http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Design/Web-Design/Interaction-Design A listing of the most recently indexed works about Design and Web Design and Interaction Design in the field of technical communication. en-us Copyright (c) 2005-08 by the EServer. All rights reserved. tclib-editorial@eserver.org (TC Library Editorial Board) webmaster@eserver.org (Geoffrey Sauer) http://tc.eserver.org/images/newlogo.gif http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Design/Web-Design/Interaction-Design http://tc.eserver.org/35799.html http://tc.eserver.org/35799.html User experience matters in social media are more complicated than in non-social software. For example, the conventional user-centric view starts with user needs and goals. In social media these are not necessarily rational and objective. They can be much more psychological, and social, for example. Furthermore, the interactions that users have are not just with the software application -- they are with other users (through the software). The UI is not an interface to discrete actions and transactions (such as your online banking site); it is a social interface, and through it users feel like they are interacting with friends and audiences. http://tc.eserver.org/35762.html http://tc.eserver.org/35762.html The popular JavaScript library jQuery is an amazing way to extend the design possibilities of your site beyond what CSS can do. But luckily, if you are already comfortable with CSS, you have a huge head start in jQuery! This is a very basic introduction to including jQuery on your web page and getting started writing a few functions. http://tc.eserver.org/35763.html http://tc.eserver.org/35763.html Starting off where we left off last time, we continue exploring the possibilities of jQuery. We revisit some of the old functions and make them do some smarter things. We explore a simple variable and an IF/ELSE statement. Then we look at the AJAX-y .load() function, the CSS function, and then finish off by writing out own custom function and going over how that layer of abstraction can help us keep our code clean. Semantics counts in JavaScript too! http://tc.eserver.org/35764.html http://tc.eserver.org/35764.html This video focuses on taking an already existing idea and code and turning it into a jQuery plugin. In this case it helps keep our code as semantic as it can be, and with JavaScript off, degrades nicely. We cover the syntax of creating a plugin, show off the cool chain-ability of jQuery, and show how to make the plugin versatile and expandable. http://tc.eserver.org/34383.html http://tc.eserver.org/34383.html Ayer os presentaba dos excelentes galerías de proyectos desarrollados en jQuery. Hoy, para no ser menos, vamos a seguir hablando de jQuery. Lo que ahora os presento es una recopilación de 7 sistemas de navegación que nos os dejarán indiferentes. http://tc.eserver.org/33715.html http://tc.eserver.org/33715.html From its inception as a global hypertext system, the Web has evolved into a universal platform for deploying loosely coupled distributed applications. As we move toward the next-generation Web platform, the bulk of user data and applications will reside in the network cloud. Ubiquitous access results from interaction delivered as Web pages augmented by JavaScript to create highly reactive user interfaces. This point in the evolution of the Web is often called Web 2.0. In predicting what comes after Web 2.0--what I call 2^W, a Web that encompasses all Web-addressable information--I go back to the architectural foundations of the Web, analyze the move to Web 2.0, and look forward to what might follow. http://tc.eserver.org/33389.html http://tc.eserver.org/33389.html Think of Web 2.0 as more of a concept than a person, place or thing and you'll find firmer ground. Even better, spend some quality time with O'Reilly's lengthy essay. Finally, keep in mind that the lion's share of Web 2.0 discussion is from a technological perspective; it hasn't yet filtered down to the information architecture, interaction design and similar discussion lists. http://tc.eserver.org/32968.html http://tc.eserver.org/32968.html Every paper and digital document shares three basic dimensions: structure, information and presentation. Although these dimensions are always interwoven, some people in the digital world mostly focus on document structures (e.g. information architects), some on the information they contain (e.g. marketers and writers/editors) while others specialise in the (interactive) presentation aspects (e.g. visual designers and Flash developers). The mutual dependence and interaction of these dimensions is the next level of design and does not regularly get the proper attention. In order to better understand the relationship between these dimensions, we need to look at each of them seperately, and how they inter-relate. http://tc.eserver.org/32707.html http://tc.eserver.org/32707.html Flashmo.com provides FREE flash templates, flash photo gallery, 3D Photo Gallery, 3D thumbnail gallery, free flash intro, flash MP3 player, flash websites or .FLA source files. http://tc.eserver.org/32671.html http://tc.eserver.org/32671.html Learn how easy it is to apply web interaction using jQuery. http://tc.eserver.org/32673.html http://tc.eserver.org/32673.html This episode is revisiting the image cross fade effect, in particular Dragon Interactive has a beautiful little transition for their navigation that some readers have been requesting. Greg Johnson takes it one step further to implement this method using jQuery and the methods shown here. http://tc.eserver.org/32648.html http://tc.eserver.org/32648.html Deep down below the layers of interface, CSS, HTML, and XML—down where only the geekiest among us roam—everything comes down to this: it’s all zeroes and ones. On or off. The digital switch Though interaction and conversion becomes a bit more complicated at the point the interface meets the