May 2009

Lauralee Alben on Sea Change Moments

"Lauralee Alben talks with Marc Rettig of Fit Associates about Sea Change Moments – moments that spark a positive, profound, enduring transformation in people, brands, and the world. She also discusses the Sea Change Design Process, which aligns the creative output of an organization with its inner values and intentions. In this age of transformation, Lauralee's ideas and examples are compelling. She offers a creative, generative method that embraces a whole-system, whole-business point of view while recognizing the necessity of drawing from our deep authentic selves. Enjoy the unusual blend of acumen, experience, heart and spirit in her words." - (Sustainable Life Media)

Posted by PJB on May 27, 2009 | Classification: Interviews | Permalink

Is Design the Preeminent Protagonist in User Experience?

"We are gradually learning that user experience is a critical factor in customer satisfaction and loyalty. A positive experience means a happy customer who returns again. Designers of software systems and web services have been digging deeply into how they might generate a positive user experience. They are moving beyond anecdotes about excellent examples of user experiences and are developing design principles. Phillip Tobias gives us a fascinating account of the emerging design principles that will generate satisfied and loyal users." - (ACM Ubiquity)

Posted by PJB on May 26, 2009 | Classification: User experience | Permalink

Why define the UX Tribe?

"(...) there are no hard lines; there are folks who strictly do IA or IxD, but the majority of us lie somewhere in between- why not simplify our message to the industry and take advantage of the full extent of our value proposition. The irony that we UX Designers pride ourselves in solving contextual problems for the user (the marketplace in this case) is not lost on me." - (The User Experience Tribe)

Posted by PJB on May 26, 2009 | Classification: User experience | Permalink

Follow the Recipe

"There are many good processes for software design. By process, I mean a prescribed way of performing software design. Every software company I’ve ever worked with has a design process they've adopted or created to meet their needs. However, after working on numerous software projects, I have come to realize how few projects actually follow their companies’ intended design processes. Why is it that so many companies don't follow their existing processes for software design?" - (Ron Gagnier - UXmatters)

Posted by PJB on May 26, 2009 | Classification: UCD | Permalink

Architecting User Assistance Topics for Reuse: Case Examples in DITA

"Single sourcing and its pragmatic flip side, reuse, remind me a bit of the early days of the personal computer. Everybody wanted one, but many weren’t sure what they would do with a computer if they got one. Even among seasoned user assistance architects, single sourcing and reuse remain elusive concepts. I recently heard someone at an STC chapter meeting define single sourcing as producing the same document as both a Help file and as a PDF file. Basically true, but one would hope there is more to it than that." - (Mike Hughes - UXmatters)

Posted by PJB on May 26, 2009 | Classification: TechCom - Technology | Permalink

All About Card Sorting: An Interview with Donna Spencer

"Donna Spencer is one of Australia's best-known information architects, organizer of the UX Australia conference, and a frequent presenter at UX conferences in Australia, the US, and Europe. I caught up with Donna between her appearances at the IA Summit and RedUX DC to talk about card sorting and her new book, Card Sorting: Designing Usable Categories, which Rosenfeld Media recently published." - (Steve Baty - UXmatters)

Posted by PJB on May 26, 2009 | Classification: Information architecture - Interviews | Permalink

Investor Relations (IR) on Corporate Websites

"Individual investors are intimidated by overly complex IR sites and need simple summaries of financial data. Both individual and professional investors want the company's own story and investment vision." - (Jakob Nielsen - Alertbox)

Posted by PJB on May 25, 2009 | Classification: Usability | Permalink

Real or Imaginary: The effectiveness of using personas in product design

"The use of personas as a method for communicating user requirements in collaborative design environments is well established. However, very little research has been conducted to quantify the benefits of using this technique. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of using personas. An experiment was conducted over a period of 5 weeks using students from NCAD. The results showed that, through using personas, designs with superior usability characteristics were produced. They also indicate that using personas provides a significant advantage during the research and conceptualisation stages of the design process (supporting previously unfounded claims). The study also investigated the effects of using different presentation methods to present personas and concluded that photographs worked better than illustrations, and that visual storyboards were more effective in presenting task scenarios than text only versions." - (Frank Long - frontend.com) courtesy of jjursa

Posted by PJB on May 25, 2009 | Classification: Personas | Permalink

Components, Patterns, and Frameworks! Oh My!

