http://tc.eserver.org/publisher/uiGarden A listing of works published by uiGarden 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/uiGarden http://tc.eserver.org/33042.html http://tc.eserver.org/33042.html 很多人难以理解我的那篇“以人为中心的设计是有害的”文章。 （哈哈，下面这样说可能有些保守！关于这个问题，肯定有五百篇评论和博客文章。） 特别地，我没能够清楚地说明“以活动为中心的设计”是什么意思，以及它和“以人为中心的设计”是如何的不同。 一些人好像认为我彻底抛弃了我以前说过的话。另外一些人则简单地认为我疯了。还有一些人则急匆匆地出来解释我那样说的含义。 http://tc.eserver.org/33008.html http://tc.eserver.org/33008.html Human-Centered Design has become such a dominant theme in design that it is now accepted by interface and application designers automatically, without thought, let alone criticism. That’s a dangerous state – when things are treated as accepted wisdom. The purpose of this essay is to provoke thought, discussion, and reconsideration of some of the fundamental principles of Human-Centered Design. These principles, I suggest, can be helpful, misleading, or wrong. At times, they might even be harmful. Activity-Centered Design is superior. http://tc.eserver.org/33009.html http://tc.eserver.org/33009.html 在设计界，以人为中心的设计已经成为一个占统治地位的主题，以至于它经常被界面和应用设计人员不加思考地加以采用，更不要说是用一种带有批判的眼光加以采用。这是一种危险的状态――当某些事情被当作是被广泛认可的知识来对待时。这篇文章的目的就是要引起人们对于以人为中心设计方法的基本原理的重新思考和讨论。我认为，这些原理可能是有益的，有误导性的，或是是错误的。有时候，它们甚至可能是有害的。以活动为中心的设计是更好的一种方法。 http://tc.eserver.org/33010.html http://tc.eserver.org/33010.html HCD has developed as a limited view of design. Instead of looking at a person’s entire activity, it has primarily focused upon page-by-page analysis, screen-by-screen. As a result, sequences, interruptions, ill-defined goals – all the aspects of real activities, have been ignored. And error messages – there should not be any error messages. All messages should contain explanations and offer alternative ways of proceeding from the message itself. http://tc.eserver.org/32845.html http://tc.eserver.org/32845.html Some organisations are making accessibility improvements to their websites, but many are seemingly not making the accessibility adjustments. Disabled people don't access their website, they say, so why should they care? http://tc.eserver.org/32846.html http://tc.eserver.org/32846.html Some organisations are making accessibility improvements to their websites, but many are seemingly not making the accessibility adjustments. Disabled people don't access their website, they say, so why should they care? http://tc.eserver.org/32869.html http://tc.eserver.org/32869.html Accessibility tools are not the most glamorous of playthings. More often than not, you make do with a toolbar across your browser; a set of guidelines, or, at best, heuristics; and, if you are lucky, a screen-reader. To the uninitiated, they appear highly technical and unwelcoming. Someone said to me recently it took working alongside a person with very little sight for a couple of hours to transform the meaning of the great wad of guidance she’d been handed about making websites accessible. Suddenly it seemed like an important venture, rather than a test of patience. http://tc.eserver.org/32870.html http://tc.eserver.org/32870.html 用于提高亲和性（accessibility）的工具并不是好玩儿的玩具。常见的亲和工具（或叫辅助工具），一般来说，是你在设计时的一条足以横跨你的浏览器的工具栏，或是一整套设计指南，或是读屏软件。这些东西对于没有从事过亲和性工作的设计人员来说，显得非常的专业却不受欢迎。最近有个人告诉我，她和一个严重弱视者一起花了几个小时的时间，将她所拿到手的一大堆有关如何提高网站亲和性水平的指导原则转化成实际的设计。突然一下子我感觉亲和性的设计不只是一个对耐心的考验，而更像是一个重要的冒险。 http://tc.eserver.org/32585.html http://tc.eserver.org/32585.html With their beautiful and primitive visual arts and crafts, Taiwan’s aboriginal cultures offer great potential for enhancing design value and becoming recognized in the global market. Evidence shows very high prospects for Taiwan’s local cultures to become crucial cultural elements in future design applications. The purpose of this paper is to explore the meaning of cultural objects from Taiwan’s aboriginal cultures and to extract their cultural features. The paper attempts to illustrate how, by enhancing the original meaning and images of these cultural features and by taking advantage of new production technologies, they can be transformed into modern products that meet the needs of the contemporary consumer market. http://tc.eserver.org/32031.html http://tc.eserver.org/32031.html User experience is a term that is widely used these days to refer to all sorts of interactions between people and technologies. But when it comes to videogames, experience is the only sensible word to use. Games are pure experience. And the range of experiences they offer is huge from what it is like to land a 747 at Heathrow Airport to slaying space dragons with a team of like-minded warriors. Thus, when it comes to really understanding user experience in games, it can be hard to say anything that would apply in general. However, one expression that does seem to crop up regularly, and that gamers relate