visitor, though there are a few more shades of gray, in the end it comes down to the same thing: yes or no. http://tc.eserver.org/32630.html http://tc.eserver.org/32630.html A profound change is happening on the cutting-edge of web development: we are relinquishing control of information. No longer are sites working independently from each other; no longer is information sitting in isolation with no interaction between sites. Rather, the best web programmers are now creating sites that allow information to be reused anywhere. http://tc.eserver.org/32598.html http://tc.eserver.org/32598.html Discover a technique that lets you move sections of a Web page using drag-and-drop functions. Different aspects of the interactivity are implemented separately and then composed into a unified whole, allowing for flexible customization that can make your Web users very happy. http://tc.eserver.org/32467.html http://tc.eserver.org/32467.html Abuse has made me seriously consider – several times – disabling comments. I’m ambivalent about it. On the one hand it would make writing and publishing much easier. Write something, proofread it, publish. http://tc.eserver.org/32472.html http://tc.eserver.org/32472.html While exploring the options for traversing JSON, I discovered that there is no official W3C documentation, or even a draft. As a subset of the ECMAScript language specification, it will probably remain under the governance of ECMA International. So unlike XPath, which is a commonly accepted language for traversing XML, JSON must rely on JavaScript’s object notation. http://tc.eserver.org/32390.html http://tc.eserver.org/32390.html Today I’d like to start an article series of three parts, the result of which will be a popout-style, jQuery-based box like the one pictured above, which I think strikes a nice balance on the obtrusion-scale. http://tc.eserver.org/32391.html http://tc.eserver.org/32391.html We're going to take the ad we built last week and animate it, as well as provide the user with a means to open and close the ad. We’ll be using jQuery for most of what we do, so you’ll need to include the jQuery library script at the top of your document for this to work (see the source of the example page to see how this is done). http://tc.eserver.org/32392.html http://tc.eserver.org/32392.html Generating footnotes for HTML documents in the past was always a slow, painful task — and every time I did it, I wondered why there wasn’t a better, easier way. Today, I’m happy to announce that I’ve come up with a better solution to web footnotes using the jQuery JavaScript framework and a few tags and attributes that already exist in XHTML. http://tc.eserver.org/32415.html http://tc.eserver.org/32415.html Today’s tutorial will show you how to hide away extra bits of content using CSS and JavaScript, to be revealed at the click of a button. This is a great technique, because displaying the additional content doesn’t require a refresh or navigation to a new page and all your content is still visible to search engine bots that don’t pay any attention to CSS or JavaScript. http://tc.eserver.org/32286.html http://tc.eserver.org/32286.html This article considers a neglected but crucial aspect of the new business of mobile interactivity: the premium rate data services industry. It provides an international anatomy of this industry model and the ways in which it has been used to capitalize upon the surprising success of short message service (SMS) to provide a basis for the development of consumer markets for mobile data services. It situates this analysis within a wider consideration of the role of premium rate culture in the social shaping of interactivity in convergent media. Specifically, it looks at how premium rate services are being constructed in relation to telecommunications, television and the internet. The article concludes that although premium rate culture has rejuvenated innovation in broadcast television, potentially it may constrain the interactive potential of the mobile internet. http://tc.eserver.org/32238.html http://tc.eserver.org/32238.html I recently conducted a study into the helpfulness (or lack thereof) of zebra striping—the shading of alternate rows in a table or form. The study measured performance as users completed a series of tasks and found no statistically significant improvement in accuracy—and very little statistically significant improvement in speed when zebra stripes were implemented. http://tc.eserver.org/32063.html http://tc.eserver.org/32063.html I am not going to insult your intellence and try to teach you how to use Adobe Flex because frankly, I am just learning. Over the past few months, every major project and intitiative I’ve heard about has components built using Adobe Flex. With the emergence of Flash as a usable technology and ActionScript as a top notch coding language, Adobe Flex has quickly become the hottest new tool in ubertrendy web development circles. http://tc.eserver.org/31957.html http://tc.eserver.org/31957.html Somewhere in between presenting static information graphics and complex, interactive data dashboards there’s a need for a way to visualize moderately dynamic data on the web. Oftentimes the solutions you see implemented are clunky, for example, manually creating multiple frames of various data points and uploading them by hand. http://tc.eserver.org/31917.html http://tc.eserver.org/31917.html User interface designers have more interactive options than ever for presenting content. So, we can make meaningful strides toward offering users the right content in the right place, at the right time, in the right amount. However, these rich options for interactively presenting content also come with a challenge. http://tc.eserver.org/31778.html http://tc.eserver.org/31778.html We humans are wired to seek interaction with other people. Complex language and reasoning powers support your interactive nature. Your brain can retrieve and store