February 2013

Designing for the reading experience

But the thing is not to fall into the screen is paper parallel.

"With the rise of Web fonts as well as affordable hosted Web font services and ready-made kits, typography is reclaiming its title as design queen, ruler of all graphic and Web design."

(Marko Dugonjić a.k.a. @markodugonjic ~ Smashing Magazine)

Posted by PJB on February 27, 2013 | Classification: Typography - Visual design | Permalink

How 'Minority Report' trapped us in a world of bad interfaces

Getting from off the track to on the track.

"And at the end of the day, it's visual accessibility driving this trend. Hopefully one day we'll reach the point where filmmakers don't want computers to look like conducting an orchestra, and we'll be able to back out of this interface cul-de-sac and find our way forward into a genuinely natural way of using our devices."

(Christian Brown a.k.a. @DeepOmega ~ The Awl)

Posted by PJB on February 27, 2013 | Classification: HCI | Permalink

Reusable divisions of space: Grids and modular design

If it has structure, it can be modular.

"Grids follow the same principle of modularity we've been considering the last few weeks. In some ways that seems obvious given the terminology modular grids. In other ways though it isn't quite as obvious that they're the same thing. However, when you think about how grids divide space and make it easier for us to make layout decisions, I think the modularity of grids falls right in line with the reusable modularity of components and design patterns. They separate concerns, by dividing the space into modular units. The characteristics of these modular units are reusable and through reuse help us more efficiently place information. Finally, the structure of these units in the grid leads to greater consistency in how content is organized."

(Steven Bradley a.k.a. @vangogh ~ VanSeoDesign)

Posted by PJB on February 26, 2013 | Classification: Typography - Visual design | Permalink

Madrid Kitchen: A service design manifesto for change

Change, the mantra of the 21st century. But into what?

"(...) we are not mature enough yet as an industry to have a de facto narrative."

(Andy Goodman ~ Fjord Conversations)

Posted by PJB on February 26, 2013 | Classification: Service design | Permalink

Jack of all trades, master of none: Danger for interaction design

Wondering why it's 'User Experience' but Interaction Design.

"Interaction design is a young field. At least, that's what we as interaction designers keep telling ourselves. And of course, in comparison to many other fields we are respectfully young. But I get the feeling that we use it more as an excuse to permit ourselves to have an unclear definition of who we are - and who we aren't."

(Jeroen van Geel ~ Core77)

Posted by PJB on February 26, 2013 | Classification: Interaction design - User experience | Permalink

When to apply UX effort in agile

Likes to write agile in lower case as well.

"(...) when a UX designer is integrated into an agile team and helps model the business processes, interaction channels, and user behaviours at the start of a project, it gives everyone a clear, common vision of what they're working with, and it provides a foundation to build upon going forward. When a UX designer asks the right questions during evaluation, the models evolve, the requirements become clearer, and 'bad ideas' are caught before it's too late. And, when a UX designer facilitates group thinking and collaboration on a daily basis, design decisions get made faster and team members have a stronger sense of ownership of the final product."

(Andrew Wright ~ nForm)

Posted by PJB on February 22, 2013 | Classification: User experience | Permalink

Love, hate, and empathy: Why we still need personas

Timeline forgets the very first personas for design: Henry Dreyfuss' Joe and Josephine (1955).

"These steps (solid research, creative analysis, and compelling presentation and rollout) can bring teams back around to a tool that they badly need. Feel free to dump the shallow personas that people roll their eyes at. It's time to reengage with empathetic work by making your users real, and letting their real voices be heard."

(Kyra Edeker and Jan Moorman ~ UX Magazine)

Posted by PJB on February 22, 2013 | Classification: Personas | Permalink

Windows 8: Design over usability

Win8 as talk of the town. We'll get used to it.

"Windows 8 gets a lot right, but Microsoft's determination to offer computer and mobile users the same interface makes the operating system somewhat weird."

(Simson Garfinkel ~ MIT Technology Review)

Posted by PJB on February 22, 2013 | Classification: HCI - Usability | Permalink

UCD Toolbox: Find, learn and apply methods for user-centered design

A great initiative. Now, keep it up-and-running. And fresh!

