All posts from
September 2003

Strike A Balance: Users’ Expertise on Interface Design

Added on 4 September 2003 Peter Bogaards
“Computers and users process information in distinct ways — so do individual users. Although it’s relatively easy to get a computer to understand input, what with fixed standards and universal APIs, usability with human users is not absolute. User interface usability is relative to the experience level of individual users. UI designer Mike Padilla provides an overview of UI design for Web-based productivity software with a focus on the broadest range of users, examining what makes an application UI usable and detailing concepts that can facilitate an efficient, broad-based UI design.” (Mike Padilla – IBM developerWorks) – courtesy of webword

Writing Photo Captions for the Web

Added on 4 September 2003 Peter Bogaards
“Photographs are rarely self-sufficient. They need captions. A caption tells us something about the person or thing photographed, also something about the photographer. In this article, we discuss how to write photo captions for the Web. We provide examples from adultsí and childrenís work.” (Ruth Garner, Mark Gillingham, and Yong Zhao – First Monday 8.9)

Conversation with Lucy Suchman

Added on 3 September 2003 Peter Bogaards
“The trick in designing information systems is to introduce bits of automation that will fit in to the work and do useful things, and then make it possible for people to work with those bits of automation embedded in the systems while leaving them the discretionary space to exercise the kind of judgment they need to exercise to really get the work done.” (Dialog on Leadership) – courtesy of brightly colored food

Information Design: An Introduction

Added on 1 September 2003 Peter Bogaards
“Information design is concerned with transforming data into information, making the complex easier to understand and to use. It is a rapidly growing discipline that draws on typography, graphic design, applied linguistics, applied psychology, applied ergonomics, computing, and other fields. It emerged as a response to people’s need to understand and use such things as forms, legal documents, computer interfaces and technical information.” (Clark MacLeod – Kelake)