All posts from
February 2006

Keith Instone of UXnet

Added on 28 February 2006 Peter Bogaards
“Live from Internet User Experience 2006, Tim & Tom interview friend and fellow usability professional Keith Instone about his work with User Experience Network. What is UXnet, and what do they want from us? How about this: ‘UXnet was formed to help make connections between the people and organizations that represent User Experience disciplines, and to encourage interchange and cooperation.’ Sounds good to us. In a field so widely interdisciplinary, we could use a big tent like UXnet to convene under. Attend the tale of UXnet!” (Design Critique)

Ladder of Fire

Added on 28 February 2006 Peter Bogaards
A conversation with Peter Merholz – “(…) I never said design is not a field of knowledge. You asked if design was a field of “vast, deep, broad, and nuanced” field of knowledge like anthropology, and I said, ‘No’. We never discussed whether design is another kind of field of knowledge, which I think it is. But it is fractured, rootless, and without a core. It doesn’t have anywhere near the depth or nuance of anthropology.” (GK VanPatter – NextD Journal) – Recommended reading

Hiding in Plain Sight

Added on 27 February 2006 Peter Bogaards
“Boxes and Arrows caught up with Adam Greenfield on the heels of finishing his first book, Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing, due out in March 2006. Greenfield talks to us about how computing has moved away from the desktop into every part of our lives—from soda cans to the family pet. In this interview, he allows us to imagine what our new normal might look like. (…) Everyone who will be affected by this class of technologies should have a voice in shaping its emergence.” (Boxes and Arrows)

Beautiful Evidence

Added on 27 February 2006 Peter Bogaards
“Edward Tufte’s new book, Beautiful Evidence, is now at the printer and should be available in May 2006. The book is 214 pages, full color, hard cover, and at the usual elegant standards of Graphics Press. Beautiful Evidence may be ordered now; the book will be sent immediately from the bindery when completed. The introduction and table of contents are shown (…).” (Edward Tufte)

User Experience: The next step for IA’s?

Added on 27 February 2006 Peter Bogaards
“IA’s have always wondered how to define information architecture in relation to other fields. Starting with the early days of library science, through the ‘discovery’ of other fields and the times when experienced IA’s called themselves Big IA’s, to modern days of business design and experience design, the borders have been fuzzy. I hope to show that, despite the fact that most of us are proud to wear the label Information Architect, we are all User Experience practitioners who practice IA from time to time. Finally, I would like to show the next steps for IA’s, which includes a call for international networks, and national events (…).” (Peter Boersma – Italian IA Summit)

How architects lost the wayfinding mojo…

Added on 27 February 2006 Peter Bogaards
“Wayfinding as a discipline: In your experience do you see wayfinding as a discipline becoming more integrated with design in architecture, urban, planning, landscape and retail? If so, in what areas has theories and practices towards wayfinding taken root? What barrier have you seen among designers in integrating wayfinding, egd and identity principals and practices in projects? What success stories have you seen, and what should designers do to communicate design process?” (The Wayfinding Place)

Second Generation Tag Clouds

Added on 24 February 2006 Peter Bogaards
“To date, tag clouds have been applied to just a few kinds of focuses (links, photos, albums, blog posts are the more recognizable). In the future, expect to see specialized tag cloud implementations emerge for a tremendous variety of semantic fields and focuses: celebrities, cars, properties or homes for sale, hotels and travel destinations, products, sports teams, media of all types, political campaigns, financial markets, brands, etc.” (Joe Lamantia) – courtesy of columntwo

Why is it so Hard to Make Products that People Love?

Added on 24 February 2006 Peter Bogaards
“Business people and designers are never going to speak the same language, and that’s okay. Each needs their own language to get their work done. To make great products, we have to create new ways to understand each other and work together as we keep our collective focus on the users of our products. Personas not only help translate and keep communication channels open between designers and business people, they also help to create and maintain a focus on customers and their needs throughout the design process. The persona approach has helped a variety of companies (…) improve not just their products and services, but their bottom line as well.” (Tamara Adlin and John Pruitt – AIGA Gain) – courtesy of bplusd

Designing Your Website to be Search Engine Friendly

Added on 23 February 2006 Peter Bogaards
“Design on the web has changed a lot since the mid 1990’s. Not only has the language used to create pages expanded, but so has the capability of browsers, and the availability of bandwidth. Consequently pages have gradually carried more and more content, and designers, information architects, and HTML developers have faced the challenge of presenting increasingly sophisticated information and marketing messages onto the computer monitors in homes and offices around the world.” (Mark Belam – currybetdotnet)

Can Large Companies Succeed with Social Media?

Added on 23 February 2006 Peter Bogaards
“While many companies will want to enhance their business with social media, not all will succeed. A social media platform doesn’t simply mean adding an online forum or blog. It requires a shift in organizational mindset, a mindset of constant and immediate customer interaction, customer-driven innovation, and exponential network effects. Only companies willing to make this shift will have the discipline to ask the right questions.” (Victor Lombardi – Management innovation Group)

On the Record: Paul Saffo

Added on 21 February 2006 Peter Bogaards
“I don’t think information overload is a function of the volume of information. It’s a derivative of the volume of information plus the sense-making tools you have. Think about the rise of info-graphics in newspapers. Those were sense-making tools to help people (absorb information).” (SFGate)

State of the Blogosphere: Beyond Search

Added on 17 February 2006 Peter Bogaards
“I’m going to cover the growth of the blogosphere as media, and discuss some of the emerging trends that deal with handling information overload. In a world of over 50,000 postings per hour, and over 70,000 new weblogs created each day, keeping on top of and in tune with the most interesting and influential people and topics is the new frontier beyond search. I’ve also got some surprises for you at the end of this post, two new features that I hope you’ll find useful.” (Sifry’s Alerts)