October 2008

Prototyping with XHTML

"While prototyping with XHTML isn't tied to a specific design process, iterative development seems to effectively leverage its strengths. There are many reasons for this, but perhaps the most significant is that in both cases the prototype, and later the application itself, doubles as a specification. We'll explore what that means in a bit, but first let’s walk through a suggested process for prototyping with XHTML." (Anders Ramsay and Leah Buley - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted by PJB on October 31, 2008 | Classification: User experience | Permalink

Designing universal knowledge

"Knowledge is power. If one possesses a collection of the ‘universal knowledge’ of the world, one has ultimate power. Establishing comprehensive, global collections of knowledge already fascinated mankind thousands of years ago. Today, modern communication and information technologies offer quick and prompt collecting, high memory capacities and wide-ranging access. In addition, globalization and the Internet advance a mentality which moves away from the local and regional towards the international and universal. Collections of knowledge, such as archives, encyclopaedias, databases and libraries, also follow this trend. They are engaged in a race against time in both the technological and creative area. Their clearly formulated aim is to establish for us a complete and up-to-date collection of 'universal knowledge'." (Gerlinde Schuller - Information Design Studio)

Posted by PJB on October 30, 2008 | Classification: Information design | Permalink

UXDesignCast

"This podcast series hosted by Karel Vredenburg provides the latest information about trends, technologies, and insights regarding User Experience Design from the leading experts in the field." (Karel Vredenburg)

Posted by PJB on October 30, 2008 | Classification: Podcasts | Permalink

Towards a Model of Understanding Social Search

"Search engine researchers typically depict search as the solitary activity of an individual searcher. They hardly ever talk about the social interactions that occurs around search. I think this is just plain wrong." (Augmented Social Cognition)

Posted by PJB on October 29, 2008 | Classification: Search | Permalink

Johnny Holland Magazine

"(...) all about sharing, learning and talking about interaction and creativity." (Jeroen van Geel)

Posted by PJB on October 29, 2008 | Classification: Weblogs | Permalink

Smart Ideas for Experience Designers

"(...) Greg's one-page list of theatrical tips are as good a guide to customer experience, service design or even presentation technique as you will find on any business bookshelf." (Work•Play•Experience)

Posted by PJB on October 28, 2008 | Classification: User experience | Permalink

A Timeline of Information History

"This timeline presents significant events and developments in the innovation and management of information and documents from cave paintings (ca 30,000 BC) to the present. Only non-electronic innovations and developments are included (that is, digital and electronic communications are excluded)." (AI3) - courtesy of ruudruissaard

Posted by PJB on October 27, 2008 | Classification: Information design | Permalink

Web 2.0 Expo Presentation Files

"Presentation files will be made available after the session has concluded and the speaker has given us the files. Check back if you don't see the file you're looking for—it might be available later!" (O'Reilly Web 2.0 Expo) - courtesy of janjursa

Posted by PJB on October 27, 2008 | Classification: Information design | Permalink

Atlas of Cyberspace - Full Content

"This is the first book to draw together the wide range of maps produced over the last 30 years or so to provide a comprehensive atlas of cyberspace and the infrastructure that supports it. Over the next 300 or so pages, more than 100 different mapping projects are detailed, accompanied by full-colour example maps and an explanation as to how they were created." (Martin Dodge & Rob Kitchin) - courtesy of information aesthetics

Posted by PJB on October 24, 2008 | Classification: InfoViz | Permalink

Is there an architect in the house?

"What was intriguing about this particular conference was the diversity of people, both in professional and geographic terms. There were graphic designers, interaction designers, technical leads, managers, and oh yes... 'information architects'. What was interesting about the attending information architects was that they came from so many backgrounds to become an information architect. There were actual classically trained architects that became IA's, there were designers that were IA's and so on." (Adam Kallish - Spill)

Posted by PJB on October 23, 2008 | Classification: Information architecture | Permalink

Creative User Interfaces in Modern Web Design

"The whole may be more than the sum of its parts, but without the parts, there is no whole. Lest that sound like some weird philosophical meandering to you, take comfort in observing the finer aspects of creative and appealing user interface design." (Torley Wong - Smashing Magazine)

Posted by PJB on October 22, 2008 | Classification: Visual design | Permalink

Metadata fundamentals for intranets and websites

"This article explores the fundamentals of metadata, as it relates to common intranet and website needs." (James Robertson - Step Two Designs)

