June 2008

Reduce Bounce Rates: Fight for the Second Click

"Different traffic sources imply different reasons for why visitors might immediately leave your site. Design to keep deep-link followers engaged through additional pageviews." (Jakob Nielsen - Alertbox)

Posted by PJB on June 30, 2008 | Classification: Usability | Permalink

The what, when and why of wireframes

"They are a visual representation of the content of a web page that is the culmination of user research, business objectives and content. Best brought together in a sequence of pages to illustrate paths of navigation and interactions on the page." (User Pathway) - courtesy of thehotstrudel

Posted by PJB on June 27, 2008 | Classification: Information architecture | Permalink

Death to Lorem Ipsum & Other Adventures in Content

"(...) to push the thinking further with a discussion about content, UX teams, and how the relationships can be strengthened to create experiences and projects that really sing. The resulting conversation start with content basics and closes with a bold challenge." (Kate Rutter - Adaptive Path blog)

Posted by PJB on June 26, 2008 | Classification: Interviews | Permalink

Designing better services

"Service Design is a new holistic, multi-disciplinary, integrative field. It helps to either innovate or improve services to make them more useful, usble, desirable for clients, as well as more efficient and effective for organisations." (Stefan Moritz)

Posted by PJB on June 26, 2008 | Classification: Service design | Permalink

Is Information Architecture worth saving?

"I'm a person who is deeply passionate about Information Architecture, but also troubled about its future. In 10 years, will we be iRise jockeys or strategic leaders…or something else entirely? If you ask me, my gut says that Information Architecture is definitely worth saving, but right now, I can't tell you why." (Matthew Milan - Experience Matters)

Posted by PJB on June 25, 2008 | Classification: Information architecture | Permalink

My Manifesto: Great Customer Experience Is Free

"Here's my new quest: To dramatically increase the focus on customer experience within companies by getting everyone to understand that great customer experience is really good business." (Bruce D. Temkin - Customer Experience Matters)

Posted by PJB on June 25, 2008 | Classification: User experience | Permalink

Reboot 10 interview: David Weinberger

"It is always a pleasure talking to David Weinberger and just catch up with what he is up to, but I am also looking forward to listen to his after dinner talk at reboot and learn a bit about the history of information!" (Reboot 10 interviews)

Posted by PJB on June 25, 2008 | Classification: Podcasts | Permalink

More Than Useful

"The presentation was framed by a slightly philosophical look at how certain games subliminally activate cognitive processes and could thus be used to allow for new insights. I used Breakout and Portal as examples of this. I am convinced there is an emerging field of playful products that interaction designers should get involved with." (Kars Alfrink - Leapfrog)

Posted by PJB on June 25, 2008 | Classification: Interaction design | Permalink

XML Fever

"The Extensible Markup Language (XML), which just celebrated its 10th birthday 4, is one of the big success stories of the Web. Apart from basic Web technologies (URIs, HTTP, and HTML) and the advanced scripting driving the Web 2.0 wave, XML is by far the most successful and ubiquitous Web technology. With great power, however, comes great responsibility, so while XML's success is well earned as the first truly universal standard for structured data, it must now deal with numerous problems that have grown up around it. These are not entirely the fault of XML itself, but instead can be attributed to exaggerated claims and ideas of what XML is and what it can do." (Erik Wilde and Robert J. Glushko)

Posted by PJB on June 25, 2008 | Classification: Technology | Permalink

New York Times Redesign: A Case Study

"How do you redesign the website for a venerable news brand with a distinct identity and a loyal readership? What's more, how do you face challenges like the commoditization of online news, the rise of user-generated content, and other emerging technology trends, while still upholding journalistic standards? In this seminar, we will discuss the process we followed during the recent redesign of The New York Times, including research we conducted, forward-looking concepts we developed, and prototypes we created and refined." (Karen McGrane and Kevin Kearney - Businesstobuttons)

Posted by PJB on June 24, 2008 | Classification: User experience | Permalink

Five things I believe about the aesthetics of interaction design 

"In interaction design, we are not doing visual art. The user's aesthetic experience lies in the interaction, the way in which the system behaves and responds over time in interplay with the user. To put it simply, when we talk about aesthetics we need to talk about look and feel, not merely about look." (Jonas Löwgren)

Posted by PJB on June 24, 2008 | Classification: Interaction design | Permalink

CHI 2008 Report – Not Only a Rant...