"Login functionality isn't new. It's not awesome. It's not very challenging to develop. Teams are designing this functionality as if it's never been built before. But it has been built before. Teams, all over the world, have built login functionality into their applications about a million times. And yet, here we are, doing it all over again. All this re-creation and re-invention isn't just inefficient, it leaves the team open to problems. Because it's not the sexy part of their project, it's likely to get less attention, resulting in an unusable and frustrating experience. This is where the Re-use Trinity -- Patterns, Components, and Interaction Design Frameworks -- come in." - (Jared Spool)

Posted by PJB on May 22, 2009 | Classification: Patterns | Permalink

UX Deliverables in Practice

"On May 17 2009, I delivered my invited presentation at the IA Konferenz 2009 in Hamburg, Germany. A first (slightly modified) version is now available. Given that my session was scheduled right after the lunch break on the last day, I had told the organizers that I would try to make it a bit of a show. Of course the real content -- a brief overview of theories of UX plus a wider look at some of the deliverables outside of the standard research-design-evaluation triad (which I summarized using a quiz) -- was there too." - (Peter Boersma)

Posted by PJB on May 21, 2009 | Classification: User experience | Permalink

Symposium Contextmapping: The Videos

"About five years ago, we started the contextmapping research at ID-StudioLab. In these past five years, four PhD students have explored various elements in the procedure. Several hundred students at TU Delft have learnt its principles, as did many design students and practitioners in workshops in the Netherlands, Europe, and Asia. Several dozens of students have explored, varied, modified, and reflected on the techniques, their possibilities and limitations. In May 2009, the first 'contextmapping' PhD thesis will be defended. On this occasion, we take the opportunity to reflect on the new techniques for involving users in the fuzzy front end of product design. What was learnt, what are the opportunities and barriers in industrial practice, and what do we think should the next developments be?" - (ID-StudioLab - TU Delft) courtesy of paulvalk

Posted by PJB on May 20, 2009 | Classification: Design research | Permalink

Remote Research: Real Users, Real Time, Real Research (Chapter 1)

"Remote user research describes any research method that allows you to observe, interview, or get feedback from users while they're at a distance, in their "native environment" (at their desk, in their home or office) doing their own tasks. Remote studies allow you to recruit quickly, cheaply, and immediately, and give you the opportunity to observe users as they behave naturally in their own environment, on their own time. Our book will teach you how to design and conduct remote research studies, top-to-bottom, with little more than a phone and a laptop." - (Tony Tulathimutte - Rosenfeld Media)

Posted by PJB on May 19, 2009 | Classification: Design research - Usability | Permalink

Survival for the fittest tag

Folksonomies, findability, and the evolution of information organization - "Folksonomies have emerged as a means to create order in a rapidly expanding information environment whose existing means to organize content have been strained. This paper examines folksonomies from an evolutionary perspective, viewing the changing conditions of the information environment as having given rise to organization adaptations in order to ensure information “survival” — remaining findable. This essay traces historical information organization mechanisms, the conditions that gave rise to folksonomies, and the scholarly response, review, and recommendations for the future of folksonomies." - (Alexis Wichowski - First Monday 14.5)

Posted by PJB on May 19, 2009 | Classification: Metadata - Search | Permalink

Is Information Visualization the Next Frontier for Design?

"As design work shifts to infrastructure and problem solving, sexy infographics are part of the new skill set." - (Michael Cannell - Fast Company) courtesy of bobjacobson

Posted by PJB on May 19, 2009 | Classification: InfoViz | Permalink

User experience and web analytics

"(...) we would probably all benefit from a dashboard of reports that included the ones that we've come to expect from our analytics tools, but that also include other quantitative reports (such as from help desk logs) and, perhaps more importantly, qualitative reports from such sources as ongoing usability testing." - (Louis Rosenfeld - Bloug)

Posted by PJB on May 17, 2009 | Classification: Design research - User experience | Permalink

Web Strategy: A Definition

"An effective Web Strategy provides the required guidance and implementation authority required to create and maintain a high-quality Web presence. It also emplaces accountability mechanisms to ensure that Web teams take a mature approach to developing and managing the organization’s most powerful communications and transactional tool." - (Lisa Welchman)

Posted by PJB on May 16, 2009 | Classification: Content strategy | Permalink

Future Practice Interview: Ginny Redish

"For a long time, content was typically left for last and given so little thought. I'm happy to say that the situation is changing. Content and content strategy are hot topics now (...) Content strategy means thinking strategically about your content. It means planning the content, coordinating content over the entire web site, and managing content over time." - (Louis Rosenfeld - Rosenfeld Media)

