Interaction Modeling: User State-Trace Analysis

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.

Queen, Matt. Boxes and Arrows (2006). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Interaction Design

Interactions 08 in the Garden of Good and Evil

An interview with Dan Saffer, 2008 Conference Chair and IxDA Director. Dan discusses the context of the organization, how the conference emerged and formed, what the conference will be like, and how one might get a flavor even if attendance is not an option.

Baum, Chris. Boxes and Arrows (2008). Articles>Interviews>Interaction Design>User Experience

Interactive Prototypes with PowerPoint

Have you ever wished your early design mockups could come to life, so you could try out the navigation, test an interaction, or see if a button label just feels right when you click on it? Sure, you could invest in a dedicated prototyping tool, but you can create surprisingly quick and effective prototypes with a software program that's probably sitting on your hard drive right now. It's PowerPoint.

Kelly, Maureen. Boxes and Arrows (2007). Design>Web Design>Prototyping>Microsoft PowerPoint

Intranet Design Annual: The Ten Best Intranets of 2001

The Nielsen Normal Group report 'Intranet Design Annual: The Ten Best Intranets of 2001' is a worthwhile look into successful intranets that would otherwise not be available to the general public. It is a valuable guide for anyone (not just specialists) involved in intranet design and development.

Lash, Jeff. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Design>Web Design>Intranets

Introducing Interaction Design

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.

Baxley, Bob. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Design>Web Design>Interaction Design

Introduction to the Building Blocks

Outlines the design principles underlying the building block system of website design, and simple guidelines for combining blocks together to create any type of tile-based environment.

Lamantia, Joe. Boxes and Arrows (2007). Design>Web Design>Methods

An Introduction to User Journeys

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.

Hobbs, Jason. Boxes and Arrows (2005). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design>User Experience

Investing in Usability: Testing versus Training

Assume that you are in charge of a development project and you have about $10,000 to spend on usability. What is the best way to use the money? What is the right thing to do for the organization? What will be best for customers?

Rhodes, John S. Boxes and Arrows (2005). Articles>Usability

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 Pace with Change

Documentation isn't the most fun part of design and IA, but does it have to be the most painful? Samantha Bailey looks at a tool that may help.

Bailey, Samantha. Boxes and Arrows. Articles>Documentation>Information Design

The Lazy IA's Guide to Making Sitemaps

Sitemaps are common deliverables, desired by clients who want a visual representation of a site. Since they are rarely used to make decisions, information architects may not consider them the valuable tools they are. The effort required to make and maintain them requires time that might be better used elsewhere. In fact, I would suggest that making sure the little boxes line up is a waste of an IA's mental abilities.

Turbek, Stephen. Boxes and Arrows (2006). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>Sitemaps

Leading from Within

While there are IAs fortunate enough to work in companies that wholeheartedly embrace user-centered design, there are many more whose biggest challenge isn't the work itself; it's finding the opportunity to do the work, at the right time, in a meaningful way.

Janish, Brenda. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Articles>Information Design

Learning from the "Powers of Ten"

To most designers, the Eames name brings to mind rows and rows of molded plywood chairs and Herman Miller furniture of the 1950s. But the Eameses were more than just designers of furniture; they were masters of exploration and experimentation into the realm of experience.

Malone, Erin. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Humor>Web Design>Information Design

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

Leaving the Autoroute

By committing all their attention to a single craft, often literally over hundreds of years, each town in France has received the renown that comes with great work. But what happens when you leave the autoroute, lured by one of those signs proclaiming the town's mastery and claim to fame?

Wodtke, Christina. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Articles>Information Design

Lessons From Google Mobile

Basic problem solving still completely swamps any other creative concern when working on mobile sites. A refreshing blast of Spartan usability problems, mobile site design is uncluttered with your typical mamby-pamby web problems. Can a user get the information, and fast? Answer this question and you're far ahead of everyone else. The design process described was quite effective at powering through a lot of basic usability problems, but struck me as potentially ill suited to a younger project that might still be finding itself.

Lord, Max. Boxes and Arrows (2007). Design>Web Design>Wireless Web>User Centered Design

Lessons to be Learned

Ivy-covered halls are filling up again with eager students of the user experience fields ready to change the world (or at least to study out the recession). But are these programs really teaching them what they need to know?

Olsen, George. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Articles>Education>Information Design

Long Live the User (Persona): Talking with Steve Mulder

More companies are doing user research than ever before, but what is becoming of all the information? Steve Mulder talks about strategies for getting research into shape so real people can actually use it. The key: user personas.

Danzico, Liz and Steve Mulder. Boxes and Arrows (2007). Articles>Interviews>User Centered Design>Personas

Long Tails and Short Queries

Why haven't we figured out search yet? Amanda Spink talks with Christina Wodtke on why searchers still can't ask a useful question of a search engine, and how Google may be part of the problem rather than part of the solution.

Boxes and Arrows (2006). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design>Search

Making Emotional Connections Through Participatory Design

Most of the people we talk to believe that the desired end result of experience design is an emotional connection between a person and her experience with a product or service. When a company is able to make them, such connections can have a positive impact on the company’s brand.

Gage, Marty and Preetham Kolari. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Design>User Centered Design>User Experience>Emotions

Making Guidelines Part of the Team

Guidelines. We seem to have a love-hate relationship with them. At the same time we construct them, we worry they’ll come back to haunt us. How did guidelines get such a bad reputation?

Rabourn, Tanya. Boxes and Arrows (2004). Design>Web Design>Style Guides>Standards

The Making of a Discipline: The Making of a Title

Many people who work within the design field have had a hard time assimilating the full scope of Experience Design—and a harder time accepting their niches within it. The reasons for this resistance uncover much about the state of design as well as the state of identity.

Shedroff, Nathan. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Careers>Usability>User Centered Design

Making Personas More Powerful: Details to Drive Strategic and Tactical Design

Personas ought to be one of the defining techniques in user-focused design, but they've unfortunately become more of a check-off item than a useful tool. So how did we get here?

Olsen, George. Boxes and Arrows (2004). Design>User Centered Design>Methods>Personas

Making the Invisible Visible: Process, Inspiration and Practice for the New Media Designer

Hillman Curtis' minimalist approach to design also appears to be his approach to writing. In just a few words he captures the essence of what it means to be a New Media designer and what it takes to push into unknown territory.

MacLaughlin, Steve. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Design>Multimedia>Writing>Minimalism

Review: Making the Web Work: Designing Effective Web Applications

Those new to the field of user-centered design will find this book most useful; intermediate or advanced practitioners looking for in-depth information specific to web applications may want to look elsewhere.

Lash, Jeff. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Resources>Reviews>Information Design