to, is that games are immersive: when people are having a good experience, they get lost or immersed in the game and the world outside the game fades into the background. So what is this notion of immersion? What causes it? And is it the heart of what makes a good game? These are the questions that I have been trying to answer, together with my colleagues and students, over the last few years. http://tc.eserver.org/31869.html http://tc.eserver.org/31869.html 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?” http://tc.eserver.org/31836.html http://tc.eserver.org/31836.html Universal Design can be thought of as a contemporary philosophical movement that addresses trends in the growth of the aging population and diversification of user abilities around the world. Stakeholders rely on designers, planners and managers as decision makers leading the drive to create non-segregated environments that help users and eliminate the stigma of disability. However, it seems necessary that everyone involved in the design process becomes aware and willing to bring about change. Therefore, the preparation of design students as well as users to understand the scope of Universal Design must be based on strategies that counteract the continuation of the stigma of disability in the mindset of designers and others who can bring about the changes required to create a more inclusive world. http://tc.eserver.org/31835.html http://tc.eserver.org/31835.html By now most readers of Design for All India have a healthy grasp of Universal Design. Many, perhaps most, have become highly competent in its application as is evident from the articles appearing in past volumes and today. Beyond technical mastery of the Seven Principles, knowledge of best-of-breed solutions, and familiarity with allied concepts such as Visitability, Adaptive Technology, or anthropometrics there is a cultural component to this design approach that is unquantifiably – but undeniably – transforming Universal Design. By systematically and thoroughly examining this cultural component in the coming decade we will discover the true nature of Universal Design to be social sustainability. http://tc.eserver.org/31837.html http://tc.eserver.org/31837.html The time for universal design is now because, as the Designing for the 21st Century III Conference website states “This is an extraordinary moment. We are more diverse now in ability and age than ever before. It is time for design to catch up. There is an urgent need to exchange ideas about the design of places, things, information, policies and programs that demonstrate the power of design to shape a 21st century world that works for all of us.” http://tc.eserver.org/31764.html http://tc.eserver.org/31764.html Design for people with disabilities sometimes works fine. However, without involving everyone, i.e., unless it will benefit everyone in the society, such design will remain as a kind of orphan technology and will eventually fail to be applied widely. The direction of design therefore should be universal/inclusive. http://tc.eserver.org/31765.html http://tc.eserver.org/31765.html 和许多其它国家一样，日本在努力使残障人士融入主流社会方面也遇到很多困难。 http://tc.eserver.org/31766.html http://tc.eserver.org/31766.html Ron Mace, Ruth Lusher和我在1998年一起写作的一篇关于通用设计的文章我相信是这方面第一篇发表的参考文献。我们的目的是推广一个设计概念积极的方面，这个概念以前被与为有限的人群（残疾人士）消除拙劣的设计相联系。我们要强调的是这个概念为所有的人士设计这一积极的方面。 1992年，当第一期通用设计新闻邮件出版的时候，我们在网络上进行了一次对于可能存在的侵权的搜索，没有发现任何关于通用设计这一名词的参考文献。今天，当我写作这篇文章的时候，我的 Google搜索发现了“大约13，200，000”条参考文献。毫无疑问，通用设计这一概念取得了广泛的使用。然而，这个名词到底是什么意思？ http://tc.eserver.org/31633.html http://tc.eserver.org/31633.html Today, as I write this article, my Google search found “about 13,200,000” references. There is no denying that the concept of Universal Design has gained widespread use. But what does it really mean? http://tc.eserver.org/31571.html http://tc.eserver.org/31571.html The idea that environments can support human function is not new to designers. But, the perception that design can enable one’s abilities and participation in society is something relatively new from a consumer perspective. http://tc.eserver.org/31573.html http://tc.eserver.org/31573.html The Human Research Institute has conducted extensive studies of the proper form of Machine-Human Interaction (MHI). Most of our work has been summarized in our technical report series and was presented at the last global MHI symposium. This report summarizes the key findings in nontechnical language, intended for wider distribution than just the specialized designer machines. http://tc.eserver.org/31574.html http://tc.eserver.org/31574.html 编者：本书最后部分，作者比较了由机器开发的设计原则和由人总结的设计原则。下文中是机器对于如何与人交流的想法。 http://tc.eserver.org/31572.html http://tc.eserver.org/31572.html 对设计者来说，使环境能够符合人体的机能是老生常谈的事。