Posted by PJB on May 15, 2009 | Classification: Content management - Interviews | Permalink

25 Incredibly Useful Usability Cheat Sheets & Checklists

"Is your Web site primed for any viewer? How do you know? The nicest thing about a usable Web site is that it’s just a good thing to do for others so they can easily read your online information. The other side to usability is that it can increase your search engine standings so more people can find your Web site. The following list of cheat sheets and checklists are fairly recent; however, some older usability checklists are useful for older sites that haven't been upgraded." - (Best Web Design Schools) courtesy of jjursa

Posted by PJB on May 15, 2009 | Classification: Usability | Permalink

Jakob Nielsen Critiques Twitter

"The growth in social media can become a major drain on the economy unless people learn how to be in control of their time instead of allowing external updates to be in the driver's seat." - (Rebecca Reisner - BusinessWeek) courtesy of usabilitynews

Posted by PJB on May 13, 2009 | Classification: Social Web - Usability | Permalink

Bringing the everyday life of people into design

"This thesis describes a research journey in which I developed various communication tools and a theoretical framework for making user experiences useful for designers in the very beginning of the design process." - (Froukje Sleeswijk Visser - ContextQueen)

Posted by PJB on May 12, 2009 | Classification: Design research | Permalink

Using Verbs As Nouns in User Interfaces | UX Roles in Organizations

"What are your experience and wisdom on the use of verbs as nouns in naming software functionality? Do you have any other brilliant names for views? (...) We are looking to update our UX team to align with advanced needs, and I am having trouble finding an organizational view of UX roles. I am not sure where UX architects, art directors, information designers, visual designers, user researchers, usability testers, creative managers, interactive designers, and other UX roles fit into the big picture. Do you have any examples of organizational layouts?" - (UXmatters)

Posted by PJB on May 12, 2009 | Classification: User experience | Permalink

Refactoring the User Experience

"The ability to take a broad view of the world and incorporate lessons learned from other disciplines distinguishes the best practitioners in any field. As UX professionals, there is much we can learn from good software engineering practice, which maps a team’s understanding of a problem at a human level onto the implementation of a technical solution. The essence of good software engineering practice is effective user experience—from developing the high-level design documentation that describes how the main elements of a system interact to its implementation in clearly written code. Though the relationship between software engineering and user experience is not always an easy one, software engineers and UX professionals share some common goals. Both have a vested interest in producing systems that are useful and usable." - (Peter Hornsby - UXmatters)

Posted by PJB on May 12, 2009 | Classification: User experience | Permalink

Fjord 09 Mobile Trends

"From the 'Android invasion' to the 'War for the world': Fjord presents 9 mobile trends for 09. This report focuses on technologies and behaviors that have been building up over the last few years and are going to break through to the mainstream in 2009." - (Fjord)

Posted by PJB on May 11, 2009 | Classification: Mobile design | Permalink

How Sustainable Thinking Can Change Design

"Greener design methods hold a world of possibilities for businesses, from saving a bit of money on materials to developing completely new products, packaging and distribution methods. They also have the potential to change how designers learn, how they think about projects and, on a larger scale, alter designers' careers." - (Terry Swack - Sustainable Minds)

Posted by PJB on May 11, 2009 | Classification: Information design - Interviews | Permalink

Top 10 Information Architecture Mistakes

"Structure and navigation must support each other and integrate with search and across subsites. Complexity, inconsistency, hidden options, and clumsy UI mechanics prevent users from finding what they need." - (Jakob Nielsen - Alertbox)

Posted by PJB on May 11, 2009 | Classification: Information architecture | Permalink

Online language pathways: understanding how brands need to communicate with their customers online

"Our study found that language that engages people on web pages is not the same as the language that forms the pathways to a site. Rather, people change or adapt language terms as they refine their search from their original language of intent (their thoughts) to terms and phrases that more closely mirror language they see in their search, coupled with a mechanical style they think will be better understood by search engines. But the language they appear to respond to most favourably when they finally engage with a website is language that more closely resembles their original language of intent – less mechanical, more natural and human. The 'translation' from human language into online language seems to be a sub-conscious and iterative or fluid process: people refine or filter their language as their online journey progresses and this is particularly evident during the search journey." - (Content Delivery & Analysis)

Posted by PJB on May 11, 2009 | Classification: Writing | Permalink

Content strategy and the new face of documentation

"The idea of looking at trends in our profession speak directly to the idea of content strategy. It’s a 'beyond the document' look at how we create and deliver content to various audiences. It's about content re-use and single-sourcing, about content management, about filtering content, about creating better ways to serve content consumers. It's also about how social media has raised the bar, and how consumers will take matters into their own hands if we don't step up to the plate." - (Rahel Anne Bailie - Intentional Design Inc.)

