Service Modeling Language 1.1

Added on 8 July 2009 Peter Bogaards
“This specification defines the Service Modeling Language, Version 1.1 (SML) used to model complex services and systems, including their structure, constraints, policies, and best practices. SML uses XML Schema and Schematron. (…) The Service Modeling Language provides a rich set of constructs for creating models of complex services and systems. Depending on the application domain, these models may include information such as configuration, deployment, monitoring, policy, health, capacity planning, target operating range, service level agreements, and so on. Models provide value in several important ways.” (W3C)

Book: Search User Interfaces

Added on 8 July 2009 Peter Bogaards
“Search is an integral part of peoples’ online lives; people turn to search engines for help with a wide range of needs and desires, from satisfying idle curiousity to finding life-saving health remedies, from learning about medieval art history to finding video game solutions and pop music lyrics. Web search engines are now the second most frequently used online computer application, after email. Not long ago, most software applications did not contain a search module. Today, search is fully integrated into operating systems and is viewed as an essential part of most information systems.” (Marti A. Hearst)

A formal description of ZigZag-structures PDF Logo

Added on 8 July 2009 Peter Bogaards
“The focus of this paper is on particular and innovative structures for storing, linking and manipulating information: the ZigZag-structures. In the last years, we worked at the formalization of these structures, retaining that the description of the formal aspects can provide a better understanding of them, and can also stimulate new ideas, projects and research. This work presents our contribution for a deeper discussion on ZigZag-structures.” (XanaWorkshop 2009)

New media vs. old media: A portrait of the Drudge Report 2002–2008

Added on 7 July 2009 Peter Bogaards
“The Drudge Report is one of the founding flag bearers of ‘new media’: a U.S.–based news aggregator founded in the late 1990s that has developed a reputation for breaking tomorrow’s news today. The site has become a powerful force in the U.S. media sphere and its founder was named one of Time Magazine’s most influential people in 2006. In existence for more than a decade, the Drudge Report makes an ideal case study for examining the ‘new media versus old media’ argument. How dependent is such a ‘new media’ aggregator on the ‘old media’ it draws from, and how does it find its breaking stories? A cross–section of analytical techniques is used to demonstrate how to profile a news Web site, and finds that the Drudge Report relies heavily on wire services and obscure news outlets to find small stories that will break large tomorrow, making it highly dependent on mainstream “old media” sites.” (Kalev Leetaru – First Monday 14.7)

How to get a job in usability

Added on 7 July 2009 Peter Bogaards
“When you’re looking for work, it’s easy to get discouraged. You’ll find that many emails don’t get any answers, many applications go unacknowledged, contacts say they’ll do something but then forget or get distracted. That’s not because you’re a bad person, a failure, or doomed never to get a job. It’s just what happens. Another friend was looking for a job during one of the previous recessions. He had a year of complete discouragement, and then finally three great job offers appeared in the same week. Hang in there, keep positive (somehow) and eventually you’ll get the job you want.” (Caroline Jarrett – Usability News)

The Mystery of Filtering by Sorting

Added on 6 July 2009 Peter Bogaards
“(…) for most users of consumer-facing ecommerce applications, the difference between a sort and a filter presents a mystery they understand dimly, if at all. The distinction between sorting and filtering blurs, because of a phenomenon I’ve called filtering by sorting, which leads to all sorts of interesting search user interface implications.” (Greg Nudelman – UXmatters)

Credit Card Statements: Communication Benchmarks 2009

Added on 6 July 2009 Peter Bogaards
“We were disappointed that this Communication Benchmarks study found such uniformly poor designs, and we want to encourage industry to do better in the future. However, we would not recommend any of the opportunistic suggestions by graphic designers. These are highly speculative sketches not based on any benchmarking data, nor have they been tested. As the evidence from many previous studies suggests, such speculation is rarely an acceptable solution, and may not even be a good starting point.” (David Sless and Alex Tyers – CRI)

Design Ethnography & Mood Maps

Added on 6 July 2009 Peter Bogaards
“The sole purpose of this exercise is to document and map the emotional states of a user so that it can guide the creation and communication of personas to stakeholders while also informing the design process itself. I’m not one for ux deliverables for their own sake, but this is one that carry’s a lot of weight and also goes a ways towards ‘traceability’ – that is, the ability to show all the real research that went into your personas.” (Will Evans) – courtesy of ppf

User Experience Evaluation Based on Values and EmotionsPDF Logo

Added on 3 July 2009 Peter Bogaards
“In this paper, we explore a user experience evaluation possibility by combining the identification of person’s personal values and evaluation of product emotions. By personal values we mean a type of user concern that is guiding his/her choices and evaluations of products or actions in order to reach the desired goal. By product emotions we mean emotions that a certain product evokes in the user. Theoretical reasoning for this user experience evaluation approach is given by reviewing the existing literature. In addition, possible applications of use are suggested.” (Piia Nurkka – UXEM09)

The Architecture of Knowledge: The public library of the future

Added on 3 July 2009 Peter Bogaards
“Information is knowledge. Knowledge is the library’s commodity. As a result it attracts producers and consumers of this knowledge. To survive it should be aware and adaptable to changes and influences in this age of information and communication. What form and position will its physical and conceptual structure need to take in order to endure these changes in the data saturated realm of public and private society?” (Bart Verschaffel – Tomaat)

Interview with Scott Berkun

Added on 3 July 2009 Peter Bogaards
“In 1956 a documentary called The Mystery of Picasso was released, showing two hours of Pablo Picasso doing what he did best: making paintings. This film gave the public a first-hand glimpse directly into this infamous artist’s creative process. Public speaker and writer Scott Berkun and I got together for tea to talk about the film and our own experiences around creativity. As both managers of creative teams and creators of work ourselves, we looked at how our processes aligned with Picasso’s… or where we could learn from him. As the discussion unfolded, we came up with an interesting set of guidelines that enable creativity to flourish.” (Tea with Teresa)

European Modernism and the Information Society: Informing the Present, Understanding the Past

Added on 2 July 2009 Peter Bogaards
“Uniting a team of international and interdisciplinary scholars, this volume considers the views of early twentieth-century European thinkers on the creation, dissemination and management of publicly available information. Interdisciplinary in perspective, the volume reflects the nature of the thinkers discussed, including Otto Neurath, Patrick Geddes, the English Fabians, Paul Otlet, Wilhelm Ostwald and H. G. Wells. The work also charts the interest since the latter part of the nineteenth century in finding new ways to think about and to manage the growing body of available information in order to achieve aims such as the advancement of Western civilization, the alleviation of inequalities across classes and countries, and the promotion of peaceful coexistence between nations. In doing so, the contributors provide a novel historical context for assessing widely-held assumptions about today’s globalized, ‘post modern’ information society. This volume will interest all who are curious about the creation of a modern networked information society.” (W. Boyd Rayward) – Introduction chapter available for download

Future Practice Interview: John Ferrara

Added on 2 July 2009 Peter Bogaards
“Working in the user experience, we want to capitalize upon interfaces that people already have a lot of experience using. If gaming is so ubiquitous, we’d be terribly remiss in not paying careful attention to it. But there’s also just so much innovative work going on in games right now. Game designers are viciously competing with each other to create unique, engaging experiences, and you see rapid development of new ways of interacting. There’s really exciting work being done in motion control, voice control, gesture-based interfaces, and online collaboration, as well as elegant solutions to significant design challenges in unassuming games. I think these things make games impossible to ignore.” (Louis Rosenfeld – Rosenfeld Media)