Deep Context

Most IA tools and methods focus on the users and the content being developed for websites. Jorge Arango uses the ideas from anthropologist Edward Hall as a starting point to dig deep into the idea of context, its variations, and the impacts on how people interpret information.

Arango, Jorge. Boxes and Arrows (2007). Articles>Web Design>Cultural Theory

Deep Thinking About Weblogs

Weblogs are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore for those of us who spend much time reading the Web. Also known by the inscrutable nickname 'blogs', weblogs are something of a hard nut to crack. Compounding the difficulty is the fact that a great deal of weblog content today is about weblogs and weblog technology. What are weblogs? What's the big deal? Why should we pay attention? We attempt to answer these questions in the essay that follows.

Grumet, Andrew. Grumet.net (2002). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Blogging

Deep XML

At the recent XML conference, Norm Walsh hosted a nocturne on Practical RDF, the highlight of which was his tour through thenorman.walsh.name setup. From the outside you may think this is a mere blog, but it’s actually a side-effect of a frighteningly gnarly confluence of metadata streams which are shaken and stirred to produce a sprawling network of resources a small part of which you might want to peruse for Norm’s news & views. I have a picture that made the audience at the session gasp in disbelief.

Bray, Tim. Deep XML (2003). Articles>Information Design>Web Design>XML

Review: DENIM, del Lápiz a la Web

El diseño de sitios web suele empezar con bosquejos hechos con papel y lápiz. Denim convierte directamente los diagramas que salen de una tableta gráfica o del dibujo con el ratón en prototipos de sitios web funcionales.

Dursteler, Juan Carlos. InfoVis (2003). (Spanish) Articles>Reviews>Software>Web Design

Design for Community: An Interview with Derek M. Powazek

Derek M. Powazek has worked on community features for Netscape, Nike, and Sony, along with creating the community sites, {fray}, Kvetch!, and SF Stories. Christine Perfetti, a consultant at User Interface Engineering, recently talked with Derek about his experience. Here is what he had to say about creating effective online communities.

Perfetti, Christine. User Interface Engineering (2002). Articles>Web Design>Community Building

Designing a Different Kind of Intranet: An Intranet for a UX Team

Most of us who are working as part of a design team in a services company, a product company, or even a design boutique have to live with a generic intranet. In this article, I’ll describe how to leverage your company’s intranet and how to build a community around an intranet for a UX team.

Mallik, Anirban Basu. UXmatters (2008). Articles>Web Design>Community Building>Intranets

Designing a Touch Screen Kiosk for Older Adults: A Case Study

An independent-living senior center recently approached us with a request to 'build a system that could track the fitness activity of their approximately 160 older residents.' The center houses a Fitness Club that offers seven different fitness classes, personal training, physical therapy, a pool, a spa, and access to a multitude of exercise equipment (i.e., stationary bikes, treadmills, and weights). At the time of the request, residents were signing their names and activities on a sheet of paper as they entered the Fitness Club. Occasionally, the sign-in sheets were summarized into monthly reports to show resident attendance by class and the type of equipment they were using.

Chaparro, Barbara S. and Laszlo Stumpfhauser. Usability News (2001). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Elderly

Designing and Testing Customer Satisfaction Surveys on WWW Sites  

The types of surveys being conducted on the web fall into two categories: surveys that determine who is using the WWW and surveys that determine customer satisfaction with the product or service. To the survey guidelines described by GVU, we add five guidelines for designing web customer satisfaction surveys based on reviews of recent surveys and browsing the web: (1) Begin with a clear mission statement. (2) Classlfy current users of the site. (3) Report the results online. (4) Limit the length of the questionnaire to no more than 25 multiple-part questions. (5) Limit big graphics.

Feinberg, Susan G. and Peter Y. Johnson. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Usability>Testing>Web Design

Designing Better HTML Authoring Tools

A collection of proposed new tools and features for adding structure to the Web.

Hoffman, Michael. Hypertext Navigation. Articles>Web Design>User Interface>Software

Designing Educational Booklets for the Web

We discuss here the results of usability tests on two booklets which were transferred from print to the Web. The booklets provide the public with basic information on various cancers, cancer treatment, and other cancer-related topics. The booklets were written by the National Cancer Institute's Office of Education and Special Initiatives (NCI OESI).

Usability.gov. Articles>Web Design>Usability>Case Studies

Designing For Flow

In web design, when we think about flow we usually think about 'task flows' or 'flow charts' but there's another type of flow that we should keep in mind. It's that feeling of complete absorption when you're engaged in something you love to do without being disrupted by anxiety or boredom caused by tasks that are confusing, repetitive or overly taxing.

Ramsey, Jim. List Apart, A (2007). Articles>Web Design

Designing for Nonprofits: User Experience Professionals Can Make a Difference in Society

As information architects, interaction designers, usability consultants, and developers, we don't have to change our careers to do something good for society. All we have to do is connect with the right nonprofit: One that shares our goals and whose mission we support.

