IT Solutions Blog

• 7 Warning Signs of a Nightmare Client (by John Urban) – oh, I know the control freak, and well, the extra freebie guy too
• 40 Great Resources for a Complete Roadmap to Freelancing (by Aidan Huang) – plentyful of good links, not only for freelancers.
• Putting Content Back on Top (by Felicity Evans) – on top of the sandwich, like thinking outside the bun hehe.
• The ROI of UX: Proving the Value of User Experience Design (by Erin Lynn Young) – “[...] holistic consideration of the user’s perspective will reap larger returns than other potential business investments”, nicely said.
• 5 Web Files That Will Improve Your Website (by Alexander Dawson) – robots.txt, favicon.ico, sitemap.xml, dublin.rdf, opensearch.xml – yes, you can!
• 10 Free Wireframing Tools for Designers (by Grace Smith) – Online wireframing, I love it and you should too.

• Debunking the Myths of Remote Usability Studies (by Corrie Kwan, Jin Li, and May Wong) – some myths might seem obvious, but others – drawn from first-hand experience – are not. Anyway, lot’s of good advise to be considered.
• How to Communicate With Your Clients (by Joel Reyes) – In short: Listen, Ask, Consult, Respect, Reason
• Beginner’s Guide to SEO: Best Practices – Part 3/3, Part 2/3, Part 1/3 (by hongkiat) – Search Engine Optimization is a must in all our toolboxes. Excellent three-part tutorial, thx!
• 250 Quick Web Design Tips (Part 2) (Part 1) (by Alexander Dawson) – about Browsers, Styles, Techniques, Marketing and all other good stuff.
• Agile UX and The One Change That Changes Everything (by Anders Ramsay) – Start Building Earlier through Rapid and Rich Communication and Just-in-Time Detail.

As always, send me your link or mention it in the comments. Anything related to this blog is much appreciated by all of us. Thanks!

• Complete Beginner’s Guide to Web Analytics and Measurement (by Andrew Maier) – a really great summary of tools and methods for web analytics.
• Favorite UX & Technology Blogs | Learning About New Web & Mobile Applications (by Janet M. Six) – uxmatters answer to favorite UX and technology blogs and how to learn about new Web and mobile applications.
• 10 New UX Books To Look Out for in 2010 (by Paul Seys) – what more to say…?
• 7 Steps to Better Website Feedback (by hongkiat) – good content but I really love this blog entry for its references.
• 15 Google Chrome Extensions for the Avid Designer (by Joel Reyes) – from Firebug to Resolution test and many more…
• Using Landmarks Makes Page Layout Easy (by Ben Gremillion) – harmony in design is based on well-known layout principles – great discussion by Ben!

Really interesting research note by Gartner.

Key findings:

• HTML5 will become the mainstream of the Web during the next decade.
• HTML5 is a potential threat to the continued adoption of plug-in based RIA approaches (including Flash/Silverlight).

Recommendations:

• Enterprises should try avoid becoming dependent on any one browser or client-side technology.
• Enterprise developers should “design for standards” and not browsers or runtimes.
• Developers should favor the lightest-weight technology that will meet their requirements.
• Architects should consider hybrid approaches […]
• Before purchasing or committing to a new UI technology or platform, enterprises should first invest in a user-centered design process based on objective data about user behavior.

Complete Analysis: http://www.adobe.com/enterprise/pdfs/html5_flash.pdf

On a personal note I especially like the following part (btw: brilliantly written):

I’m still feeling enriched by the exciting sessions presented at the Web App Masters Tour in San Diego. Check out Luke’s notes of all the 9 sessions presented – fantastic!

• Techniques for Squeezing Images for All They’re Worth (by Ben Gremillion) – image optimization is key to fast loading web sites.
• UX Design Versus UI Development (by Mike Hughes) – who designs and who builds and where do they overlap? Is it about data?
• Board Releases Draft Refresh of Section 508 Standards and Section 255 Guidelines (by Tim Creagan) – a major step towards WCAG 2.0 becoming a law.
• 20 Portable Applications Web Designers Should Have On Their USB Sticks (by Joel Reyes) – go get a memory stick
• Understanding the Power of Social Media with Infographics (by Paul Andrew) – some real gems there.
• Adobe expanding the accessibility of Acrobat and Flash! (by Jeff Singleton) – don’t know how they relate exactly to WCAG but surely welcome to see.
• The Impossible Bloomberg Makeover (by Dominique Leca) – a great example of the kitchen-cabinet problem.
• 10 Principles of UX (by Joshua Porter) – very nice top 10 collection.

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.

In my daily work I’m constantly confronted with developments for government sites. Often I hear confusion in what needs to be achieved, who needs to be served and especially why it should matter.

Listening into a Webcast by Human Factors International (download white paper on Designing the e-government experience through citizen-centered usability, March 2008) gave me additional insights that I want to summarize and present here:

Goals of eGovernment

The web offers governmental sites the potential for increased operational efficiency and cost reductions while improving access to information and services for their citizens.

