http://tc.eserver.org/publisher/GUUUI A listing of works published by GUUUI 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/GUUUI http://tc.eserver.org/33466.html http://tc.eserver.org/33466.html Every site should handle the page not found error gracefully. Two quite similar articles have the following tips: do not redirect people to the home page; let the visitor know that something unexpected is going on at first glance. http://tc.eserver.org/32994.html http://tc.eserver.org/32994.html Most web developers act in blindness when they design accessible websites, since they know next to nothing about disabled people and the technology they use. Accessibility guidelines and validation tools doesn't provide this insight. Accessibility should rather be approached from a user centred perspective. http://tc.eserver.org/30803.html http://tc.eserver.org/30803.html How to use Visio for rapid prototyping - now with scrolling pages and sketchy interface widgets. http://tc.eserver.org/28499.html http://tc.eserver.org/28499.html Are there any downsides of prototyping? Not really. But as with everything else in life, you might stumble and hurt yourself if you don’t watch your step. This article points out some of the banana skins to steer clear of. http://tc.eserver.org/28500.html http://tc.eserver.org/28500.html Prototypes often model one flow of interaction--the path that users are most likely to take. But when we create interaction designs with dynamic and complex flows, we often need to include deviations from the sunshine scenarios to see whether they work. In this article, we'll look at how to do this Visio and Axure. http://tc.eserver.org/27981.html http://tc.eserver.org/27981.html If you are the happy owner of a tablet computer or a pen tablet you can hand-draw prototypes on your computer. In this article we'll look at what hand-sketching is good for and how to built hand-drawn prototypes in Visio. http://tc.eserver.org/26840.html http://tc.eserver.org/26840.html This is a second edition of the article on using Visio for rapid prototyping for the web. The new edition includes a new and improved version of the GUUUI Prototyping Tool for Visio 2003. http://tc.eserver.org/26446.html http://tc.eserver.org/26446.html Deceived by their ideas of what clients will accept, many web development teams build prototypes that are too costly and doesn't serve the purpose prototypes are supposed to. To exploit the full potential of prototyping, it's critical to choose the appropriate level of fidelity. http://tc.eserver.org/26447.html http://tc.eserver.org/26447.html When forms give users the option to continue in two or more alternative directions, such as registering as a new customer or signing in as a returning one, unfortunate users will take the wrong turn if it isn't unmistakably obvious which way they should go. In this article, we'll take a look at a few intersection flows that have caused users problems. http://tc.eserver.org/26450.html http://tc.eserver.org/26450.html Having global navigation isn't a bad thing. It's just not something that should garner a lot of resources, as it's unlikely to be important in the user experience. You're probably better off putting your resources elsewhere (such as increasing scent for the most important content on your site). http://tc.eserver.org/26448.html http://tc.eserver.org/26448.html Most web development projects put a lot of effort into the design of navigation tools. But fact is that people tend to ignore these tools. They are fixated on getting what they came for and simply click on links or hit the back button to get there. http://tc.eserver.org/26449.html http://tc.eserver.org/26449.html Most usability professionals don't have a driver's licence to servers and are not aware of the steps that can be taken to make them behave in a user-friendly way. In this article, we'll take a look at how to avoid that server technology becomes an obstacle to usability. http://tc.eserver.org/26445.html http://tc.eserver.org/26445.html While some may claim that prototyping isn't one of the wonders of the world, it's definitely a wonder of web and software development. It can help us design better products and overcome many of the hurdles that tend to surface during a development process. http://tc.eserver.org/24752.html http://tc.eserver.org/24752.html Most web developers act in blindness when they design accessible websites, since they know next to nothing about disabled people and the technology they use. Accessibility guidelines and validation tools doesn't provide this insight. Accessibility should rather be approached from a user centred perspective. http://tc.eserver.org/24751.html http://tc.eserver.org/24751.html In web development projects, HTML based prototypes have some advantages when it comes to usability testing. In this article we'll take a look at the HTML editor Adobe GoLive, which has a number of features that makes it a decent prototyping tool. http://tc.eserver.org/24750.html http://tc.eserver.org/24750.html Most usability professionals don't have a driver's licence to servers and are not aware of the steps that can be taken to make them behave in a user-friendly way. In this article, we'll take a look at how to avoid that server technology becomes an obstacle to usability. http://tc.eserver.org/23280.html http://tc.eserver.org/23280.html Usability is based on principles such as 'Less is more' and 'Keep it simple, stupid'. But there is more to simplicity than meets the eye. By reducing visual complexity at the cost of structural simplicity, you will give your users a hard time understanding and navigating the content of a web site. http://tc.eserver.org/23284.html http://tc.eserver.org/23284.html In traditional user-centred design, focus is on users’ needs and their use of the product, while marketing is left to the marketing department. On the web, usability and marketing go hand in hand. Whether commercial or not, a web site has to meet the need of its users and at the same time convince them to take action, for the objectives behind the site to be meet. http://tc.eserver.org/23294.html http://tc.eserver.org/23294.html Many online services on the Internet are about to enter the third stage of market maturity, where the key competitive differentiator will be usability. While many existing services are going to face costly re-designs if they what to meet the demands of the third stage, new Web projects have the opportunity to overtake competitors by making usability top priority. http://tc.eserver.org/23283.html http://tc.eserver.org/23283.html When people buy things, they engage in a decision-making process. Research shows that one of the major problems with commerce sites is that they fail in supporting the customers in this process. By understanding their needs and concerns as they progress through the decision-making cycle, we can build better and more successful commerce sites. http://tc.eserver.org/23285.html http://tc.eserver.org/23285.html The internet is becoming more data-intensive. This is both an inevitable and perpetual reality. http://tc.eserver.org/23281.html http://tc.eserver.org/23281.html With this case study I want to show how our team used the concept of personas - fictional, representative user archetypes - and the customer decision-making process model in a project, in order to capture the nature of customers and their needs and concerns as they progress through the customer decision-making process. http://tc.eserver.org/23292.html http://tc.eserver.org/23292.html In June 2002 GUUUI conducted a survey on web prototyping tools usage. The purpose of the survey was to find out what tools are used for prototyping, what requirements interaction designers have for their tools, and how happy they are with the tools they are using. This article presents the results of this survey. http://tc.eserver.org/23282.html http://tc.eserver.org/23282.html When people buy things, they engage in a decision-making process. Research shows that one of the major problems with commerce sites is that they fail in supporting the customers in this process. By understanding their needs and concerns as they progress through the decision-making cycle, we can build better and more successful commerce sites. 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.