http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Design/Web-Design/User-Experience A listing of the most recently indexed works about Design and Web Design and User Experience 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/User-Experience http://tc.eserver.org/35590.html http://tc.eserver.org/35590.html The site focuses on web usability, user research, usability testing, accessibility and standards focused design. http://tc.eserver.org/35367.html http://tc.eserver.org/35367.html When a screenwriter can summarize a story in one sentence, he has a compass that can guide him throughout the writing process. Cindy Chastain chronicles how we can translate this approach to help us remember the quality and value of the experience we intend to deliver. http://tc.eserver.org/35372.html http://tc.eserver.org/35372.html Concepts, principals, and parts of User Experience Design can often times be difficult to approach—and this tends to create barriers with new bloggers. This begs the question: Do ordinary bloggers have to worry about UX Design? http://tc.eserver.org/35235.html http://tc.eserver.org/35235.html Although social networking sites have become the commonplace over the past eight years since the introduction of Friendster in 2002, designers have not yet explored two important notions: 1) What kind of social experience do social networking sites foster?; and 2) Do social networking sites encourage community? http://tc.eserver.org/35099.html http://tc.eserver.org/35099.html As we explore what social technologies can offer and the boundaries they can cross—boundaries that had confined the traditional Web—UX professionals must now take up a new design challenge. We must address the changing needs for social media and facilitate users’ taking better advantage of everything social media has to offer. http://tc.eserver.org/35102.html http://tc.eserver.org/35102.html In this article, I’ll discuss the cognitive elements at the intersection of advertising and human behavior. By taking an approach to advertising that looks at the impact psychological factors have on customer behavior, I’ve learned that customers respond directly to online advertisements, as we can see from their emotions, behavior, and interactions on the Web. http://tc.eserver.org/35052.html http://tc.eserver.org/35052.html Marketing departments – especially in IT – like to speak in the modern lingo about a product’s innovative “Look and Feel”. While “Look“ refers to the design of the solution, “Feel” means usability, the quality of use. Developers of Content Management Systems and other enterprise IT solutions have to walk a fine line to meet the exacting demands of users in both areas. But in recent years a clear trend has become apparent: There is a drive towards the modern, “cool” product design where at a minimum usability takes a back seat, often to its detriment. http://tc.eserver.org/34939.html http://tc.eserver.org/34939.html Wiggly, distracting, or poorly placed ads irritate users. Worse, they teach site visitors to ignore whole sections of layout. Yet some online ads work. They capture visitors visually, and present an engaging hook. They get visitors to click. Even, at times, from the home page. So what's the difference? http://tc.eserver.org/34663.html http://tc.eserver.org/34663.html User interface experts are often suspicious of the role of visual aesthetics in user interfaces—and of designers who insist that graphic emotive impact and careful attention to a site’s visual framework really contribute to measurable success. Underneath the arguments, I see a fundamental culture clash. http://tc.eserver.org/34648.html http://tc.eserver.org/34648.html When we as web designers create screens we are defi http://tc.eserver.org/34563.html http://tc.eserver.org/34563.html When things are going well in a design, we don't pay attention to them. We only pay attention to things that bother us. The same is true with online designs. We attend to things that aren't working far more than we attend to things that are. When the online experience frustrates us, we pay attention to its details, often because we're trying to figure out some way to outsmart it. http://tc.eserver.org/34126.html http://tc.eserver.org/34126.html What started out as something people did via e-mail and bookmark-sharing services like Delicious, is now moving to Facebook, Twitter, and other social broadcasting services. It is just so much more efficient to share a link once with all your friends and followers than to send it to each one individually. http://tc.eserver.org/34095.html http://tc.eserver.org/34095.html There’s one area that I believe user experience has lagged behind: the enterprise software space. I can’t tell you how many frustratingly unusable enterprise Web applications I’ve encountered during my 12 plus years in corporate America. As important as the user experience of enterprise software is to a business’s success, why isn’t its assessment usually a factor in technology selection? http://tc.eserver.org/34096.html http://tc.eserver.org/34096.html In this column, I’ll provide a technology selection framework that can help enterprises better assess