#20609
Most information on the World Wide Web is gathered in short reference documents that are intended to be read nonsequentially. This is particularly true of sites whose contents are mostly technical or administrative documents. Long before the Web was invented, technical writers discovered that readers appreciate short 'chunks' of information that can be located and scanned quickly.
Lynch, Patrick J. and Sarah Horton. Yale University (1999). Design>Web Design>Information Design>Writing
#23890
Dopo aver esplorato i principali modelli di classificazione elaborati dalla biblioteconomia, l'articolo si sofferma sulla classificazione a faccette (Faceted Classification), illustrandone le possibili applicazioni al web e i gli indubbi vantaggi che ne derivano.
Marino, Vittorio. AIB (2004). (Italian) Design>Web Design>Information Design
#18171
Complexity Theory as a Way of Understanding our Role in the World-Wide Web
Complexity theory offers a way of understanding our role within the World Wide Web. Postulating a rhetorical object based on object-oriented analysis and design, we can harness a number of ideas from complexity theory to gain a new perspective on the Web. This paper reviews a number of complexity ideas that may help technical communicators grapple with the exponential growth in the volume of inter-related and interacting rhetorical objects on the Web, viewing the rhetorical situation as the result of the law of increasing returns, which has brought us through a phase transition to a new environment, with its own emergent properties, creating new roles for writers, and new work for managers.
Price, Jonathan R. Communication Circle, The (1999). Articles>Information Design>Theory>Web Design
#30228
Connectors for Dashboards and Portals
The building block system includes several types of Connectors that make it possible for designers and architects to link the different areas of a Dashboard together via a consistent, easily understandable navigation model. The system also ensures the resulting information architecture can grow in response to changing needs and content. There's no special stacking hierarchy for the Connectors. However, they do have an official stacking size (most are size 3) in order to keep Dashboards constructed with the building blocks internally consistent.
Lamantia, Joe. Boxes and Arrows (2007). Articles>Web Design>Information Design
#29443
Not all content is created equal. In fact, the real issue isn't the primacy of content, since no user in their right mind will come to stare at a blank screen labeled Me.com; the real issue is what type of content you're offering.
Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Geoff-Hart.com (2001). Design>Web Design>Information Design
#28342
After ensuring that content is useful, well-written, and in a format that is suitable for the Web, it is important to ensure that the information is clearly organized. In some cases, the content on a site can be organized in multiple ways to accommodate multiple audiences. Organizing content includes putting critical information near the top of the site, grouping related elements, and ensuring that all necessary information is available without slowing the user with unneeded information. Content should be formatted to facilitate scanning, and to enable quick understanding.
Usability.gov (2006). Design>Information Design>Web Design>Writing
#28853
With the growing popularity of Web 2.0, a new data interchange format called JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is emerging as a useful way to represent data in the business logic running on browsers. Learn how PHP-based server programs can convert XML-formatted enterprise application data into JSON format before sending it to browser applications.
Nathan, Senthil, Edward J Pring and John Morar. IBM (2007). Design>Web Design>Information Design>Ajax
#23628
Creating a Template for a Large Web Site: the U.S. EPAWeb Branding Experience 
Staff at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency created a template then steadily converted Web pages to achieve a 'corporate face' for www.EPA.gov, the Agency's Internet site. Management and maintenance of Agency Web pages rests among the technical subject matter and administrative experts within headquarters, program, and regional offices and laboratories – rather than centralized. Template design, deployment and conversion involved many employees and contractors nationwide, and took almost one year. As of February 1, more than 90% of EPA's Internet pages comply with the template, and staff continue improvements to the Agency's public Web resources.
Ellis, Leonid 'Lee'. STC Proceedings (2003). Design>Web Design>Information Design
#20240
The Curse of Information Design
Information Architecture may be good for the web business, but Cohen thinks it is killing the web's subtler creative values.
