July 2007

The 'Arms Race' Between Participation and Control

Interview with Howard Rheingold - "I agree with Benkler that there's a third form of production along with the market and the firm, that's emerging around common-space peer production, and that we don't understand a great deal about it yet. I would not dismiss it. But neither do I think we really know whether you can do it with things other than producing code or a knowledge repository online. What can't you do with it? We don't really know yet." (Scott Rosenberg - AssignmentZero)

Posted by PJB on July 25, 2007 | Classification: Interviews | Permalink

Is Tagging A Disruptive Innovation?

"For many reasons, tagging has not yet emerged - and may never emerge - as a category of technology investment and activity for businesses." (Joe Lamantia - tagsonomy)

Posted by PJB on July 25, 2007 | Classification: Metadata | Permalink

Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages

"What do primordial bacteria, medieval alchemists, and the World Wide Web have to do with each other? This fascinating exploration of how information systems emerge takes readers on a provocative journey through the history of the information age." (Alex Wright)

Posted by PJB on July 24, 2007 | Classification: Information architecture | Permalink

User Assistance Walkthroughs: Helping Best Practices Emerge

"There is an astonishing amount of disbelief that the users of web pages have learned to scroll and that they do so regularly. Holding on to this disbelief – this myth that users won't scroll to see anything below the fold – is doing everyone a great disservice, most of all our users." (Mike Hughes - UXmatters)

Posted by PJB on July 24, 2007 | Classification: Information design | Permalink

Blasting the Myth of the Fold

"There is an astonishing amount of disbelief that the users of web pages have learned to scroll and that they do so regularly. Holding on to this disbelief – this myth that users won't scroll to see anything below the fold – is doing everyone a great disservice, most of all our users." (Milissa Tarquini - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted by PJB on July 24, 2007 | Classification: Visual design | Permalink

User Experience Strategy

"For while our work certainly supports incremental progress towards better usability, findability, and credibility, user experience methods are equally well-suited to disruptive innovation. In the deep dives of design research, we gain insight into the latent needs of users, and with our sketches, mental models, and prototypes we bring greater richness and depth to the exploration of possible, probable, and preferable futures." (Peter Morville - Semantic Studios)

Posted by PJB on July 23, 2007 | Classification: User experience | Permalink

Defeated By a Dialog Box

"Interaction techniques that deviate from common GUI standards can create usability catastrophes that make applications impossible to use." (Jakob Nielsen - Alertbox)

Posted by PJB on July 23, 2007 | Classification: Usability | Permalink

Megan Jaegerman's brilliant news graphics

"Megan Jaegerman produced some of the best news graphics ever while working at The New York Times from 1990 to 1998. Her work is smart, finely detailed, elegant, witty, inventive, informative. A fierce researcher and reporter, she writes gracefully and precisely. Megan has the soul of a news reporter, who happens to use graphs, tables, and illustrations--as well as words--to explain the news. Her best work is the best work in news graphics." (Edward Tufte) - courtesy of jasonkottke

Posted by PJB on July 20, 2007 | Classification: Information graphics | Permalink

@media07 Audio and Slides

"An unparalleled experience of two busy days of educational, inspirational presentations and bustling social events awaits the intrepid @media attendee." (@media07) - courtesy of robertjanverkade

Posted by PJB on July 19, 2007 | Classification: Events | Permalink

Using Design Games

"No matter how you talk about them, design games can add vitality, energy, and fun to your work and change the game of requirements gathering with your team." (Jess McMullin - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted by PJB on July 19, 2007 | Classification: Information architecture | Permalink

The Market Maturity Framework is Still Important

"Now, more than ten years later, we're finding ourselves talking about the framework once again. Time has let us simplify it: Stage I is now Technology, Stage II is now Features, Stage III is now Experience, and Stage IV is now Integration." (Jared Spool - UIE Brain Sparks)

Posted by PJB on July 18, 2007 | Classification: User experience | Permalink

Is There a Doctor of Design in the House?

An Interview with Meredith Davis - "The relationship between the visual representation of data and the human sensing of change is not an area with which design has much experience." (Steven Heller - AIGA Voice)

Posted by PJB on July 16, 2007 | Classification: Interviews | Permalink

Interview with Jess McMullin

"In our practice, the thing that has become a barrier for us in delivering successful projects is how our clients and the different stakeholders on a project work together." (Peter Merholz - AP blog)

Posted by PJB on July 16, 2007 | Classification: Interviews | Permalink

Comparing UXD Business Models

"When leaders of UX organizations get together, we always seem to talk about how our UX groups are structured and why. Just as designers solve user interface design problems, their leaders solve organizational design problems. It's what we do." (Jim Nieters and Garett Dworman - UXmatters)