但是从消费者的观点来看，设计能够增加个体的能力和其在社区参与的程度则是一个相对来说比较新的想法。在以技术驱动的全球经济中，生活的节奏使得可用性更加重要。低生产力，不便和错误的设计带来的损失往往是巨大的。全球人口老化是另外一个重要的驱动力，尤其是在消费产品的主要市场——发达国家。 http://tc.eserver.org/31296.html http://tc.eserver.org/31296.html User Centric, a privately held usability consulting firm based in Chicago, evaluated the long-term usability and user experience of the iPhone in 2007. http://tc.eserver.org/31179.html http://tc.eserver.org/31179.html 终于问世了，iPhone的可用性测试！毫无疑问，iPhone广告营销和推广已经超过了当代所有的消费设备，达到了登峰造极的程度。但是它真的名符其实吗？ inUse公司几位最好的可用性专家组织了一次比较性的可用性测试，测试了5个用户，比较了四款手机。众所周知，人们会很容易喜欢上那些外表华丽的产品，可是 如果这个产品很难使用，新鲜感就会烟消云散，沮丧和挫败感就会随之而来。 那么测试结果如何呢？难以置信！iPhone 给这个世界带来了全新的交互方式，再次证明在用户体验上“简洁才是王道”。 http://tc.eserver.org/31180.html http://tc.eserver.org/31180.html At last. The usability test of the iPhone! Without doubt, the hype around the iPhone has managed to exceed most consumer devices in modern time. But… will it live up to the hype? We let some of our best usability experts run an inUse comparative usability test with four phones and five users. It is easy to fall in love with something so beautiful and sexy, but if the device is not easy to use the initial euphoria will quickly turn into despair and frustration. The results? Stunning. The iPhone has introduced a new interaction paradigm to the world, in an uncompromising way that proves that “less is more” when it comes to true user experience. http://tc.eserver.org/31088.html http://tc.eserver.org/31088.html When everyone offers quality, quality no longer stands out. Businesses must look elsewhere for differentiation. The next arena for competition has become innovation. But there is little consensus on what innovation is and how to achieve it. http://tc.eserver.org/30793.html http://tc.eserver.org/30793.html By its nature, all UI consists of two parts: input and output. When designing output information, the matching between system model and conceptual model actually results in another commonly used UI design principle: 'use users' language'. To be more specific, when displaying information to users, such as prompt messages or error messages, the words or terms used should be understandable to users. http://tc.eserver.org/30794.html http://tc.eserver.org/30794.html For programmers, a programming language is a software tool. Its interface consists of its lexicon, grammar and semantic rules. From this view, using a language to do programming is actually using that tool to accomplish something. As we will see shortly, different languages vary greatly in the degree of how they get close to programmer's conceptual model. http://tc.eserver.org/30479.html http://tc.eserver.org/30479.html A vital skill for designers is to notice fine detail in the other designs which form part of the technological ecosystem in which their design will live. For example, on Mac OS there are now two different styles of text entry fields for forms. One has square corners, and is used for general data entry. The other has rounded ends, and is used for entering searches. I was recently outraged to find a piece of software which used the rounded style for data entry. This kind of design vandalism muddies the rules which users would otherwise learn, and devalues all software on the platform. http://tc.eserver.org/30451.html http://tc.eserver.org/30451.html Organizing the available information and coming up with a plan for presenting it is the first and probably the most difficult stage in designing any infographic. http://tc.eserver.org/30225.html http://tc.eserver.org/30225.html If designers took the perspective of users in the design of air conditioners, perhaps the wait for the cold air would not have been 25 seconds, unless you really think that 25 seconds of waiting time is fun for users. http://tc.eserver.org/30027.html http://tc.eserver.org/30027.html The experience profile of a product can be described in terms of these experiential components. Once such an experience profile has been properly defined, it must be translated in all product properties the designer can affect. It has an effect on the sensorial aspects of the product, but also on the way it functions, it affects the way people operate the product and even the way the product is marketed. In sum, the profile has an impact on all aspects that together shape the human-product interaction. http://tc.eserver.org/30026.html http://tc.eserver.org/30026.html Was documenting and evangelizing (i.e., explaining and advocating for) UX work considered to be a critical component of what it took to move UX into a position of corporate influence? It was in some companies, but not in others. http://tc.eserver.org/29672.html http://tc.eserver.org/29672.html How can a designer increase the degree to which people bond with a product? This is the question researcher