December 2005

Classification and categorization: A difference that makes a difference

"Examination of the systemic properties and forms of interaction that characterize classification and categorization reveals fundamental syntactic differences between the structure of classification systems and the structure of categorization systems. These distinctions lead to meaningful differences in the contexts within which information can be apprehended and influence the semantic information available to the individual. Structural and semantic differences between classification and categorization are differences that make a difference in the information environment by influencing the functional activities of an information system and by contributing to its constitution as an information environment." (Elin K. Jacob) - courtesy of vuk

Posted by PJB on December 28, 2005 | Classification: Metadata | Comments (0) | Permalink

The Year in Tags

"2005 has proven that tags are both big (in the financial sense) and useful. Whether or not tagging is a game-changer will, I think, depend on what Yahoo, Amazon and Google do with tags in 2006. But with three big players in the tagging game there's a lot of opporunity for innovation." (Gene Smith - Tagsonomy)

Posted by PJB on December 27, 2005 | Classification: Metadata | Comments (0) | Permalink

The End is Nigh

"IA is real, it's here and it has a history. Everything else is just hair-splitting. While deriving a definition might be really important to the academics among us, I no longer see it as essential to success of the field." (Andrew Dillon - ASIS&T Bulletin)

Posted by PJB on December 23, 2005 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink

Sensible Forms: A Form Usability Checklist

"Remember, the more control users have over their experience, the happier they will be using your website." (Brian Crescimanno - A List Apart)

Posted by PJB on December 20, 2005 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

Small Multiples Within a User Interface

"Many software programs provide access to, and let users work with, large amounts of information. In addition to interactions that allow users to create, edit, and expand massive data sets, these information-rich applications must also support effective data interpretation." (Luke Wroblewski - UXmatters)

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

Intranet Trends to Watch for in 2006

"The intranet ecosystem still does matter (...). However, the focus has moved away from the analyst firms, the consulting companies and the gurus and back to the business customers." (Shiv Singh - CIO)

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

Living La Vida Virtual: Interfaces of the Near Future

"Personal computing is in an awkward adolescence right now. On one hand, we are rapidly moving into ubiquitous computing environments that let people constantly interact with the omnipresent network; on the other, the devices and interfaces we are using to enter these new frontiers provide woefully inadequate user experiences. Let's take a look at one of the key technologies that will take mobile user experiences to the next level: holography." (Dirk Knemeyer - UXmatters)

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

One Billion Internet Users

"The Internet is growing at an annualized rate of 18% and now has one billion users. A second billion users will follow in the next ten years, bringing a dramatic change in worldwide usability needs." (Jakob Nielsen - Alertbox)

Posted by PJB on December 19, 2005 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

Beyond Menus and Toolbars in Microsoft Office

Audio presentation and slides by Jensen Harris (Microsoft) - "This talk will provide a historical perspective on the evolution of the Office user interface and the battle against the mounting complexity of the product. You'll get a behind-the-scenes look at the different design iterations, and an in-depth look at the new Office UI constructs, including the Ribbon, galleries, contextual tabs, and the MiniBar." (BayCHI)

Posted by PJB on December 18, 2005 | Classification: HCI | Comments (0) | Permalink

chartjunk: the madness ends here

"Comments are welcome - including further redrawings if you think you have a better idea how to portray this data. Stay safe, and don't believe anything you see in the paper." (Viveka Weiley - Karmanaut)

Posted by PJB on December 18, 2005 | Classification: Weblogs | Comments (0) | Permalink

Content Management: Strategic Challenge

"The volume of product-related information in companies is increasing by leaps and bounds. The reason is the growing multiplicity of products, software and services that require explanation. After the EU enlargement, not only large companies, even small and medium-sized enterprises must come to terms with the multiplier effect of multiple languages. The challenge is to keep the information across the company both consistent and free of redundancy, to make it universally available, to publish it on paper as well as electronically, and to bring out the different language versions as simultaneously as possible. Companies that have not mastered the art of overcoming these challenges must suffer additional costs and time pressure in handling quality problems that are becoming more and more difficult to solve." (Daniela Straub and Michael Fritz - tekom slides)

Posted by PJB on December 16, 2005 | Classification: Content management | Comments (0) | Permalink

Applying information architecture to university web sites

Conference presentation - "(...) detailed IA issues such as specific - to vs. relevant - for audiences, org-chart-itis, faceted browsing and navigation frameworks." (Keith Instone)

