(Not) Defining The Damn Thing

Added on 12 August 2003 Peter Bogaards
“Labels and definitions inevitably vary from context to context. But is it unethical to consciously provide different answers to the same questions? No, but it is a bit two-faced and can sometimes make one feel a bit uncomfortable. Just remember: we’re always speaking different languages in different contexts. Itís simply a requirement for effective communication.” (Louis Rosenfeld – Boxes and Arrows)

Automating the Design of Visual Instructions

Added on 11 August 2003 Peter Bogaards
“Visual instructions are a common part of our daily lives. Maps, training manuals, textbooks, architectural plans, scientific papers, and street signs all use visual diagrams to communicate instructions. Yet, even the simplest visualizations typically take hours or days to design by hand, and therefore it is not currently possible to adapt and personalize instructions to the task, person, and situation for which they are eventually used. In contrast, while current computer-generated visualizations can be generated very quickly, these systems disregard many of the cognitive design principles that guide human designers. As a result current computer-generated visualizations can be very difficult to use.” (Maneesh Agrawala) – courtesy of yuri engelhardt

Usability Professionals Must Disappear

Added on 8 August 2003 Peter Bogaards
“(…) a good user experience practitioner is a facilitator – someone who quietly (having disappeared) guides the process, allowing knowledge to emerge, from users and the company alike. Instead of coming in with the answers, or the framework, or (my personal favorite) ‘the 200 rules of user experience design’, they should come in with their auditory organs turned up to eleven.” (Mark Hurst – Good Experience)

Review: A Pattern Language for Web Usability

Added on 8 August 2003 Peter Bogaards
“The notion of ‘patterns’, and of a ‘pattern language’, comes from the work of Christopher Alexander, a contemporary architect who proposed the use of collections of architectural patterns to address deficiencies in modern building design. In later works, Alexander expanded the scope of his rather fascinating concept of patterns to a broader design context. In the early 90s, computer scientists began to apply Alexander’s work to software development. The Web usability pattern language described in this book resulted from the collaborative efforts of attendees at a workshop hosted by the author in 1994.” (Carl Bedingfield – ACM Ubiquity)

Business Is About People

Added on 7 August 2003 Peter Bogaards
“It is really pretty simple: you must understand people to design and brand a successful product. You must understand people to create a healthy organization that inspires loyalty and productivity. In order to create revenue you must understand people. In order to operate an effective organization with low costs you must understand people. People are the common denominator.” (Dirk Knemeyer – Thread)

Colours on the Web

Added on 6 August 2003 Peter Bogaards
“My hope with this site is that some of you that happen to stumble upon it will more realize the importance of colours – to learn that there is more to colours than you used to think. This will be a step in the right direction for colours on the Web.” (Donald Johansson – Web Whirlers) – courtesy of lucdesk

Using XHTML/CSS for an Effective SEO Campaign

Added on 5 August 2003 Peter Bogaards
“If youíre reading this article in the hopes of learning how to get an adult site listed in the ‘school supplies’ category on Google, we kindly suggest you fall off the face of the earth. Any hate mail regarding this can be directed to sally@morekinky.net. It’s due time to pay her back for all those ‘petting zoo pictures’ that manage to bypass my spam filtering system.” (Brandon Olejniczak – A List Apart)

Open Content and Value Creation

Added on 4 August 2003 Peter Bogaards
“In this paper, I consider open content as an important development track in the media landscape of tomorrow. I define open content as content possible for others to improve and redistribute and/or content that is produced without any consideration of immediate financial reward – often collectively within a virtual community. The open content phenomenon can to some extent be compared to the phenomenon of open source. Production within a virtual community is one possible source of open content. Another possible source is content in the public domain. This could be sound, pictures, movies or texts that have no copyright, in legal terms.” (Magnus Cedegen – First Monday 8.8)