Levels of interaction between these two actors (government & citizens) include:

• Connect citizens with legislative offices
• Communicate faster and more targeted
• Leverage access to public services (enhanced productivity with reduced effort)

Steps to improve eGovernment

Traditionally the government has three main functions:

1. Report
2. Transact
3. Interact

What can be done to improve these functions/processes?

Get it out there

• What information is interesting?
• What is already available?

Make it useful & usable

• Pre-digest the information (e.g. into charts, comparisons, …)
• Understand the citizen’s needs (e.g. Spanish language, search, text size, …)
• Assist citizen’s in finding the information (sometimes they don’t know it exists)
• Avoid: limited business focus, internal focus, lack of shared resource

Provide self-service

• Assist citizens to walk through business logic (avoid unnecessary pages, forms, fields, …)

Track improvement

• Establish a baseline (best practices review, scorecard, usability testing success rates, web analytics, call center volume, server logs, …)
• Validate improvements (success rate, task time) & seek for support within your organization for doing this
• Continuously track usage
• Why? Avoid falling back in national ranking, reduce costs for service calls, …

Make it engaging

• “Will? Can?” Will citizens use the service? Can they find it?
• Make it exciting
• Use experiences or technologies that are current and up to date (videos, gadgets, …)

Embrace the future

• Become creative to engage citizens in governmental issues (using the citizen’s language), e.g. upload a photo of the damaged street (http://www.fixmystreet.com/)
• Encourage citizens to interact through social tools

Erase boundaries

• Integration of “Report”, “Transact” and “Interact” means to remove the disparity between organizational structures of governments and the mental models of the citizens
• Understand and channel the motivation of citizens to use online services
• Integrate offers from multiple agencies into one comprehensible user experience

Start a movement

• Create a community by involving State & Agency Leadership, Agency CIO’s and Webmasters
• Recognition and adoption are key aspects
• Embrace the chaos
• Provide useful & usable tools
• Reward contributions & demonstrate progress
• View webmasters as a partner, not as recipient

Transparency

• The user’s perspective of the organization and the actual organizational structures are mostly very different. Citizens should not need to know how an agency is organized or be familiar with its terminology.
• Focus on the citizen means to understand how they look for information!
• Integrate internal processes into one intelligent solution (iGov = integrated Government)
• Understanding the level of literacy is key to success. Easy language assists citizens in filling out bureaucratic forms.

Government must view itself as a business

• Attract and satisfy citizens. Beware of competition and consider concepts like ‘brand loyalty’. Effective interaction adds benefits to citizens.
• Convert visitors into customers meaning that citizens become active online users of the services.
• Broaden the focus onto international audience which is important to attract entrepreneurship and investment capital and is a good indicator of a strong technology market and research and development environment.

Assistance through technology, tools and continuous improvement

• Support CIO’s and webmasters through tools like design templates, standards, guidelines and an effective means of governance.
• Adjust technology to changing market conditions, population demographics and the user’s level of expectations.
• Create a culture and long-term commitment (=institutionalization) of usability within the agency!
• Establish a baseline of improvement and continuously validate and improve through benchmarks.

Your thoughts?

I’d like to hear your feedback and if you have applied one or many of above techniques in your agency and what your experiences were.

References

• Straub, K., Gerrol, S.; Designing the e-government experience through citizen-centered usability; Human Factors International, Inc.; White paper; March 6, 2008

Quince is an online repository of UX patterns. It was developed by Infragistics and released to the public today. It’s free and open so that anybody can contribute with their knowledge. Silverlight required!

Yes, Quince is not the first pattern library, there are plenty of other excellent pattern libraries like Yahoo! Design Pattern Library, Open Source Pattern Library, UI-Patterns.com and many more, but it surely is a very comprehensive and good looking one.

What are Patterns?

A pattern is a reusable, best-practices approach used in the design of a solution to a commonly-occuring problem within a specific context. A pattern is not a finished piece of code or design that can be used as is. Rather, it reflects the sum total of a community’s knowledge and experience or expertise in a given domain.

I strongly recommend reading the interview about Pattern Languages for Interaction Design with Erin Malone, Christian Crumlish, and Lucas Pettinati.

Social Interface Patterns

Another very interesting approach to patterns is taken by Christian Crumlish and Erin Malone who are currently working on a book for O’Reilly Media.
Check out their Designing Social Interfaces patterns wiki and contribute to their upcoming book. Very interesting approach!

Antipatterns

Antipatterns are common UX mistakes to learn from. Probably the most prominent antipattern is “Click here” also known as “Navigating in a mysterious way”. Read a very interesting Antipatterns blog entry by Peter Hornsby.

Controversy

I think there is no doubt that patterns can boost our development process and reduce the amount of work needed to re-invent common elements. Study them and try to enhance on top of them!

Antipatterns on the other side might not be that useful. Even though I agree with Scott Berkun in his line of argumentation about Failure: the secret to success that it is important to learn from one owns mistakes and failures but that might be also overrated like Jason states in Learning from failure is overrated: “There’s a significant difference between “now I know what to do again” and “don’t do that again.” The former being better than the latter.”

What do you think? Have I missed something or somebody?