The container model and blended content: A new approach to how we present content on the Guardian

Added on 8 June 2014 Peter Bogaards

The container model published on a Freitag. Re-usability of a content design concept.

“This way of thinking and curating our content became known as ‘blended content’. Each container is then filled with content containing a blend of verticals, a blend of tones or both. A container full of blended content can aggregate content from across the whole of the Guardian. Rather than pigeonholing and presenting content on the basis of how it was commissioned, blending frees it to appear anywhere in any combination.”

(Nick Haley a.k.a. twobobswerver ~ The Guardian beta)

Marrying UCD with the Agile software development process: Seven tips for success

Added on 6 June 2014 Peter Bogaards

This theme will be vivid as long as the connection between design and engineering isn’t clear for many.

“(…) the move to Agile has left many product owners, development teams, and user experience professionals scratching their heads over the best way to incorporate user-centered design into the process while balancing the demands of an aggressive development schedule.”

(Wendy Littman ~ UsabilityGeek)

Transclusion: A term coined by hypertext pioneer Ted Nelson

Added on 5 June 2014 Peter Bogaards

Document thinking is still alive and kicking.

“In computer science, transclusion is the inclusion of a document or part of a document into another document by reference. Rather than copying the included data and storing it in two places, a transclusion embodies modular design, by allowing it to be stored only once (and perhaps corrected and updated if the link type supported that) and viewed in different contexts.”

(Hacker Trips)

Choosing the right metrics for user experience

Added on 3 June 2014 Peter Bogaards

To measure is to know, we think. But we don’t know.

“Metrics are the signals that show whether your UX strategy is working. Using metrics is key to tracking changes over time, benchmarking against iterations of your own site or application or those of competitors, and setting targets. Although most organizations are tracking metrics like conversion rate or engagement time, often they do not tie these metrics back to design decisions. The reason? Their metrics are too high level. A change in your conversion rate could relate to a design change, a promotion, or something that a competitor has done. Time on site could mean anything. UX strategists need to take charge of the metrics for online experiences. First, we’ll look at the current state of metrics in most organizations and some of the problems in defining metrics for user experience. Then, we’ll focus on three key types of metrics for user experience, how to track them, and how to integrate them into an organization’s measurement framework.”

(Pamela Pavliscak a.k.a. @paminthelab ~ UXmatters.com)

Beyond user experience: Onward and upward

Added on 3 June 2014 Peter Bogaards

UX turning into an interdisciplinary field for real, just like the field of complexity.

“One of the aspects that I enjoy most about the field of user experience is the constant injection of talents and perspectives from a long, eclectic list of other fields, including library sciences, cognitive psychology, ergonomics, anthropology, industrial design, architecture, computer science, and game design to name a few. Many of these fields have been fundamental in defining the roles and processes that we use in modern UX design.”

(Luke Chambers a.k.a. @lukcha ~ UXmatters.com)

How better metadata would help the New York Times

Added on 2 June 2014 Peter Bogaards

Negroponte already predicted in 1995 that the most important data is data about data.

“Spending 15 years on a recipe database without ever tagging ingredients or cooking time. The lack of useful metadata associated with their content is symptomatic of the New York Times’ failure to adapt to the digital age. How the paper and its online readers could profit from proper metadata.”

(Bas Evers a.k.a. @everbass ~ Xillio)

The secret history of hypertext: The conventional history of computing leaves out some key thinkers

Added on 22 May 2014 Peter Bogaards

Great to see this article appear in the publication where it all started, according to US history. Finally, some historical truth being added.

“Historians of technology often cite Bush’s essay as the conceptual forerunner of the Web. And hypertext pioneers like Douglas Engelbart, Ted Nelson, and Tim Berners-Lee have all acknowledged their debt to Bush’s vision. But for all his lasting influence, Bush was not the first person to imagine something like the Web. (…) For all his remarkable prescience, Bush never predicted anything like the Internet. That credit rightly goes to Otlet.”

(Alex Wright a.k.a. @alexgrantwright ~ The Atlantic)

How typography affects readers

Added on 21 May 2014 Peter Bogaards

Typography is the essential ingredient to design for the reading experience, abstracting knowledge from texts, titles and labels.

“Often times we find ourselves spending hours crafting articles, making sure that each word we select is the perfect one to project the story we are trying to paint. But there is another factor, often overlooked, that is just as important as writing great content: Typography. Let’s delve a little into the world of typography and see how it affects readers. If you are someone who despite getting traffic and producing quality content, just can’t seem to get your readers to stay, you will want to read this till the end.”

(Ankit Oberoi a.k.a. @oberoiankit ~ adpushup)

The secret to making UX a top priority in Agile

Added on 20 May 2014 Peter Bogaards

Don’t defend, attack!

“Has anyone ever had to publish a list of companies that hire coders or marketers? Of course not. Everyone hires coders and marketers. Companies that hire UX professionals, on the other hand, are harder to come by. This has always been mind boggling to me. Everyone speaks of meeting the needs of users as the single most important thing. But when it’s time to put together a budget, many managers think of hiring a UX professional as a nice-to-have and leave it out of their budget. Unless, of course, a manager is in the gaming industry. Gamers are unforgiving and vocal. The competition in gaming is fierce. And on top of everything, games must actually be complete when they’re released. This is probably why game developers pay extra attention to user experience, and the leading gaming companies always have UX professionals on board.”

(Roy Man ~ UXmatters)

The five golden rules of responsive web design

Added on 19 May 2014 Peter Bogaards

Can’t we just call it web design. Tableless web design from a few years ago did disappear just like that. Why not rwd?

“So gone are the days when all a designer used to worry about was the juxtaposition of content, the colours used and the typography styles of their web pages. We are no longer in a world where designers hired simply to ‘colour in’ detailed wireframes in a typical waterfall-style project. We’ve now got to consider so much more. We have to begin to understand how our sites are being built, and the process around prioritising our content to suit the user. And the the only way to truly understand this is to roll our sleeves up and get learning.”

(Daniel Scott ~ eConsultancy)

Playful or gameful? Creating delightful UX

Added on 14 May 2014 Peter Bogaards

Playing is how you learn. Gaming is how you get entertained.

“For many of us non-digital-natives over 30, our first contact with interactive technology came about through playing video games. Long before personal computers and mobile phones became part of our daily lives, we were already hooked on these games. In places as diverse as Chile, Greece, and Finland, at the arcade or at home (for example, with the Atari 2600), there was something powerful about these games that had us captivated from the very first moment we played Donkey Kong, Centipede, or Pole Position. But what made them so interesting and intriguing? What made us go back regularly (even daily) to the arcade? Over the years, games scholars have been studying some of these issues. But could some of the power behind video games be channeled to motivate people and help them achieve their goals? Could playful designs inspired by what makes games fun and entertaining help create better user experiences?”

(Andrés Lucero et al. ~ ACM Interactions Magazine May-June 2014)

TouchTools: : Leveraging familiarity and skill with physical tools to augment touch interaction

Added on 14 May 2014 Peter Bogaards

Hopefully, less than 20 years from now we can use full-body interaction with technology.

“The core idea behind TouchTools is to draw upon user familiarity and motor skill with tools from the real world, and bring them to interactive use on computers. Specifically, users replicate a tool’s corresponding real-world grasp and press it to the screen as though it was physically present. The system recognizes this pose and instantiates the virtual tool as if it was being grasped at that position. Users can then translate, rotate and otherwise manipulate the tool as they would its physical counterpart.”

(Chris Harrison)