"We believe that creating objects that people love requires the right tools and methods. In fact, using the wrong method can lead to bad design decisions. But with over 200 methods and tools available, which ones could you use in your situation? That's why we give you access to a large chunk of the worlds' created methods, tools, techniques and resources for User Centered Design. We are making all of them searchable and executable. You can even publish your own method."

(About UCD Toolbox)

Posted by PJB on February 22, 2013 | Classification: UCD - User experience | Permalink

The origins of the internet in Europe (1895-2013): Collecting, indexing & sharing knowledge

Have I been waiting for this one.

"Brussels, Belgium, Europe, 1895: two men shared a dream of 'indexing and classifying the world's information'. Paul Otlet and Henri La Fontaine's work foreshadowed the network of knowledge that a century later became the Internet with its search engines! Otlet and La Fontaine aimed to preserve peace by assembling knowledge and making it accessible to the entire world. They built an international documentation center called Mundaneum. They invented the modern library Universal Decimal Classification system. La Fontaine won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1913. By 1935, their Mundaneum grew to a staggering 16 million cards covering subjects ranging from the history of hunting dogs to finance! World War II and the death of both founders slowed down the project. Although many Mundaneum archives were stored away, some even in the Brussels subway, volunteers kept the dream alive. The French community government of Belgium brought most of the archives to a beautiful Art Deco building in the heart of Mons near Brussels."

(Google Cultural Institute)

Posted by PJB on February 21, 2013 | Classification: Classics - Information architecture | Permalink

Web science: A new frontier

Scientists getting their heads around the largest information machine mankind ever made.

"During the past 20 years, humans have built the largest information fabric in history. The World Wide Web has been transformational. People shop, date, trade and communicate with one another using it. Although most people are not formally trained in its use, yet it has assumed a central role in their lives. Scientists and researchers cannot imagine their work without it. Governments interface to their citizens using it. Media are seeing the nature of their industry change because of it. Travel, leisure, health, banking, any sector one can think of are changed by what we have created. The Web is now ubiquitous, and like all things that become commonplace, we take it for granted. This is true for the great majority of users. Until recently, it was true for researchers too. Over the past few years, there has been a growing recognition that the ecosystem that is the Web needs to be treated as an important and coherent area of study—this is Web science."

(Nigel Shadbolt, Wendy Hall, James A. Hendler and William H. Dutton ~ Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society)

Posted by PJB on February 19, 2013 | Classification: Information design - SemWeb | Permalink

QA & UX

Lack of quality impacts all aspects of life.

"Quality assurance impacts the user experience: when things don't work, users question their understanding and develop superstitions and inefficient workarounds."

(Jakob Nielsen)

Posted by PJB on February 19, 2013 | Classification: Customer experience - User experience | Permalink

How do users really hold mobile devices?

How to elaborate on just one facet of mobile devices: portrait versus landscape.

"Everything changes with touchscreens. On today's smartphones, almost the entire front surface is a screen. Users need to be able to see the whole screen, and may also need to touch any part of it to provide input. Since my old data was mostly from observations of users in the lab-using keyboard-centric devices in too many cases - I needed to do some new research on current devices. My data needed to be more unimpeachable, both in terms of its scale and the testing environment of my research."

(Steven Hoober a.k.a. @shoobe01 ~ UXmatters)

Posted by PJB on February 18, 2013 | Classification: Mobile design | Permalink

The five elements of modular and adaptive content

Object orientation moving up the ladder. Now, it's entering the info layer.

"When the word modular comes up in a conversation about web design, it's usually in regards to the code. Object oriented programming on the backend, separating structure, presentation, and behavior on the front end, or perhaps the reuse of certain visual patterns like buttons across the site. However, if we're going to spend some time talking about modularity in web design our first stop, like everything else web design, should be the content."

(Steven Bradley a.k.a. @vangogh ~ Vanseo Design)

Posted by PJB on February 18, 2013 | Classification: Content strategy | Permalink

The grammar of interactivity

Like all (visual) languages, digital has its own version of morphology, syntaxis, and semantics to communicate with humans. Grammar included.

"User experience design calls for us to write words on buttons all the time - but how do we know whether we're choosing the right ones? Linguistics may provide a clue. What follows is a simple test to check whether your calls to action 'work' linguistically as well as a guide to consider the grammar of your experience elements."