unlimited amounts of information from everyday interactions and use that information to think, analyze, and solve complex problems. http://tc.eserver.org/31641.html http://tc.eserver.org/31641.html To tackle the classic “how to prototype rich interactions” problem, Alexa Andrzejewski developed a process for translating static screen designs (from wireframes to visual comps) into interactive experiences using Flash. Requiring some fairly basic ActionScript knowledge, these prototypes proved to be a quick yet powerful way to bring interaction designs to life. http://tc.eserver.org/31488.html http://tc.eserver.org/31488.html In this podcast, Noz Urbina talks about how Web 2.0 is changing the role of the technical communicator into one who drives product R&D and interaction design. The interview covers how the role of the technical communicator has evolved into a diversity of roles; how awareness of user needs and requirements allows technical communicators to get involved in product R&D and user interaction design; and how implementing a backwards flow of data from hundreds of internal and external users changes the role of a technical writer to one who aggregates, synthesizes, and ensures quality rather than one who merely writes. http://tc.eserver.org/30224.html http://tc.eserver.org/30224.html AJAX stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. AJAX has recently been gaining attention as a way to make web applications more interactive. While it can reduce apparent latency between user interaction and application response, it can cause user interface, maintainability, and accessibility issues. http://tc.eserver.org/30046.html http://tc.eserver.org/30046.html Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is designed to allow access to the Internet on a mobile phone. Attempts to explain its limited success have focused on attitudinal and cognitive reasons for non-use, finding that although people recognize the benefits of WAP, issues like lack of content, privacy concerns, and reference group behavior account for non-use. Such explanations have also been incomplete in that they have not addressed problems related to actual use and interaction with the technology. Our article studies the use of WAP as situated action. We focus on how users make sense of WAP pages and how they disambiguate in situ the responses from the service, i.e., new pages and new menus. Our method of transcribing videos of WAP use following the conventions of conversation analysis offers a cost-effective tool for understanding user interaction with technology and provides useful implications for design. http://tc.eserver.org/30013.html http://tc.eserver.org/30013.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/29991.html http://tc.eserver.org/29991.html Dynamic HTML can be used inventively in many ways. Here's a simple way in which tables and DHTML can be used together to provide a menu function. The technique may be used in a frameset, but to keep things simple, we are going to use the table to control 'targets' in an inline frame (or IFRAME). http://tc.eserver.org/29982.html http://tc.eserver.org/29982.html One of the little known features of DHTML, at least within Internet Explorer 5.5 or above, is an attribute known as contentEditable. This attribute can be used to make areas of text within a Web page editable by the user. This is very different from a form element, such as a text box, as contentEditable can make a table cell, or a standard paragraph editable. http://tc.eserver.org/28920.html http://tc.eserver.org/28920.html Amid the current hype of Web 2.0, rich has become the de facto buzzword suggesting fresh, sexy digital products, often marked by glossy buttons with AJAX-driven behaviors. But what does rich mean to a UI (user interface) designer who wants to craft intelligent, compelling, and memorable interactions? Given current digital and technological trends, today's UI designers must deepen their understanding of richness. Such an effort will strengthen designers' vocabularies (adding legitimacy and weight to client discussions), and enable designers to temper judgment when it comes to applying rich capabilities. http://tc.eserver.org/28465.html http://tc.eserver.org/28465.html Ajax, which consists of HTML, JavaScript™ technology, DHTML, and DOM, is an outstanding approach that helps you transform clunky Web interfaces into interactive Ajax applications. The author, an Ajax expert, demonstrates how these technologies work together -- from an overview to a detailed look -- to make extremely efficient Web development an easy reality. He also unveils the central concepts of Ajax, including the XMLHttpRequest object. http://tc.eserver.org/28413.html http://tc.eserver.org/28413.html One of the most fundamental factors in designing for screen-based media is: No-one likes looking at a computer screen. http://tc.eserver.org/28245.html http://tc.eserver.org/28245.html Where did the term interaction design come from? What exactly does it mean? And what do the people who call themselves interaction designers actually do? http://tc.eserver.org/28223.html http://tc.eserver.org/28223.html Web 2.0 defines a second phase of development of websites, its architecture and its functionality. http://tc.eserver.org/28204.html http://tc.eserver.org/28204.html There has certainly been a great deal of speculation lately regarding the real or perceived rise of Chinese industrial design. We say 'perceived rise' to emphasize that their impending world domination in this field is not a foregone conclusion, despite the frequent flurries of listserve chatter and design-conference panel discussions supporting such a notion. http://tc.eserver.org/28037.html http://tc.eserver.org/28037.html Language is a unique communication system and fundamental to the survival of human beings. Story telling is a very old method to describe the facts, to spread knowledge, to share our experiences and feelings. A