Selling User Research to the Reluctant

“Researching the users of your product is extremely important in making it more popular, more profitable, and more compelling. But companies make products, not user research teams. A company needs more than data about its users; it needs to be able to take that knowledge and act on it. Unless the benefits and techniques of user-centered design and research are ingrained in the processes, tools, and mind-set of the company, knowledge will do little to prevent problems.” (Mike Kuniavsky – Usability News)

XForms 1.0 Proposed Recommendation

“XForms is an XML application that represents the next generation of forms for the Web. By splitting traditional XHTML forms into three partsóXForms model, instance data, and user interfaceóit separates presentation from content, allows reuse, gives strong typingóreducing the number of round-trips to the server, as well as offering device independence and a reduced need for scripting.” (W3C)

About: Information Design

“Information design is concerned with making complex information easier to understand and to use. It is a rapidly growing discipline that draws on typography, graphic design, applied linguistics, applied psychology, applied ergonomics, computing, and other fields. It emerged as a response to people’s need to understand and use such things as forms, legal documents, computer interfaces and technical information. Information designers responding to these needs have achieved major economic and social improvements in information use.” (Sue Walker and Linda Reynolds – Design Counsil)

The Slings of Boxes and Arrows: Persecuting Jakob

“One of the best things I’ve ever (co-)written is now up at Boxes and Arrows (…) We aimed for a New Yorker-style review — to use the subject as a jumping off point for discussing the underlying issues. So, while about half the review is an evisceration of the reports remarkably flawed methodology and lack of usefulness, the other half suggests steps that user experience professionals can take to begin to appropriately value their contribution.” (Peter Merholz)

Nielsen/Norman Group’s Usability Return on Investment

“This report seems to be directed at usability practitioners, to support their efforts in increasing their budgets. Presumably, usability practitioners will, in turn, show this to management. They will tell management that current ‘best practice’ is to devote 10 percent of a project’s budget to usability efforts. They will also tell management that, ‘on average’, usability provides measurable improvements of around 135 percent.” (Peter Merholz and Scott HirschBoxes and Arrows)

Web Traffic Analytics and User Experience

“Web Traffic Analytics not only keeps us honest, it can, in the best possible sense, help justify our existence and our value. When clients can see that user experience recommendations lead to specific, positive changes in the behavior on their site, that’s powerful stuff. And the user experience expert becomes someone to consult not just when testing is needed, but as an integral part of the design and development process.” (Fran DiamondBoxes and Arrows)

Is the Computer Desktop an Antique?

“But Apple may be on to something. Interface consistency was a wise strategy for the early years of PC adoption, but the Mac’s new Swiss-army-knife approach makes sense now that using desktop interfaces is as second-nature as reading to a whole generation of computer users. After 20 years of point and click, we’re ready to handle multiple interfaces within a single operating system. Bring on the zoom!” (Steven Johnson – Slate) – courtesy of nooface

HCI, the Arts and the Humanities

“The digital world has crept out of the workspace and into our homes, our networks and our journeys between places. The new tendency to talk of designing for ‘experience’ as well as ‘performance’ reflects this shift towards immersive and ubiquitous computing, but have our analysis and evaluation approaches kept pace?” (Alan Dix et al.) – courtesy of purse lip square jaw

Prototyping With Style

“Cascading Style Sheets can be one of the most important tools in a user-centered designerís toolkit when working on rapid prototyping. The combination of valid HTML/XHTML markup and external CSS can be used to rapidly create prototypes, speed up the development process, and easily incorporate more user-centered techniques into the design process.” (Jeff LashDigital Web Magazine)