Posted by PJB on December 15, 2005 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink

Informing Ourselves To Death

"(...) there can be no disputing that the computer has increased the power of large-scale organizations like military establishments or airline companies or banks or tax collecting agencies. And it is equally clear that the computer is now indispensable to high-level researchers in physics and other natural sciences. But to what extent has computer technology been an advantage to the masses of people? To steel workers, vegetable store owners, teachers, automobile mechanics, musicians, bakers, brick layers, dentists and most of the rest into whose lives the computer now intrudes? These people have had their private matters made more accessible to powerful institutions." (Neil Postman) - courtesy of designobserver

Posted by PJB on December 15, 2005 | Classification: Classics | Comments (0) | Permalink

Notes from User Interfaces for Physical Spaces

"(...) unlike screen-based work, where we tend to get caught up in breakpoints with a single "organizer" -- the software -- MAYA had to grapple with three potential points of failure. This is orders of magnitude more complex." (Peter Merholz)

Posted by PJB on December 15, 2005 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Finding information on the free World Wide Web: A specialty meta-search engine for the academic community

"The Web is continuing to grow rapidly and search engine technologies are evolving fast. Despite these developments, some problems still remain, mainly, difficulties in finding relevant, dependable information. This problem is exacerbated in the case of the academic community, which requires reliable scientific materials in various specialized research areas. We propose that a solution for the academic community might be a meta–search engine which would allow search queries to be sent to several specialty search engines that are most relevant for the information needs of the academic community. The basic premise is that since the material indexed in the repositories of specialty search engines is usually controlled, it is more reliable and of better quality." (Yaffa Aharoni et al. - First Monday 10.12)

Posted by PJB on December 14, 2005 | Classification: Search | Comments (0) | Permalink

Blog Interface Design 2.0

"(...) many blogs suffer from interface design shortcomings. Unlike issues of spam and authority, these problems have relatively straightforward solutions that could considerably increase the utility of blog content. Assuming a blog is not filled with spam content (splogs), spam comments, or spam trackbacks, there's often a wealth of information to be found therein: information that is frequently buried deep within archives and comments. This article looks at ways to bring that information forward." (Luke Wroblewski - Functioning Form)

Posted by PJB on December 14, 2005 | Classification: HCI | Comments (0) | Permalink

Web Presence as Architectural Planning 

Presentation from the International Institute for Information Design Conference on 'Designing, Delivering, and Explaining Financial Information' - Boston, USA: April 27, 2005 (Ruurd Priester - IIID Blurred Boundaries)

Posted by PJB on December 13, 2005 | Classification: User experience | Comments (0) | Permalink

Passionate Users Talk Different

"(...) there's a world of difference between a specialized lexicon of domain-specific terms and buzzwords. Domain-specific terms compress information, while buzzwords often masquerade as information. Buzzwords are often (not always) semantically empty while specialized domain lexicons are semantically dense." (Kathy Sierra - Creating Passionate Users)

Posted by PJB on December 12, 2005 | Classification: User experience | Comments (0) | Permalink

Erik Spiekermann: Typography and design today

"(...) calls himself an information architect. He is equally comfortable and prolific as a writer, graphic and typeface designer, but type is always at the epicentre of this communication dynamo. He founded MetaDesign in 1979, started FontShop in 1988, is a board member of ATypI and the German Design Council, and president of the istd International Society of Typographic Designers. In July 2000, Erik withdrew from the management of MetaDesign Berlin - which created a bit of a stir - and set up his new studio, United Designers Network in the same neighbourhood." (Uleshka - PingMag)

Posted by PJB on December 11, 2005 | Classification: Interviews - Typography | Comments (0) | Permalink

The Website Development Process

"Think about how you are going to structure things. What is important? What is not? What needs to be on every page? Depending on the scale of the project you might want to create a visual sitemap for your client. Preparing a sitemap is essential if you are reorganising content in any way." (PingMag) - courtesy of kelake

Posted by PJB on December 11, 2005 | Classification: UCD | Comments (0) | Permalink

Managing 'Glue' at the BBC

"(...) huge issue in organising this information in a way that the audience can actually find it, which, after all, should be the main goal. So I want to talk about 3 things that the BBC does centrally to try and make this easier for the end user - navigation, search, and classification." (Martin Belam - currybetdotnet)

