#29508
An Audience of One: Creating Products for Very Small Workgroups
As creators of digital user experiences, we must transform complex workflows and tasks into useful applications. Experts have written much about the UX design process as it applies to broad audiences, industry-specific vertical markets, and large corporate user groups. However, as our evolving information economy continues to encourage greater and greater specialization of job roles, there is an increased need for customized applications--digital systems that only a select few people will ever use.
Follett, Jonathan. UXmatters (2007). Design>User Interface>Collaboration
#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
#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
#23511
Bridging the Gap Between Creative and Technical Types
Does a gap between those considered creative types and those considered technical types really exist, or is it just a perception we've fostered?
Torok, Karen. Hanson (2001). Design>Project Management>Collaboration
#14649
Wilkinson explains how to use a project site to manage a Web site project.
Wilkinson, Theresa A. Intercom (2000). Design>Web Design>Collaboration
#21248
Building a Vision of Design Success
A common view of vision is that it's something handed down by a leader to the troops. When a redesign goes awry, the troops complain, 'There was no vision.' But the problem goes deeper than either scenario; the problem is that there was no shared vision.
Wodtke, Christina. Boxes and Arrows (2003). Design>Web Design>Management>Collaboration
#19706
Technical communication courses and training programs often benefit from peer review or group critique. To encourage learning, these activities require a constructive climate: Students must listen to one another, be receptive to feedback, and refrain from reproaches, interpretations, and judgments. Such a positive group spirit is not a given, especially if the school or corporate environment encourages competition more than collaboration. Teachers must foster an appropriate environment if they want their collaborative learning activities to be successful.
Doumont, Jean-luc. Intercom (2003). Articles>Education>Instructional Design>Collaboration
#30721
Charlie Kreitzberg on Web 2.0 and You
This is the recording of the presentation from the Catalyze Community monthly webcast featuring Charlie Kreitzberg on December 13, 2007. Charlie spoke on "Web 2 and You - How Web 2.0 Will Catapult Business Analysts and Usability Professionals into Center Stage" which examined his models for understanding Web 2.0 and explored the vast opportunities for professionals who define and design new software and websites.
Catalyze (2007). Design>Collaboration>User Experience>Web Design
#22085
Choosing an Intranet Project Sponsor
Numerous surveys across a diverse range of IT projects have identified that the lack of support from senior management (project sponsorship) is one of the biggest causes of project failure. This briefing explores the need for a project sponsor, the role they need to play, and how to choose one.
Robertson, James. Step Two (2004). Design>Web Design>Intranets>Collaboration
#26122
I have participated in, led, and suffered major website redesign efforts. Whether at process-heavy consultancies, notable product companies, or design studios, all teams experience the same points of pain: late feedback, lack of common design vision, and complaints that individuals or teams didnt have enough input.
Verhage, Sasha. Boxes and Arrows (2005). Articles>Collaboration>Usability>User Centered Design
#24106
The purpose of this presentation today is to introduce a collaborative design model, to describe the kinds of knowledge resources that can be found in each part of the model, and to introduce a few principles of design thinking that I believe can help us to effectively recognize, create and use knowledge resources in our design activities.
Robertson, Bob. University of Alberta (2003). Design>Collaboration
#26490
Communicating Effectively with Your Web Developer
A rather stressful part of optimizing some sites can be working with a web developer who doesn't understand the importance of search engine friendly design. Sometimes these developers can be frustrating or keep you from getting your work done right. This article contains a number of thing to keep in mind and to avoid when working in these situations.
Sullivan Cassidy, Jennifer. SEOchat (2005). Articles>Web Design>Collaboration
#19449
Compound Mediation in Software Development: Using Genre Ecologies to Study Textual Artifacts
Traditionally, technical communicators have seen the texts that they produce -- manuals, references, instructions -- as 'bridging' or mediating between a worker and her tool. But field studies of workers indicate that the mediational relationship is much more complicated: Workers often draw simultaneously upon many different textual artifacts to mediate their work, including not only the official genres produced by technical communicators manuals but also ad hoc notes, comments, and improvisational drawings produced by the workers themselves. In this chapter, I theorize these instances of compound mediatiation by drawing on activity theory and genre theory. I describe an analytical framework, that of genre ecologies, that can be used to systematically investigate compound mediation within and across groups of workers. Unlike other analytical frameworks that have been used in studies of technology (such as distributed cognition's functional systems and contextual design's work models), the genre ecology framework highlights the interpretive and cultural-historical aspects of compound mediation that are so important in understanding the use of textual artifacts. The analytical framework is illustrated by an observational study of how 22 software developers in a global corporation used various textual artifacts to mediate their software development work.
