Apple, IKEA and Their Integrated Architecture

Added on 8 June 2009 Peter Bogaards
“The design of a physical space can and should take advantage of information architecture (IA) deliverables, in particular when designing an integrated model of IA across environments. The user must be able to easily consult technology-dependent environments such as digital media or printed paper catalogs in line with the information flow carried through the website. Conveying the relevance of information to the user/consumer by means of applying IA principles with a view to designing a crisscross-connecting model of human-information interaction is the focus of these studies.” (Davide Potente and Erika Salvini – ASIS&T Bulletin April/May 2009)

Know Your Core: Providing Focus for Web Applications

Added on 8 June 2009 Peter Bogaards
“As the Web has grown, the cost of getting a new application online has plummeted. Web hosting services with unlimited bandwidth and storage now cost less than ten dollars a month. Free open source platforms can easily power the back-end of an application. Free development toolkits for client-side programming (JavaScript) and styling (CSS) make building the front-end of an application much faster. In aggregate, these factors enable a new Web application to get in front of a global audience very quickly and easily.” (Luke Wroblewski – UXmatters)

Dear Content Strategists

Added on 7 June 2009 Peter Bogaards
“Well done. You guys are fantastic. You’ve got some great leaders among you, and more importantly, you seem to be generating a lot of meaningful grass roots activity. The world really needs you, and you’re poised to achieve some big things over the next couple years. Just don’t screw it up, OK?” (Louis Rosenfeld)

What is an Experience Strategy?

Added on 4 June 2009 Peter Bogaards
“An experience strategy is that collection of activities that an organization chooses to undertake to deliver a series of (positive, exceptional) interactions which, when taken together, constitute an (product or service) offering that is superior in some meaningful, hard-to-replicate way; that is unique, distinct and distinguishable from that available from a competitor.” (Steve Baty – Johnny Holland Magazine)

The Life Cycle of a Wireframe

Added on 3 June 2009 Peter Bogaards
“For those who are looking for my slides from the Puget Sound SIGCHI lecture and for those who missed it but are curious, here is my presentation. It focuses specifically on my personal process for creating wireframes. There are 4 parts to my process, each has a series of deliverables that feed into it and principals I try to keep in mind, the outcome is either a single or a series of IA deliverables. My overall strategy for IA is three step process; understanding the problem (note: not merely identifying the problem but really understanding it), find a solution (there may be more than one solution, but there is often only one right solution), and present the solution (a large part of your job as a IA is presenting your work so the client can understand the results). Hope you enjoy the slides, these are admittedly pretty rough. I plan to refine and show better pairing between the principals and the specific outcome of applying them to the wireframes in the future.” – (Nick Finck)

Designing the Windows 7 Desktop Experience

Added on 3 June 2009 Peter Bogaards
“The new Windows 7 desktop experience, including the new taskbar and Aero Snap, is both a major user experience change for Windows and an early success story. How did we go about evolving pieces of UI that haven’t seen major change since 1995? Come hear about our design process and see the evolution of the design through sketches and prototypes. Find out about our challenges and learn how we used iteration, developer collaboration and design principles to increase customer satisfaction and enthusiasm.” – (Stephen Hoefnagels – MIX09 videos)

From Idea to Feature: A view from Design

Added on 3 June 2009 Peter Bogaards
“What about unarticulated needs? The data plus intent shows the ‘known world’ and ‘known solution space’, but one role we have is to be forward thinking and consider needs or desires that are not clearly articulated by those who do not have the full time job to consider all the potential solution spaces. The solution space could potentially be much broader than readily apparent from the existing and running product—it might involve a rearchitecture, new hardware, or an invention of a new user interface.” – (Engineering Windows 7)

Dear AmericanAirlines

Added on 2 June 2009 Peter Bogaards
“I’m a user interface designer. I travel sometimes. Recently, I had the horrific displeasure of booking a flight on your website, aa.com. The experience was so bad that I vowed never to fly your airline again. But before we part ways, I have a couple questions and three suggestions for you.” – (Dustin Curtis) courtesy of rmoens

