What if Jakob Nielsen had a blog?

Added on 29 October 2007 Peter Bogaards
The (unofficial) blog that Jakob Nielsen might have written if he actually had a blog (which he hasn’t) – “Some have criticised Jakob Nielsen for having an ugly site and people have wondered if useit.com would benefit from a design makeover. Well I have got tired of waiting for Jakob to start a blog version of useit.com so I decided to build it myself.” (Chris McEvoy)

Presence and the design of trust

Added on 25 October 2007 Peter Bogaards
“Designing presence in environments in which technology plays a crucial role is critical in the current era when social systems like law, education, health and business all face major challenges about how to guarantee trustworthy, safe, reliable and efficient services in which people interact with, and via, technology. The speed and scale of the collection and distribution of information that is facilitated by technology today demands a new formulation of basic concepts for our modern societies in terms of property, copyright, privacy, liability, responsibility and so forth. The research question assumes that presence is a phenomenon that we have to understand much better than we currently do.” (Caroline Nevejan)

Marketing Isn’t a Dirty Word

Added on 24 October 2007 Peter Bogaards
“Think you’re not into marketing? Think again. As UX professionals, we share much in common with our close cousins, the marketers. We all seek to understand customers—needs, preferences, behaviors, attitudes, and more. We all seek to create positive touchpoints with customers and, in turn, a positive affiliation with our product or company brand. We all know the importance of communicating effectively with customers and evaluating the performance of our work.” (Colleen Jones – UXmatters)

The Thrill of Discovery

Added on 19 October 2007 Peter Bogaards
“On Tuesday 18 September 2007, Ben Shneiderman gave a talk at HCID on the topic of information visualisation for high-dimensional spaces. Over 100 people from industry and academia attended the talk. (…) Interactive information visualization provide researchers with remarkable tools for discovery. By combining powerful data mining methods with user-controlled interfaces, users are beginning to benefit from these potent telescopes for high-dimensional spaces. They can begin with an overview, zoom in on areas of interest, filter out unwanted items, and then click for details-on-demand. With careful design and efficient algorithms, the dynamic queries approach to data exploration can provide 100msec updates even for million-record databases.” (Center for HCI Design) – courtesy of usabilitynews

What is browsing – really? A model drawing from behavioural science research

Added on 16 October 2007 Peter Bogaards
“It is argued that the actual elements of typical browsing episodes have not been well captured by common approaches to the concept to date. Empirical research results reported by previous researchers are presented and closely analysed. Based on the issues raised by the above research review, the components of browsing are closely analysed and developed. Browsing is seen to consist of a series of four steps, iterated indefinitely until the end of a browsing episode: (1) glimpsing a field of vision, (2) selecting or sampling a physical or informational object within the field of vision, (3) examining the object, and (4) acquiring the object (conceptually and/or physically) or abandoning it. Not all of these elements need be present in every browsing episode, though multiple glimpses are seen to be the minimum to constitute the act. This concept of browsing is then shown to have persuasive support in the psychological and anthropological literature, where research on visual search, curiosity and exploratory behaviour all find harmony with this perspective. It is argued that this conception of browsing is closer to real human behaviour than other approaches. Implications for better information system design are developed.” (Marcia Bates – Information Research Vol. 12 No. 4, October 2006)

Top 100 User-Centered Blogs

Added on 16 October 2007 Peter Bogaards
“Web designers often concern themselves with optimizing sites for spiders from Google, Yahoo, and other search engines, but pay little attention to creating sites that real people can use. This problem has sparked a movement towards user-centered web design, a topic that covers accessibility, web standards, and interfacing. Check out these blogs for the latest and greatest in this people-centric field of design.” (Jessica Hupp – Virtual Hosting)
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Who includes user experiences in large companies?

Added on 11 October 2007 Peter Bogaards
“This poster presents a case study in which Marketing and R&D departments of a large company collaborated in a context mapping project. Emphasis was placed on exploring who the results should be communicated to and in which way this communication should be conveyed. The presented case study shows that user experiences fit the domain of R&D, and that an intensive process involving various stakeholders throughout the organisation is necessary.” (Froukje Sleeswijk Visser and Pieter Jan Stappers – Include 2007 Papers, posters and workshops)

The information architect as change agent

Added on 11 October 2007 Peter Bogaards
&ot”In this article I argue, with a bit of logic and a bit of experience, that IAs can do their jobs better if they understand organizational change management, even if they don’t need to be change management specialists. I’ll also suggest a variety of concepts and practices that can (hopefully) help IAs in their change agent role, and I promise to throw in something entertaining as well.” (Matthew C. Clarke –

Well-formed data

Added on 10 October 2007 Peter Bogaards
“User Interface designer with a focus on information visualization in conjunction with statistical methods and machine learning. Theoretical background in cognitive sciences. Years of professional experience as a web producer, designer, team leader.” (Moritz Stefaner) – courtesyofpetermorville

Folksonomies and Image Tagging: Seeing the Future?

Added on 9 October 2007 Peter Bogaards
“Folksonomies are one of today’s hottest Internet trends. They are but one part of Web 2.0, which, in part, refers to the ability of Internet users to add, change and improve World Wide Web content. A folksonomy is created as users of a website add ‘tags’ (keywords) to describe items on a website. The users choose their own keywords; few or no restrictions are imposed on their choices. The terms are not chosen from a previously existing controlled vocabulary, a strict taxonomy or any other officially sanctioned method of bibliographic description.” (Diane Neal – ASIS&T Bulletin Oct/Nov 2007)

Scalable Design

Added on 9 October 2007 Peter Bogaards
“You’ve spent the last six months toiling away at a product design. The last few weeks were especially rough—tying up loose edge cases, closing out bugs, polishing up interaction and visual design details. And now your product has launched, so its time for some well deserved rest, right? (…) Your seemingly elegant design begins to bloat with features, tear under the pressure of localization, and nearly keel over under the weight of new content that pushes it to its breaking point. Before long you give up. It’s time to redesign—again.” (Luke Wroblewski – UXmatters)