good story can be accepted and stored by our brain instantly, and leaving a long term effect on us. At the same time, it is also easy for people to understand and accept new facts and imagine similar scenarios as they happen in their own lives. In the following paragraph, let's examine why Interaction Design is story telling. http://tc.eserver.org/27969.html http://tc.eserver.org/27969.html During our recent Virtual Seminar on home page design, several people asked about whether it makes a difference if links are underlined or not. It's a good question and one we get frequently. http://tc.eserver.org/27900.html http://tc.eserver.org/27900.html The main focus of this article is related to the forms of mediated content that are offered in online space. Two specific aspects of new cyber-textuality are discussed--the notion of hypertextuality and the potential of interactivity. Both characteristics are understood as new challenges that reflect specific communication potentials of the internet. In an empirical sense, the article tries to show the extent these significant forms of mediation are used in online media news. For this reason a comparison between media content in print and online media has been made. The findings reveal the lack of interactivity in practice and explore its diversity as a communication form between media producers and reader. Regarding the hypertextuality, the analysis shows the complexity of this concept, which in the realm of news media online is still maturing. http://tc.eserver.org/27745.html http://tc.eserver.org/27745.html Discover three Ajax data transport mechanisms (XMLHttp, script tags, and frames or iframes) and their relative strengths and weaknesses. This tutorial provides code for both the server side and the client side and explains it in detail to provide the techniques you need to put efficient Ajax controls anywhere you need them. http://tc.eserver.org/27718.html http://tc.eserver.org/27718.html It is often difficult to find the cursor when a web site is navigated using the keyboard. Where is the active link? With CSS the author of a web page can adjust how the active link is visualized. Inverted colors are the best way to highlight the active link. http://tc.eserver.org/27621.html http://tc.eserver.org/27621.html This article aims to give you an introduction to the foundations of remote scripting, in particular, the emerging XMLHttpRequest protocol. We'll then walk through an example application that demonstrates how to implement that protocol, while creating a usable interface. http://tc.eserver.org/27626.html http://tc.eserver.org/27626.html When they’re navigating through a long document, users often are confused or disoriented when they click a link that jumps to another location in that same document. http://tc.eserver.org/27630.html http://tc.eserver.org/27630.html XML is a very important base on which Web Services work, and, in conjunction with a number of client- and server-side languages, can be put to good effect. Let's see how we can use XML and client side JavaScript to display the contents of a XML file, access child elements, manipulate elements, and more! http://tc.eserver.org/27627.html http://tc.eserver.org/27627.html It’s no secret that over the last few years DHTML has been used almost exclusively for evil purposes. Users associate the technology with intrusive advertisements and error-prone pages, while developers associate it with browser detection and hideous hacks. http://tc.eserver.org/27620.html http://tc.eserver.org/27620.html AJAX opens up enormous possibilities for Web applications simply by allowing HTTP requests to be made in the background asynchronously (while other scripts on the page run and other user activity continues). http://tc.eserver.org/27555.html http://tc.eserver.org/27555.html One of the primary aspects of effective web experiences is interactivity. Although most Flash developers will try to state otherwise, the reality of the fact is that the majority of non-standard interactivity, that is interactivity beyond what the broswer provides automatically, is driven by JavaScript. Over the last few years the acceptance of both standards and some new JavaScript technologies such as XMLHttpRequest, or AJAX to the masses, has opened up a whole new realm of possibilites that have helped to bring JavaScript back into the mainstream focus as an important and leading-edge technology. The purpose of this series of articles is to introduce newcomers to the concepts and fundamentals of JavaScript, so that you can begin to leverage the power of this technology in your own web projects. http://tc.eserver.org/27559.html http://tc.eserver.org/27559.html If your Flash efforts need to go on some sort of weight loss program, here's a good place to start. http://tc.eserver.org/27557.html http://tc.eserver.org/27557.html Have you ever had to write a large amount of text into a field on an HTML form and been uncertain of just how reliable your spelling skills are? Wouldn't it be nice if HTML forms, like most other applications, had one of those handy little 'Spell Check' buttons? In this article we'll look at how easy it is to implement this functionality using a PHP/JavaScript solution called Speller Pages. http://tc.eserver.org/27558.html http://tc.eserver.org/27558.html When you start using After Effects, there will come a time when you look at the presets and think, 'Gosh, I am bored with these.' That will be the point where you discover Adobe has a wonderful sense of humor and you start using the Wiggler. In the text options, on the timeline, the Wiggly selector can be added to a chunk of text to randomize the values of any of the properties associated with that group. That description may sound rather formal, but when it comes to adding effects, randomness can lead to some happy surprises. Essentially you can have text bend, move, blur, spin, and so on by simply giving it some parameters for the