Participatory design is an approach to design that attempts to actively involve end users in the design process to help ensure that the product designed meets their needs and is usable. This approach is focused on process and is not a design style. For some, this approach has a political dimension of user empowerment and democratisation. For others, it is seen as a way of abrogating design responsibility and innovation by designers.
#29449
The Achilles Heel of Product Design Competitions and the Fair Judging Solution
I have judged a fair number of national and international product design competitions (five in the past three years alone) and each has made the same procedural mistake: products are assembled and categorized, judging criterion are devised, reputable judges are assembled, and yet we judges never see or touch the products in person. Instead, we receive a set of written documents describing each product, its intended function, and its design process. Imagine an art contest conducted by email and you get the gist of what's going on out there.
Buttiglieri, Rich. Usability Professionals Association (2007). Design>Usability>Assessment
#22418
Acrobat - Ein PDF-Dokument Wieder in Text (oder HTML) Konvertieren 
Wie kann ich eine Acrobat-Datei in ein editierbares Textdokument (ASCII, RTF oder HTML etc.) zurückverwandeln? (Anmerkung: Diese Frage wurde zu Zeiten von Acrobat 3 und 4 gestellt. In Acrobat 5 soll Exchange eine direkte RTF-Exportfunktion besitzen.)
Transcom. (German) Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat
#22388
Acrobat - TrueType-Schriften in PDF Sauber Darstellen
TrueType-Schriften erscheinen in der Standardeinstellung der Adobe-Software Acrobat 3 am Bildschirm immer nur stark gepixelt, während PostScript-Schriften sauber lesbar sind (das Problem konnte in Acrobat 4 bislang nicht beobachtet werden). Das muss nicht sein!
Transcom (2000). (German) Design>Typography>Software>Adobe Acrobat
#22301
Acrobat 6 Pro, a New Forms Layout Tool?
I was recently asked by my employer to do some research on various form designer packages to see what they had to offer. Right around that time Acrobat 6 was released, but to consider it a fully featured forms 'layout' tool was the last thing on my mind. Little did I know that I would soon change my mind. After working with Acrobat 6 Pro for a while and getting to know all the new and useful tools it has, it gradually started to dawn on me that it offers form design and layout capabilities that one could only dream about with the previous versions of Acrobat.
Guignard, Bryan. PlanetPDF (2003). Design>Web Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat
#31149
Acrobat 7 zum komfortablen Erzeugen von Druck und Schnittmarken einsetzen
Wer kennt das Problem nicht? Aus einem riesigen Dokument wurde ein PDF erzeugt. Nun muss es auch noch für den Druck aufbereitet werden. Dafür fehlen aber die Druck- und Schnittmarken. Acrobat 7 hilft hier aus der Patsche.
TECOM (2003). (German) Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat
#28187
Acrobat Features Turbocharge the Online Review Process
One of the more tedious and error-prone processes in technical writing is that of collaborative document review. Even when documents are shared electronically, keeping track of comments, suggestions, and changes contributed by multiple team members can be exasperating. Too often errors due to collaborative review lead to delays, missed deadlines, misunderstandings and an inaccurate final document.
Gravel, Charlie. Carolina Communique (2003). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat
#22584
Acrobat Tips - Extracting Content
Suppose you have a multipage document and you want to remove a part of it for another purpose, such as combining it with other information for another document. In this tip, I'll explain how to separate, or extract, a portion of a document.
Baker, Donna L. PlanetPDF (2003). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat
#22565
Acrobat Tips - Reduce PDF File Size
Distributing documents as Adobe PDF files can reduce the problems that may occur when you exchange large presentation or page-layout files. In many cases, you can make your Adobe PDF file even more compact without compromising the document's integrity. The PDF Optimizer in Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Professional gives you easy access to several options that can help you reduce the file's size, including compression options that are comparable to the ones available when you create an original Adobe PDF file using Adobe Acrobat Distiller.
PlanetPDF (1996). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat
#22420
Ich habe gerade zwei PDF-Dateien aneinandergefügt (über 'Seite einfügen'), ABER: jedesmal, wenn ich die neu gespeicherte Datei öffne, wird die 1. Seite des 2. Dokuments dargestellt. Ich würde hingegen gern die 1. Seite des 1. Dokuments sehen....
Transcom. (German) Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat
#22391
Acrobat und Verwendung von PostScript-Schriften
Wir haben Probleme mit unseren PDFs, und zwar erscheint der Text bei einem Zoom von 100% auf dem Bildschirm verschwommen. Zoom von 150% ist ok, Ausdruck ebenfalls.
#22389
Acrobat und WinWord - Lesezeichen mit Abschnittsnummern
Gibt es beim PDFMaker (Adobe-Zusatz [Add-In] zur Generierung von PDF-Dateien aus WinWord) eine Möglichkeit, in den Lesezeichen (Bookmarks) die Abschnittsnummern einzubinden?
Transcom (2000). (German) Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat
#28876
Now that everybody's got the Acrobat reader we can talk about why so few are able to create Acrobat files, also called PDF files.
Quillio, Lou. Quillio.com (2003). Articles>Document Design>Standards>Adobe Acrobat
#19005
Action point teorien et udviklet af Geoffrey Brown i 1999, og tager udgangspunkt i, at et website skal fokusere på brugerens mål med at besøge websitet. Ved brug af action point teorien vil brugeren få en mere positiv oplevelse, og derigennem vil websitet med større sandsynlighed blive besøgt igen, frem for at brugeren prøver et konkurrerende website.