Posted by PJB on October 20, 2008 | Classification: Metadata | Permalink

ISDN3

"Over the last two years, the ISDN series of events has formed an exciting platform to explore the emerging field of Service Design. (...) ISDN3 investigated broader issues that contemporary designers face, with special focus on how designers are addressing the complex situations that arise when designing with what John Thackara of Dott 07 calls 'real people' - as opposed to 'users' - in the design process. We invited some cutting-edge speakers to share reflections on their recent design research work, and we structured the event to maximise productive debate about the key issues arising when designing in this way." (International Service Design Conference)

Posted by PJB on October 20, 2008 | Classification: Service design | Permalink

Transactional Email and Confirmation Messages

"Automated email can improve customer service, strengthen relationships, and help websites bypass search engines. But most messages fared poorly in user testing and didn't fulfill this potential." (Jakob Nielsen - Alertbox)

Posted by PJB on October 20, 2008 | Classification: Usability | Permalink

Selling UX

"This article examines what works and what does not work well when selling UX within an organization, identifies barriers you might encounter to the adoption of UX methods in your organization, and discusses how to package and present UX to stakeholders. In this article, we'll try to avoid just being prescriptive. Rather, we'll pose questions along the way, regarding what has worked well for you. (...) As industry's adoption of UX broadens and more of us find ourselves in situations where we need to sell UX, we need to be prepared to do so effectively." (Daniel Szuc, Paul J. Sherman, and John S. Rhodes - UXmatters)

Posted by PJB on October 20, 2008 | Classification: User experience | Permalink

The Magic of Metaphor

"Metaphor teaches. Metaphor influences. Are you drawing on its power? Perhaps not, because many major works on writing for interactive products make little mention of it. To help encourage better use of metaphor, this column describes both the usefulness of shallow metaphors and the potential of deep metaphors, while offering tips and examples." (Colleen Jones - UXmatters)

Posted by PJB on October 20, 2008 | Classification: User experience | Permalink

How to grow and nurture your community

"Our job is to get our users up the curve as quickly as possible." (Kathy Sierra - Future of Web Apps London 2008)

Posted by PJB on October 17, 2008 | Classification: Events | Permalink

IDEA 2008

"The speakers pushed the boundaries of what it means to design complex information spaces of all kinds. We can all expand our practice by absorbing their experiences and ideas. In cooperation with the IA Institute, we're happy to bring you recordings of most conference talks. We hope you enjoy listening to nearly the entire conference via these recordings." (Jeff Parks - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted by PJB on October 17, 2008 | Classification: Information architecture | Permalink

Are Designers also Marketers?

"One interesting supposition bubbled up... when designers are tasked with selling their product they make better products." - No way, José! (Joshua Porter - Bokardo)

Posted by PJB on October 16, 2008 | Classification: Information design | Permalink

Architectures of Global Knowledge 

"The Mundaneum, a series of museums, was meant to promote international understanding. The concept was conceived by Paul Otlet (1868-1944), an information theorist and librarian, who commissioned Le Corbusier to design a 'cité mondiale', an institution for all the world's knowledge. Charles van den Heuvel discusses how Otlet's thinking about distributive networks resonates in Tim Berners-Lee's World Wide Wide." (Charles van den Heuvel)

Posted by PJB on October 15, 2008 | Classification: Classics | Permalink

Interplay between Usability Evaluation and Software Development 

Proceedings of the International Workshop - "The goal of this workshop is to bring together researchers and practitioners from the Human Computer Interaction and Software Engineering fields to determine the state-of-the-art in the interplay between usability evaluation and software development and to generate ideas for new and improved relations between these activities. The aim is to base the determination of the current state on empirical studies. Presentations of new ideas on how to improve the interplay between HCI & SE to the design of usable software systems should also be based on empirical studies." (MAUSE COST Action 294)

Posted by PJB on October 15, 2008 | Classification: Usability | Permalink

Web 3.0: The Rise of the Machines

"The next web will be one of placing humans in context with their objects and visa versa. We'll use the data our objects provide to better observe and manage them, and the energy they require to own, operate, manufacture, and disassemble." (Dan Saffer - Kicker Studio)

Posted by PJB on October 15, 2008 | Classification: Metadata | Permalink

An Interview with John Carroll

"If you are ACM, you always put the computer first! (...) today, we identify professions like usability engineer and interaction designer, even user experience designer. But in the early days, it was human factors engineers and documentation designers. That human factors constituency was critical in the early days." (Tamara Adlin - UX Pioneers)