effect. http://tc.eserver.org/27552.html http://tc.eserver.org/27552.html Put a new shine on your web applications. Tired of clunky web interfaces and waiting around for a page to reload? Well, it’s about time to give your web apps that pine-scented desktop application feel. What are we talking about? Just the newest thing to hit the Web: Ajax—asynchronous JavaScript and XML—and your ticket to building rich Internet applicationsthat are more interactive,responsive, and easy to use. So, grab your trial-size Ajax,included with every copy of Head Rush Ajax:we’re about to put some polish on your web apps. http://tc.eserver.org/27443.html http://tc.eserver.org/27443.html Progressive disclosure is an interaction design technique that sequences information and actions across several screens in order to reduce feelings of overwhelm for the user. By disclosing information progressively, you reveal only the essentials and help the user manage the complexity of feature-rich sites or applications. Progressive disclosure follows the typical notion of moving from 'abstract to specific'; only it may mean sequencing interactions and not necessarily level of detail (information). In other words, progressive disclosure is not just about displaying abstract then specific information, but rather about 'ramping up' the user from simple to more complex actions. http://tc.eserver.org/27258.html http://tc.eserver.org/27258.html Wie zich onder de eerste lichting world wide web-surfers bevond rond 1994, toen de eerste NetScape-browser de Mosaic-browser vervangen had, kan zich waarschijnlijk herinneren dat webpagina's uit niet veel meer bestonden dan tekst met hyperlinks en een lullig patroontje als achtergrond. Er werd nauwlijks gebruik gemaakt van visuele elementen. Helaas kwam daar snel een eind aan. http://tc.eserver.org/27052.html http://tc.eserver.org/27052.html The page-reload cycle presents one of the biggest usability obstacles in Web application development and is a serious challenge for Java™ developers. In this series, author Philip McCarthy introduces a groundbreaking approach to creating dynamic Web application experiences. Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is a programming technique that lets you combine Java technologies, XML, and JavaScript for Java-based Web applications that break the page-reload paradigm. http://tc.eserver.org/27051.html http://tc.eserver.org/27051.html Ajax, which consists of HTML, JavaScript™ technology, DHTML, and DOM, is an outstanding approach that helps you transform clunky Web interfaces into interactive Ajax applications. The author, an Ajax expert, demonstrates how these technologies work together -- from an overview to a detailed look -- to make extremely efficient Web development an easy reality. He also unveils the central concepts of Ajax, including the XMLHttpRequest object. http://tc.eserver.org/27050.html http://tc.eserver.org/27050.html Most Web applications use a request/response model that gets an entire HTML page from the server. The result is a back-and-forth that usually involves clicking a button, waiting for the server, clicking another button, and then waiting some more. With Ajax and the XMLHttpRequest object, you can use a request/response model that never leaves users waiting for a server to respond. In this article, Brett McLaughlin shows you how to create XMLHttpRequest instances in a cross-browser way, construct and send requests, and respond to the server. http://tc.eserver.org/27018.html http://tc.eserver.org/27018.html Recently, there has been a lot of talk about Rich Internet Applications (RIAs), how they work, and how to choose the appropriate RIA technology. Unfortunately, so far, we've had few discussions about the value of RIAs to users and how RIA technologies let us create better, more usable Web applications. http://tc.eserver.org/26778.html http://tc.eserver.org/26778.html Interaction modeling is a good way to identify and locate usability issues with the use of a tool. Several methods exist. Modeling techniques are prescriptive in that they aim to capture what users will likely do, and not descriptive of what users actually did. http://tc.eserver.org/26674.html http://tc.eserver.org/26674.html To you who are toiling over an AJAX- and Ruby-powered social software product, good luck, God bless, and have fun. Remember that 20 other people are working on the same idea. http://tc.eserver.org/26641.html http://tc.eserver.org/26641.html Despite posing well-known risks, websites continue to feature poorly designed scrollbars. Among the ongoing problems that result are frustrated users, accessibility challenges, and missed content. http://tc.eserver.org/25547.html http://tc.eserver.org/25547.html Teach your smart little menus to do the DHTML dropdown dance without sacrificing semantics, accessibility, or standards compliance or writing clunky code. http://tc.eserver.org/24549.html http://tc.eserver.org/24549.html When users visit your web site, their immediate impression of its credibility is based on appearance, colors, text fonts. Then, as they explore your site, other factors contribute to its credibility impact. Lose users here, and they probably will never return. http://tc.eserver.org/24522.html http://tc.eserver.org/24522.html The vast majority of web sites commit usability and design violations that make it hard for users to find relevant content and functions. These problems are not difficult to diagnose or remedy. How many of these "user crimes" is your web site guilty of committing? http://tc.eserver.org/24342.html http://tc.eserver.org/24342.html Interactive information units (IIUs) are online, interactive HTML documents that modify their content based on user input. You can use IIUs to document tasks that are not performed frequently enough to merit a wizard and are too complex for traditional documentation. Content is essential in IIUs and appearance varies. You can provide interactive function