Ruth Mugge tackled, who has recently received her PhD degree on this topic at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering of Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. http://tc.eserver.org/29556.html http://tc.eserver.org/29556.html After the eras of the Commodity Economy, the Manufacturing Economy, the Service Economy and the Information Economy, we have now entered the era of the Dream Economy. The key to success in the Dream Economy is an in-depth and holistic understanding of people. It's not only about meeting people's practical needs, but also about meeting their aspirations and providing a positive emotional experience. http://tc.eserver.org/29557.html http://tc.eserver.org/29557.html In the current discussion of where design is going and what matters, there is an emphasis on the user and his or her (emotional) experience. It is a hot topic in books, blogs and the minds of industrial designers and interaction designers, worldwide. The importance of a focus on (emotional) experiences in addition to a merely technological or functional focus is being stressed by professionals with many different cultural backgrounds. http://tc.eserver.org/29403.html http://tc.eserver.org/29403.html This paper describes a cross-cultural field study of what people consider to be mobile essentials, how those mobile essentials are carried and problems typically encountered. http://tc.eserver.org/29306.html http://tc.eserver.org/29306.html How do emotion, meaning and identity shape the design and rapid adoption of mobile devices and services? China is a wonderful place to study this topic. http://tc.eserver.org/29305.html http://tc.eserver.org/29305.html Innovation is more often than not the result of many pieces of valuable information such as general observations both conscious and subconscious, media influences, interactions, discussions as well as a mix of intuition and common sense. http://tc.eserver.org/28957.html http://tc.eserver.org/28957.html The Web is about self-service and self-service is about simplicity and convenience. You've got a small screen and every time you add something extra to that screen you make the world more complicated for your reader. You must make very difficult choices if you want your website to work. You can't serve everybody, and if you try to you will serve nobody. http://tc.eserver.org/28956.html http://tc.eserver.org/28956.html I am in favor of good design and attractive products. Easy to use products. But when it comes time to purchase, people tend to go for the more powerful products, and they judge the power by the apparent complexity of the controls. If that is what people use as a purchasing choice, we must provide it for them. While making the actual complexity low, the real simplicity high. That's an exciting design challenge: make it look powerful while also making it easy to use. And attractive. And affordable. And functional. And environmentally appropriate. Accessible to all. That's why I like design: it presents wonderful challenges. http://tc.eserver.org/28728.html http://tc.eserver.org/28728.html What would happen when usability community meets agile community? How to adopt usability practice by agilists? http://tc.eserver.org/28727.html http://tc.eserver.org/28727.html The changing physical, cognitive and social requirements of customers demand the changes of user interfaces. Universal design is a solution. Let's look at what Fidelity has done to incorporate accessibility into their system and in return how Fidelity benefits from it. Though there are no formulas and figures to calculate ROI in this article, the ROI of the universal design adoption is obvious. http://tc.eserver.org/28589.html http://tc.eserver.org/28589.html This article is based upon my own experience transitioning from a career in corporate-world project management into the field of user experience design. With dedication, some talent, a few classes, and a healthy dose of self-promotion, the transition was fairly easy, very enjoyable, and took about two years. I have outlined a few key points to consider if you are planning to start a career in user experience design. http://tc.eserver.org/28591.html http://tc.eserver.org/28591.html When a company wants to make a certain segment of the organization better, usually they 'throw more money at it' and hire more employees. The problem with doing this for a UX team is that people with overlapping skills and ideas usually end up hindering user-centered design rather than helping. Conflicting design decisions will soon turn into a design by committee situation that won't help the consumer nor expose individual expertise (Brown 2004). User experience groups need to be flexible, agile, and scalable, and should