Posted by PJB on October 14, 2008 | Classification: Interviews | Permalink

Ontology of Folksonomy: A Mash-up of Apples and Oranges

"Ontologies are enabling technology for the Semantic Web. They are a means for people to state what they mean by the terms used in data that they might generate, share, or consume. Folksonomies are an emergent phenomenon of the Social Web. They arise from data about how people associate terms with content that they generate, share, or consume. Recently the two ideas have been put into opposition, as if they were right and left poles of a political spectrum. This is a false dichotomy; they are more like apples and oranges. In fact, as the Semantic Web matures and the Social Web grows, there is increasing value in applying Semantic Web technologies to the data of the Social Web. This article is an attempt to clarify the distinct roles for ontologies and folksonomies, and previews some new work that applies the two ideas together - an ontology of folksonomy." (Tom Gruber)

Posted by PJB on October 14, 2008 | Classification: Metadata | Permalink

Ontology

"In the context of computer and information sciences, an ontology defines a set of representational primitives with which to model a domain of knowledge or discourse." (Tom Gruber)

Posted by PJB on October 14, 2008 | Classification: Metadata | Permalink

Start-up developing new Web interaction paradigm

"According to the Siri PR pitch, the product is 'a new interaction paradigm for the consumer Internet experience that applies intelligence at the interface.' (...) If we want our technology to have world-changing impact, bring it to the interface: get useful knowledge from all those intelligent people on the Internet give the benefit of this knowledge to everyone, says Tom Gruber." (Dan Farber - CNET)

Posted by PJB on October 14, 2008 | Classification: HCI | Permalink

Web Apps Are Dead - Long Live Web Apps

"Edwin Aoki is a Technology Fellow at AOL. Holding a joint degree in Computer Science and Sociology from Harvard College, Edwin believes strongly in the ability of technology to bring people closer together and to make our lives easier. He's worked at Apple Computer, GO Corporation, and Intuit before joining Netscape Communications in 1996. At Netscape, Edwin worked on the Netscape Communicator browser, enterprise products, and web applications prior to the company's acquisition by AOL. Currently, Edwin oversees architecture and technology strategy for many of AOL's consumer facing desktop, web, and mobile products. A published author and California native, Edwin is based out of AOL's Silicon Valley office. When he's not at work, Edwin is involved in wildlife conservation and likes to spend time with big cats." (Future of Web Apps London 2008)

Posted by PJB on October 10, 2008 | Classification: Events | Permalink

Technology & Psychology

"Suw Charman-Anderson is a social software expert specialising in the use of blogs wikis, and other Web 2.0 tools in business. She's worked with British and American companies - in the tech, pharma, travel, media, financial and public relations sectors - to help them understand how social software can be used both behind the firewall and for customer communications. Suw worked as a freelance web designer and project manager from 1998 to 2002, designing websites and intranet sites for companies such as PricewaterhouseCoopers and Hutchison3G (now 3). She then ran her own internet start-up for two years before turning her passion for blogging into a successful consultancy." (Future of Web Apps London 2008)

Posted by PJB on October 10, 2008 | Classification: Events | Permalink

How do UK banks' websites treat worried customers?

"I'm following the 'credit crisis' with my CXP hat on, and specifically look at how banks try to keep their customers calm, explain what is happening in simple language, and make it easy for worried customers to talk to someone at the bank. Because it is hard to find out what instructions employees are getting to comfort customers, or what mail is being sent to customers, I went to the homepages of the top 20 banks in the UK and checked the experience customers are receiving." (Tim van Tongeren - The Experience Design Scout)

Posted by PJB on October 08, 2008 | Classification: User experience | Permalink

idea2008 presentations

Various speakers from the idea 2008 conference (Oct. 7-8, Chicago USA) have uploaded their presentations on Slideshare.

Posted by PJB on October 08, 2008 | Classification: Events | Permalink

What is Scenography?

Replace performance with information - "Scenography is the art of creating performance environments; it can be composed of sound, light, clothing, performance, structure and space." (Sceno:graphy)

Posted by PJB on October 07, 2008 | Classification: Service design | Permalink

Redesigning the Library Experience

"(...) one of the major challenges facing small public libraries today: rethinking the user experience to help bridge the digital and physical realms while enabling library administrators to better respond to patrons’ changing needs." (Michael Magoolaghan - ASIS&T Bulletin Oct/Nov 2008)

Posted by PJB on October 07, 2008 | Classification: Information architecture | Permalink

Roadmap for an European IA Network

"A staged approach to realising a network of IAs in Europe." (Søren Muus et al.)