with a variety of languages. HTML makes production faster and cost efficient. The Internet makes updating transparent. IIUs are just another example of a great idea brought about by new technology. http://tc.eserver.org/24107.html http://tc.eserver.org/24107.html In the digital environment, human presence leaves no trace; every user of an electronic collection is in effect an isolated user. Some researchers in computer interface design have suggested that a useful strategy for reducing this isolation might be to provide a means for a collection to retain an interaction history. If the system creates and makes accessible a record of activity, subsequent users may be able to derive meaning from the record. One well-known implementation of this strategy is in the amazon.com lists of books that were also bought by people who bought the book currently shown. This strategy holds promise for a wider implementation, and is particularly promising as a tool for interfaces designed for information browsing, where user structuring of the items represented can be a significant indication of how they have interpreted the collection. Issues include the role of intention in communication – clearly purchasers at amazon.com are not buying books primarily to create a message for subsequent users – and the significant effects of presuppositions in any communication process – subsequent users must assume that previous buyers were not collecting a set of "worst books" on the topic. Drawing on previous research on interaction histories, as well as Suchman's ideas on situated activity and the phenomenological approach to interface design proposed by Winograd and Flores, this paper examines the means by which interaction histories might be designed specifically to play a role as a communication tool between users of full-prospect browsing interfaces to electronic document collections. http://tc.eserver.org/23998.html http://tc.eserver.org/23998.html We get a lot of email from students and usability professionals asking how one goes about becoming an interaction designer, and what background one needs to get into the field. What are good interaction design programs? What real-world skills and experience are required? What, exactly, do interaction designers do on a day-to-day basis? http://tc.eserver.org/23844.html http://tc.eserver.org/23844.html We stand poised to dive into the new year. What will 2003 hold for the profession known as 'what we do' and its children, information architecture, usability, interaction design, interface design, and graphic design? We asked our authors to hazard a guess. http://tc.eserver.org/23517.html http://tc.eserver.org/23517.html Lean UI development in Feature Driven Development is achieved through right-first-time implementation of the interaction designer's intent using David Harel's Statechart notation to model the interaction design. http://tc.eserver.org/23279.html http://tc.eserver.org/23279.html Use cases are widely used in large projects to capture the functional requirements of software systems. In the hands of interaction designers, use cases can serve as a powerful tool for brainstorming workflows and bridging the gaps between design and development. http://tc.eserver.org/23291.html http://tc.eserver.org/23291.html The reason why Visio is the favourite prototyping tool of many interaction designers is because of its ready-made interface objects, you can drag-and-drop onto pages and its ability to link pages together and export them as web pages. But what distinguishes Visio from other prototyping tools is its use of layered backgrounds. http://tc.eserver.org/23075.html http://tc.eserver.org/23075.html The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of depth and breadth of web site structure on the user response time. http://tc.eserver.org/22463.html http://tc.eserver.org/22463.html Ever wondered what makes some websites easier to use than others, or why some people seem to master new navigation systems quickly while others struggle to learn? Do you know why users get lost in electronic space or find it difficult to communicate with others through the medium of technology? These questions are just some of the driving forces behind research in the developing field of Human Computer Interaction. http://tc.eserver.org/21727.html http://tc.eserver.org/21727.html First came the primordial soup. Thousands of relatively simple single-celled web sites appeared on the scene, and each one was quickly claimed by a multi-functional organism called a "webmaster." A symbiotic relationship quickly became apparent. Webmaster fed web site. Web site got bigger and more important. So did the role of the webmaster. Life was good. Then, bad things started to happen. The size and complexity and importance of the web sites began to spiral out of control. Mutations started cropping up. Strange new organisms with names like interaction designer, usability engineer, customer experience analyst, and information architect began competing with the webmaster and each other for responsibilities and rewards. Equilibrium had been punctuated and we entered the current era of rapid speciation and specialization. http://tc.eserver.org/21612.html http://tc.eserver.org/21612.html La interacción en un elemento clave en la adquisición de conocimiento. Depende básicamente de dos factores: tiempo y control. En el artículo anterior hablamos del primero. En éste consideramos la importancia del control y las técnicas para llevarlo a cabo. http://tc.eserver.org/21553.html http://tc.eserver.org/21553.html I recently ran into a fellow STC member, Jennifer Square, in the elevator of a large company where I am contracting. We didn't have much time to catch up, so Jennifer e-mailed me later. Her e-mail signature contained an intriguing new job title: interaction designer. I had heard of interaction design but had never known anyone who actually did the work. I wondered what disciplines