Cohen, Scott Jason. List Apart, A (2001). Design>Web Design>Information Design
#21044
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
#21016
Deferred Hypertext: The Virtues of Delayed Gratification
Navigating a full browsing session to find information can be unpleasant and slow, particularly on mobile devices. Instead, issue a deferred request and have the information arrive later, as done by some SMS systems.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2001). Design>Web Design>Information Design
#21566
Defining Web Site Architecture
What is Web site architecture? It means laying out or grouping any similar areas of a Web site. In a re-design project for my former company, I realized the importance of site architecture and navigation when I contacted the Customer Service departments and discovered that an average of thirty-five calls a day were from the Internet users. Most of those calls were about confusing page layouts and navigation procedures (users did not understand the current navigational system). I determined that by redesigning the site architecture and navigational system, we could reduce the customer service calls by 50%, thus saving the company an estimated $30,000 per year.
Leonard-Wilkinson, Theresa A. W-edge Design (1999). Design>Web Design>Information Design
#23889
Depth vs. Breadth in the Arrangement of Web Links
The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of depth and breadth of web site structure on the user response time.
Mtei, Lianaeli and Panayiotis Zaphiris. University of Maryland (1997). Design>Web Design>Information Design
#18310
The Design and Evaluation of Interactivities in a Digital Library
The US National Science Foundation has established a program to create a National Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology Education Digital Library (NSDL). One of the subsidiary NSDL libraries under development is the National Civil Engineering Educational Resources Library (NCERL). The first phase of NCERL is the creation and collection of digital resources in three areas of civil engineering—geotechnical (soil), rock, and water engineering (GROW). The concept of interactivities guides the design, development, and evaluation efforts of the GROW digital collection. This article describes the salient features of GROW, defines and discusses interactivities as an emerging, integral part of teaching and learning in civil engineering education. Interactivities take place at three distinct levels: the information resource, the collection, and the context. Very simply, the concept of interactivities can be defined as the emphasis on structured representations of interactive multimedia resources. Additionally, resources are designed with rich learning tasks and organized in pedagogical collections supplemented with contextual information. Preliminary evaluation of GROW-NCERL using interactivities is briefly described.
Budhu, Muniram and Anita Coleman. D-Lib Magazine (2002). Design>Web Design>Information Design>Multimedia
#10552
On my flight from Los Angeles to Hamburg I read in the Zeit, a well established German newspaper, that a major TV channel now from time to time displays a small BMW Z3 racing over the screen regardless of the underlying program or commercial. Despite the toy-like character of this idea, being part of a national advertising campaign, it can easily be identified as a 'TV-banner.' Very alien in the first place, not only because of the potential random competitive conflicts, it illustrates to what extent the perception of television has changed, and not only in the US. Taking a closer look at broadcast design one can see the influence of the web aesthetics in many places and can already assume the layer that will be used for graphics on the surface of the screen. Convergence happens not only on a technological level but also in terms of appearance. The idea that the mass-medium broadcast fuses with the web-connected personal computer is commonly referred to as convergence, and is becoming widespread.
Jenett, Daniel. Digital Web Magazine (2000). Design>Information Design>Web Design
#19749
Design Patterns: An Evolutionary Step to Managing Complex Sites
When your organization's web site or intranet has hundreds of contributors, how do you ensure that every page is high quality and extremely usable? Especially, if these contributors have never designed a web page before? This is a problem that many of our clients are facing and they've tried a myriad of solutions, such as centralized approval processes, standardized templates, and style guides, all without success. However, the one solution that really excites us is now gaining a lot of attention -- design patterns.
Spool, Jared M. User Interface Engineering. Design>Web Design>Information Design
#14200
Designing A New Information Architecture: An interview with Peter Merholz of Adaptive Path
Last year, Adaptive Path, working with interactive media agency Lot21, took on a challenging project -- the redesign of three PeopleSoft sites. The redesign involved over 40,000 pages as well as 40 divergent opinions from stakeholders! After four and a half months, the site's information architecture and navigation were transformed to the accolades of both PeopleSoft and their users. We recently interviewed Peter about this project.
