From Satisfaction to Delight

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?

Hanna, Parrish. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design>User Experience

Getting Creative With Specs: Usable Software Specifications

Building architects don’t have to think much about what the actual deliverables are to contractors and their clients, because their industry has traditions and standards for blueprints, balsa wood models, and computer-generated renderings. As user interface consultants, we have to think about this anew for every project.

Krause, Brian R. Boxes and Arrows (2003). Articles>Project Management>Standards

Getting Hired: What Employers Really Want

We began to work on an event to gather professionals and employers to help us figure out what UX employers really want.

Sanchez-Howard, Olga. Boxes and Arrows (2007). Careers>Usability>User Experience

Getting into Government Consulting

From Washington, D.C. to Olympia, Washington, there's a rich potential for user experience consultants of all flavors to provide services to government. In this article I'll share some thoughts directed toward you, the independent consultant or small firm that would like to work with government.

McMullin, Jess. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Careers>Consulting>Government>User Experience

Got Usability? Talking with Jakob Nielsen

Jakob Nielsen has brought usability to the attention of the general public, but within the user experience community he's been criticized by those who say he emphasizes a view that excludes other dimensions of user experience. So is he the defender of ease-of-use or the enemy of creativity?

Thornton, Chad. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Articles>Usability>User Centered Design

Guiding Principles for Providing "Remember Me" Personalization

As we set out to enhance personalization on Marriott.com, we realized we needed guidelines to inform our thinking and shape our decisions, particularly decisions related to customer privacy. Our earlier user research revealed the need for greater personalization and helped us understand customer attitudes towards privacy. From there, we sought to build customer trust and loyalty by addressing concerns about privacy and security in every aspect of the user experience. In creating the Guiding Principles outlined here, we conducted a thorough analysis of eight major websites and then merged the findings with what we already knew. These principles apply specifically to 'remember me' personalization.

Peters, Meg. Boxes and Arrows (2006). Articles>Web Design>Privacy>Personalization

Review: The Hidden History of Information Management

What strategies has society employed to collect, manage, and store information, even with the constant threat of oversupply, and still make this information accessible and meaningful to people over time?

Goodman, Bob. Boxes and Arrows (2007). Articles>Reviews>Information Design>History

Hiding in Plain Sight: An Interview with Adam Greenfield

Is everyware overwriting what we know as everyday? On the heels of finishing his first book, Adam Greenfield talks with Boxes and Arrows about Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing and how the concepts are reshaping our lives.

Danzico, Liz. Boxes and Arrows (2006). Articles>Technology>Cultural Theory

How to Architect Sites Across Cultures Without Losing Your Mind

Ever since I started working formally as an information architect, I've clung to the belief that there's a universal set of conditions that we're trying to achieve. But what I've slowly begun to believe over my time working here in Japan is that there is simply no such thing as a universal good.

Greenfield, Adam. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Design>Web Design>International>Localization

HTML Wireframes and Prototypes: All Gain and No Pain

Mention the use of HTML for wireframing or prototyping, and some information architects and interaction designers frantically look for the nearest exit. In some circles, HTML has acquired the reputation of being a time-consuming, difficult undertaking best left to developers. This is very far from the truth.

Stanford, Julie. Boxes and Arrows (2003). Design>Web Design>Methods>User Centered Design

HTML's Time is Over. Let's Move On

As users and builders demand more and more richness from the Web, we need to re-evaluate the technology that 99% of it is built on. It seems no matter how sophisticated our back ends get, the front ends remain stagnant. What other options are there? What are the requirements that we as user experience designers face that newer technologies miss the boat on?

Heller, David. Boxes and Arrows (2003). Design>Web Design>Standards>HTML

IA Classics: Tools of the Trade in Comic Book Form

'What I need are highly condensed overviews,' I thought, 'like those comic books that convert great literary works into a few illustrated pages. They condense Moby Dick down to 12 pages and provide a version of Great Expectations that can be read in 15 minutes.'

Willis, Dan. Boxes and Arrows (2003). Articles>Information Design

Icon Analysis: Evaluating Low Spatial Frequency Compositions

Icons that are difficult to tell apart can lead to disastrous consequences. Queen shows us how studying the way the human visual system encodes information can lead to more effective icon design.