Posted by PJB on October 06, 2008 | Classification: Information architecture | Permalink

Extending Card-Sorting Techniques to Inform the Design of Web Site Hierarchies

"Card sorting is a useful technique for discovering user perspectives on site navigation. However, designers or user researchers who conduct card-sorting exercises should be aware of the method’s challenges and assumptions. This column has presented a number of alternative methods that can extend and complement card sorting and thus provide the most comprehensive insights for designing an effective information hierarchy." (Michael Hawley - UXmatters)

Posted by PJB on October 06, 2008 | Classification: Information architecture | Permalink

In Search of Strategic Relevance for UX Teams

"To make UX strategically relevant - so UX is not an afterthought, but can contribute to strategy - you need to produce stunning results that blow away your stakeholders. Then, you'll be able to hire more world-class researchers and designers. Once you have truly great people onboard, work to build trust. Achieving this, in part, depends on your organizational structure, so demonstrate your thought-leadership by recommending the right model for the organization, not just the model that's right for you at the moment." (Jim Nieters and Laurie Pattison - UXmatters)

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

When to Use Which User Experience Research Methods

"Modern day user experience research methods can now answer a wide range of questions. Knowing when to use each method can be understood by mapping them in 3 key dimensions and across typical product development phases." (Christian Rohrer - Alertbox)

Posted by PJB on October 06, 2008 | Classification: Design research | Permalink

Lou Rosenfeld on site search analytics

"We in the user experience community often tend to be a bit uncomfortable when analysing quantitative data; that's not the sort of thing that we learned in design school." (Richard Maven - e-consultancy)

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

Concepts versus Products: Usability is about Execution

"You can have a great plan for a User Experience Strategy, but you should really consider whether your company is able to execute that strategy. The same thing goes for product concepts, I believe. A groundbreaking, radical new product concept is inspiring, but if your company is currently not able to realize it and needs some time to live up to the strategy, by exposing your product concept to the public you have just told everyone in what direction you will be heading in the coming years." (Jasper van Kuijk - uselog)

Posted by PJB on October 03, 2008 | Classification: Usability | Permalink

Why information architects are needed in the kitchen

Better content management through information architecture
Presentation given at EuroIA 2008
"(1) Adopt a holistic approach towards the 'front stage' and the 'back stage'; (2) Apply IA expertise to content management; (3) Advise the organization dealing with the change." (Ruud Ruissaard & Peter J. Bogaards)

Posted by PJB on October 02, 2008 | Classification: Special | Permalink

Futures, experiences & design

An interview with Nathan Shedroff - "Design processes bring a culture of brainstorming, critique, prototyping, and testing to the product and service development process." (Nik Baerten - pantopicon) - courtesy of markvanderbeeken

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

Remember and Share

Judit Pónya writes - "Conference handouts, presentations on SlideShare (tag: euroia2008), photos on Flickr (tag: euroia2008).
Find the people you met and join the European Information Architects Network at Xing (https://www.xing.com/net/euroianetwork) and LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=929067).
And see you next year in Copenhagen!" (EuroIA Blog)

Posted by PJB on October 01, 2008 | Classification: Events | Permalink

Service Design via the Global Web 

"For international companies, the Internet is an essential but inherently complex interface. In the framework presented here, Brian Gillespie critiques a range of options related to gateways, scope, user research, uniform versus local presence, language, content development, design, site implementation, domains, and URLs. It is an enlightening overview for both executives and managers." (Brian Gillespie - DMI Review)

Posted by PJB on October 01, 2008 | Classification: Service design | Permalink

Take-away facts and quotes from the 2008 EuroIA Summit

"Over the weekend I've been in Amsterdam attending the 2008 European Information Architecture Summit. It was held at the Tuschinski Theatre, which was a simply amazing venue. (...) I got to see a great selection of presentations." (Martin Belam - currybetdot)

Posted by PJB on October 01, 2008 | Classification: Events | Permalink

Concept Design Tools

"Designers of digital products and services like ourselves can dramatically improve our work by generating more concepts early in our projects. In this article, I'll try to make concept design easier to learn by illustrating three simple tools for generating concepts." (Victor Lombardi - Digital Web Magazine)

Posted by PJB on October 01, 2008 | Classification: Information design | Permalink

Bohne Forsberg and The Design Process Manifesto

"On today's show we speak with Bohne Forsberg about the Design Process Manifesto he created from over 20 years experience in the field of design." (Jeff Parks - I.A. Consultants) - courtesy of thehotstrudel

Posted by PJB on October 01, 2008 | Classification: Podcasts | Permalink