User Interface Engineering (2002). Design>Information Design>Web Design
#11892
Designing for Multiple Audiences
Current literature tells web designers to determine who their primary users are, then design the website for that group. However, in many cases a website must serve multiple audiences with very different needs. This article explores a few options that web designers have in creating a website that meets the needs of multiple audiences.
Riebeek, Holli. EServer (2001). Design>Information Design>Web Design>Personalization
#22497
Designing Navigable Information Spaces
Currently, computer users are 'lost in hyperspace:' they have difficulty knowing where they are and locating the information they desire. To remedy this, information should be situated in an information space that enables people to explore knowledge in the same way they navigate in the physical environment. This thesis will enumerate a set of principles to guide information space design, enabling designers to create effective information spaces. The design principles fall into three categories: communication principles, which inform the spatial organization of information; wayfinding principles, which structure the space to allow successful navigation; and computational principles, which use the computational nature of digital media to enhance the information space. Two information spaces designed using these principles are presented and analyzed.
Foltz, Mark and Randall Davis. MIT (2001). Design>Web Design>Information Design
#23076
Even with the best possible design of any single page, your site will fail to attract visitors if not equipped with a neat, consistent, and intuitive navigational interface. This article addresses the main issues designers confront when building effective navigation tools.
Kirsanov, Dmitri. WebRef (1997). Design>Web Design>Information Design
#13357
Designing Web Ads Using Click-Through Data
Search engine ads are one type of Web advertising that can actually work. To create the best ads, do quick experiments and redesign ads based on usability principles for online writing. Doing so helped us increase ad click-through by 55 to 310 percent.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2002). Design>Web Design>Information Design>Usability
#23115
Developing and Creatively Leveraging Hierarchical Metadata and Taxonomy
In content metadata and hierarchies, you will often find a goldmine of implicit and explicit data that you can leverage to creatively contextualize content. After a brief introduction on taxonomy and metadata, this article focuses on finding and utilizing such relationships in hierarchies.
Ricci, Christian. Boxes and Arrows (2004). Design>Web Design>Information Design>Metadata
#20895
Wireframes: At once a singular composition and a collaborative expression, communicating the vision of both an individual and a team. As a result, they can be stacked with an enormous amount of detail. Are we becoming victims of information pollution in our own wireframes?
Danzico, Liz. Boxes and Arrows (2003). Design>Information Design>Web Design
#30013
Devilish Details: Best Practices in Web Design
Visual and interaction design for successful e-commerce Web sites and Web-based applications requires meticulous attention to detail. Because the smallest matters can ruin the user experience, an orderly process--such as usage-centered design--guided by robust principles is needed; iterative testing and repetitive redesign is inadequate to find and address all the diverse matters needing attention. This paper reviews basic principles and then surveys best practices in the detailed aspects of Web design in three broad areas: details of architecture or organization, details of interaction design, and details relating to commercial activity, especially shopping. Specific recommendations in each area are offered as examples of best practices based on usage-centered principles.
Constantine, Larry L. Constantine and Lockwood (2003). Design>Web Design>Information Design>Interaction Design
#24770
Disease Classification and the Organization of Large-Scale Web Sites 
The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) has been employed by the world's public health officials to chart the nature, frequency, and geographic origins of diseases and causes of death in human populations since the late nineteenth century. The ICD has been modified every decade since the 1890s, and a study by Bowker and Star of these changes, in concert with the work of others on the practices employed in information mapping, can be used to better understand the organization of large-scale web sites. Specifically, web designers must adapt classification schemes to fit multiple social worlds. Additionally, we need to understand that these systems can become so entrenched in our thinking that they become "invisible," thus undermining our ability to adapt them as future needs or insights arise.
Applen, J.D. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication (2001). Articles>Information Design>Web Design>Biomedical