only expand if the projects they work on are sufficiently large. The following is an overview of skills and disciplines needed for a successful user experience group. http://tc.eserver.org/28590.html http://tc.eserver.org/28590.html The software development process usually drives what users get. In the beginning, there was the Waterfall model based on a world where everything is known in advance and specs don't change (i.e. a figment). Users got something functional, just not what they wanted or needed by the time the software shipped. Then came various spiral flavors: Iterative, Agile, XP. Unlike waterfalls (which run in one direction and don't back up), spirals can produce software much more likely to match what users want. Spirals support usability, and usability drives the need for spiral development. But what comes after usability? And will new development approaches emerge to support it? 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/28533.html http://tc.eserver.org/28533.html Tom Kelly's latest book 'The 10 Faces of Innovation' internal personas are used to help illustrate traits critical in building an innovation culture.The Experience Archtect is included. http://tc.eserver.org/28532.html http://tc.eserver.org/28532.html User Experience (UX) design is traditionally seen as the domain of user interface (UI) design, but within a software development team it should mean so much more! UX should permeate through the whole development team. It should influence the way middle tier developers' craft their components and the way database administrators create their tables, stored procedures and views. http://tc.eserver.org/28518.html http://tc.eserver.org/28518.html Five years ago, Robert Reimann wrote a seminal article for the Cooper Newsletter called 'So You Want To Be an Interaction Designer.' Like many people, I read the article and said, yep, that's what I want to be. I took Reimann's (good) advice and found both work and training as an interaction designer. http://tc.eserver.org/28513.html http://tc.eserver.org/28513.html One lesson we've learned over the past several years here at Cooper is that on the vast majority of our projects, intimate client collaboration is a critical ingredient for success. This is a lesson that we have sometimes learned the hard way; collaboration can be messy, unpredictable and has often forced us to compromise what we thought was a supremely clear and elegant vision. http://tc.eserver.org/28514.html http://tc.eserver.org/28514.html This study sought to determine if certain personalities and uses are associated with various fonts. Using an online survey, participants rated the personality of 20 fonts using 15 adjective pairs. In addition, participants viewed the same 20 fonts and selected which uses were most appropriate. Results suggested that personality traits are indeed attributed to fonts based on their design family (Serif, Sans-Serif, Modern, Monospace, Script/Funny) and are associated with appropriate uses. Implications of these results to the design of online materials and websites are discussed. http://tc.eserver.org/28512.html http://tc.eserver.org/28512.html Tag cloud displays tags in a website which emphasize some of the tags by showing them with larger font sizes, and/or in darker colors. Moreover, tags in a tag cloud are usually arranged in alphabetical order. Tag cloud seems to work in the English world as a means of visualization as well as an extra means of navigation - what about in the Chinese world or more specifically, what about in Hong Kong? http://tc.eserver.org/28367.html http://tc.eserver.org/28367.html Human-computer interaction in the large is an interdisciplinary area which attracts researchers, educators, and practioners from many differenf fields. Human-computer interaction studies a human and a machine in communication, it draws from supporting knowledge on both the machine and the human side. This paper is related to the human side of human-computer interaction and focuses on animations. http://tc.eserver.org/28366.html http://tc.eserver.org/28366.html Perhaps you had, once or twice, experienced the following: When you logon to a software system, you are required to input a user name and password. In most situations, the system remembers your last input and the system automatically pre-fills in the username edit box, and the cursor will be directly placed in the password edit box. You tried typing in your password several times, only to be complained by the system that the password is wrong. http://tc.eserver.org/28317.html http://tc.eserver.org/28317.html The mobile user interface is becoming a key differentiator for mobile telephony devices and services. The increased focus on usable, emotive, and branded user