the usability and appropriateness of enterprise applications they’re considering purchasing, with the goal of ensuring their IT (Information Technology) investments deliver fully on their value propositions. http://tc.eserver.org/33657.html http://tc.eserver.org/33657.html I can’t tell you how many frustratingly unusable enterprise Web applications I’ve encountered during my 12 plus years in corporate America. As important as the user experience of enterprise software is to a business’s success, why isn’t its assessment usually a factor in technology selection? http://tc.eserver.org/33584.html http://tc.eserver.org/33584.html The industry has spent a lot of time defining Web 2.0 and mapping its DNA. But as we attempt to emulate the fast-growth success of the Web 2.0 darlings, we need to zero in on the parts of the DNA that actually create this noteworthy new value. http://tc.eserver.org/33445.html http://tc.eserver.org/33445.html In this paper, we describe the results of an effort to first understand the value of personalising a website, as perceived by the visitors to the site as well as by the stakeholder organisation that owns it, and then to develop a strategy for introducing personalisation to the ibm.com website. http://tc.eserver.org/33405.html http://tc.eserver.org/33405.html Ecommerce websites are typically set up as if they were just glorified catalogs: a list of products, some pictures, brief descriptions, and an order form. No human interaction at all. http://tc.eserver.org/33386.html http://tc.eserver.org/33386.html As Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) become more advanced, the tasks, problems, and processes they address become increasingly complex, making it more important than ever to accurately model user workflows. Early Internet applications were often narrowly focused in scope, and the steps were relatively simple and sequential, for example, purchasing items through simple e-commerce, reserving hotel rooms, or renting cars. But as productivity applications move toward a web-based distribution model, the tasks become more complicated. http://tc.eserver.org/33387.html http://tc.eserver.org/33387.html There’s been a lot of talk about the technology of Web 2.0, but only a little about the impact these technologies will have on user experience. Everyone wants to tell you what Web 2.0 means, but how will it feel? What will it be like for users? 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/33348.html http://tc.eserver.org/33348.html I’m not one to believe that we’re in a Bubble 2.0 or anything like that (aren’t we always bubbular?), but here are a few ideas about why some of the web apps out there fail. http://tc.eserver.org/33158.html http://tc.eserver.org/33158.html Users’ “enjoyment” of a site is tied closely to how easily they can find the information they want and stay oriented at the same time. I think this is a given for technical communicators; we know that users want to get answers as fast as possible, and documentation must be navigable. http://tc.eserver.org/33161.html http://tc.eserver.org/33161.html This paper provides an overview of the process and organizational transformation that IBM has gone through in improving the user experience with our offerings. http://tc.eserver.org/32986.html http://tc.eserver.org/32986.html As a specialist in the user, you gain knowledge through observation and direct questioning of individual users. Now, you can add to that insights gained from data pulled during their actions on the site. By looking at this information, you will get a fuller picture of user behavior, not in a lab, but in the true user environment. http://tc.eserver.org/33013.html http://tc.eserver.org/33013.html The key revolution of the Web is customer empowerment and engagement. The Web empowers the customer more than it empowers the organization. The implications are enormous. http://tc.eserver.org/32759.html http://tc.eserver.org/32759.html I have recently noticed a new breed of web design books that focus on strategy and users rather than specific programming languages or applications. http://tc.eserver.org/32747.html http://tc.eserver.org/32747.html A blog about user experience, usability, design, navigation and interfaces. http://tc.eserver.org/32748.html http://tc.eserver.org/32748.html UX designers often have a library of different interface patterns - navigation types, methods to help people find their way in software - and a deep understanding of how people actually DO find their way or navigate. They’re good communicators, and good at quickly plugging symptoms to design pattern. General doctors can prescribe medications, whereas UX designers can often actually bring the design patterns to life using CSS, HTML, JavaScript, Ajax, and Dojo, or .Net, Java, JSP, and so forth. They may not be coding geniuses, but they have to be aware of what’s out there and what it can do, just like your general doctor needs to know about surgical options and prescriptions, even if they don’t actually spend their day in surgery or the lab. http://tc.eserver.org/32749.html http://tc.eserver.org/32749.html People often don’t know exactly how they want software to allow them to complete a task. They recognize how the existing software makes them work around what they want, and they understand vague ideas like “make it easy to use”, but they may not be able to translate that into interface design. And why should they? http://tc.eserver.org/32423.html http://tc.eserver.org/32423.html An overview of what influences consumers when booking a holiday and what travel companies can do to offer the best user experience. http://tc.eserver.org/32358.html http://tc.eserver.org/32358.html Easy task completion (traditional usability) is not enough in the Web world. Appealing visual site design is not enough. A site visitor needs to not only be attracted to a site and able to figure out how to buy (or register, sign up, etc.)