The latest interview in ACIA with Seth Gordon is full of nuggets of knowledge.
On IA:
"As the web consulting industry started to take shape, firms tried to create proprietary approaches that would separate them from the competition by giving the perception of a more disciplined and scientific focus on the work. It seems that just about all of the approaches were similar except for a few nuances or catchy acronyms. I've been in Thailand for a few weeks, and there is a common expression that I think perfectly fits some of the formalized IA approaches. "Same, Same but different.""
On Usability:
"In a misguided effort to measure the effectiveness of an architecture, many researchers assess variables such as time on task (how long it takes a user to complete a given task) and error rate and recovery (the number of errors and how users recover). While these may be relevant in certain situations, like diffusing bombs or responding to 911 calls, I think they can be misleading when trying to measure the average user's experience on the Internet."
He goes on to recomend two other metrics that we've also been using at CIQ, frustration and misguided confidence (which he calls "Confidence of Accuracy"). Check it out!
Does jargon have its place? Is there a right time to chuck plain English out the door and dazzle them with your bullsh*t? Great comment from Tony Burgess defending jargon on the blog
Learning About and Keeping Up with Information Architecture
"This survey ran from June 1 through June 6, 2001, and was completed by 107 respondents...We asked:
"How do you keep up with the field? And what sources of information are most important? "
The latest ACIA interview, with Seth Gordon
old article from Victor Lombardi, from his razorfish days
"Pattern Languages for Interaction designs."
what Victor's up to today
Corporate Design Foundation (via xblog.com)
"Corporate Design Foundation is a nonprofit educational and research organization founded on the belief that individual and organizational interests can best be served through the effective use of design disciplines: product design, communication design and architecture. This site contains resources for business leaders, faculty, students and others interested in the integration of design and business."
"U&lc Online is ITC’s international journal of graphic design and digital media. U&lc Online needs no subscription; it’s part of the ITC web site, itcfonts.com. To read U&lc Online, just bookmark this page and check it out every month."
Marketing (not maddening) research
"Elemental forces shape the world we live in: oceans struggle with continents, wind erodes mountains, and marketing departments conflict with customers. Marketers need to know about customers in order to do their jobs, yet the methods that they use to get this knowledge can interfere with customers' desires to achieve their goals quickly and easily. And businesses fail when customers leave."
If you haven't heard of code red yet, and you are running on a Microsoft server, click here. A bad-ass virus is coming to town.
New Macromedia Web-based application for managing all aspects of the Web site production process. The beta is now available.
The Science and Art of Effective Web Design
"Winning Web sites are those that balance user performance and visual appeal. This seminar draws on thousands of research studies on user behavior, and on the principles of successful visual design. You will learn to create sites that make sense to users while providing an enjoyable and compelling experience."
"Until recently, it has been quite easy to pick an American out of a crowd on European streets, but no more. It’s not that the Ugly American has totally vanished -- there are still plenty of them wandering the world -- but in recent years they have been challenged by the Germans, English, Russians and a host of others."
German investors and the Romanian government are planning to develop Dracula Land, a "terror" theme
park in Transylvania that officials hope will boost the country's ailing tourism industry
Ethem Sahin thought his friends were kidding when they told him how he ended up in the hospital. But they witnessed the cow fall through the roof of the coffee house where they were playing dominoes and knock Sahin unconscious.
ambisinister (am-bi-SIN-uh-stuhr) adjective
Clumsy with both hands. (Literally, with two left hands.)
[Latin ambi- both, + sinister, on the left side.]
"Staff sergeant Gawkward hoped to win a medal or two by firing two
rifles at the same time. When he managed to hit his fellow soldiers
instead, all he earned was the remark ambisinister in his service record."
-Anu Garg, AWAD, Jul 20, 2001.