Posted by PJB on December 09, 2005 | Classification: Information architecture | Comments (0) | Permalink

The Future of HTML (1/2): WHATWG

"In this two-part series, Edd Dumbill examines the various ways forward for HTML that Web authors, browser developers, and standards bodies propose. This series covers the incremental approach embodied by the WHATWG specifications and the radical cleanup of XHTML proposed by the W3C. Additionally, the author gives an overview of the W3C's new Rich Client Activity. Here in Part 1, Edd focuses primarily on two specifications being developed by WHATWG: Web Applications 1.0 (HTML5) and Web Forms 2.0." (Edd Dumbill - IBM)

Posted by PJB on December 09, 2005 | Classification: Technology | Comments (0) | Permalink

From Information Design to Experience Design: Smart Artefacts and the Disappearing Computer

"It seems like a paradox but it will soon become reality: The rate at which computers disappear will be matched by the rate at which information technology will increasingly permeate our environment and determine our lives. This notion of the 'disappearing computer' is one of the starting points that determines our work. Another one is the shift from information worlds to experience worlds. This was a consequence of our work on innovative office environments where we explored the range of social processes that should be supported with information technology and the shift to a new application domain, i.e. games and entertainment in the context of home environments." (Norbert Streitz et al. - uigarden)

Posted by PJB on December 07, 2005 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

RIAs: The Technology Is Exciting, but They Really Do Help Users

"Recently, there has been a lot of talk about Rich Internet Applications (RIAs), how they work, and how to choose the appropriate RIA technology. Unfortunately, so far, we've had few discussions about the value of RIAs to users and how RIA technologies let us create better, more usable Web applications." (David Heller - UXmatters)

Posted by PJB on December 07, 2005 | Classification: Technology | Comments (0) | Permalink

Why Ajax Sucks (Most of the Time)

"Judging from the email I receive, the most controversial statement I have made in my Alertbox columns so far was to make 'the use of Ajax' one of the mistakes in my list of top ten mistakes in Web design. For new or inexperienced Web designers, I stand by my original recommendation. Ajax: Just Say No. With respect to the use of ajax by highly skilled Web designers, I have changed my opinion somewhat: people who really know what they are doing can sometimes use Ajax to good effect, though even experienced designers are advised to use ajax as sparingly as possible. (...) This is a spoof article. Please compare it with the original and you will see how little it has been changed." (Constructed by Chris McEvoy with apologies to Jakob Nielsen)

Posted by PJB on December 07, 2005 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

Talking-Head Video Is Boring Online

"Eyetracking data show that users are easily distracted when watching video on websites, especially when the video shows a talking head and is optimized for broadcast rather than online viewing." (Jakob Nielsen - Alertbox)

Posted by PJB on December 05, 2005 | Classification: Usability | Comments (0) | Permalink

Carnegie Library: Dynamic Information Environment

"Do pioneers have to end up as has-beens? Despite an early and influential role as organizers, protectors, and providers of information, libraries have not always evolved in tandem with the desires and expectations of their customers." (MAYA Design: Taming Complexity) - courtesy of peterme

Posted by PJB on December 04, 2005 | Classification: Information design | Comments (0) | Permalink

Experience Attributes: Crucial DNA of Web 2.0

"The industry has spent a lot of time defining Web 2.0 and mapping its DNA. But as we attempt to emulate the fast-growth success of the Web 2.0 darlings, we need to zero in on the parts of the DNA that actually create this noteworthy new value." (Brandon Schauer - Adaptive Path)

Posted by PJB on December 04, 2005 | Classification: User experience | Comments (0) | Permalink

Interview with Marko Ahtisaari

Director of Design Strategy at Nokia - "Designing simple elegant objects that simply works, that's a challenge." (Sebastian Campion - DDC) - courtesy of puttingpeoplefirst

Posted by PJB on December 02, 2005 | Classification: Interviews | Comments (0) | Permalink

Storyboarding RIA with Visio

"With the recent rise in popularity of web technologies such as Flash and AJAX, it has become possible to create richer user experiences on the web. Even though these technologies are not actually new, we are now seeing their widespread adoption. Within the last six months, we have seen the christening of the term 'AJAX' and its broad acceptance. Most major websites are adding rich interaction to their existing features" (Bill Scott - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted by PJB on December 01, 2005 | Classification: Technology | Comments (0) | Permalink