-they need in addition to be able to tell quickly that a site will meet their needs, and they need to want to buy from this site, as opposed to a competitor's site. This is a key aspect of overall Web site success. http://tc.eserver.org/31998.html http://tc.eserver.org/31998.html We create software and websites to display and represent information to people. That information could be anything; a company’s product list, pictures of your vacation, or an instant message from a friend. At this moment, there’s more information available to you than at any other time in history. http://tc.eserver.org/31830.html http://tc.eserver.org/31830.html Where would we be without rating and reputation systems these days? Take them away, and we wouldn’t know who to trust on eBay, what movies to pick on Netflix, or what books to buy on Amazon. Reputation systems (essentially a rating system for people) also help guide us through the labyrinth of individuals who make up our social web. Is he or she worthwhile to spend my time on? For pity’s sake, please don’t check out our reputation points before deciding whether to read this article. http://tc.eserver.org/31093.html http://tc.eserver.org/31093.html Some failure allows complex organizations to learn and grow; others can be catastrophic. In Part 2 of his series, Peter Jones explores the factors of user experience role, the timing dynamics of large projects, and several alternatives to the framing of UX roles and organizations today. http://tc.eserver.org/30721.html http://tc.eserver.org/30721.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/30227.html http://tc.eserver.org/30227.html As information architects, interaction designers, usability consultants, and developers, we don't have to change our careers to do something good for society. All we have to do is connect with the right nonprofit: One that shares our goals and whose mission we support. http://tc.eserver.org/30205.html http://tc.eserver.org/30205.html Recent redesigns at Yahoo!, Microsoft Live Search, and Ask.com are providing graphically rich alternatives to the minimalist search giant. http://tc.eserver.org/30187.html http://tc.eserver.org/30187.html Experience designers need to transition from designing for a single, static space--the desktop--to imagining the broad possibilities of the geospatial Web. For digital products and services, the next dimension of user experience we should consider during design is location. http://tc.eserver.org/30030.html http://tc.eserver.org/30030.html Ever visited the website of a company with a glaring error either on the site or in their product, only to discover that they have successfully sealed themselves off from the world, so you can't report it? Sure you have, and it's not only causing you frustration, it's costing that company real money. http://tc.eserver.org/30028.html http://tc.eserver.org/30028.html Slashing subjective time on your site by 50% is a perfectly reasonable goal. Indolent worker George Costanza once reflected on the time in the shower you wait for the hair conditioner to work as, 'a really tough minute.' A minute waiting for hair conditioner to work while getting ready for a date can feel longer than the three subsequent hours you spend with that very special person. Reducing/eliminating boredom points can make the time spent on your website appear to really fly by. http://tc.eserver.org/30024.html http://tc.eserver.org/30024.html Your seemingly elegant design begins to bloat with features, tear under the pressure of localization, and nearly keel over under the weight of new content that pushes it to its breaking point. Before long you give up. It's time to redesign--again. Could you have avoided this all too common cycle? Was there anything you might have done to anticipate these changes? One potential answer lies in scalable design considerations. Screen frameworks, user interface structures, and components that enable your product design to gracefully accommodate new features, new markets, and dynamic content--that can shrink or grow--are the cornerstones of a scalable design. http://tc.eserver.org/29558.html http://tc.eserver.org/29558.html Is it more important for your web site to be desirable or accessible? How about usable or credible? The truth is, it depends on your unique balance of context, content and users, and the required tradeoffs are better made explicitly than unconsciously. http://tc.eserver.org/29471.html http://tc.eserver.org/29471.html As user experience designers in an enterprise, we find ourselves knee deep in pixels. Should we use a dropdown element or a set of radio buttons? 