Quark, The (2002). (Danish) Design>Web Design>Theory
#20169
A resource with links to Actions and Extensions for Adobe GoLive.
#20013
A collection of resources for writing ActionScript programs within your Macromedia Flash projects.
#10354
Active Learning for Software Products 
This article shows how principles from the fields of adult learning and situated learning can be applied to the method of Instructional System Design to create classroom-based training for software products. These principles and methods do not need to be antithetical; rather, they can complement each other to create instructional strategies that incorporate context-rich activities for work-oriented instruction.
Hughes, Michael A. Technical Communication Online (1998). Academic>Computing>Instructional Design>Software
#22328
Active Server Page (ASP) Tutorial
Introduced in 1996, Active Server Pages (ASP) are just like normal x/html pages except they are processed on the server before being sent to the client's machine. ASP itself is not a programming language, but a platform on which any scripting language that your web-server understands can run. The most popular languages used with ASP are VBScript (a subset of Visual Basic), JScript (Microsoft's version of JavaScript) and Perl Script. This tutorial only covers VBScript.
Lemon, Gez. Juicy Studio. Design>Web Design>Server Side Includes>ASP
#30006
Activity Modeling: Toward a Pragmatic Integration of Activity Theory with Usage-Centered Design
Activity modeling is a systematic approach to organizing and representing the contextual aspects of tool use that is both well-grounded in an accepted theoretical framework and embedded within a proven design method. Activity theory provides the vocabulary and conceptual framework for understanding the human use of tools and other artifacts. Usage-centered design provides the methodological scaffolding for applying activity theory in practice. In this Technical Paper, activity theory and usage-centered design are outlined and the connections between the two are highlighted. Simple extensions to the models of usage-centered design are introduced that together succinctly model the salient and most essential features of the activities within which tool use is embedded. Although not intended as a tutorial, examples of Activity Maps, Activity Profiles, and Participation Maps are provided.
Constantine, Larry L. Constantine and Lockwood (2006). Articles>User Centered Design>Methods
#27445
Ad Conversion Rate Influenced by Time (Not Click Rate)
Time is an important design variable to understand. Your user experience is effected by it no matter what user experience you are serving up and the rules are different for every context. For example, the "three click rule" (users must get to their destination within three clicks) applies to e-commerce primarily but not to mortgage education, financial services usability or reading the New York Times online.
Spillers, Frank. Demystifying Usability (2004). Design>Web Design>User Experience>E Commerce
#18799
ADA-508 Compliance and Usability Testing Techniques for Accessible Web Pages
This scenario–based progression session will introduce basic usability testing concepts for developing accessible web pages, raise awareness of the need to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Section 508, and provide resources for further investigation. Emphasis will be given to interactive discussion that centers on requirements analysis for accessible design.
Reece, Gloria A. STC Proceedings (2002). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Section 508
#19258
Adaptive Organization of Tabular Data for Display
Tabular representations of information can be organized so that the subject distance between adjacent columns is low, bringing related materials together. In cases where data is available on all topics, the subject distance between table columns and rows can be formally shown to be minimized. A variety of Gray codes may be used for ordering tabular rows and columns. Subject features in the Gray code may be ordered so that the coding system used is one that has a lower inter-column subject distance than with many other codes. Methods by which user preferences may be incorporated are described. The system optionally may display unrequested columns of data that are related to requested data.
Losee, Robert M. Journal of Digital Information (2003). Design>Web Design>Information Design>Personalization
#21214
Adaptive Technologies for the Visually Impaired: The Role of Technical Communicators
This column examines emerging technologies of interest to technical communicators to help them identify those that are worthy of further investigation. It is intended neither as an endorsement of any technology or product, nor as a recommendation to purchase.
Ray, Deborah S. and Eric J. Ray. Technical Communication Online (1998). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Visual
#12966
Adaptive Technologies for the Visually Impaired: The Role of Technical Communicators
Try your ordinary web browsing and e-mail with an translucent piece of plastic draped over your monitor, with your monitor partially obstructed, or with your monitor turned off. With each of these changes, you’ll have a significantly different experience. For example, if you have plastic draped over your monitor, you’ll likely have a hard time reading words, interpreting graphics, or distinguishing colors. If your monitor is partially obstructed, you’ll likely have a difficult time navigating pages, reading columnar formats, or associating graphics with text. And, of course, if your monitor is off, you’ll have an entirely different set of challenges in accessing and using information. Each scenario offers a different view of the information onscreen, poses different challenges, and, most important, each is significantly different from unimpaired viewing.
Ray, Deborah S. and Eric J. Ray. TECHWR-L (1998). Design>Accessibility
#20051
Adaptive Technology Resource Centre
The Adaptive Technology Resource Centre advances information technology that is accessible to all; through research, development, education, proactive design consultation and direct service.
#11885
Adaptive Web Sites: An Introduction
Broadly marketed Web sites face an increasingly diverse and demanding audience. Each visitor may be searching for something different, and each may have unique needs or concerns. Traditional, 'static' Web sites can try to serve these diverse users by aiming at generalized types of user. However, generalizing the audience may cause an information designer to overlook users who do not quite fit in a category. A more effective way to reach diverse audiences might be adaptive Web sites that customize content and interface to suit each individual. This paper will discuss basic concepts behind adaptive Web sites using Amazon.com, the Internet bookseller, as an example.
Wei, Carolyn. EServer (2001). Design>Web Design>Personalization