interfaces is the result of three key drivers. http://tc.eserver.org/28318.html http://tc.eserver.org/28318.html Although there are lots of elements to consider when designing compelling Web experiences (writing style, look and feel, information organization--to name just a few), there is one 'knowable' element that can be used to appraise the rest: audience. http://tc.eserver.org/28205.html http://tc.eserver.org/28205.html Increasing numbers of websites are developing new types of user interface design, taking advantage of users' increasing levels of Internet-sophistication and faster connections. This article will have a look at some of them. http://tc.eserver.org/28204.html http://tc.eserver.org/28204.html There has certainly been a great deal of speculation lately regarding the real or perceived rise of Chinese industrial design. We say 'perceived rise' to emphasize that their impending world domination in this field is not a foregone conclusion, despite the frequent flurries of listserve chatter and design-conference panel discussions supporting such a notion. http://tc.eserver.org/28107.html http://tc.eserver.org/28107.html Passwords are a widely used mechanism for user authentication and are thus critical to the security of many systems. Strong passwords (e.g., b5j#Kv!8N) are less vulnerable to attack but at the same time more difficult to remember. Minimal-feedback hints are introduced to support users in remembering their passwords and thereby enabling them to choose stronger passwords. http://tc.eserver.org/28093.html http://tc.eserver.org/28093.html A multi-leveled framework for user interface design guidelines of Web applications is presented. User interface design guidelines tend to provide information that is either too general, so that it is difficult to apply to a specific case, or too specific, so that a wide range of products is not supported. The framework presented is unique in that it provides a bridge between the two extremes. It has been dubbed the "Bull's-Eye' due to its five layers, represented as concentric circles. The center of the Bull's-Eye is the Component layer, followed by Page Templates, Page Flows, Interface Models and Patterns, and Overarching Features and Principles. To support this approach,requirements were gathered from user interface designers,product managers, UI developers, and product developers. Also, usability testing of the guidelines occurred on several levels, from broad guideline tests to more specific product tests. The guidelines and lessons learned are intended to serve as examples for others seeking to design families of Web applications or Web sites. http://tc.eserver.org/28095.html http://tc.eserver.org/28095.html 'Use a Search Box instead of a link to a Search page.' This is one guideline from the plethora of recently created usability guidelines to help designers produce more usable web sites. It makes sense. After all, there are more than 42 million web sites on the Internet. It should be simple to study these sites and put together a list of 'do's' and 'don'ts' that, when followed, will produce easy-to-use sites. But... http://tc.eserver.org/28094.html http://tc.eserver.org/28094.html Every software development team either hires a UI specialist or consults an expert to design the next best killer application. As more and more users log onto the net, user base tends to grow and new technologies evolve, web developers and designers are left with very little time to cope up with new techniques in user interface. Thus a new wave of User Interface issues has occurred in the software development life cycle. http://tc.eserver.org/28096.html http://tc.eserver.org/28096.html Interface standards provide context-specific guidance for implementing a system based on the task goals and functions within it. A solid standard provides guidance at two levels. At the level of look and feel, it ensures consistency throughout the application or site. To be meaningful in usability terms, the standard also must provide guidance to support a consistent experience at the functional level. http://tc.eserver.org/28097.html http://tc.eserver.org/28097.html 'Standards': the word strikes fear in designers around the globe, and makes engineers lives so much easier that they bow at its alter. (Yes, this is an exaggeration for affect, but an important one.) But before we can dig a big deeper into standards for designers, we need to do some definition work. http://tc.eserver.org/28035.html http://tc.eserver.org/28035.html Designers are clearly more self-conscious about their social role today than they have been at any time in the last 20 years, yet the lack of substance of the critics who have come to the fore, and the issues on which it is chosen to take