Sanchez-Howard, Olga. Boxes and Arrows (2007). Articles>Web Design>User Experience

Designing for the "Average User"

User advocacy is one of the central goals of usability. User advocacy can be defined as the process an IT professional (with an interest in user experience) goes through in re-sensitizing herself to the world of the 'average user'.

Spillers, Frank. Demystifying Usability (2006). Articles>Usability>Web Design

Designing Web Content for Mobile Browsers

Because of the limited display area and processing power, mobile computing devices cannot efficiently render Web content that has been designed for a standard desktop browser. As a result, Web content that is to be viewed, or interacted with, on a mobile device should be designed with these limitations in mind. This article provides general guidelines for the creation of such content, with the ultimate goals of optimizing information display and enhancing human-computer interaction.

Cotton, James and Patrick Commarford. IBM (2005). Articles>Web Design>Wireless Web

Review: Designing With Web Standards

Jeffrey Zeldman shows us how we should be doing things, plain and simple.

Accessify (2003). Articles>Reviews>Web Design>Standards

Develop a Dojo-Based Blog Reader

In this article, the authors put your newly gained knowledge into practice by starting the development of a simple Dojo and Atom-based blog reader.

Shachor, Gal, Ksenya Kveler and Maya Barnea. IBM (2007). Articles>Web Design>Server Side Includes>Ajax

Develop an Ajax-Based File Upload Portlet Using DWR

File upload is a basic function of today's Web portals. In this article, authors Xiaobo Yang and Rob Allan describe how to develop an Ajax-based file upload JSR 168-compliant portlet using DWR (Direct Web Remoting). DWR is an ideal Ajax framework for Java developers that dynamically generates JavaScript based on server-side deployed Java classes. You will learn how you can use DWR to retrieve file upload progress from the portal server.

Yang, Xiabo and Robert Allan. IBM (2007). Articles>Web Design>User Interface>Ajax

Developing an Online Form

Creating an online form can present developers with many challenges. This case study reviews how a paper-based form was taken through the usability engineering process to develop a functional online version. We discuss the steps in planning and research, prototype development, test design, and the usability test results.

Usability.gov. Articles>Web Design>Forms>Usability

Developing Intranets Which People Use: Making Progress When Everyone has an Opinion

The goal of an intranet site is to improve knowledge sharing and productivity. In a large company, it can be difficult to achieve consensus on how to make this happen. Knowledge management experts, information systems project managers, graphic designers, marketing leaders, HTML developers and usability engineers are used to fighting for their places, convinced that they know best. In truth, the intranet is not yet mature, and there are no definite answers. This chapter describes experiences with the intranet sites of two Fortune 500 companies. In both cases, the usability engineer was a consultant from outside the company, in one case part of a team of consultants and in the other working more closely with company employees. Both intranet projects were riddled with mishaps, bad decisions, personality conflicts, and compromises. Still, the usability engineers were able to improve the sites by becoming members of the project teams, and by tirelessly incorporating usability in everything they did.

Zukor, Lee. ACM (2001). Articles>Web Design>Intranets>Usability

Developing Schemas for the Location of Common Web Objects

An essential ingredient in constructing the content of a website is knowing the typical users' mental model or 'schema' for the characteristic location of web objects on a website. Knowledge of this schema and constructing a site that reflects this should aid in the site's accessibility. This, in turn, should produce more accurate and faster information retrieval, as well as greater satisfaction with the site. However, little is known about the average users' schema for the location of web objects on a typical website.

Bernard, Michael. Usability News (2001). Articles>Usability>Web Design

Developing Web Sites For Web Based Expert Systems: A Web Engineering Approach  

This paper presents a developing process for Web based expert systems and specifically focuses on the developing process of their corresponding Web sites. As a case study, the architecture of a Web site/application, which includes the Landfill Operation Management Advisor (LOMA) expert system, will be presented. The Web site/application is available at http://loma.civil.duth.gr since November 2002. Based on the gained experience, useful tips will be given on the construction of such Web sites/applications. Moreover, some explanations will be recorded supporting the assertion that Web based expeconsidered as a category of Web engineering applications.

Dokas, Ioannis M. LOMA. Articles>Web Design>Engineering

Developing Your Site for Performance, Part I: 20 Tips for Client-Side Code Optimization

This three-part article outlines a common sense, cost-effective approach to Web site acceleration according to the two simple laws of Web performance: send as little data as possible; send it as infrequently as possible.

Powell, Thomas A. and Joe Lima. uiGarden (2004). Articles>Web Design>HTML

Developing Your Site for Performance, Part II: Optimal Cache Control

Focuses primarily on sending that data as infrequently as possible by means of better utilization of caching on the Web. Once you start to design your sites with an eye towards effective caching control, you will dramatically reduce page load times for your users - particularly your most loyal, repeat visitors - as well as lower your overall bandwidth consumption and free up your server resources.

Powell, Thomas A. and Joe Lima. uiGarden (2005). Articles>Web Design>Usability

Digiglut.com

There is just too much stuff out there. Web surfing has turned to web surfeit, as web users and independent content site authors are buried alive in a sea of ever-more-useless crap. Bob Jacobson sifts through the wreckage.

Jacobson, Bob. List Apart, A (2000). Articles>Web Design>Search