“Although I have focused solely on financial applications, this does not mean that you can’t use these strategies to improve the usability of the forms outside of the banking domain. As usability practitioners, we need to first and foremost understand the user’s intentions and expectations, in order to provide an online experience that accommodates them.’” (Afshan Kirmani – Boxes and Arrows)

“A documentary about Paul Otlet, often considered the father of information management, narrated by W. Boyd Rayward, his biographer. In the late 1800s and early 1900s Otlet pioneered the field of what we today call information science, but what he called documentation. A hundred years before the development of the Internet, Otlet used terms like web of knowledge, link, and knowledge network to describe his vision for a central repository of all human knowledge. In English and French. Produced for Dutch television in 1998.” – See also Françoise Levie’s documentary film ‘The Man Who Wanted To Classify The World‘ (€ 28 plus shipping and handling) – (Internet Archive)

“Alex Wright showed an astonishing video of how Paul Otlet’s distributed telephone-plus-screen sysem worked.” (Stewart Brand – Long Now Foundation)

“It is no secret that the real world in which the designer functions is not the world of art, but the world of buying and selling.” (Dexo Design) – courtesy of usernomics

“It is time to review a company home page design. There are a number of stakeholders involved in home page design, and each of them wants a piece of the home page real estate. Are there questions you can ask before approaching home page design that can move it beyond the influence of specific stakeholders in the company toward a common vision? Are there tips to consider when designing a home page? This is article will help you better understand how to approach home page design.” (Daniel Szuc – UXmatters)

“There is an astonishing amount of disbelief that the users of web pages have learned to scroll and that they do so regularly. Holding on to this disbelief – this myth that users won’t scroll to see anything below the fold – is doing everyone a great disservice, most of all our users.” (Mike Hughes – UXmatters)

“One of the basic, overriding elements featured in CNN’s new website design and layout is something I like to call quiet structure. Quiet structure is achieved when you de-emphasize the structural elements; the containing boxes, structural lines, bullets, structural color elements, etc. and bring a rhythmical consistency to the layout. The result is that the content becomes more conspicuous and the overall clarity of presentation is greatly enhanced.” (Andy Rutledge – Design View)

VIDEO – “Analyzing a list of things that have made him happy, graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister realized that almost half of the items were in some way related to design. In this intensely personal talk, he shares the details of some of those moments, and gives props to three artists whose work has had a positive impact on his world. Concluding with some examples of his own work, Sagmeister offers a real insight into his aesthetic and philosophy of work — and life.” (TED Talks) – courtesy of 43folders

“Here in conversation with Conrad Taylor, he explains how for him information only has a meaning within a context; how information designers improve data collection and presentation by redesigning pathological forms and statements; the historical roots and ethical stance of the information design movement; how the automated production of text layouts from computer systems (bank statements, dynamic Web pages) calls for a closer relationship between professionals in IT and design; and how all designers of information systems have an obligation to use benchmarking and testing to prove that they are making things better. David also explains his philosophy of design with reference to an approach to linguistics that emphasises pragmatics rather than semantics and syntactics; the later thought of Wittgenstein; an understanding of language as a collaboratively designed artefact; and Mikhail Bakhtin’s ideas about the relationship between reader and text.” (Radio KIDMM)

“If this messy world is becoming easier to understand, thank Edward Tufte.” (New York Magazine) – courtesy of kottke

“That’s a big difference between design and art. We can measure the results of design because it’s meant to solve a problem. We can see if the problem has been resolved or lessened in some way. With Art we can’t do that… other than some subjective ‘Do you like it?’.” (Joshua Porter – Bokardo)

“As a number of people have asked about form development best practices in the comments on this site. I thought it would be useful to include Aaron Gustafson’s ‘Learning to Love Forms’ talk from WebVisions 2007. The big news is that Aaron has agreed to lend his expertise to my upcoming book and will be writing a ‘perspective’ on Web form development best practices.” (LukeW – Rosenfeld Media)

“This article presents an approach to Help file design that focuses on creating a task-centered user experience and accommodates an iterative development strategy.” (Mike Hughes – UXmatters)

“Many Web application designers strive to reduce the amount of instructional text that appears in the user interfaces they create. A likely part of their motivation is the perception that, if explaining how to use something requires too much instruction, it probably isn’t that easy to use and, therefore, has room for improvement in its design. (…)” (Luke Wroblewski – UXmatters)

“Before Microsoft. Apple. The Web. AOL. The Internet. Before everything, there was PLATO: the first online community. The network that time forgot. The birthplace of instant messaging, chat rooms, MUDs (multi-user dungeons), personal publishing, screen savers, flat-panel plasma displays, one of the first spell-checking/answer-judging mechanisms, and countless other innovations. This site offers information regarding a book being researched and written about the PLATO system and the user culture that it spawned in the 1970s.” (About PLATO People)

“Actively influencing a person’s emotional state throughout an experience—in particular, his or her sense of anticipation, involvement, and desire for a certain outcome—is still an evolving concept in the realm of user interface design.” (Jonathan Follett – UXmatters)

“Forms broker the most crucial online interactions: checkout (commerce), registration (community), data input (participation and sharing). This book will provide everything you wanted to know and more about designing effective and engaging Web forms that optimize these key customer interactions.” (LukeW – Rosenfeld Media)

“Here is a very short summary of the contents of the conference. (…) It is likely that audio recordings and slides of several of these talks will soon be available from the IDA website.” (Information Design Association)

“When information needs to be communicated, Edward Tufte demands both truth and beauty.” (STANFORD Magazine)

“Here you can watch and download the videos of the presentations given at the conference over the years.” – including Adam Greenfield (Studies and Observations), Jan Chipchase (Nokia), and Florence Devouard (WikiMedia). (LIFT07)