a stand, reflect a political agenda that is set elsewhere. There are many areas of life in which designers can make a real difference, but we need to look first at why they are taking themselves so seriously in the noughties. http://tc.eserver.org/28034.html http://tc.eserver.org/28034.html As a usability professional, there are many reasons why you might speak with your CEO or other senior leaders. For example, you might need funding for a new laboratory or testing equipment. You might also need to justify current or future expenses, such as salaries, end user remuneration, or your travel budget. Most conversations are financial in nature. http://tc.eserver.org/28032.html http://tc.eserver.org/28032.html Christina Li interviewd Nico Macdonald on aspects of design, technology and society. Nico offered his insights from his own experience of working in political compaign and design consultancies. http://tc.eserver.org/28037.html http://tc.eserver.org/28037.html Language is a unique communication system and fundamental to the survival of human beings. Story telling is a very old method to describe the facts, to spread knowledge, to share our experiences and feelings. A good story can be accepted and stored by our brain instantly, and leaving a long term effect on us. At the same time, it is also easy for people to understand and accept new facts and imagine similar scenarios as they happen in their own lives. In the following paragraph, let's examine why Interaction Design is story telling. http://tc.eserver.org/28036.html http://tc.eserver.org/28036.html Politics is commonly thought of as the activities of political organizations--from which the majority of designers (if not majority of people) feel disassociated. But there is a missed opportunity here: at base, politics is about values, and design is nothing if not a means of embodying values. http://tc.eserver.org/28033.html http://tc.eserver.org/28033.html How many times have you had to fight hard for the ability to do field studies and other observations at the very start of the project? How many times have you patiently explained that taking time now would be rewarded by faster time to market overall? And how many times were you successful? The HCI community has long complained about product processes that do not allow time to start with good observations. The more I examine this issue, the more I think that it is we, the HCI community, who are wrong. http://tc.eserver.org/27980.html http://tc.eserver.org/27980.html For a variety of reasons, persona efforts tend to peter out rather than end in a managed, measured, and organized manner. Consultants are usually not paid to stick around long enough to manage the personas at the end of a project and in-house teams are usually more concerned with ramping up for the next project than they are with tidying up loose ends from the previous one. Being first-in/last-out on projects means that you will probably end up with responsibilities that straddle two projects. You will be completing your work on project A even after you have begun your work on project B. That is no simple task. It is certainly easier to simply move on to project B. However, we argue that an organized approach to measuring and managing the end of a project can yield significant benefits. http://tc.eserver.org/27961.html http://tc.eserver.org/27961.html The homepages of three leading Chinese retail banks are assessed for their usability. http://tc.eserver.org/27960.html http://tc.eserver.org/27960.html Layout decisions like the course structure, navigation, media, etc., affect the experience of the product. For a learner, the ease and intuitive way of getting in, moving around and exiting are the experience factors. How do we bridge this gap between layout and experience? http://tc.eserver.org/27962.html http://tc.eserver.org/27962.html Usability through storytelling, the theme for the UPA 2006 conference, was examined from many angles. Presenters looked at how stories fit into our work, throughout the entire user-centered design process. http://tc.eserver.org/27954.html http://tc.eserver.org/27954.html Story telling has been going on for millennium; it is a wonderful way to entertain and to engage others. Stories are not direct or personal, but they convey a message that can be interpreted by other world views. Various story-telling devices, such as films, novels and plays have become part of a vast entertainment industry that often reflects cultural ideals. Religions often use a book of stories, such as the bible, to convey moral beliefs. So it is perhaps not surprising that HCI has developed forms of narrative to convey stories and messages about people's lives that it wants other world views to hear. http://tc.eserver.org/27869.html http://tc.eserver.org/27869.html This paper draws inspiration from diverse media to understand what constitutes experience. In doing so, it seeks directions for building experience into design of elearning products. http://tc.eserver.org/27866.html http://tc.eserver.org/27866.html Whether we like it or not, offshoring is here to stay. 