Posted by PJB on July 12, 2007 | Classification: User experience | Permalink

Conference Review: CHI 2007

"I had a wonderful time at CHI despite the limited amount of content for designers and my being unable to get into the courses I'd wanted to attend. I particularly regret missing Kim Goodwin's course, 'Where Usability Meets Desirability: Visual Design with Personas and Goals.' I heard it was great. To enable CHI to reach its full potential in coming years, I hope its organizers take an iterative approach to designing the conference and solve the problems that exist." (Pabini Gabriel-Petit - UXmatters)

Posted by PJB on July 12, 2007 | Classification: Events | Permalink

What Puts the Design in Interaction Design

"Interaction design is a blended endeavor of process, methodology, and attitude. Discussions of process and methodology are pervasive in the interaction design milieu and often revolve around a perceived tension between process and methodology and the role of design within this discipline. To be clear, process is the overarching design framework—for example, an iterative, or spiral, process or a sequential, or waterfall, process. Conversely, a methodology is a prescribed design approach such as user-centered design or genius design." (Kevin Silver - UXmatters)

Posted by PJB on July 12, 2007 | Classification: Interaction design | Permalink

Pick and Mix 

Consumers moving between online and offline channels in the context of leisure travel preparations (PhD Thesis 2007) - "Consumers are increasingly using web-based systems for the search and purchase of products and services. They are, however, also still using traditional, offline channels such as telephone, high street and mail order, on a regular basis. The research presented in this thesis investigated consumer use of e-services in the context of a multi-channel environment, with a special focus on voluntary channel choice and voluntary movement between channels. Both multi-channel usage and voluntary movement between channels are currently under-researched topics." (Geke van Dijk - STBY)

Posted by PJB on July 10, 2007 | Classification: Design research | Permalink

Design Documentaries: Inspiring Design Research Through Documentary Film 

"This paper shows how we can take inspiration and use techniques from documentary film in pursuing user research." (Bas Raijmakers et al. - STBY Design Documentaties)

Posted by PJB on July 10, 2007 | Classification: Design research | Permalink

Quiet Structure

"One of the basic, overriding elements featured in CNN's new website design and layout is something I like to call quiet structure. Quiet structure is achieved when you de-emphasize the structural elements; the containing boxes, structural lines, bullets, structural color elements, etc. and bring a rhythmical consistency to the layout. The result is that the content becomes more conspicuous and the overall clarity of presentation is greatly enhanced." (Andy Rutledge - Design View)

Posted by PJB on July 09, 2007 | Classification: Information design | Permalink

Things You See: Four Views into the Transformation Room

GK VanPatter in conversation with Bob Goodman (UX Consultant), Peter Jones Ph.D. (Redesign Research), and Eric Reiss (FatDUX and President, Information Architecture Institute) - "Considering the complexity involved our purpose here is not to try to redefine Information Architecture or other disciplines but rather talk about whether or not what we are doing has changed, is changing and what we might do to help others understand what that might mean, how we think about all the change that is occurring ourselves, how do we make sense of it? In no particular order I invite you to share your own thoughts and then lets jump off from there." (NextD) - courtesy of puttingpeoplefirst

Posted by PJB on July 09, 2007 | Classification: Information architecture | Permalink

Write Articles, Not Blog Postings

"To demonstrate world-class expertise, avoid quickly written, shallow postings. Instead, invest your time in thorough, value-added content that attracts paying customers." (Jakob Nielsen - Alertbox)

Posted by PJB on July 09, 2007 | Classification: Usability | Permalink

WCAG Samurai

"The WCAG Samurai was a group of developers, led by Joe Clark, that publishes corrections for, and extensions to, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0."

Posted by PJB on July 06, 2007 | Classification: Accessibility | Permalink

Yes, design can make you happy

VIDEO - "Analyzing a list of things that have made him happy, graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister realized that almost half of the items were in some way related to design. In this intensely personal talk, he shares the details of some of those moments, and gives props to three artists whose work has had a positive impact on his world. Concluding with some examples of his own work, Sagmeister offers a real insight into his aesthetic and philosophy of work -- and life." (TED Talks) - courtesy of 43folders

Posted by PJB on July 05, 2007 | Classification: Information design | Permalink

Institute of Design Strategy Conference 2007: A review from Chicago

"Soft-spoken Whitney was setting up the program for the Institute's annual Strategy Conference he chairs, which took place this past May, and which has become the key English-speaking forum for discussing and investigating the new relationships emerging between design and business. 'This conference seems to get bigger and better every year', claimed Doblin figurehead (and Institute affiliate) Larry Keeley in his summing up of the first day. And not without merit as, a poll of the 300-strong audience revealed, one quarter of that audience had attended the previous year." (Nico Macdonald - Core77) - courtesy of markvanderbeeken

Posted by PJB on July 04, 2007 | Classification: Events | Permalink