(Jonathan Richards a.k.a. @jonnyrichards ~ UX Booth)

Posted by PJB on February 18, 2013 | Classification: HCI - Interaction design | Permalink

Interview with Luke Wroblewski

Can be listened to while being mobile as well.

"Joe Welinske of Blink recently interviewed Luke Wroblewski. Luke discusses the reaction to his book Mobile First. He offers suggestions for UX professionals on how to gain support for a mobile first design strategy."

(ConveyUX)

Posted by PJB on February 18, 2013 | Classification: Interviews - Mobile design | Permalink

What does a user-centered design process look like?

Reading the high-level phases, thought it was rather circular, iterative and incremental than linear."

"What really differentiates user-centered design from a more traditional waterfall model of software design is the user feedback loop, which informs each phase of the project. This feedback loop is established through the use of a range of techniques that have become the staple for UX Designers. There are a ton of them, and knowing when to use which techniques during which phase of a project comes with experience. Personally, I find experimenting with new techniques and tweaking old favorites is part of the fun of being a UX Designer."

(Matthew Magain a.k.a. @mattymcg ~ UX mastery)

Posted by PJB on February 13, 2013 | Classification: Information design - Information graphics - UCD | Permalink

Content strategy: Separating content from information

A kind of new style DIKW and DTDT thinking with "(...) describes what content really is."

"Content is a piece of information we want to share with our audience. We create content by turning a piece of information into a type that our audience is familiar with. Then we distribute that content on the channels where we think our target audiences spend their time."

(Ahava Leibtag a.k.a. @ahaval)

Posted by PJB on February 13, 2013 | Classification: Content strategy - Information design | Permalink

Reading on the web: Implications for online information design

Reading, still one of the most important activities on the Web.

"This presentation will sketch our evolving conceptions of reading on the Web. It examines the empirical literature about reading online with a focus on how reading has changed between 1980 and 2010. To support this analysis, I profile some typical purposes for reading online and suggest what these purposes imply for designing content and for supporting the human relationships that we intend to enable. I also point to research about how effective writing and visual design can help people understand, remember, and appreciate online content while creating human relationships and enabling actions."

(Karen Shriver a.k.a. @firstwren)

Posted by PJB on February 11, 2013 | Classification: Information design - Writing | Permalink

A new research focus on service design: A report by the Design Council

Taking the temperature of a new upcoming field.

"Due to the lack of clarity, definitions and nascent field as a discipline, instead of calling it service design, they recommend a focus on the role of design in service innovation and for specific sectors. More research is needed in the design in the service sector. Service design academics need opportunities to engage with larger, established businesses who would benefit from service design practices. Linking business and design schools and considering the impact agenda, as well as linking design with innovation studies and policy communities."

(Yoko Akama ~ Service Design Melbourne)

Posted by PJB on February 11, 2013 | Classification: Service design | Permalink

Storyboarding in the software design process

Great proof that software design is the cinematography of the 21st century

"Using storyboards in software design can be difficult because of some common challenges and drawbacks to the tools we have. The good news is that there's a new, free tool that tries to address many of these issues. But before I get into that, let's revisit the value of using storyboards (and stories in general) in software design."

(Ambrose Little a.k.a. @ambroselittle ~ UX Magazine)

Posted by PJB on February 08, 2013 | Classification: UCD | Permalink

Prototyping for mobile designs

Always wondered why mobile design would be different than plain software design. Is being able to move around the differentiator?

"Building a prototype is a great way to test your design early on with users. Whether you choose to go for a high-fidelity representation, or go lo-fi with paper, you can learn a lot about the usability of your site. Often, teams are concerned with which technique or tool to use because of the litany that are available."

(Kelly Goto a.k.a. @go2girl ~ User Interface Engineering)

Posted by PJB on February 08, 2013 | Classification: Interviews - Mobile design - Prototyping | Permalink

A history of content management in two humps

Desperately hoping CM and CMSs get consumerized as well.

"One last thing that end-users need to keep in mind as they think about solutions that are migrating from the consumer world to the enterprise world. A consumer application is not necessarily battle hardened for enterprise use."

(Digital landfill)

Posted by PJB on February 07, 2013 | Classification: Content management - Content strategy | Permalink

What to expect from a content strategy process

Testimonial for content strategy, the Canadian way.

