The Effects of Contrast and Density on Visual Web Search

Added on 18 July 2004 Peter Bogaards
“This study evaluated the effects of white space on visual search time. Participants were required to search for a target word on a web page with different levels of white space, measured by level of text density. Screens were formatted with one of four types of graphical manipulation, including: no graphics, contrast, borders and contrast with borders under two levels of overall density and three levels of local density. Results show that search times were longer with increased overall density but significant differences were not found between levels of local density. Only the use of contrast was found to be significant, resulting in an increase in search time.” (Software Usability Research Lab Usability News 6.2)

Reading Online Text: A Comparison of Four White Space Layouts

Added on 18 July 2004 Peter Bogaards
“In this study, reading performance with four white space layouts was compared. Margins surrounding the text and leading (space between lines) were manipulated to generate the four white space conditions. Results show that the use of margins affected both reading speed and comprehension in that participants read the Margin text slower, but comprehended more than the No Margin text. Participants were also generally more satisfied with the text with margins. Leading was not shown to impact reading performance but did influence overall user preference.” (Software Usability Research Lab Usability News 6.2)

Brand Experience and the Web

Added on 18 July 2004 Peter Bogaards
“There is far more to the Web than ‘just’ being the Web. Indeed, the Web is only one component of a ubiquitous network of communication, interaction and information. While each of us are tacitly aware of the bigger picture, we often do not truly recognize and understand how it all fits together, or just what the Web means to business. This is particularly important for those of us who are involved in Web design and development. While we might seem to be hotshots in the work we do on the Web, we will ultimately be doing a disservice to our employers or clients if we are not working fluidly as part of the larger operating dynamics.” (Dirk Knemeyer – Digital Web Magazine)

Looking for the Killer Use Case

Added on 18 July 2004 Peter Bogaards
“How are user-centred methods going to play a role in developing the mobile communications products and services of the future? This panel debate, a special invitation to CHI 2004, brought together the most qualified people in the industry to show delegates what they have in store.” (Gerred Blyth – Usability News)

Ontology Tools Survey, Revisited

Added on 18 July 2004 Peter Bogaards
“Ontologies are a way of specifying the structure of domain knowledge in a formal logic designed for machine processing. The effect on information technology is to shift the burden of capturing the meaning of data content from the procedural operations of algorithms and rules to the representation of the data itself.” (Michael Denny – xml.com)

Are Useful Requirements Just A Fairy Tale? (and why an IA should care)

Added on 15 July 2004 Peter Bogaards
“But why should an information architect care about requirements when it’s not his or her job to collect or create them? It comes down to simple math: it’s been my experience that a blurry definition of what a project needs to accomplish leads to a lot of extra work for the IA. So much extra work, in fact, that revisions end up taking much more effort than helping the team nail down useful requirements earlier in the process.” (Dan Willis – Boxes and Arrows)

The Information Architecture of Email

Added on 15 July 2004 Peter Bogaards
“The paradigm shift, however, will be the least of Google’s problems. With its search engine advertising practices under constant scrutiny, Google faces myriad new issues by attaching targeted advertisements to emails, potentially a gross invasion of privacy. At the same time, the advertisements for mandolin dealers and instructors that come attached to posts to the mandolin mailing list are almost as valuable as the posts themselves.” (Dan Brown – Boxes and Arrows)

Brand Value and the User Experience

Added on 15 July 2004 Peter Bogaards
“When designing a good user experience, it’s important to remember these four principles (e.g. comfortable, intuitive, consistent, trustworthy), which should be a part of any usability or user experience specialist’s toolkit. While these are not the only components of a complete experience, these principles form a solid structure upon which to build a foundation of usability, information design and brand application.” (Kelly Goto – Digital Web Magazine)

Too Much Information Is Not Enough

Added on 15 July 2004 Peter Bogaards
“With all the information available, the information design challenges are daunting. But banks are learning that it is better for their customers, and ultimately more profitable for the bank, to provide all the facts and to simply focus on how best to present these facts than it is to leave customers to speculate as to what is happening with their checking account.” (Chris Musto – CMP) – courtesy of karel van der waarde

Exploring the mnemonic user interface pdf logo

Added on 12 July 2004 Peter Bogaards
“The manner in which files are visually organized, all according to the popular desktop metaphor, concur with conditions applicable twenty years ago. Over time, these conditions, technical as well as user oriented ones, have radically changed. The desktop metaphor has not. This article is an offspring of personal reflections over too much time being spent traversing file structures and organizing windows in the user interfaces of today’s modern operating systems.” (Christian Lagerkvist) – courtesy of nooface

A subway map of cancer pathways

Added on 11 July 2004 Peter Bogaards
“Cancer arises from the stepwise accumulation of genetic changes that confer upon an incipient neoplastic cell the properties of unlimited, self-sufficient growth and resistance to normal homeostatic regulatory mechanisms. Advances in human genetics and molecular and cellular biology have identified a collection of cell phenotypes — the main destinations in the subway map — that are required for malignant transformation. Specific molecular pathways (subway lines) are responsible for programming these behaviours.” (William C. Hahn and Robert A. Weinberg – Nature)

Interview with Ben Shneiderman pdf logo

Added on 8 July 2004 Peter Bogaards
“Ben Shneiderman is a professor of computer science at the University of Maryland. He is founder of the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory and has written extensively on human-computer interaction and human factors in computing. Ben received the ACM CHI Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001. During the conference ‘Interaction Design and Children’ at the University of Maryland, Ivo Weevers and Wouter Sluis had the great opportunity to conduct an interview with Ben Shneiderman.” (SIGCHI.nl)