Posted by PJB on May 11, 2009 | Classification: Content strategy | Permalink

Why is service design so heterogenous? And does it matter?

"In the end, I don't think we should be surprised to see a lot of heterogeneity in service design. Heterogeneity is a strength, not a weakness - it allows service design agencies (and service designers) to constantly reframe their offer, adapt quickly to the market and tackle the most interesting, most complex challenges. Pinning all of that into a simple definition seems rather silly really." - (Choosenick)

Posted by PJB on May 11, 2009 | Classification: Service design | Permalink

Do Tags Work?

"Tag! You're it! It seems that everywhere I go on the Web these days is tagged." - (Cathy Marshall - TEKKA 10)

Posted by PJB on May 08, 2009 | Classification: Metadata | Permalink

Approaching Design: Advice on how to really rock in UI/UX design

"The longer I do this job, the more I think that there are certain qualities, or attitudes that can make a real difference to ones ability to get better designs implemented, and generally enjoy the job more. Here's my hopefully controversial list of qualities that will help you really rock." - (Jason Furnell - The Architecture of Everything)

Posted by PJB on May 08, 2009 | Classification: User experience | Permalink

The Journey to the Interface

"The pamphlet argues that service design can offer policy makers and practitioners a vision for the transformation of public services, as well as a route to get there. It outlines an agenda for action which spells out how service design approaches can be applied systemically." N.B. Working podcast link. - (Demos)

Posted by PJB on May 07, 2009 | Classification: Service design | Permalink

Attention and awareness in stage magic: Turning tricks into research

"Just as vision scientists study visual art and illusions to elucidate the workings of the visual system, so too can cognitive scientists study cognitive illusions to elucidate the underpinnings of cognition. Magic shows are a manifestation of accomplished magic performers' deep intuition for and understanding of human attention and awareness. By studying magicians and their techniques, neuroscientists can learn powerful methods to manipulate attention and awareness in the laboratory. Such methods could be exploited to directly study the behavioural and neural basis of consciousness itself, for instance through the use of brain imaging and other neural recording techniques." - (Nature Reviews Neuroscience)

Posted by PJB on May 07, 2009 | Classification: Design research - User experience | Permalink

The Wisdom of Community

"A defining element of any WOC system is that the more participants it has, the better it gets. Discussion systems and chat rooms fall apart when too many voices get involved. If your community feature gets worse the more people use it, it's not a WOC system." - (Derek Powazek - A List Apart 283)

Posted by PJB on May 07, 2009 | Classification: Social Web | Permalink

Design Fiction

"Science fiction is a form of popular entertainment. The emotional payoff of the science fiction genre is the sense of wonder it conveys. Science fiction 'design' therefore demands some whiz-bang, whereas industrial design requires safety, utility, serviceability, cost constraints, appearance, and shelf appeal. To these old-school ID virtues nowadays we might add sustainability and a decent interface." - (Bruce Sterling - ACM interactions XVI.3)

Posted by PJB on May 07, 2009 | Classification: Design research | Permalink

The poverty of user-centered design

"(...) the set of methods employed by most user-centered professionals fails to deliver truly user-centric insights. The so-called 'science' of usability which underlies user-centeredness leaves much to be desired. It rests too much on anecdote, assumed truths about human behavior and an emphasis on performance metrics that serve the perspective of people other than the user. - If we could de-couple user-centered design and usability then there might be some benefit but I don’t think this is as important as it might first appear. More important is the very conception we have of users and uses for which we wish to derive technologies and information resources. Designing for augmentation is a very real problem and a great challenge for our field theoretically and practically." - (Andrew Dillon - InfoMatters)

Posted by PJB on May 06, 2009 | Classification: UCD | Permalink

Play in social and tangible interactions

"Many of the interactions seen in tangible and social computing are essentially playful. Play can take on many forms, but they all involve people exploring a conceptual space of possibilities. When designing these 'embodied' interactions, it is therefore helpful to have a good understanding of play - this session aims to do just that. We'll compare the role of interaction designers to that of game designers, who concern themselves primarily with the creation of rule-sets. By using rules, designers have unique opportunities for conveying messages. We'll discuss the emergent behaviour of many social and tangible systems and propose that gardening might be a helpful metaphor. This requires designers to sketch in code and hardware, build prototypes, and observe their use 'in the wild'. Ultimately, we hope to encourage designers to put themselves on equal footing with the people using their systems, so that they can playfully grow meaningful interactions together." - (Kars Alfrink - IxDA Library)

Posted by PJB on May 06, 2009 | Classification: Events - Interaction design | Permalink

Is Information Visualization the Next Frontier for Design?

