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.
#31232
Being Good for Goodness' Sake: Corporate Social Responsibility Imagery
It sees you when you’re sleeping. It knows if you’re awake. 'It' is the world, and it knows if your company has been naughty or nice. The digital revolution has put a photographic device, be it a camera or camera-phone, in the hands of virtually everybody everywhere—so you can be sure someone besides Santa is constantly watching your company’s behavior. For that and other good reasons, corporate photography is looking very green this season.
Salvo, Suzanne. Communication World Bulletin (2007). Design>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric
#28918
Information Architects are often put on the defensive by spears flung by brethren in related disciplines. In taking the accusations seriously and accepting truths within them, Grant Campbell reveals greatest strengths in shallowness, insularity, and being 'relegated' to history.
Campbell, Grant. Boxes and Arrows (2007). Articles>Information Design>Professionalism
#20928
Being User-Centered When Implementing a UCD Process
For those who are interested in usability – whether long-time advocates or newly introduced – this is a good time to introduce a user-centered design process.
Quesenbery, Whitney. WQusability (2001). Articles>User Centered Design>Methods>Usability
#25156
The Benefits of a Buddy for the Solo Designer
Are you a home-based studio or freelancer? The benefits are many for the solo designer, but feeling isolated can spell trouble.
Bertucci, Janet and Julianne Nardone. Design, Typography and Graphics (2004). Careers>Graphic Design>Collaboration
#22066
The Benefits of an Accessible Website - Part 1: Increase in Reach
The Disability Discrimination Act states that service providers must not discriminate against disabled people. A website is regarded as a service and therefore falls under this law. Some organisations are changing their websites, but many are seemingly not making the adjustments. Disabled people don't access their website, they say, so why should they care?
Moss, Trenton. Webcredible (2004). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>United Kingdom
#22396
The Benefits of an Accessible Website - Part 2: the Business Case
The Disability Discrimination Act states that service providers must not discriminate against disabled people. A website is regarded as a service and therefore falls under this law. Some organisations are changing their websites, but many are seemingly not making the adjustments. Disabled people don't access their website, they say, so why should they care? There are, however, two very good reasons as to why businesses should start taking these issues seriously: an accessible website will make you more money; an accessible website will save you money.
Moss, Trenton. Webcredible (2004). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>United Kingdom
#21434
Benutzertests durch Spurenverwertung 
In most cases a technical writer cannot do any user tests. If you have access to the user log of a web server you can derive quite interesting facts like how often and how long a specific page was viewed and how the surfers navigated.
von Obert, Alexander. Techwriter.de (2003). (German) Design>Web Design>User Centered Design>Log Analysis
#13992
De Beroepsorganisatie Nederlandse Ontwerpers
De Beroepsorganisatie Nederlandse Ontwerpers (BNO) is de branchevereniging van ontwerpers en ontwerpbureaus in Nederland. Deze zijn actief binnen diverse disciplines: grafisch ontwerpen, interactief ontwerpen, industrieel ontwerpen, verpakkingsontwerpen, ruimtelijk ontwerpen, mode en styling, en illustratie. De BNO is de meest representatieve gesprekspartner op het gebied van het ontwerpen in Nederland en is gericht op de voortdurende ontwikkeling van de discipline en het vergroten van haar betekenis. De BNO vertegenwoordigt ruim 2300 individuele ontwerpers en 200 ontwerpbureaus.
BNO. (Dutch) Organizations>Graphic Design>Regional>Netherlands
#22679
It doesn't matter how many hours of video and megabytes of graphics can be stuffed onto a silver platter, typefaces still serve an essential function that can't be duplicated by other means--transmitting complex intellectual and emotional messages in a very concise and precise way.
Will-Harris, Daniel. Typofile. Design>Typography>Fonts>Emotions
#21903
OpenType, a new font format and font-rasterization technology jointly developed by Adobe and Microsoft, promises to make fonts more sophisticated and easier to use.
Larkin, James. Adobe Magazine (1997). Design>Typography>Standards
#18673
The Best of CHI-WEB and SIGIA-L
The chi-web and sig-ia mailing lists are two email based discussion groups on the topics of web usability, design and human computer interaction (the later with a heavier emphasis on information architecture). To subscribe to chi-web, read the info page or to get a better flavor for what happens there, use its full searchable archive. Alternatively, you can join sigia-l from here or view the sigia-l archive . Using the archives for each mailing list, I've compiled a list of the summary postings from useful threads, and a few personally selected favorite postings. Please note: my list below is not an exhaustive list of summary postings. I just picked the ones I found most salient and valuable for reference. Also, these summaries are collections of contributing posts: they are a mixture of opinions and commentary, with some references to reports, usability data, websites or books.
Berkun, Scott. UIWeb. Resources>Mailing Lists>Web Design>Multimedia
#27982
Best of Show -- Winners of STC's International Competitions
Read about the Best of Show winners of the 2005•2006 competitions in international technical art, international online communication, and international technical publications. Also, meet the winner of the international student technical communication competition.