Lauralee Alben on Sea Change Moments

Added on 27 May 2009 Peter Bogaards
“Lauralee Alben talks with Marc Rettig of Fit Associates about Sea Change Moments – moments that spark a positive, profound, enduring transformation in people, brands, and the world. She also discusses the Sea Change Design Process, which aligns the creative output of an organization with its inner values and intentions. In this age of transformation, Lauralee’s ideas and examples are compelling. She offers a creative, generative method that embraces a whole-system, whole-business point of view while recognizing the necessity of drawing from our deep authentic selves. Enjoy the unusual blend of acumen, experience, heart and spirit in her words.” – (Sustainable Life Media)

Is Design the Preeminent Protagonist in User Experience?

Added on 26 May 2009 Peter Bogaards
“We are gradually learning that user experience is a critical factor in customer satisfaction and loyalty. A positive experience means a happy customer who returns again. Designers of software systems and web services have been digging deeply into how they might generate a positive user experience. They are moving beyond anecdotes about excellent examples of user experiences and are developing design principles. Phillip Tobias gives us a fascinating account of the emerging design principles that will generate satisfied and loyal users.” – (ACM Ubiquity)

Why define the UX Tribe?

Added on 26 May 2009 Peter Bogaards
“(…) there are no hard lines; there are folks who strictly do IA or IxD, but the majority of us lie somewhere in between- why not simplify our message to the industry and take advantage of the full extent of our value proposition. The irony that we UX Designers pride ourselves in solving contextual problems for the user (the marketplace in this case) is not lost on me.” – (The User Experience Tribe)

Follow the Recipe

Added on 26 May 2009 Peter Bogaards
“There are many good processes for software design. By process, I mean a prescribed way of performing software design. Every software company I’ve ever worked with has a design process they’ve adopted or created to meet their needs. However, after working on numerous software projects, I have come to realize how few projects actually follow their companies’ intended design processes. Why is it that so many companies don’t follow their existing processes for software design?” – (Ron Gagnier – UXmatters)

Architecting User Assistance Topics for Reuse: Case Examples in DITA

Added on 26 May 2009 Peter Bogaards
“Single sourcing and its pragmatic flip side, reuse, remind me a bit of the early days of the personal computer. Everybody wanted one, but many weren’t sure what they would do with a computer if they got one. Even among seasoned user assistance architects, single sourcing and reuse remain elusive concepts. I recently heard someone at an STC chapter meeting define single sourcing as producing the same document as both a Help file and as a PDF file. Basically true, but one would hope there is more to it than that.” – (Mike Hughes – UXmatters)

All About Card Sorting: An Interview with Donna Spencer

Added on 26 May 2009 Peter Bogaards
“Donna Spencer is one of Australia’s best-known information architects, organizer of the UX Australia conference, and a frequent presenter at UX conferences in Australia, the US, and Europe. I caught up with Donna between her appearances at the IA Summit and RedUX DC to talk about card sorting and her new book, Card Sorting: Designing Usable Categories, which Rosenfeld Media recently published.” – (Steve Baty – UXmatters)

Real or Imaginary: The effectiveness of using personas in product design

Added on 25 May 2009 Peter Bogaards
“The use of personas as a method for communicating user requirements in collaborative design environments is well established. However, very little research has been conducted to quantify the benefits of using this technique. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of using personas. An experiment was conducted over a period of 5 weeks using students from NCAD. The results showed that, through using personas, designs with superior usability characteristics were produced. They also indicate that using personas provides a significant advantage during the research and conceptualisation stages of the design process (supporting previously unfounded claims). The study also investigated the effects of using different presentation methods to present personas and concluded that photographs worked better than illustrations, and that visual storyboards were more effective in presenting task scenarios than text only versions.” – (Frank Long – frontend.com) courtesy of jjursa