"Content strategy is the most important part of your project. It is where you plan what to put into the website, trade publication, brochure, catalog, fifty foot outdoor advertisement, or whatever. Some companies do content strategy intuitively, but most need a lot of help. Enter the content strategist."

(Darcy Hastings a.k.a. @bioagency ~ BIO digital)

Posted by PJB on February 07, 2013 | Classification: Content strategy | Permalink

The past 100 years of the future: Human-computer interaction in science-fiction movies and television (.pdf)

HCI in films, TV shows and SciFi is really getting a genre.

"During the past hundred years, science-fiction (sci-fi) films and, later, videos, have, of necessity, had to depict detailed views of human-computer interaction (HCI) of the future, or alternate pasts/presents, in order to convey a compelling scene and, sometimes, in order move forward the plot. This publication explores some of the themes that emerge from examining this body of work. The basic premise is simple: HCI professionals can learn something from sci-fi media, and sci-fi media-producers can learn more from HCI professionals in order to show smarter views of the future."

(Aaron Marcus a.k.a. @amandaberkeley ~ Amanda)

Posted by PJB on February 05, 2013 | Classification: HCI - Usability - User experience | Permalink

"All of the work we do is change management"

Karens star is rising and rising.

Interview with Karen McGrane. ~ "For us this is a generational issue, and it's our life's work to help contribute to organizations’ learning how digital design (and information architecture) should fit into their organization. If we are going to be successful, we may not fix it for ourselves, but for the next generation of digital designers, I want to leave those organizations better off. There will also be some social darwinism, where the organizations that successfully navigate this transition are the ones that are going to survive."

(IA Summit 2013)

Posted by PJB on February 05, 2013 | Classification: Content strategy - Events - Information architecture - Interviews | Permalink

User experience in startups: Challenges and realities

Besides business, startups are the new hunting grounds for UX design.

"To understand how User Experience fits into a startup, it is critical that you understand the startup maturation cycle. While each startup has its own story, they all typically progress through the same stages. It is essential that you understand the personnel dynamics, the startup's need for UX design, and its immediate business objectives and constraints at each stage."

(Sasha Giacoppo a.k.a. @asgiacoppo ~ UXmatters)

Posted by PJB on February 04, 2013 | Classification: User experience | Permalink

Design dissonance: When form and function collide

Very happy Eric (finally) contributed to UXm.

"Dissonance is a musical term. It means things are not in harmony. Design dissonance occurs when a product or service sends out cognitive signals that run counter to the desired effect. In the strictest sense of the term, design dissonance often relates to usability - when a design somehow pushes a user in the wrong direction, in terms of both understanding and action. But in a broader sense, design dissonance can create disappointment, particularly when it occurs in relation to a service."

(Eric Reiss a.k.a. @elreiss ~ UXmatters)

Posted by PJB on February 04, 2013 | Classification: User experience | Permalink

The intricate anatomy of UX design

Don't get confused. It's just a DTDT effort in Venn diagrams.

"This mega graphic attempts to tackle the relationship between UX and all other aspects of design."

(FastCo.design)

Posted by PJB on February 03, 2013 | Classification: Information graphics - User experience | Permalink

Looking beyond user-centered design

OK, time to move on.

"User-centered design has served the digital community well. So well, in fact, that I'm worried its dominance may actually be limiting our field."

(Cennydd Bowles a.k.a. @Cennydd ~ A List Apart)

Posted by PJB on February 01, 2013 | Classification: UCD - User experience | Permalink

Typography and information design: Reflections and critiques (.pdf)

Typography as the essential ingredient of design for search, find, and use information.

"A stroke, a letter, a word, a sentence, a paragraph, a page, and a book: all essentially linear constructs of the typographic mind put into action. There is a typographic order of 'things', a logical sequence from the most simple, to the most complex. A line, a space, a rectangle, a margin—an aesthetic device for visuality. As an infinite list of signifiers, the above lists signify the qualitative/quantitative display of the visual properties of typography: the micro and the macro, the color and the density, the positives and the negatives, the visible and the invisibles; these are some of the typographic paradigms that yield communicative visualization."

(Chun-wo Pat ~ Parsons Journal of Information Mapping)

Posted by PJB on February 01, 2013 | Classification: Information design - Typography | Permalink