Intercom (2006). Articles>TC>Document Design>International
#20398
From a production standpoint, desktop typography is a vast improvement over phototypesetting. No more stinking chemistry or expensive dedicated systems! Also, the ability to fine tune, noodle, and tweak layouts is an immensely satisfying luxury, compared to the typographic systems of the '70s and '80s.
King, Liana. NALC (1997). Design>Typography>History
#23891
Best Practices and Future Visions for Search User Interfaces: Position Paper
The author argues that progress in search requires vigorous inquiry into how search can be embedded into application environments such as those for decision-making, personal information collecting, and designing.
Hendry, David G. Earthlink (2003). Design>Web Design>Search
#23071
Best Practices and Future Visions for Search User Interfaces: Position Paper 
The author argues that progress in search requires vigorous inquiry into how search can be embedded into application environments such as those for decision-making, personal information collecting, and designing.
Hendry, David G. Earthlink (2003). Design>Web Design>User Interface>Search
#11716
Best Practices For Successful Intranets
Thinking big in the first phase of intranet planning is the nature of e-business, but then it's time to start asking the tough questions. One needs to figure out where the business goals and the user goals need to meet in order to create an intranet that offers the most value.
Barnes, Hank. Intranet Journal (2001). Design>Web Design>Intranets
#30603
Best Practices in Online Captioning
Use of online video has grown faster than the use of accessibility in online video. Though bandwidth costs for video files can still be high compared to ordinary text-and-graphics Web pages, it is nonetheless easy to digitize video and post it online. It's easier to broadcast your video to the world via the Internet than it is to get the same video on television. Online multimedia are a useful and valid new medium of communication - for most people.
Clark, Joe. JoeClark.org (2004). Design>Accessibility>Multimedia>Video
#22141
Best Practices: A Case Study at Kohler
The plumbing division of Kohler Co. is no stranger to managing their content. They had been using BroadVision's document-management system, Relation Document Manager (RDM), for three years and authoring in Interleaf since 1989. But when BroadVision stopped supporting RDM, Mark Peterson, the technical publications manager at Kohler, was desperate to find a replacement. BroadVision offered BladeRunner, but that tool didn't sufficiently support the heavy and stringent print requirements of Mark's department. Plumbers don't always have adequate or readily available access to the Internet.
Hedlund, Tina. ComTech Services (2003). Design>Web Design>Intranets>Case Studies
#19155
A Better Approach: Requirements-Focused CMS Selection
Your organisation is unique, and as such, has a unique set of content management system (CMS) requirements. There is also no single 'perfect for everyone' content management system. Each product has its own set of strengths and weaknesses, and distinctive design principles. Unfortunately, the selection process followed by many organisations doesn't recognise this, leading to the purchase of a CMS which does not match business needs. Selecting a CMS does not have to be a lottery. By following a requirements-focused methodology, instead of a features-driven approach, the right CMS can be identified, and the business risks minimised.
Robertson, James. Step Two (2003). Design>Content Management>Software
#28933
Better Content Management through Information Architecture
Content Management Systems promise so much: content is easier to publish, easier to update, and easier to find and use. Lots of promises, but do CMSs really deliver? Masood Nasser examines why Content Management Systems often fail and shows how Information Architecture can come to the rescue.
Nasser, Masood. Boxes and Arrows (2007). Articles>Content Management>Information Design>Content Strategy
#20900
Alhough Flash has some intrinsic usability problems, designers can respect user expectations about consistency, accessibility, and common sense, and therefore make better Flash websites.
Baker, Adam. Merges.net (2001). Design>Multimedia>Interactive>Flash
#24836
About a year ago, I wrote an article, introducing a method for displaying a random image every time someone visits a web page. Administration was simple: just add or remove images from a folder on the server, and they would appear (or disappear, respectively) from the pool of random images being displayed on that page.
Benjamin, Dan. List Apart, A (2004). Design>Web Design>Graphic Design>DHTML
#25499
Better Invoices for Better Business
Invoices that obfuscate information, incorrectly state terms or arrive incomplete can be a massive headache for all parties. These mistakes will only delay the payment process, so it is critical you produce invoices that clearly deliver information your client will need.
Potts, Kevin. List Apart, A (2004). Design>Web Design>Forms>Usability
#20224
Everything you wanted to know about converting from HTML to XHTML, including why you’d want to, tools that help, changes in the way browsers display XHTML pages, shortcuts, bugs, workarounds, and other tips you won’t find elsewhere.
Zeldman, Jeffrey. List Apart, A (2002). Design>Web Design>XHTML
#14350
Currently, “user-centered design” is the touted methodoloay for software development for many companies. To many of us, it’s merely a more global articulation of what we have always believed to be the preferred methodology. Technical communicators and HF professionals have critical roles to play as part of a multi-disciplinary user-centered design team. (1) This paper presents some viewpoints on how technical communicators and HF professionals can increase each other's effectiveness.
Rauch, Thyra L. STC Proceedings (1997). Presentations>User Centered Design>Collaboration
