Progressive Disclosure in User Interfaces

Added on 5 April 2011 Peter Bogaards
“As designers, we’re always trying to get the most out of our interfaces and maximize whatever space is made available to us. While many solutions have been devised over the years, one above all others has consistently influenced the way visitors access the content they seek. From simple techniques, such as tooltips and drop-down menus, to complex single-page websites powered by Ajax, progressive disclosure has become a formidable force. This article explores the methodology of progressive disclosure and its impact on our interface design work.” (Alexander Dawson ~ Six Revisions)

Karen McGrane: CS Forum podcast episode 4

Added on 5 April 2011 Peter Bogaards
“People love the recent history of things like Xerox PARC and Apple Computer. And I might set the history of content strategy almost on like a separate track, an alternate timeline. A lot of the history of principles that apply to content strategy come out of very old traditions in rhetoric and technical communication. (…) And that’s one of the things that’s so exciting to me about content strategy is, it’s bringing a lot of these principles that have been discussed for decades into this new space of the web and digital media.” (Randall Snare ~ CS Forum ’11)

How Design Thinking Can Help Prevent Another Mortgage Bubble

Added on 5 April 2011 Peter Bogaards
“Here was a chance to remake a tool that plays a vital role in the lives of hundreds of thousands of people every year. But what happened that day turned out to be much more than streamlining a critical form in the home-buying process. Even much more than the redesign of a vital ‘touch point’ within the larger ‘user experience’. What happened was that the symposium’s attendees discovered just how radical a solution Design Thinking could offer; not only to the problem of a broken mortgage process, but to public policy at its highest levels.” (Monica Bueno ~ Co.Design)

The Five Models Of Content Curation

Added on 4 April 2011 Peter Bogaards
“Content Curation is a term that describes the act of finding, grouping, organizing or sharing the best and most relevant content on a specific issue. It is such a powerful idea because curation does NOT focus on adding more content/noise to the chaotic information overload of social media, and instead focuses on helping any one of us to make sense of this information by bringing together what is most important.” (Rohit Bhargava ~ IMB)

The fall and rise of user experience

Added on 4 April 2011 Peter Bogaards
Closing plenary of the IA Summit 2011 ~ “Although there’s still a substantial gap between aspiration and execution, business leaders are at least now talking about the right things: experience, prototyping, design strategy, and innovation. (…) User experience converts are typically drawn to the glamour of interaction design on shiny technology, and the amateur psychology that helps them sound authoritative about their approaches. Most lack knowledge of basic information architecture, design theory and elementary programming skills.” (Cennydd Bowles)

John Maeda from the Adobe Museum of Digital Media

Added on 3 April 2011 Peter Bogaards
“In the first part, John gives a wonderfully succinct summary of the developments in technology in the last 40 years, showing how the content migrates from text to movies in each successive platform. Next is a summary of his own personal progress as a graphic artist and designer in the digital realm, leading into an illustrated story of development of digital media, identifying key contributors and designs.” (Bill Moggridge)

Are SEO practitioners the digital equivalent of bankers?

Added on 1 April 2011 Peter Bogaards
“When I think about the banking industry, I’m reminded of the world of Search Engine Marketing. They too are trying to find weaknesses in a set of rules designed to level the playing field, in order to create a competitive advantage for their clients. It’s just that rather than these rules being laid down by central government, they have been developed in the labs at Google.” (Andy Budd ~ Blogography)

Use Gestalt Laws to improve your UX

Added on 31 March 2011 Peter Bogaards
“An overall good user experience is an essential aspect for creating a successful website. The term user experience seems to be a popular trend recently, but how can we describe user experience and how can we make sure to offer enough of it on our websites? To keep it simple, user experience describes how users perceive a website, what kind of emotions they have when visiting a website, and whether or not they are motivated enough to return. This subjective experience is in a large part based on the visual appearance of a website.” (Sabina Idler ~ DesignModo)

Imagine Design Create

Added on 30 March 2011 Peter Bogaards
Interview with Hugh Dubberly “Design practice does not learn. As a profession, we don’t even know how to learn. We’re stuck. Trapped in the past. Unable to move forward. Unclear on what forward might mean. Lacking mechanisms to build and share knowledge. Lacking even a model of design knowledge. In fact, the problem is so structurally embedded, so pervasive, so deep, that we don’t see it.” (Dubberly Design Office)