Spinuzzi, Clay. WAC Clearinghouse (2002). Design>Collaboration>Software
#23204
Discussion of a variety of TC software platforms.
CPTec GmbH. (German) Resources>Collaboration>Information Design
#25893
Creating the Perfect Design Brief
Makes the case that well-crafted design briefs can help change the perception of design from a service to a core business resource.
Phillips, Peter L. Graphics.com (2005). Design>Collaboration
#22144
Customer Partnering: Data Gathering for Complex Online Documentation 
Technical communicators today must document complex applications used in complex environments. Information about users and use models is important under these conditions, especially if documentation will be presented online. Customer partnering, a method of information gathering that supplements surveys, contextual inquiries, usability testing, and interviews, provides a way of involving the users of complex applications in the design of information delivery systems. We used this method to help a client gather important information about user and use models and design a new information library for complex server computer systems.
Hackos, JoAnn T., Molly Hammar and Arthur Elser. ComTech Services (1997). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design>Collaboration
#21829
Mavericks need not apply. In Web design, you have to collaborate.
Giordan, Daniel. Adobe Magazine (2000). Careers>Web Design>Collaboration
#14041
Design Case: Building Community in a Design Effort in a Decentralized, Individualistic Setting 
WebFeat is a web development effort by about 40 students, faculty and staff in the College of Engineering at the University of Washington. In this design environment, the challenges of building community among the members of the design team are substantial. We devised a suite of tools and processes designed to foster a sense of community and participation in the development process, as well as to lay the groundwork for participatory maintenance of the site in the future.
Ramey, Judith A. and David K. Farkas. Symposium on Designing Interactive Systems (1997). Design>Web Design>Collaboration>Participatory Design
#25883
What is your understanding of the dynamics of the Client/Creative relationship? I've heard lots of opinions and countless complaints, but in all my wanderings, I have yet to find a good, non-legalese consensus of what we should expect of each other.
Chuck Green. Ideabook.com (2005). Design>Collaboration
#10306
Design Teams and the Web: A Collaborative Model for the Workplace 
Formal corporate models that standardize collaborative processes into rigid templates and flow charts can actually become anti-collaborative and isolate team members from each other. This divisionary effect is particularly problematic for World Wide Web hypertexts, which often require on-going, dynamic collaborations between professionals with diverse specializations. In this article, we examine collaborative processes through theory and two Web project team interactions: one that reflects a failed formal process model, and one that represents a more successful dialogic model. Because dialogic models are non-formal and inherently adaptable, they are thus stronger process models for collaboration, particularly for Web design projects.
Wambeam, Cynthia A. and Robert Kramer. Technical Communication Online (1996). Design>Web Design>Collaboration
#31976
Interaction design for new technological environments relies on the tradition of human-computer interaction (HCI). With roots in the 1980s, HCI design paradigms often reflect the setting in which the user is an office worker in front of a desktop computer. As computational power can now be embedded in almost any type of product, the desktop setting has lost much of its relevance as a starting point for interface design. In particular, interfaces for wearable computing challenge designers to look for completely new approaches to interaction design. In this article, we propose a method in which the ideas for new creative forms of interaction design are triggered through panel work. This method draws on an underpinning theoretical framework from structural semiotics that emphasizes the holistic nature of design.
Pirhonen, Antti and Emma Murphy. Visual Communication (2008). Articles>Collaboration>Interaction Design
#14659
Desktop Videoconferencing--State of the Art
Archee assesses the current state of DTV technology.
Archee, Raymond K. Intercom (2000). Design>Collaboration>Teleconferencing>Videoconferencing
#22793
Developing a Document Planning Template
Explains how a document planning template can establish consensus among team members regarding content and layout.
Tremmel, Martina A. Intercom (2004). Articles>Document Design>Document Design>Collaboration
#28513
Early and Often: How to Avoid the Design Revision Death Spiral
One lesson we've learned over the past several years here at Cooper is that on the vast majority of our projects, intimate client collaboration is a critical ingredient for success. This is a lesson that we have sometimes learned the hard way; collaboration can be messy, unpredictable and has often forced us to compromise what we thought was a supremely clear and elegant vision.
Cronin, Dave. uiGarden (2007). Design>Web Design>Redesign>Collaboration
#28800
Who decides what's best for a website? Highly skilled professionals who work with the site's users and serve as their advocates? Or schmucks with money? Most often, it's the latter. That's why a web designer's first job is to educate the people who hold the purse strings.
Diffily, Shane. List Apart, A (2007). Articles>Web Design>Collaboration