"CHI 2008 is over – once again, time to look back and write a report for the SAP Design Guild. First, I would like to warn you: This collection of CHI 2008 snippets is neither balanced, nor fair. You may even find that this report turns into a rant, but there are also a number of positive observations. Large conferences are always like a shopping bag – you have to pick what suits you best." (Gerd Waloszek - SAP Design Guild)

Posted by PJB on June 24, 2008 | Classification: HCI | Permalink

MX San Francisco videos and presentations

"As the business value of design becomes clearer, creative managers building the next generation of products and services are confronted with an increasingly demanding set of challenges. MX brings thought leaders from IDEO, Google, The Mayo Clinic, Cisco, and many others, to show you what it takes to get great experiences out into the world. MX goes beyond typical design management discussions that remain focused on traditional concerns of print and brand, toward a new frontier of innovative products and service-oriented experiences." (Adaptive Path)

Posted by PJB on June 24, 2008 | Classification: User experience | Permalink

The State of the UX Community

"Over the past three decades of computer/human interaction, we’ve seen digital technology evolve from a curiosity to a convenience to an integral part of our everyday lives. For UX professionals, the demand for our skill sets and the opportunities to practice seem only to grow, whether we be designers or developers, usability specialists or information architects, working in fields as diverse as Web, mobile, desktop, and embedded software systems. The UX professions are at a stage that could very well be a tipping point—where the rapid rise of digital devices, services, and connectivity converge to create a massive need for UX professionals. The mobile space alone could generate demand that we can only begin to imagine." (Jonathan Follett - UXmatters)

Posted by PJB on June 23, 2008 | Classification: User experience | Permalink

Designing Ethical Experiences: Understanding Juicy Rationalizations

"Designers rationalize their choices just as much as everyone else. But we also play a unique role in shaping the human world by creating the expressive and functional tools many people use in their daily lives. Our decisions about what is and is not ethical directly impact the lives of a tremendous number of people we will never know. Better understanding of the choices we make as designers can help us create more ethical user experiences for ourselves and for everyone." (Joe Lamantia - UXmatters)

Posted by PJB on June 23, 2008 | Classification: User experience | Permalink

Extreme Usability: How to Make an Already-Great Design Even Better

"The 1% of websites that don't suck can be made even better by strengthening exceptional user performance, eliminating miscues, and targeting company-wide use and unmet needs." (Jakob Nielsen - Alertbox)

Posted by PJB on June 23, 2008 | Classification: Usability | Permalink

An activity-theory-based model to analyse Web application requirements

"Few proposals for modelling and developing Web applications, deal with how to properly elicit and represent Web application requirements. Web applications introduce unique characteristics such as navigation that are not properly considered at the requirements level. In this paper, we seek to improve on improve on existing methods through the use of cultural-historical activity theory." (Lorna Uden et al. - Information Research 13.2)

Posted by PJB on June 22, 2008 | Classification: Information design | Permalink

Cautious Cars and Cantankerous Kitchens 

"What does it mean, asks Don Norman in his provocative lecture when our automobiles get frightened, when our refrigerator won't let us eat that nice piece of pie, and when our homes detect our moods and play music they think will cheer us up? And why, asks Norman, does he obey his car when it asks him to slow down, but not his wife? In his provocative and witty talks, Norman examines the future of devices we may all have to live with, even if they do not serve us the way they are intended. Some of these devices are already upon us while the others are still in the planning stage - that is, unless we can somehow turn the tables and get the engineers and designers to switch from building stuff just because they can, to building stuff because we need and want them to." (Donald A. Norman - From Business To Buttons 2008)

Posted by PJB on June 20, 2008 | Classification: Information design | Permalink

Modeling Portals for Cultural Landscapes

"A great variety of Web sites displaying cultural aspects of landscapes exist today. Although built on different design patterns, all these Web sites have to cope with the typical problem of creating a concise but comprehensive representation of a variety of cultural resources within a framework of time and space. In this paper we discuss currently predominant but very different approaches, ranging from an historical GIS and a wiki with Google maps to illustrated HTML-documents and Flash-based visual narratives. We propose a model that identifies generic requirements for spatiotemporal cultural heritage Web sites. The model helps to understand how well different implementation environments suit various objectives. The model is applied to our own cultural landscape portal on the region around the Vecht, a small river which runs from the city of Utrecht to the north, at both sides fringed by a rich historical landscape." (Leen Breure et al. - Museums and the Web 2008)

