JavaScript 101, Part 1: The Basics

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.

Williams, Rob. Community MX (2006). Design>Web Design>Interaction Design>JavaScript

Jonas Lowgren Interaction Design Bibliography

A collection that goes back more than a decade worth of design related books with such breadth and depth in the fields of design, communications, HCI theory, information visualization, and more.

Lowgren, Jonas. Interaction Design Association (2006). Resources>Bibliographies>Interaction Design

Just How Far Beyond HCI is Interaction Design?

A recent book captures a larger movement within the academic field of human-computer interaction away from its traditions of behavioral science and engineering towards 'interaction design.' But re-labeling isn't enough, it also requires a shift in philosophical foundations as well as professional practice, and the language of HCI is not the best place to look for inspiration.

Lowgren, Jonas. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>Interaction Design

Keeping it Small in Flash

If your Flash efforts need to go on some sort of weight loss program, here's a good place to start.

Green, Tom. Community MX (2006). Design>Web Design>Interaction Design>Flash

The Lack of Interactivity and Hypertextuality in Online Media  

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.

Oblak, Tanja. International Communication Gazette (2005). Articles>Web Design>Hypertext>Interaction Design

Leadership in Collaboration: Filmmaking and Interaction Design

For projects of importance, you need divergent skills to succeed. It is not possible to find an individual with all of the skill sets needed, nor would you want to. To create a first rate website or software product, you need many tasks to be done in parallel, which means that more than one person has to be working at them. As soon as two or more people are involved, the dynamic for how decisions are made, and how work gets done, becomes important. Any group of people can do work together, but it takes the right approach and team philosophy for that group to produce good work. Collaboration is critical in any creative pursuit involving groups of people, from filmmaking, to urban architecture or even web and software development.

Berkun, Scott. ScottBerkun.com (2002). Careers>Management>Collaboration>Interaction Design

Lean Interaction Design and Implementation

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.

Anderson, David J. UIdesign (2003). Design>Web Design>Project Management>Interaction Design

Learning from the Success of Computer Games

I have long been struck by the power of the computer game to mesmerize, to hold the attention of otherwise restless children for hours and even days. I have watched otherwise unruly children focus, study, collaborate, and problem-solve. They read hint books, save checkpoints, the better to be able to try 'what-if' scenarios. They consult, the create. They solve. They do all the activities we wish them to do in pursuit of an education: What a shame that what is being learned is so trivial, so worthless. Now imagine a time when we transform education. When we can craft educational problems as cleverly as the game creators create theirs, allowing students to delve into the complexity of topics as deeply and as thoroughly as they delve into the games. Excite them to dive into the task, voluntarily working hard to learn the skills necessary to succeed. Only this time, the skills learned will be the ones necessary to be successful, well-educated citizens of society: mathematics, history, writing, science, art, and so on.

Norman, Donald A. JND.org (2000). Design>Usability>Interaction Design>Games

Learning to Love the Pixel: Exploring the Craft of Icon Design

Designing web-based enterprise software involves creating complex artifacts like architecture wireframes, object models, screen flows, and clickable prototypes in order to articulate aspects of the online experience for product stakeholders. But what does “craft” mean for interaction designers?

Gajendar, Uday. Boxes and Arrows (2003). Design>Graphic Design>Interaction Design

Living Multiple Lives — The New Technical Communicator

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.

Urbina, Noz and Tom H. Johnson. Tech Writer Voices (2008). Articles>Interviews>Web Design>Interaction Design

Macintosh OS 8 Human Interface Guidelines

This document describes the additions and changes to Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines related to the release of Mac OS 8. Specifically, it presents guidelines for taking advantage of the Mac OS platinum appearance and the Appearance Manager. This document does not replace Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines.

Apple Inc. (1997). Design>Human Computer Interaction>User Interface

Macintosh OS X: Aqua Human Interface Guidelines

This document, which covers features up to Mac OS X version 10.2, describes what you need to do to design your application for Aqua. Primarily intended for Carbon and Cocoa developers who want their applications to look right and behave correctly in Mac OS X, these guidelines provide examples of how to use Aqua interface elements. Java application developers will also find these guidelines useful.

Apple Inc. (2003). Design>Human Computer Interaction>User Interface

Make Internal Links Scroll Smoothly with JavaScript

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.