it encompassed. Was it just something that all good Web designers did anyway, unconsciously? How did it differ from information architecture? Did I do this in my job without realizing it? Was it something I could list on my résumé? In this column, I will define interaction design by comparing it to information architecture, a related field. http://tc.eserver.org/21554.html http://tc.eserver.org/21554.html Rather than focusing on how the site looks, interaction designers are primarily concerned with how an application or Web site functions. They investigate whether the application or Web site performs the intended task in a predictable manner. Interaction design incorporates a lot of skills from other disciplines, such as technical writing and information architecture. http://tc.eserver.org/21338.html http://tc.eserver.org/21338.html On the second Tuesday of every month, BayCHI, the Bay Area chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery's (ACM) special interest group on Computer-Human Interaction convenes. Brad Lauster shares his impressions of the discussion with Alan Cooper and the nature of Interaction Design. http://tc.eserver.org/21332.html http://tc.eserver.org/21332.html Well-designed interactive products allow people and technology to carry on a complex and elegant dance relying on multiple, simultaneous forms of communication. A new 12-part series will discuss the activity of interaction design as it relates to the Web, and the relative advantages and disadvantages of the Web as an interactive medium. http://tc.eserver.org/20775.html http://tc.eserver.org/20775.html Boxes and Arrows is the definitive source for the complex task of bringing architecture and design to the digital landscape. There are various titles and professions associated with this undertaking—information architecture, information design, interaction design, interface design—but when we looked at the work that we were actually doing, we found a “community of practice” with similarities in outlook and approach that far outweighed our differences. Boxes and Arrows is a peer-written journal dedicated to discussing, improving and promoting the work of this community, through the sharing of exemplary technique, innovation and informed opinion. http://tc.eserver.org/20165.html http://tc.eserver.org/20165.html Knowing the purpose of your web page is the most important step to applying human factors principles to your design. By understanding the special chahnges related to presenting information on a web page, in addition to understanding the way human-9 use their eyes, prioritize the information they process, and react to sound, you can apply principles of information design and interface design to create effective web pages. Numerous sources of information about what to do and what not to do on a web page are available from the World Wide Web. http://tc.eserver.org/19392.html http://tc.eserver.org/19392.html One of the difficulties of teaching interaction design is its extremely vast scope. How do we decide what to emphasize and teach in this broad, multidisciplinary area? This article describes a framework for teaching interaction design that leverages basic art, design and motion skills taught in an art department. This framework also serves as a foundation for future discussions in theory. http://tc.eserver.org/19393.html http://tc.eserver.org/19393.html In the graduate course Interactive Visual Communication and Interface Design students apply course principles by creating an interactive multimedia CD-ROM that integrates images, sound, and motion, founded on strong visual communication design principles. The course provides students with an opportunity to learn about important principles of interface design and the significance of integrating them with effective interaction design. It is also provides students with an adequate background in multimedia authoring and current associated technology. Students address issues concerning innovations in screen-based communication and the challenges associated with realizing them. Design solutions are directed to carefully address the specific requirements and abilities of the user audience; be easy to understand; and support the structure, meaning, and purpose of the information. http://tc.eserver.org/19355.html http://tc.eserver.org/19355.html This article covers the design stage that marks the next step in the design process after site visits have been conducted and evaluated: It describes the process of successively deriving an interaction design from the data. The following article describes the creating of an interaction design - one of the most important steps involved in the creation of a user-oriented application system. This step is taken directly after the collection and analysis of data in working practice, gathered during site visits. The user interaction design is derived from this data successively. http://tc.eserver.org/19351.html http://tc.eserver.org/19351.html Explains the relation between the interaction designer and the design situation. The design situation includes the users, imagined users, customers, current practice, and competitors. The designer needs to be sensitive to and use precision when acting upon the situation. http://tc.eserver.org/18930.html http://tc.eserver.org/18930.html Web design and development involves three levels: web management; interaction design (navigation support, homepage layout, templates, search, etc.); content design (the actual writing on the pages, as well as the design of any other media types used to communicate content as opposed to site interaction). Just as in a hamburger, the middle layer is the most tasty and attracts the most attention, including much of my own work on Web usability. I have come to realize that the outer two layers are more important in many ways: users only care about content (in other words, no, the medium is not the message; the message is the message) and