Posted by PJB on June 20, 2008 | Classification: Information design | Permalink

Sketching in Code: the Magic of Prototyping

"Over the last year, I've noticed more and more conversations about prototyping as a method of approaching web application development. Beyond casual conversations, prototyping has also increasingly been the topic of blog posts or subject matter for conference presentations. The reasons for this increased interest include a laundry list of benefits that prototyping can bring to the process of developing compelling web applications. Ranging from increased collaboration to more effective solutions, these benefits have made prototyping a valuable new approach to consider for your next project." (David Verba - A List Apart)

Posted by PJB on June 19, 2008 | Classification: Information design | Permalink

Starfire

"The film, developed in 1992, predicted the explosive growth of the world wide web at a time before graphical web browsers even existed. Starfire: The Directors' Cut explores in candid detail a technological future based on industry cooperation, human-centered design, and the continued presence of bad guys." (AskTog - Starfire: A Vision of Future Computing)

Posted by PJB on June 19, 2008 | Classification: Classics | Permalink

One Dead Media

"It is hard to find an old technology that is not available in any form any where on earth. But today I may have found one. Alex Wright's story in the New York Times about Paul Otlet, the little-known Belgian who worked out an early version of hypertext (...) prompted a reader to point out a system similar to Otlet's that was once available commercially in the US." (Kevin Kelly - The Technium)

Posted by PJB on June 18, 2008 | Classification: Classics | Permalink

A historical exploration of analogous architectures of the Information Society 

"Analogous Spaces refers to the fact that every science or knowledge, every thought, every memory, every action creates its own space and that these spaces are organised according to a similar structure or architecture." (Charles van den Heuvel - Analogous Spaces presentations)

Posted by PJB on June 18, 2008 | Classification: Information architecture | Permalink

The Web Time Forgot

"On a fog-drizzled Monday afternoon, this fading medieval city feels like a forgotten place. Apart from the obligatory Gothic cathedral, there is not much to see here except for a tiny storefront museum called the Mundaneum, tucked down a narrow street in the northeast corner of town. It feels like a fittingly secluded home for the legacy of one of technology’s lost pioneers: Paul Otlet." (Alex Wright - The New York Times)

Posted by PJB on June 17, 2008 | Classification: Classics | Permalink

The User Experience Iceberg

"But when the User Experience Iceberg is used to add context to the Elements, it illuminates the dark, unknown depths for project stakeholders who are new to UX. Because in the end, the unseen elements of user experience are the parts of the iceberg that will sink your project, while your stakeholders are busy focusing on the 'tip'." (Trevor van Gorp - Affective Design)

Posted by PJB on June 16, 2008 | Classification: User experience | Permalink

Demystifying Information Architecture

"This afternoon I presented my session at WebDU on the topic of information architecture for designers and developers. In the particular case of WebDU, these designers and developers mostly specialise in Flex and Flash." (Patrick Kennedy - Pat's Point of View)

Posted by PJB on June 13, 2008 | Classification: Information architecture | Permalink

Shades of Use: The Dynamics of Interaction Design for Sociable Use

"Computers are used in sociable situations, for example during customer meetings. This is seldom recognized in design, which means that computers often become a hindrance in the meeting. Based on empirical studies and socio-cultural theory, this thesis provides perspectives on sociable use and identifies appropriate units of analysis that serve as critical tools for understanding and solving interaction design problems." (Mattias Arvola PhD thesis 2005)

Posted by PJB on June 12, 2008 | Classification: Interaction design | Permalink

Interaction Design

"Interaction Design refers to the shaping of interactive products and services with a specific focus on their use." (Jonas Lowgren - IxD.org) - courtesy of elearningpost

Posted by PJB on June 12, 2008 | Classification: Interaction design | Permalink

Beyond Fake Personas

"(...) if personas are fictional, how do you tell when a persona is fake? This great question highlights concerns about persona quality, validity, and usefulness that our clients often raise and that many persona thought leaders have addressed." (Angela Quail - Persona Creation)

Posted by PJB on June 11, 2008 | Classification: Personas | Permalink

International organisation and dissemination of knowledge : Selected essays of Paul Otlet

