Highlights of Week 24/2010
Posted by Michael Gaigg
- The end of the killer feature (by Scott Berkun) - Scott points out the downsides of upgrades and compatibility; version management across third-party development, huge field.
- The Experience belongs to the User (by Joshua Porter) - about the effects of over-architecting on the actual user.
- How Well Are You Pricing Your Designs? (by Joel Reyes) - usually I consider previous experiences and their workload in hours, plus/minus additional requirments and the client itself (more communication involved, more/less hand-holding required, etc.) and multiply it with a fixed price. That's my total.
- Apologizing like a human, not a corporation (by 37signals) - we all make mistakes, let's start recognizing them and learn to appologize right - great example!
- Defining the Designer of 2015 (by aiga.org) - aiga teamed up with Adobe to take a look into the future. Capture the attention span of a user, huh?
- Destroying Designer’s Creative Block and Unleashing Your Creativity (by Aidan Huang) - Watch my caffeine intake?? Are you kidding me????
- There's no right answer (by Donna Spencer) - Donna mentions some factors for designing the 'better' solution, the successful design will take all these factors into consideration.
- UCD info graphic poster (by Pascal Raabe) - information graphic poster illustrating the underlying lifecycle, methods, principles and techniques in a user centred design process.
- Using Charts and Graphs for Content (by Chris McConnell) - comprehensive overview and discussion of charting and graphing content.
- Considering Prototypes (by Andrew Maier) - prototypes generate context and questions and move teams in the direction of meeting business demands.
- The Frankfurt Kitchen (by Harry Brignull) - about design perfection that becomes counter-productive.
- Design Better And Faster With Rapid Prototyping (by Lyndon Cerejo) - another great blog post about prototyping - don't overdo it and be aware of scope creep - it's a bloody prototype
- Two Beautiful New Mini Pixel Icon Sets (reported by Paul Andrew) - what more to say, go get them.
- UX Lx Wrap Up (by Theresa Neil) - good wrap-up (with links to material) of the 3 day UX Lx conference in Lisbon last month.
- Master user experience design (by Craig Grannell) - inside UX, well-researched and laid out article, good read.
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Highlights of Week 11/2010
Posted by Michael Gaigg
- Google Analytics in Depth: Goals and Funnels (by Dave Sparks) - Money makes the world go round - funnel it (into your pocket)
- The reconstructive nature of human memory (and what this means for research documentation) (by Harry Brignull) - documentation of design decision is important to avoid pogo-sticking re-design or the HIPPO effect.
- Menu Item Usage Study: Part I (by Christopher Jung) - Mozilla's research into menu item usage.
- designing for experiences across channels (by Brandon Schauer) - have a look at this picture and let it sit for a while. Making sense?
- Basic CSS3 Techniques That You Should Know (by Joel Reyes) - always good to stay on top of technology, CSS3 is our friend!
- Participating in the Web of Data with Open Standards (by Chris Heilmann) - API's and geolocation made easy with YQL (Yahoo Query Language).
- Writing For The Web: Tips & Common Mistakes We Make (by Kelly Swee) - yet another list of tips, but then again we still don't seem to get it right...
- Rudy Giuliani Shares His Leadership Thoughts (by Bruce Temkin) - Bruce summarizes the 6 leadership principles Rudy Giuliani laid out in his keynote at the Intuit Financial Services.
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Highlights of Week 10/2010
Posted by Michael Gaigg
Another week of fantastic articles! A little digging (or reading my blog
) will save you time and buying books hehe.
- 15 Desktop & Online Wireframing Tools (by Tom Walker) - I use Balsamiq Mockups, what about you?
- User Experience Books Free to Read Online (by Simon Whatley) - yes, free
- The Future of Wireframes (by Nishant Kothary) - in Nishant's words: holy guacamole!
- Do’s and Don’ts of Usability Testing (by Demetrius Madrigal and Bryan McClain) - my take-away: don't jump to conclusions, that truly is a beginner mistake.
- How to Increase Conversions on any Website in 45 Minutes (by Andrew Follett) - improvement can happen in less than an hour, keep it down to the top 3 items!
- 43 Essential Controls for Web Applications (by Theresa Neil) - just being able to name them properly (not to mention program them) is a huge communication plus.
- How to Choose Right CSS Frameworks (by Joel Reyes) - a must read for any web programmer. Know at least one css framework really well.
- Why you only need to test with five users (explained) (by Jeff Sauro) - I mean, really well explained.
- Email verification – is your call-to-action strong enough? (by Harry Brignull) - it's tough to lose customers that WANT to be customers. Consider lazy registration as well!
- "Call to Action" Buttons: Guidelines, Best Practices and Examples (by hongkiat) - Another really important article. Talks about size, color, labels etc.
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Highlights of Week 09/2010
Posted by Michael Gaigg
- 10 unexpected online user behaviours to look out for (by webcredible team) - the really interesting thing is that they talk about "People" and not "Users"
- A Review of Consistent Designs on the Web (by Noam Almosnino) - a check list (like it) and visual examples (love it).
- Design Multilingual Website: A Beginner’s Guide (by Christian Arno) - often only a back-thought, but it shouldn't. I18N and all the good stuff.
- uxurls.com: a user experience aggregator (by Harry Brignull) - Harry is collecting and presenting blogs about UX, 130 sites and counting...
- How to Build a Footer That Doesn’t Stink (by Ben Gremillion) - yes, this kind of footer
- 34 Outstanding Admin Panels for Your Web Applications (by Madalin Tudose) - more inspiration.
- My biggest mistakes (by Scott Berkun) - call it life lessons, call it learning from other people's mistakes, call it a must-read...
- Web designers announce IE6's 'death,' slate party (by Gregg Keizer) - Thank God, finally?
- So You Call Yourself A Designer? (by Niki Brown) - Niki illustrates which qualities/skills are needed to be a good Designer
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Free book online: Search User Interfaces
Posted by Michael Gaigg
Marti Hearst generously made her upcoming book "Search User Interfaces" available for reading online. She is definitely not a newcomer to the scene and the book for sure not a Best-Of compilation, moreover the book is written in an academic fashion that backs up its theses usability studies, log studies, or some other form of proof (like it!) - like Harry Brignull states: "Caution: actual thought may be required when reading this book."
Contents: Search User Interfaces
The book has two main parts: search fundamentals (Chapters 1-7) and advanced topics (Chapters 8-12).
0: Preface
1: Design of Search User Interfaces
2: Evaluation of Search User Interfaces
3: Models of the Information Seeking Process
4: Query Specification
5: Presentation of Search Results
6: Query Reformulation
7: Supporting the Search Process
8: Integrating Navigation with Search
9: Personalization in Search
10: Information Visualization for Search Interfaces
11: Information Visualization for Text Analysis
12: Emerging Trends in Search Interfaces
References
Index
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About Me
I'm Michael Gaigg, Lead UI Engineer at Esri's Prof. Services.
I have over 8 years of experience in designing map interfaces and can't stop thinking about improving them.
Help me by sharing your thoughts, ideas and comments.
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