the usability of a website is more a function of how it is managed than of how good its designers are. Content will be the topic of many other columns; here I address some classic mistakes in managing the design of a website. http://tc.eserver.org/18802.html http://tc.eserver.org/18802.html The ability to build interactions that support, enable, and improve communication is a valuable skill for help developers, Web-site designers, multimedia content developers, information-rich user interface designers--anyone who designs and develops information to be used online. This paper presents the basics of interaction design for information products and describes some basic underlying human factors and user-interface design principles. http://tc.eserver.org/18722.html http://tc.eserver.org/18722.html Before computers, there wasn’t 'interaction design.' But most of the qualities we seek have been valued through the ages. http://tc.eserver.org/18682.html http://tc.eserver.org/18682.html Interface design is difficult in part because everything requires interpretation. A design that works for one task or one user might not be appropriate for another. In other types of engineering, like architecture or bridge building, designers can always rely on laws of physics and gravity to make designs work. There is at least one immutable rule for interface design that we know about, and it's called Fitts's Law. It can be applied to software interfaces as well as Web site design because it involves the way people interact with mouse or other pointing devices. Most GUI platforms have built-in common controls designed with Fitts's Law in mind. Many Web designers, however, have yet to recognize the powerful little facts that make this concept so useful. http://tc.eserver.org/18672.html http://tc.eserver.org/18672.html Unless you have the power to make business and development decisions for your project, some of your energy will be spent influencing those who do. Experienced usability engineers or interaction designers may have limited skill in influence, despite how significantly it can effect their ability to contribute to projects. It’s the smartest and most effective designers that work to understand the human to human interaction within their project teams, as part of their work towards better human to computer interaction. http://tc.eserver.org/18402.html http://tc.eserver.org/18402.html Human beings have evolved a rich and sophisticated set of processes for engaging with the world in which cognition and affect play two different but equally crucial roles. Cognition interprets and makes sense of the world. Affect evaluates and judges, modulating the operating parameters of cognition and giving a warning about possible dangers. The study of how these two systems work together provides guidance for the design of complex autonomous systems that must deal with a variety of tasks in a dynamic, often unpredictable, and sometimes hazardous environment. http://tc.eserver.org/13280.html http://tc.eserver.org/13280.html The rampant growth of the WWW has resulted in a very large number of web sites being produced and used before standards and guidelines for appearance and interaction could be developed and accepted. Two factors that could affect user performance and perceived quality of a web site are: surface blemishes added, and the presence of extra, gratuitous features. The effects of these two factors can be assessed through performance testing and attitudinal surveys. the approach or design criteria for each site. We chose as a basis, a classification presented by Karen Schriver of traditions that have shaped our thinking about, and approach to, document design and evaluation. http://tc.eserver.org/13172.html http://tc.eserver.org/13172.html Interactive self-assessments are effective tools for a variety of audiences; from determining one’s Myers- Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) or personality characteristics to self-scoring quizzes of all types for online training. Many Web sites contain such selfassessments that help customers select from among other offerings the type of product or service that meets their requirements. The strategic design and development of interactive self-assessments can also help steer customers to your specific product line or service, or even help them make the decision to buy or award a contract. This paper looks at the effectiveness of self-assessments as a business tool and the use of JavaScript for supporting the interactive elements. http://tc.eserver.org/10641.html http://tc.eserver.org/10641.html Listen up, this one's a no-brainer. Building a successful website is as simple as an Easy-Bake Oven™. Although it's a lot of hard work, it isn't very difficult to understand. The directions are clear. Here's the list of ingredients-and there are only six: Content, Information Design, Performance, Compatibility, Visual Design, and Interaction Design. Each of these ingredients is important and not one can be left out. Would you leave out sugar in a cake recipe? Would you bake bread without yeast? Of course not, but that's what 95% of the websites on the Internet are doing-especially the commercial sites where it is even more important. Most sites serve up pages like half-baked cookies without everything necessary to make them delicious. They usually get the sugar in there but they often forget even more essential elements like flour and water, making their servings hard to swallow and even more difficult to stomach. A successful website might be able to get by with only five of these ingredients-if they are ex http://tc.eserver.org/10168.html http://tc.eserver.org/10168.html Websites must tone down their individual appearance and distinct design in all ways: visual design; terminology and labeling; interaction design and workflow; and information architecture. These changes are driven by four different trends that all lead to the same conclusion.