Translated and edited with an introduction by W. Boyd Rayword (1990) - "We must bring together a collection of machines which simultaneously or sequentially can perform the following operations: (1) The transformation of sound into writing; (2) The reproduction of this writing in as many copies as are useful; (3) The creation of documents in such a way that each item of information has its own identity and, in its relationships with those items comprising any collection, can be retrieved as necessary; (4) A Classification number assigned to each item of information; the perforation of documents correlated with these numbers; (5) Automatic classification and filing of documents; (6) Automatic retrieval of documents for consultation and presented either direct to the enquirer or via machine enabling written additions to be made to them; (7) Mechanical manipulation at will of all the listed items of information in order to obtain new combinations of facts, new relationships of ideas, and new operations carried out with the help of numbers. The technology fulfilling these seven requirements would indeed be a mechanical, collective brain." (internet archive)

Posted by PJB on June 11, 2008 | Classification: Classics | Permalink

OK and Cancel Buttons: What's the Right Order?

"After some questions about the most appropriate order for these buttons on a web application came up on a usability-related email distribution list, I decided to conduct an online survey of usability and user experience professionals to see what order they think is best." (Tom Tullis - Measuring the User Experience) - Who's right: Tom or Jakob?

Posted by PJB on June 11, 2008 | Classification: Usability | Permalink

Europe's Fourth Information Architecture Summit Programme

"EuroIA invites your participation to this premier European event on Information Architecture. Join us in Amsterdam, Netherlands September 26-27, 2008, for two incredible days of presentations, panels, and networking with information architects from across Europe and around the world. This year we will explore the theme of 'Redrawing the Map', both between countries and online – from forging new international alliances to adapting traditional deliverables to the needs of a Web 2.0 world." (Euro IA 2008)

Posted by PJB on June 10, 2008 | Classification: Information architecture | Permalink

Information Architecture Television

A collection of online vids concerning usability, information architecture, interaction design and user experience design. (Jan Jursa - The Hot Strudel)

Posted by PJB on June 10, 2008 | Classification: Information architecture | Permalink

Key differences between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0

"Web 2.0 is a buzzword introduced in 2003–04 which is commonly used to encompass various novel phenomena on the World Wide Web. Although largely a marketing term, some of the key attributes associated with Web 2.0 include the growth of social networks, bi–directional communication, various 'glue' technologies, and significant diversity in content types. We are not aware of a technical comparison between Web 1.0 and 2.0. While most of Web 2.0 runs on the same substrate as 1.0, there are some key differences. We capture those differences and their implications for technical work in this paper. Our goal is to identify the primary differences leading to the properties of interest in 2.0 to be characterized. We identify novel challenges due to the different structures of Web 2.0 sites, richer methods of user interaction, new technologies, and fundamentally different philosophy. Although a significant amount of past work can be reapplied, some critical thinking is needed for the networking community to analyze the challenges of this new and rapidly evolving environment." (Graham Cormode and Balachander Krishnamurthy - First Monday 13.6)

Posted by PJB on June 09, 2008 | Classification: Social Web | Permalink

International Address Fields in Web Forms

"As enablers of online conversations between businesses and customers, Web forms are often responsible for gathering critical information—email addresses for continued communications, mailing addresses for product shipments, and billing information for payment processing to name just a few. So it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that one of the most common questions I get asked about Web form design is: How do I deal with international addresses?" (Luke Wroblewski - UXmatters)

Posted by PJB on June 09, 2008 | Classification: Information design | Permalink

Better Bills

"The bill is a cornerstone communication in the customer experience, especially when it comes to billing for services. Customers want to easily understand and pay their bills, and businesses want to get paid on time. One would think a business would value the bill enough to invest in a thoughtful design. Yet many bills are poorly designed, causing needless confusion and frustration for customers and businesses alike—not to mention expensive customer service and customer churn. To encourage forward progress in the design of bills, this column profiles three common types of bill readers, discusses nine tips for improving bills, and notes some common implementation challenges." (Colleen Jones - UXmatters)

Posted by PJB on June 09, 2008 | Classification: Information design | Permalink

Writing Style for Print vs. Web

"Linear vs. non-linear. Author-driven vs. reader-driven. Storytelling vs. ruthless pursuit of actionable content. Anecdotal examples vs. comprehensive data. Sentences vs. fragments." (Jakob Nielsen - Alertbox)

Posted by PJB on June 09, 2008 | Classification: Writing | Permalink

Experience Hierarchy of Needs

"Use this model to guide your thinking, processes, and approaches when making things for people on behalf of your clients. Its an hierarchy. Each level of need is only meaningful if the previous levels have been met. If you solve for the top of the pyramid your clients will be successful and their customers will be happy." (Challis Hodge's UXBlog)