Langridge, Stuart. SitePoint (2003). Design>Web Design>Interaction Design>JavaScript

Making the Physical Environment Interactive

Microsoft's most innovative product of the 1990s was Interactive Barney: a plush toy containing a computer that lets it interact with kids. When you squeeze Barney's toe, for example, he sings a song; when you cover his eyes, he plays peek-a-boo. Soon, many more physical objects may become interactive, and they're likely to contain much more broadly defined and subtle user interfaces than the primitive toe squeezing that Interactive Barney pioneered.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2002). Design>Human Computer Interaction

Mastering Ajax, Part 1: Introduction to Ajax

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.

McLaughlin, Brett D. IBM (2006). Articles>Web Design>Interaction Design>Ajax

Mastering Ajax, Part 1: Introduction to Ajax

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.

McLaughlin, Brett D. IBM (2006). Articles>Web Design>Interaction Design>Ajax

Mastering Ajax, Part 2: Make Asynchronous Requests with JavaScript and Ajax

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.

McLaughlin, Brett D. IBM (2006). Articles>Web Design>Interaction Design>Ajax

Modeling the Empowered User  

An STC-funded study of computer users in an R & D organization attempts to identify users who reflect a high degree of productive integration of computers into workplace tasks. The study reveals user stratification along the lines of low-strategic and high-strategic users: users who choose to use computers to accomplish information and communication-oriented tasks. The study attempts to confirm this stratification by indicating that users identified in this way also use computers to perform a higher frequency of information-related computer behaviors, such as use of email, electronic information transfer, archiving, and software learning. Identifying users in this way can help writers and documention designers by providing models of integrated computer use.

Barker, Thomas and Patricia Goubil-Gambrell. STC Proceedings (1996). Design>Human Computer Interaction>User Centered Design

No-One Looks at the Screen

One of the most fundamental factors in designing for screen-based media is: No-one likes looking at a computer screen.

Hunt, Ben. Web Design From Scratch (2006). Design>Web Design>Human Computer Interaction>User Centered Design

Notes on the Role of Project Managers in Interface Design

This describes the role that I played as program manager for IE5.0, and the basic process we used (the essay is derived from an old post to chiweb). It's a good anecdote as to how one team managed the cross discipline work of design and usability, with the engineering and development process.

Berkun, Scott. ScottBerkun.com (2002). Articles>Management>Project Management>Interaction Design

Now Serving Interactive Information Units  

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.

Cromarty, Valerie Christensen. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Web Design>Interaction Design

Of Mice and iPods, or The Death of the Designer

Computing technologies are becoming so familiar it can feel as if they have always been here. It is strange to think that the mouse, for instance, was invented by Doug Englebart in the seventies. He must encounter a degree of incredulity when he mentions this to people. “You invented the mouse? Really? How nice. Did you also invent the pen?”

Blythe, Mark. uiGarden (2008). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>User Centered Design>Usability

One Hundred and One Spots, or How Do Users Read Menus?  

Proceedings of a paper about how readers interact with designed documents.

Aaltonen, Antti, Aulikki Hyrskykari and Kari-Jouko Raeihae. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (1998). Articles>Document Design>Interaction Design>Usability

OVID: Object, View and Interaction Design

OVID (Objects, Views, and Interaction Design) is a formal methodology for designing the user experience based on the analysis of users' goals and tasks. Drawn from the disciplines of engineering, it is ideally suited to interface and component-based development. The method is applied after user goals, tasks and objects have been identified, through other means. The output of the method is an abstract diagram that describes the architecture of the desired design, from the users' point of view. The diagram is used in conjunction with the visual specifications to enable implementation of the final diagram.

IBM (2001). Design>Information Design>Interaction Design

Physical, Cognitive, and Affective: A Three-part Framework for Information Design    

This article first explores limitations of the prevailing concept of document design. Next, it offers a definition of information design—a framework meant to broaden the popular perspective on design in our field. The article then describes in detail the three types of design activities involved in technical communication: physical design, cognitive design, and affective design. Last, this article suggests the strengths and limitations of this framework. Appendixes describe implications of this framework to the teaching of technical communication to majors in the field, to the practice of technical communication in industry, and to research in the field.

Carliner, Saul. Technical Communication Online (2000). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>Information Design