All posts from
September 2009

IORG: The Information Overload Research Group

Added on 30 September 2009 Peter Bogaards
“We work together to understand, publicize and solve the information overload problem. We do this by (1) defining and building awareness of information overload, (2) facilitating and funding collaboration and advanced research aimed at shaping solutions and establishing best practices, and (3) serving as a resource center where we share information and resources, offer guidance and connections, and help make the business case for fighting information overload.” (About The IORG)

Information overload

Added on 30 September 2009 Peter Bogaards
“Information overload dates back to Johannes Gutenberg. His invention of movable type led to a proliferation of printed matter that quickly exceeded what a single human mind could absorb in a lifetime. Later technologies – from carbon paper to the photocopier – made replicating existing information even easier. And once information was digitised, documents could be copied in limitless numbers at virtually no cost. (…) In looking for ways to reduce the burden of information overload, an organisation must strive to balance sender benefits against recipient costs; to ensure it doesn’t simply shift the burden from one group to another, at a net cost to the organisation.” (Paul Hemp – The Guardian)

A Glimpse Ahead Microsoft Office Labs Vision 2019

Added on 24 September 2009 Peter Bogaards
“Some visionaries over at Microsoft Labs have put a lot of hard work and devotion to a video displaying our digital world in 2019. Heavily relying on touch and constant interconnectivity, our digital future looks quite promising – especially to geeks like us. In 2019 smart office and household devices cater for our needs in the most intuitive way possible. Mobile phones for one, have seen quite a few changes.” (YouTube)

Beyond Goals: Site Search Analytics from the Bottom Up

Added on 22 September 2009 Peter Bogaards
“(…) be wary of the standard reports that come with your analytics application. They certainly have value, but these reports also provide a false sense of security—as if they were designed with your needs in mind. Nothing could be farther from the truth: Top-down, goal-driven analytics should be centered on your KPI, and your organization’s goals aren’t the same as everyone else’s.” (Louis Rosenfeld – A List Apart 292)

Elements of a Networked Urbanism

Added on 22 September 2009 Peter Bogaards
“Over the past several years, we’ve watched as a very wide variety of objects and surfaces familiar from everyday life have been reimagined as networked information-gathering, -processing, -storage and -display resources. Why should cities be any different? What happens to urban form and metropolitan experience under such circumstances? What are the implications for us, as designers, consumers and as citizens?” (Adam Greenfield – dConstruct)

The Importance of Website Content in Online Purchasing Across Different Types of Products

Added on 22 September 2009 Peter Bogaards
“Several authors have suggested that the importance of website content elements in online purchasing varies across different types of products. Our aim is to empirically test this proposition. Here, we focus on goods versus services and hedonic versus utilitarian products. After reviewing the literature on the role of website content, we hypothesize which elements are more important for which type of product. The results of an empirical study confirm most of the different roles across different types of products. This suggests that retailers would profit from taking the differences in product types into account in designing their online stores.” (Tibert Verhagen and Jaap Boter – VU Amsterdam)

Understanding the Experience of Social Network Sites

Added on 21 September 2009 Peter Bogaards
“This past year social media, and social network sites in particular, have reached new heights of popularity and adoption. It is no longer unusual for clients to request that designers “add Facebook” to their respective sites, mainly for the purpose of increased engagement and community building for their brand as a part of a greater social marketing strategy.” (Alla Zollers – Johnny Holland Magazine)

UX in the Boardroom: A Solid Case for Investing in UX

Added on 21 September 2009 Peter Bogaards
“Some think the best way to demonstrate the value of usability in a corporate setting is to emphasize the resulting cost savings. While that may be sage advice in some organizations and industries, following it in the information technology and government arenas would cost you respect and a meeting. For some years, I was guilty of following this tack—before I discovered what really matters to executives, learned how finances and budgets work, and realized the true value of user experience lies not in cost savings at all, but in intangibles.” (Kate Walser – UXmatters)

Designing Tables 101

Added on 21 September 2009 Peter Bogaards
“In this column, I’ll review some of the basic principles of good table design from an information developer’s perspective, then discuss their visual design and interactivity. These principles and my examples provide the bare essentials of table design. When designing tables, a key information design objective is keeping them simple, so if you start needing more than this column provides, you might be making things unnecessarily complicated for your users.” (Mike Hughes – UXmatters)