Posted by PJB on June 09, 2008 | Classification: User experience | Permalink

User Experience Design: The Evolution of a Multi-Disciplinary Approach

"Recently, I have discovered a new emerging type of user experience specialist: the 'persuasion architect'. This specialist has a marketing and sales background, and focuses on aspects of a Web site user experience design that contribute to 'conversions', that is, to the number or percentage of site visitors that ultimately contribute directly to the business goals of the site, such as buying a product, signing up for a newsletter, registering, using the site for support, etc. The design aspects that contribute to converting visitors into customers are quite different than aspects that contribute to making task completion easy and fast, making a site visually appealing, or architecting the site information or functionality in the most natural way." (Deborah J. Mayhew - Journal of Usability Studies 3.3) - courtesy of markvanderbeeken

Posted by PJB on June 06, 2008 | Classification: User experience | Permalink

The Mobile Internet and Mix Tapes

"The blue print of the Internet we experience today has been created and shaped strongly by the discipline of information architecture." (Rachel Hinman - Adaptive Path)

Posted by PJB on June 06, 2008 | Classification: Mobile design | Permalink

Web 2.0 Howto Design Style Guide

"In this tutorial, I describe various common graphic design elements in modern web ("2.0") design style. I then attempt to explain why they work (i.e. why they have become common), as well as how, when and where you might use each element in your designs." (Web Design From Scratch)

Posted by PJB on June 05, 2008 | Classification: Visual design | Permalink

Psychology in Human-Computer Interaction

"This course is intended to give newcomers enough background in the field of HCI to make their conference experience much more meaningful. It provides a framework to understand how thevarious topics are related to research and practice. It is a tried-andtrue introduction and has become a CHI conference tradition." (David Kieras - CHI '08 video lectures)

Posted by PJB on June 05, 2008 | Classification: HCI | Permalink

Clarify and Refine

"(...) with respect to guided navigation, we should distinguish between clarify and refine. First, we must clarify the meaning or context. Are we in the right ballpark regarding the searcher's intent? Clarify is all about disambiguation. Then, we're ready to refine or narrow. Exactly what type of widget do you want? Refine is about increasing specificity." (Peter Morville - Findability)

Posted by PJB on June 03, 2008 | Classification: Search | Permalink

Exploring Exploratory Search

"Exploratory search research opens new opportunities for information architects to grow the profession. Research discoveries are unleashing profound enhancements in search engine technology. To increase the value of the findings of the research on exploratory search, information architects need to explore new methods and approaches to designing information displays for expert systems. As professionals, we need to exert more influence over the devices, appliances and software that govern the production of content. Enhancements to the production of content will cyclically increase our understanding of designing information solutions for experts, adding additional value to the user interfaces designed for less expert solutions." (Mark Nolan - ASIS&T Bulletin April/May 2008)

Posted by PJB on June 03, 2008 | Classification: Search | Permalink

Interview with Joy Mountford

"What are your favorite prototyping tools? (...) I think paper and pencil are really the most important, and the reason for that is that you can use them without any difficulties except for the fact that most people these days don’t know how to draw anything. In the good old days we used to teach engineers how to draw. I don’t mean draw a beautiful picture, I mean like draw a rectangle for a screen. Teaching them how to draw was essential. You and I could sit and draw, and then stick our drawings on the wall or on paper." (Ambidextrous Magazine Issue 9)

Posted by PJB on June 03, 2008 | Classification: Interviews | Permalink

Bringing Information Architecture to the World's Great Cities

"With the publication of his first book in 1962 at the age of 26, RSW began the singular passion of his life: making information understandable. He chaired the International Design in Aspen in 1972, the first Federal Design Assembly in 1973, followed by the National AIA Convention in 1976, before creating and chairing TED (Technology/Entertainment/Design) conferences from 1984-2002. He is the current Chair of the TEDMED Conferences. A B.Arch and M.Arch 1959 graduate with highest honors from the University of Pennsylvania, Mr. Wurman's nearly half-century of achievements includes the publication of his best-selling book Information Anxiety and his award winning ACCESS Travel Guides. Each of his 81 books focus on some subject or idea that he personally had difficulty understanding." (BIF3)

Posted by PJB on June 02, 2008 | Classification: Interviews | Permalink