Queen, Matt. Boxes and Arrows (2006). Design>User Interface>Usability

IDEA 2008: An Interview with Bill DeRouchey

Bill DeRouchey is fascinated with buttons and the history of interface design. He talks to us as he prepares for IDEA 2008, October 7-8. In Chicago, Bill hopes to help attendees expand their sources of inspiration to include just about anything in their everyday lives.

Unger, Russ. Boxes and Arrows (2008). Articles>Interviews>User Interface>User Experience

Implementing a Pattern Library in the Real World: A Yahoo! Case Study

The Yahoo! platform design team shares their process for defining and designing a pattern and standards library, the process for defining the requirements of the repository and the process for defining the lifecycle of a pattern.

Malone, Erin, Matt Leacock and Chanel Wheeler. Boxes and Arrows (2005). Design>Web Design>Collaboration

Improving Usability with a Website Index

Indexes are important information-finding tools that can enhance usability. Site indexes provide direct, easily scannable links to meaningful, yet highly granular, chunks of content. But there’s more to them than people often assume.

Leise, Fred. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Design>Web Design>Information Design

Inconspicuous Consumption: Lessons for Web Design from Mall and Retail Design

While many scour the web for new ideas on web design, others are looking elsewhere.

Carliner, Saul. Boxes and Arrows (2003). Design>Web Design>Marketing

The Information Architect as Change Agent

Argues that IAs can do their jobs better if they understand organizational change management, even if they don't need to be change management specialists. I'll also suggest a variety of concepts and practices that can (hopefully) help IAs in their change agent role, and I promise to throw in something entertaining as well.

Clarke, Matthew C. Boxes and Arrows (2007). Articles>Information Design

Review: Information Architecture Library Quick Reference: Special Deliverable

In this column, you'll find an overview of three IA books from a deliverables point of view. The purpose of this article is not to say whether one book is better than another, or even to comment on the overall quality of the books, but to provide a guide to what kind of deliverables information you can find in each book, and where.

Brown, Dan. Boxes and Arrows (2003). Articles>Reviews>Information Design

Information Architecture: A Rose by Any Other Name...

The efforts to define our field and our role are understandable by-products of our economic times and of forces in our contexts of practice. What are the pressures behind this quest for definition? What are the options (and potential advantages) of refusing to pigeonhole ourselves?

Stott, Lynn. Boxes and Arrows (2004). Careers>Information Design>Professionalism

Review: Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web

While there are many fine books that go into great depth on various aspects of the information architecture and design process, 'Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web' is, essentially, a primer on successful website design.

Olshavsky, Ryan. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Articles>Reviews>Information Design

Information Architecture: From Craft to Profession

Teaching information architecture as a profession in the process of being born, author and educator, Earl Morrogh, in his new book, 'Information Architecture: An Emerging 21st Century Profession' places information architecture in an historical context analogous to the history of architecture.

Morrogh, Earl. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Articles>Information Design>History

Information Design: The Understanding Discipline

There is not consensus on exactly what information design is. Definitions of the discipline from stakeholders who associate themselves with the field are consistent only in that they are typically high level, not very concrete and do not offer much in the way of direct practical application.

Knemeyer, Dirk. Boxes and Arrows (2003). Articles>Information Design

Review: Information Ecology: Bayer's Book of Maps

In 1949, Herbert Bayer, the Austrian graphic designer who taught at the famed Bauhaus, embarked on an incredible information design challenge. The 'World Geo-Graphic Atlas' (1953) is a benchmark example of information design, fusing vibrant data-intensive displays with a strong multicultural and environmental message.

Burgos, Nate. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Articles>Reviews>Technical Illustration

Innovation Extreme Makeover

Extreme Makeover is an unlikely place to look for useful insights into corporate innovation. Even the fat, awkward, and, let’s face it, hideous bubble-era companies were not going to improve their questionable bottom lines with a nose job, liposuction, and tummy-tuck. In spite of that, the show can offer some useful lessons when trying to understand the dynamics of innovation.

Ouellette, Robert. Boxes and Arrows (2004). Articles>Web Design>Redesign