention is about showing how costs can be reduced and/or value created. Content needs to show how it will reduce costs by X percent and increase productivity by Z percent." (Gerry McGovern)

Posted by PJB on July 10, 2005 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

When Norman Meets Chinese...

"I dream of harmony between the things in our life and the social, emotional, and experiential parts of our lives. Artifacts are not just about making us work better: they are about living better, about enjoying life more, and about spreading these benefits to everyone, everywhere." (Christina Li - uiGarden)

Posted by PJB on July 10, 2005 | Classification: Interviews | Comments (0) | Permalink

Mark Bernstein Lecture Notes

"This page collects visuals from some of the larger talks and lectures I've given over the years. Many of these talks get complex; often, I try to put one set of ideas in the visuals and another in the lecture itself. These notes generally include only the visual argument." (Mark Bernstein)

Posted by PJB on July 10, 2005 | Classification: Hypertext | Comments (0) | Permalink

First Monday Special Issue: Music and the Internet

"The relationship between music and the Internet is a site of perceived possibility and volatility. Stories of music theft, illegal downloads, unresolved court cases, and anti-piracy technologies, are now prominent. Conversely, stories about the creation of real-time music composition, music's increasing accessibility, the regeneration of music collecting, and the development of virtual music communities have also become prominent. " (First Monday)

Posted by PJB on July 10, 2005 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Collaboration Sessions

How to Lead Multidisciplinary Teams, Generate Buy-In, and Create Unified Design Views in Compressed Timeframes - "Collaboration Sessions are highly interactive meetings (or more accurately, work sessions) with representation from each discipline. These meetings address everything from strategic planning to the design of site sections and page details. For example, a team working on the Travel section of our site used this technique to brainstorm a new line of business and then used it to help design page details. This method is most helpful for redesigns, new features, and controversial or strategic sections of a site. Typically, an interaction designer or product manager leads the meeting at the beginning of the Design phase." (Sasha Verhage - Boxes & Arrows)

Posted by PJB on July 08, 2005 | Classification: UCD | Comments (0) | Permalink

Less is more in Web search interfaces for older adults

"We have previously found the elderly users to face several usability problems with the current search engines. Thus, we designed an elderly–friendly search interface, Etsin. To evaluate the success of the design, a usability study was conducted for comparing the usability of Etsin and Google. The participants faced fewer usability problems when using Etsin than Google and they valued the clarity of the Etsin interface. In conclusion, elderly users benefit from a simplified search engine interface that is easy to understand and that takes into account age–related issues." (Anne Aula and Mika Käki - First Monday 10.7)

Posted by PJB on July 07, 2005 | Classification: Search | Comments (0) | Permalink

Tagging for Fun and Finding

"We all grew up knowing about tags. We had tags in our clothes, we had them on our holiday presents, we played a game called tag, and some even used spray cans to tag their turf. All of these uses of tag have different meanings, but unless we understand the context and/or the person using the word tag we do not know what they mean. This can be a problem with tagging on the web, but like everything else there are two sides to the story and there are some great benefits from tagging, if it is done well." (Thomas Vander Wal - OK/Cancel)

Posted by PJB on July 03, 2005 | Classification: Metadata | Comments (0) | Permalink

Web branding is more than skin deep

"Web branding is much more about function than image. Great websites put substance before flash. This reflects a knowledge society that has become more rational in how it makes decisions." (Gerry McGovern)

Posted by PJB on July 03, 2005 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink