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patterns in the web
Web Design Patterns is terrific project. Eric is collecting common design conventions such as breadcrumbs and sitemaps. I look forward to seeing it grow. A suggestion: how about linking to other sites that expound on the parrerns-- such as linking the shopping cart page to dack's best practices essay?
don't panic
trying to add a spellcheck (yes, i know I need it most of all) so some things may not work for a bit) Lou's Vennfrom LouisRosenfeld.com "I see information architecture as the intersection of three areas (imagine yet another three-circled Venn diagram):
IA and USABILITYThe 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!
who's your daddy?theyrule0001 is an amazing use of design to reveal the few people who hold sway over our lives. As IA's and as humans, this is well worth spendig time with. thanks, Matt for pointing me to it.
survey time
Got a "messaging and branding" survey in the mail. The following are some of the questions and some of my answers. 'CompanyName is an online tool that enables companies to analyze purchase decisions drivers of startups by service area, geography and buyer characteristics. Using this powerful Web-based tool, companies can generate both standard and customized research reports from proprietary data. This information will help them gain a better understanding about the high-growth venture marketplace.' Do you feel you have a clear understanding of what the product does? no What if anything do you like the MOST about the product? I know you are a product for companies rather than human beings. Perhaps a comapany for VC? Anyhow I know to stay away. What if anything do you like the LEAST about the product? I'm still wondering what kind of companies? What kind of services? It seems like snake oil to me. Why do you think this phrase is okay: "to analyze purchase decisions drivers of startups." What the sam-hill is a 'purchase decisions driver'? Why don't you just say "helps companies make informed decisions when purchasing?" Go explain what you do to your mom. When she understands you're ready. addendum: there is an amazing comment by tony burgess on this post taking me to task-- and he's right on. read it!
shall we start this again?Wandering the web I came accross an old essay, Web Woes "My erstwhile students found themselves doing more and more static, formulaic stuff and being less and less happy. If Jacob Nielsen had his way they'd be doing nothing that resembled design and a lot of clients are listening to what Nielsen has to say. Is mundane and pedestrian work under the flag of "usability" the future of the web?" I thought this essay was going be another "bash-Jakob Nieson" "flash-intros allow us to express ourselves as artists" piece. But no. It starts out bemoaning the conformity of websites, and points out designers have found themselves marginalized. "Graphic designers often find themselves in the role of visual dishwashers for the Information Architect chefs" He goes on to challenge designers to rediscover and reinvent the medium. And in the end, Gunnar asks some great questions about the future of design online. I highly recommend people read this article, and see if they can come up with answers to some of his questions: "If one can't fall back on the joy of the object because the point is another’s experience, what does that do to our joy in the process? Does all of this require a new kind of designer? How do we make sure that doesn't mean a designer in name only? Does doing meta design--designing what will happen when a database meets a unique request generating a different (and unpredictable) "object" 250,000 times a day--require a different mind than that of a graphic designer?" If you're not a designer, it doesn't hurt to put yourself in their shoes. In these changing market conditions and with technological change never slowing those shoes may soon be yours. go nathanI've never before visited the Nathan: Me section of nathan.com, but I'm glad I finally did. "The development of all experiences must create solutions to problems of information creation, interaction, and, of course, sensorial media (the visual, audible, tactile, and other sensory displays that form the solution that people experience. Issues of understanding and meaning (information) and usability and appropriateness (interaction) are cerebral solutions that are only expressible with very sensory components. However, the real problems--and the most interesting solutions--lie in these cognitive processes and not in the beauty of the finished experience. This isn't so say that beautiful experiences aren't important, but beauty without purpose is, ultimately, meaningless." a model experience?
The latest issue of GAIN has Hugh Dubberly's Model of brand experience in a great article that i can't link to because it's in a special JS window in flash. Go to GAIN, find your way, it'll be fine. The brand area also included razorfish's model of brand and a few more Dubberly models. V. nifty.
RIP againHannaHodge has closed their doors. They left a very moving goodbye on their homepage excerpt -- emphasis mine "We believe that the industry has made great strides over the last two to three years and that many experienced individuals and teams of experts have emerged in the professional services area that are more than capable of filling the needs of this industry. Now is an appropriate time for us to apply our skills, experience and determination to new areas where we can have the most impact in the fight to humanize technology." Goodbye HannaHodge. But never goodbye to the good fight.
questions, questionsInteresting article in Design Matters What's in a name? (and I'm not just saying that because I partipated) "Are there two information architectures? One influenced by presentation and one influenced by structure? Is the presentation-based IA better served by the name "information design?" Does the medium really matter? Is print IA/ID different from web-based IA/ID in meaningful ways?"
holding the visionfrom Accept responsibility to make your online project work "Business managers can make online projects by accepting the responsibility for their design - or court disaster by letting technologists shape them." This is an intriguing look at what happens to a project from conception to reality. The trouble comes when the project is handed over to implementers. "...they hire people and firms who have built software and systems. 'Those people and firms have their own interests', Thomas points out, 'and those interests won't necessarily align with the aims of your outfit. The outsiders want to bolster their list of stated achievements - their CVs, their corporate brag sheets. The individual developers want to work with bleeding-edge technology. The more pragmatic firms want to re-apply previous solutions.'" As Sartre said, "hell is other people"
The article's key failing is not recognizing that business folks are no more trained to design a humane system than engineers. There are three part of success... what is technologically feasible, what is business necessary and what is user desirable/acceptable. Pay too much attention to one of elements, and the project's likelihood of failing shoots through the roof.
free bookPart project management, part IA and part usability,The Visual Learner's Guide to Managing Web Projects in a nice simple intro to the real secret of successful web sites: plan it before you build it. Guess what-- it's free. Download the PDF and go kill a few trees on the company dime-- you'll earn it back for them with what you learn. Hey! be sure to check out page 55. #'s! broken, then fixedEverything broke this morning, due to a stupid server problem (looong story) but the blog should be able to take comments again. gleanings was untouched. the only casualty is the redesign log, which will probably stay broken for awhile, as I've got a ton to do this week. As soon as i can stick my nose down in the perl, i will. If you see any weirdnesses, please don't hesitate to write me. Return to your regularly scheduled conversation...
AI
Haven't seen AI? Here's a hint: when things freeze over, leave the theater. You'll be happier. Seen it? Join the bitch-fest here: unHip: 07/03/2001: "A.I.: Entirely Artificial, Low Intelligence" And IA? (which is AI spelled backwards) Well, let's just say AI's an interesting object lesson on what happens when you have two cheifs (even if one dies in the middle of the project). I suspect Spielberg was haunted by a ghost looking over his shoulder and dilluted his own --albeit cheesy-- skills. I believe deeply in collaborative processes, but I also believe that every project artisitc or otherwise-- needs a visionary to drive it forward and keep it cohesive, be it producer, director, CEO... IA? addendum Karl Fast sent me this intriguing article on the non-making of AI. An interesting look at how movies end up the way they do. minimicromaybe
The Case for Micropayments Will P2P finally make them happen? Clay Shirky doesn't think so. and Scott McCloud thinks they will What do you think? What's the difference between D&D, storyfuck, Cluetrain and Fray?Captain Cursor is talking about reawakening his youthful passion for D&D, which got me thinking about collaborative storytelling... It's a long post, read it here.
my partners
See Noel explain why Herman Miller gets it and why Gabe's butt is worth $700. no, that's not it...from the article Alan Cooper of Cooper Interaction Design sees planning as key to downstream dividends "It's inevitable that there will rise up in programming a separate but equal profession known as interaction design. These people will act as the bridge between business viability and technical capability. They will act like architects. " hmm.. I could swear there was a title kinda like this.
brand :: my brand now encompasses the use of the double colon and no capitalization. chic!So I was at this party on saturday talking with a friend, and I guess one shouldn't drink champagne after four hours of robbery-nightmare sleep, because he and I started accosting people demanding they describe brand in one sentence. Boy, if you've ever been stared at before-- Anyhow, we got some seriously vague answers, such as "the emotion something makes you feel" and some long ones that damaged brain cells prevent me from recalling. We felt pretty sassy having come up with the two word definition "broadcasted personification." rebecca mailed me hers the next day, clearly still tramatized. "brand (noun) = promised user experience. always superceded by actual user experience. branding (verb) is the thing that and matt sent me "'Brand : the first sentence someone says when the company is mentioned in conversation.' As in "AutoNetwork - don't buy there, those bastards screwed me over'. " your turn!
jargoneeringBoth Nielsen Norman Group and Cooper list "visioneering" as a service. Does Disney know about that? "Visioneering is a systematic approach to creatively develop directions for future Web services and designs. " "Visioneering putting the hack back in eleganthackI get a fair amount of mail from my cute little feedback forms, and every so often there are some odd ones. "is there a way to find out the ip address of a machine whose user u are chatting with in a website?" "hello, Because I am not a hacker (nor a professor!) I can't help these poor souls. If you would like to post the answers to their questions as a comment, I'll happily email them and tell them to take a gander. for those who haven't figured it out: I am an Information Architect and User Researcher. I can barely edit Perl to change the background color of greymatter, much less hack anything. When it comes to hacks, I have more in common with Raymond Chandler than Kevin Mitnick. I can even capitalize if the situation calls for it. Try astalavista... |
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Guess what the recommended cure is? Something remarkably similar to an aspect of IA-- interaction design. The article recommends that managers "define in precise detail what users of the system can do - a tough, confronting task which takes place before a single line of code is written, and which requires managers with at least a small measure of technical savvy and a great deal of determination."