An Architect in the City of Bits

Added on 5 June 2004 Peter Bogaards
“The trial separation of bits and atoms is now over, says William J. Mitchell, head of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT. Computers are ubiquitous. Wireless links provide constant connectivity. Everything is media. Increasingly, we are living our lives at the points where electronic information flows, mobile bodies, and physical places intersect in particularly useful and engaging ways. These points are becoming the occasions for a characteristic new architecture of the twenty-first century.” (David Pescovitz – TheFeature)

User-Centered Research: A status report

Added on 3 June 2004 Peter Bogaards
“During the past twenty years, user-centered research (UCR) has become an increasingly common and important part of contemporary product development. The origins of this approach to design and development actually stretch back to the beginning of industrial design in America. Starting in the 1940s and 1950s, Henry Dreyfuss, widely considered the father of industrial design in the United States, practiced a method of design that clearly focused on studying people’s behaviors and attitudes as a first step in designing successful products. During the next forty to fifty years, Dreyfuss’ example served as motivation for other highly successful and influential designers (e.g., Robert Probst, Jay Doblin, Niels Different and William Stumpf) to adopt a user-centered research and design approach.” (design philosophy papers)

Gurus v. Boggers: Round 2

Added on 3 June 2004 Peter Bogaards
“Playing for the Gurus this time around? We have Brenda Laurel, John Maeda, Christina Wodtke, Jesse James Garrett, Eric Meyer, and Nathan Shedroff. (…) For the Bloggers? We have Angie McKaig, Ben Fry, Veerle Pieters, Bob Baxley, Dave Shea, Shaun Inman, and Luke Wroblewski. Plus, I have a surprise twist of events that rivals the season finale shocker on Survivor that gave Rupert an extra cool million. You’ll just have to read on to find out what happens.” (Andrei Herasimchuk – Design by Fire)

Beyond Web usability: Web credibility

Added on 1 June 2004 Peter Bogaards
“Now that usable websites have become so commonplace, especially among the major web players, it’s time to start looking to the future. Suddenly, a usable website isn’t going to be enough to separate us from our competitors (apart from those using the developers who’ve been based on Mars). There is a solution. It’s two words long. Enter our new best friend … Web credibility.” (WebDevTips) – courtesy of andrew fernandez

Be a web editor, not administrator

Added on 30 May 2004 Peter Bogaards
“There are two roles in web content management that matter: editors and writers. Editors decide what should get published. Writers create the content. Most websites started off with administrators—webmasters—who had lots of responsibility and little authority. Today, we see the emergence of the web editor, a position that will become increasingly important.” (Gerry McGovern)

Writing the Web

Added on 28 May 2004 Peter Bogaards
“The main thesis of this paper is that it is desirable to make the creation of Web content an integral and natural part of the daily chores of an intellectual worker, integrated with the normal production and management of data and information, making the Web not just a publishing medium but fundamentally a collector and organizer of personal data and documents.” (Angelo di Iorio and Fabio Vitali – Journal of Digital Information 5.1)