Cognatrix
“(…) a native Mac OS X (‘Cocoa/Aqua’) application for thesaurus construction.” (LGOSystems) – courtesy of theotherblog
All posts from
August 2005
Open New Windows for PDF and other Non-Web Documents
“When using PC-native file formats such as PDF or spreadsheets, users feel like they’re interacting with a PC application. Because users are no longer browsing a website, they shouldn’t be given a browser UI.” (Jakob Nielsen – Alertbox)
The Psychology of Search: Chapter Three
“You often search because you have poor memory. But, it isn’t so poor that you are a blank slate, tabula rasa. No, instead, you have a clue and you are buying more clues with every search you do. Let’s cut to the core of this.” (John Rhodes – WebWord)
Adaptive Path || User Experience Week Wiki
“Welcome to the UX Week Wiki – Feel free to change any page, that’s the point of a wiki.” (SocialText) – courtesy of jeffveen and peterme
Metrics make the case for quality content
“The essential business case of a website is self-service. To maximize value from self-service, you want a limited menu, a fast transaction and a significant volume of people.” (Gerry McGovern)
Online Communities: Design, Theory, and Practice
“This special thematic section of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication brings together nine articles that provide a rich composite of the current research in online communities. The articles cover a range of topics, methodologies, theories and practices. Indirectly they all speak to design since they aim to extend our understanding of the field. The variety shown in these articles illustrates how broad the definition is of this rapidly growing field known as ‘online communities.'” (Jenny Preece and Diane Maloney-Krichmar – JCMC 10.4) – courtesy of elearningpost
Getting IA Done, Part II
“When you start a site map, even as a paper sketch, take that opportunity to immediately start putting ID numbers on pages. Don’t wait until later. Having the IDs then gives you a baseline vocabulary to use in any subsequent docs, and you’re free to decide on ‘friendly” names later. It can help you avoid a lot of confusion later.” (Joshua Kaufman – Digital Web Magazine)
Designing medicine information for people
“This paper introduces you to the methods for designing usable medicine information by showing you how medicine information design has grown out of the traditional crafts, and more recently, out of the design professions. It is an introduction to your training in medicine information design.” (David Sless and Ruth Shrensky – CRIA)
Quality, not quantity: Delivering value from web content
“Maintaining the quality of your content is critical to the long term success of your website. That involves establishing rigorous pre and post publication editorial processes.” (Gerry McGovern)
IA in Academia
“Who in the academic community is doing the leading research and inquiry into IA issues? Who are the big thinkers?” (IAwiki)
xSort
“(…) a card sorting application for Mac OS X. It allows you to easily define a new card sorting problem, perform several sessions with multiple participants, and finally analyze the results (using multiple criteria) and generate printable reports.” (iPragma) – courtesy of theotherblog
Persona Non Grata
“Solid personas can be incredibly helpful. Several years ago, Schwab redesigned its site based on three primary personas: the learner, the active trader, and the serious investor. Apple has had some great successes designing for an aesthete persona who demands that things look clean and work smoothly.” (Dan Shaffer – Adaptive Path)
How firms can co-create knowledge with their customers
“The paper defines the ‘story of co-creation’, explores his research question, presents a conceptual framework for market-learning capabilities (before and after co-creation) and suggests some of the challenges to be resolved when conducting the research.” (Putting people first) – courtesy of cph127
Putting A/B Testing in Its Place
“Measuring the live impact of design changes on key business metrics is valuable, but often creates a focus on short-term improvements. This near-term view neglects bigger issues that only qualitative studies can find.” (Jakob Nielsen – Alertbox)
Web 2.0: Data, Metadata and Interface
“One key takeaway from the Web 2.0 panel was that data, interface and metadata no longer need to go hand in hand. When working on an application/website, one thinks of the overall picture including the data, the metadata, and the interface. With Web 2.0 apps, the data might be from one place, the metadata from another, and the interface from a third party or a remix. The diagram below shows the move towards Web 2.0 along with examples.” (Rashmi Sinha)
Methods to the Madness
This is the second article in the four-part series. – “Neither praying nor cursing is likely to do a mobile site any good, especially if done in tandem.” (Authentic Boredom) – courtesy of nickfinck
Simplicity is hard work
“I’m sure that within Philips there is a genuine belief that it is important to make their products as simple as possible to use. However, there is a big difference between marketing your products as simple to use and making them genuinely simple.” (Gerry McGovern)
Podcast of BayCHI Events
“Audio and visual recordings of BayCHI events are available here for the benefit of the HCI community.” (The San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of ACM SIGCHI)
Tutorial Review: Creating Passionate Users
“An industry that Kathy believes that we can learn from is the gaming industry. Game designers use two key techniques to keep players engaged in a game. First, they produce a state of flow. (…) flow is defined as the feeling of complete and energized focus in an activity, with a high level of enjoyment and fulfillment. One situation that demonstrates flow is when we become so engrossed with something we are doing, we loose track of time. Secondly, game designers provide an experience spiral. Basically this involves using a compelling benefit to motivate players to complete the loop (the level).” (Kevin Shockey – ONLamp.com)
Keith Instone’s Weblog
“This is my new site. It will slowly include these other sites of mine (…). If you are looking for something specific, chances are it is still at one of those other sites.” (Keith Instone)