Mobile Design and Development: Practical Concepts and Techniques for Creating Mobile Sites and Web Apps

Added on 29 March 2011 Peter Bogaards
Free for anyone to read – “In the book I share my advice and experience working with publishing content to mobile devices from the past decade and discuss what I think will be important in the next decade of mobile and the web. Even though mobile is one of the fastest growing industries on the planet with things changing every day, I spent a considerable amount of thought and time to try to fill the book with timeless advice that isn’t specific to a particular platform or en vogue device.” (Brian Fling)

Designing For The Future Web

Added on 29 March 2011 Peter Bogaards
“In this article, we’ll look at what the future Web might look like and how we can adapt our current skills to this new environment, as well as how to create fluid websites that are built around a consistent core and that adapt to the limitations and features of the device on which they are viewed. We’ll also look at how our conceptual approach to designing websites should evolve: designing from the simplest design upwards, and not from the richest website down.” (James Gardner ~ Smashing Magazine)

The Importance of Strategic Micro Copy: An iTunes Case Study

Added on 28 March 2011 Peter Bogaards
“Poorly devised, unhelpful content is wasteful. It potentially wastes the time of users and can also have financial implications for the company responsible for it, in this case Apple. Because they were not more thoughtful about their micro copy, they’ve had to correspond with me multiple times, costing them and me money and time. They’ve also left me feeling frustrated and, if at all possible, I will probably look to spend my money elsewhere. Lucky for them, they are one of the only providers of digital MP3 and video content online in my region of the world. Unless you’re Apple, can you afford to alienate customers because of careless copy?” (Amy Thibodeau ~ Contentini)

A Richer Canvas

Added on 24 March 2011 Peter Bogaards
“Grid system design should begin with a constraint. Something that is knowable and unchangeable. This constraint is used to build the modules of your grid. In book design, that constraint is defined by the page through subdivision. Book designers take the page, divide it up into a modular grid of spaces. These spaces (called modules) are then combined to create rows and columns. These are then filled with content (images and text). The text feels like it belongs because the columns are related to the physical object: the page. (…) Embrace the fluidity of the web. Design layouts and systems that can cope to whatever environment they may find themselves in. But the only way we can do any of this is to shed ways of thinking that have been shackles around our necks. They’re holding us back. Start designing from the content out, rather than the canvas in.” (Mark Boulton)

Anatomy of a Design Decision

Added on 24 March 2011 Peter Bogaards
“The best designs come from not one, but hundreds of well-made decisions. The worst designs arise out of hundreds of poorly-made decisions. All that stands between you and a great design is the quality of your decisions. Where do they come from? For the last five years, we’ve been studying how designers make their decisions. When do they use outside information, such as research about their users? When do they go with their gut instinct? When do the designers look to past decisions and the lessons they’ve learned? What we found will surprise you. In this presentation, Jared will take you on an entertaining deep dive into the gut instinct of the best designers (without looking at all the gooey parts). You’ll learn five styles of decision making, from Self Design to Experience-focused Design, and which style produces quality results. Prepare to learn how to be a better designer, as Jared shares the secrets of the best and worst.” (Jared Spool ~ UIE)

Motion and The Clay of Interaction Design

Added on 23 March 2011 Peter Bogaards
“I am in constant pursuit of the ‘clay’ of interaction design. Even if that clay is intangible, if we are to consider ourselves a true design discipline there must be something that we are manipulating. Once we understand what it is that we are manipulating we will be better able to communicate to all our stakeholders the intentions of what it is the interaction designer designs. One possible property of said “clay” may be motion or movement.For almost all interactions we place our body in motion. Even speaking requires muscles to move in order to work. There has been a ton of work done on motion as an aesthetic quality towards an audience, even if that audience is just perceived. What I’m interested in is motion as an aesthetic regardless of perceived or real audience. The question I ask is if certain movements just feel better than others at an aesthetic level and further that perception is manipulated by other interacting factors.” (David Malouf ~ Johnny Holland Magazine)