"As design work shifts to infrastructure and problem solving, sexy infographics are part of the new skill set." - (Michael Cannell - Fast Company) via markvanderbeeken

Posted by PJB on May 06, 2009 | Classification: InfoViz | Permalink

Shall We Dance?

"It is with great pride that I welcome you to the inaugural issue of the Journal of Information Architecture. The Journal of Information Architecture is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal, and its aim is to facilitate the systematic development of the scientific body of knowledge in the field of information architecture. The journal will focus on information architecture research and development in all types of shared information environments, such as for example social networks, web sites, intranets, mobile and Rich Internet Applications, from various perspectives such as technical, cultural, social, and communicational." - (Dorte Madsen - Journal of Information Architecture 1.1)

Posted by PJB on May 05, 2009 | Classification: Design research - Information architecture | Permalink

The Content Strategy Land Rush

"I don't have the answers. I’m sorry if that's disappointing news and I have lead you this far to learn it. In fact, this is what we are all watching to see. Such things as the social web explosion and the recent economy crash will undoubtedly shape content strategy considerations. The semantic web, and web as a platform, are increasingly becoming a part of that picture too." - (Wion)

Posted by PJB on May 05, 2009 | Classification: Content strategy | Permalink

Information Architecture: Synthesis Techniques for the Muddy middle of the Design Process

"Information Architecture has arisen as a field related to interaction design. It is commonly found embedded within the profession of computer science, and is associated with the creation of complicated software. This relatively new field exists to make meaning out of data, and can be applied to disciplines that have little to do with computing or even technology. This paper provides an overview of established Information Architecture modeling techniques, and discusses how they can be applied to the industrial design process during the synthesis phase of design. The text reflects on the nature of this messy and critical period in the design process, and offers methods of quickly making information and even knowledge out of data. Finally, the text briefly describes the changing nature of professional demands on students entering industry, indicating that Information Architect may be a lucrative alternative job title for students graduating from Industrial Design programs." - (Jon Kolko)

Posted by PJB on May 04, 2009 | Classification: Information architecture | Permalink

Content Typology: Getting a Handle on Your Content Types

"Content types are among the least understood, and yet most potent, aspects of user experience and web design. Most people encounter them for the first time when implementing a grand-scale content management system (CMS) because you have to define content types before building templates for each kind of content you're going to publish." - (The Content Strategy Noob)

Posted by PJB on May 04, 2009 | Classification: Content strategy | Permalink

Information Architecture and Design Strategy: The Importance of Synthesis during the Process of Design

"During the process of design, Designers attempt to draw connections between seemingly disparate ideas; they examine quantitative data provided from marketing and qualitative data gathered from end users, and before they can begin designing, they must make order out of the chaotic mess of research. The connections that can be formed during this synthesis phase frequently hold the keys to 'innovation'. Designers visually explore large quantities of data in an effort to find and understand hidden relationships. These visualizations can then be used to communicate to other members of a design team, or can be used as platforms for the creation of generative sketching or model making. Frequently, the action of diagramming is a form of synthesis, and is a way to actively produce knowledge and meaning. (...) This paper investigates the elements of Design Synthesis that are common to both Information Architecture and Design Strategy." - (Jon Kolko)

Posted by PJB on May 04, 2009 | Classification: Information architecture | Permalink

Designing for experience: Arousing boredom to evoke predefined user behaviour

"In the light of Cultural Computing, this study influences user affect and behaviour by touching upon core values of Western culture. We created an augmented reality environment in which users experience a predefined sequence of emotional states and events. This study concerns two typically Western drives: boredom and curiosity. We specifically address the arousal of boredom, a mental state characterized by a heightened drive for exploration, making it easier to guide people in their decision making. Based on psychology literature, we introduce general design guidelines for arousing boredom. We report on the design of the augmented reality environment, the experiment effectively arousing boredom and on the redesign of the environment based on the experimental results." - (Matthias Rautenberg et al.)

Posted by PJB on May 03, 2009 | Classification: User experience | Permalink