10pt or 12pt size font? A broad-and-shallow or narrow-and-deep information architecture? While such design considerations are necessary and important, we miss huge user experience opportunities outside the webpage, outside the website, outside the browser. By tackling inter-application usability opportunities, user experience (UX) professionals can make things easier in a big way. http://tc.eserver.org/29278.html http://tc.eserver.org/29278.html Using JavaScript can be particularly useful when a website is content managed. Rather than having to rely on site editors to remember to open a link to a PDF in a new window the process is handled by a simple JavaScript function. http://tc.eserver.org/28899.html http://tc.eserver.org/28899.html One of the most important aspects of the work of designers do on a project is their ability to explain their choices and the reasoning that led to given design solutions--both to their clients and to other member of a product team. Clear communication is vital to the smooth progress of a project, as even a single misunderstanding or communication glitch can lead to mistakes during implementation. http://tc.eserver.org/28703.html http://tc.eserver.org/28703.html There's a lot we, as designers of the web experience, can learn from something as simple as a water glass. http://tc.eserver.org/28688.html http://tc.eserver.org/28688.html As user experience professionals, we have the opportunity to work more closely with brand and marketing specialists to clearly articulate the brand perception we want to elicit from our customers. Brand perception is, in part, an expectation on the part of a customer regarding future interactions with a company and its products and services. To achieve our desired brand perception, we must consistently represent and deliver the brand values we have led customers to expect. http://tc.eserver.org/28535.html http://tc.eserver.org/28535.html The most effective companies realize that they can't succeed on advertising alone; the customer matters. http://tc.eserver.org/27968.html http://tc.eserver.org/27968.html Takes you through the art and science behind Google's design process and shares examples of how design, usability and engineering are combined by Google's development teams. http://tc.eserver.org/27808.html http://tc.eserver.org/27808.html What has long been a struggle for UEX professionals can actually be a great tool to demonstrate the importance of your role. We have found a way, using tools that you may already have, to support the users' needs that can positively impact your company’s bottom line. http://tc.eserver.org/27677.html http://tc.eserver.org/27677.html A weblog about web, user interface and user experience design. http://tc.eserver.org/27495.html http://tc.eserver.org/27495.html A presentation about online community and experience design in modern web design. http://tc.eserver.org/27496.html http://tc.eserver.org/27496.html News and articles about web development, design, and marketing for higher education. Plus, occasionally, anything else that strikes our fancy. http://tc.eserver.org/27479.html http://tc.eserver.org/27479.html Our most memorable experiences are those we can not only see and hear, but also feel. Building such experiences on the Web requires an understanding of how the design of your Web site creates a personality that interacts with and speaks to your audience. A Web site needs to be both effective and affective: not only usable but likable as well. Therefore, designing an appropriate and engaging personality for your site is not the icing on the cake (as visual design is sometimes called): It is the recipe that determines your final result and whether or not it will appeal to your audience. http://tc.eserver.org/27445.html http://tc.eserver.org/27445.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/27358.html http://tc.eserver.org/27358.html Improving Customer Experience (ICE) started out as a paper newsletter back in 2001. Paper. How quaint. http://tc.eserver.org/27364.html http://tc.eserver.org/27364.html A weblog on Information Visualization, eLearning, Rich Internet Applications and more. http://tc.eserver.org/27009.html http://tc.eserver.org/27009.html Regardless of what you call it, the mockup can either sell your design or plummet you into a cyclical tunnel of churn. That's why, like it or not, interface designers often live and die by the mockup. http://tc.eserver.org/26800.html http://tc.eserver.org/26800.html Whatever the purpose of the sites you work on, their success depends on visitors doing something. We want our visitors to sign up, or buy, or donate, or download, or apply, or post opinions, or pick up the phone and call us. One way or another if we are to judge our sites as being successful, they have to result in some kind of action on the reader's part. http://tc.eserver.org/26564.html http://tc.eserver.org/26564.html User journeys are a method for conceptualising and structuring a website's content and functionality. These journeys allow us to shift away from thinking about structure in terms of hierarchies or a technical build; instead you create a narrative around your user's needs. http://tc.eserver.org/26519.html http://tc.eserver.org/26519.html Learn how to write compelling copy that will keep your site visitors interested in what you're offering. http://tc.eserver.org/25802.html http://tc.eserver.org/25802.html Web site designers should think hard about how to keep users from muddling around on their sites. 'Users muddle when it isn’t clear what they are supposed to do in any given situation.' http://tc.eserver.org/23818.html http://tc.eserver.org/23818.html Many technology companies, consultants, and academics are hyping the future of Web services. But how will this background transfer of data between applications affect the user experience? http://tc.eserver.org/22667.html http://tc.eserver.org/22667.html How can you quantify a concept as nebulous as user experience? Rob's tutorial shows how you can statistically assess the experience a site provides - a great way to review a prospect's existing site and springboard redevelopment discussions. http://tc.eserver.org/21730.html http://tc.eserver.org/21730.html The Web was originally conceived as a hypertextual information space; but the development of increasingly sophisticated front- and back-end technologies has fostered its use as a remote software interface. http://tc.eserver.org/21307.html http://tc.eserver.org/21307.html At this point in experience design's evolution, satisfaction ought to be the norm, and delight ought to be the goal. As design professionals, how do we create opportunities for customer delight? http://tc.eserver.org/20255.html http://tc.eserver.org/20255.html It’s time for web designers to peek over the cubicle and start sharing ideas with their peers in related design disciplines. Jacobson suggests one way to do that in this overview of the emerging Experience Design paradigm. http://tc.eserver.org/19340.html http://tc.eserver.org/19340.html Puzzled why your site is not living up to your expectations? The problem may not lie with your content or products, but rather in your site's user experience. Find out what common pitfalls to avoid by following a few simple guidelines to improve the user experience and transform surfers into customers. http://tc.eserver.org/18570.html http://tc.eserver.org/18570.html Three clicks and that's it. Most Web site users allow only three clicks to be impressed with your product. Most people don't surf the Web; they have an agenda. In specialized fields such as banking, users will stay with sites that give them information quickly and pleasantly. The challenge is to produce a positive Web site experience the first time around. It boils down to one word: usability. Is your Web site user friendly? With 80% of current Web sites falling by the wayside, your home page must be easily accessible as well as eye-catching and informative. The imperatives are point, click and find the right department. http://tc.eserver.org/18395.html http://tc.eserver.org/18395.html Benway and Lane have studied 'Banner Blindness' – the fact that people tend to ignore those big, flashy, colorful banners at the top of web pages. This is pretty interesting stuff, for the entire reason they are so big and obnoxious is to attract attention, yet they fail. Evidently nobody ever studied real users before -- they simply assumed that big, colorful items were visible. This paper, shows once again the importance of observations over logic when it comes to predicting human behavior. People behave the way they behave, not the way our logical analyses and wishes would have them behave. People follow their interests, their needs, their customs. They are driven by curiosity, boredom, emotion. And the 'they' refers to 'we': us. http://tc.eserver.org/13370.html http://tc.eserver.org/13370.html Since HTML first became mainstream, with HTML version 2.0, there has been a struggle between the structure of a document and its presentation. This battle is symptomatic of two competing visions for the web. http://tc.eserver.org/10614.html http://tc.eserver.org/10614.html Developers sometimes ask which aspects of look and feel contribute most to the overall usability of an application or Web site. They are typically surprised when I answer that the 'look and feel' aspects aren't the major contributors at all. Look and feel have been popular discussion topics for many years, and some developers have proposed various schemes purporting to allow an easy swap of one look and feel for another. They were perhaps compelled to this thinking to compensate for an inadequate understanding of their users. Around 1990, I became alarmed by the popularity of design architectures advocating paradigms like the User Interface Management Systems (UIMS) that enable a pluggable look and feel. Many of my colleagues and I felt that look and feel represented only the tip of the iceberg. We felt that the set of concepts users must learn and understand to use a product or Web site effectively is actually the most important factor.