'If' or 'when' to offshore is no longer an issue. The heart of the discussion is 'how much' – how much we can afford to offshore or, more precisely, how much we can afford to keep. The User Experience (UX) profession has gone a long way in making the distinction between software design and UX design known. Will we be able to hold on to that distinction when it comes to offshoring? http://tc.eserver.org/27180.html http://tc.eserver.org/27180.html 随着数字产品产量的激增，包括了电脑、桌面应用程序、基于网络的应用程序，另外还有移动及嵌入式装置等等，用户对这些产品的用户体验(UX – User Experience)的质量决定了它们的成功与否。想要对非技术性的用户打造一个具有生命力，娱乐性及商业性的应用程序，一个简单易用的界面更是必不可少的。 http://tc.eserver.org/27181.html http://tc.eserver.org/27181.html 设计或者重新设计一种产品经常会感觉像是一种冒险的建议，尤其是在现在的商业氛围中。负责产品规划和销售的人需要可靠的、量化的数据，来确定整体和阶段性的成功。 http://tc.eserver.org/27178.html http://tc.eserver.org/27178.html 残障人士法案要求所提供的服务不得歧视残障人士。一个网站被认为是一种服务，因而受这一法案约束，所以必须对每个人具备无障碍性。 一些团体正在对他们的网站进行无障碍性改进，但是许多团体看起来没有采取行动。残障人士不会进入他们的网站，他们说，那为什么要在乎这些。 http://tc.eserver.org/27177.html http://tc.eserver.org/27177.html 网络无障碍性是关于使你的网站让所有因特网用户（残障用户和正常用户）易于获得，不管他们使用什么浏览技术。除了符合相关法律法规， 具备无障碍性将让您的网站和商业受益良多。 请参阅文章，《具备无障碍性的网站的益处 – 第一部分 》和《具备无障碍性的网站的益处 – 第二部分 》以了解更多关于网站的无障碍性的重要性。 http://tc.eserver.org/27182.html http://tc.eserver.org/27182.html Every piece of user research is part of an ongoing research program, even if that program is informal. However, making a program formal provides a number of advantages: It gives you a set of goals, a schedule that stretches limited user-research resources, and results when they’re needed most. It also helps you avoid unnecessary, redundant, or hurried research. http://tc.eserver.org/27175.html http://tc.eserver.org/27175.html Have you ever wondered if your colleagues or clients really understand usability? Too often, standards or guidelines substitute for really engaging our business, technical and design colleagues in a discussion of what usability means. By looking at usability from five dimensions, we can create a consensus around usability goals and use that definition to provide the basis for planning user centered design activities. http://tc.eserver.org/27179.html http://tc.eserver.org/27179.html With the proliferation of digital products, including computers, desktop and Web-based applications, and mobile and embedded devices, the quality of the user experience (UX) has become one of the key determinants in the success of competing products. Productivity, entertainment, and business-application programs for non-technical users in particular must have 'intuitive' interfaces. http://tc.eserver.org/27176.html http://tc.eserver.org/27176.html 你有没有怀疑过你的同事或者客户是否真的理解“可用性”？在我们和同事的在商务、技术和设计讨论中谈论‘可用性’是什么时，经常充斥着一些标准和指导方针替代品。在本文中，我们通过了解可用性的五个维度，我们便能够围绕可用性目标达成一致的看法，并开始以这个可用性的定义为基础，来计划用户中心设计的工作。 http://tc.eserver.org/27174.html http://tc.eserver.org/27174.html 在博物馆站点开发者面临的许多挑战中，可用性和参与性名列前茅。许多开发者采用macromedia公司的Flash作为有力的开发工具，他相比 HTML更具交互能力和多媒体特性。这篇论文对比评价了同一站点的Flash和HTML版本，集中比较了每一版本的用户目的信息搜索，行为和反映。我们然后比较了两个版本的操作阻力，任务完成时间，用户满意度和定性访谈。 测试发现了两个版本站点在青少年群体和成年群体之间的显著差异。结果颇有价值地显示了Flash和HTML的相对优势和弱点。虽然我们不能从单一案例的研究得出广泛的结论，但是这些数据可以帮助我们开始关于发展中初步标准和基础框架的讨论，这些标准和框架可以为博物馆站点的开发者面对的大量的选择Flash还是HTML的情境提供建议原理。 http://tc.eserver.org/27169.html http://tc.eserver.org/27169.html For the past year and half, Tom Klinkowstein has conducted workshops, called Horizon Projects, with design students in four countries using a methodology adapted from John Anderson, a NASA scientist. The workshops lasted from 1/2 a day in New York, to two days in Istanbul, Turkey, three days In Shanghai, China and five days in Mumbai, India. http://tc.eserver.org/27171.html http://tc.eserver.org/27171.html The present study examined whether Western usability guidelines apply to Chinese web sites. Nielsen et al (2000) proposed a set of 207 usability guidelines derived from observations in the field. We took a subset of 48 rules, and looked at the compliance rate (number of guidelines a web site complied with, divided by the total number of guidelines), task completion time, task accuracy, and users’ perceived usability and likeability for four Chinese online bookstores. Results showed a clear relationship between adherence to the rules and usability of the site: as the web site’s compliance rate increased, so did the usability and the impression the web site received from its users. These results suggest that the rules governing behavior of Chinese users are similar to those of Western users. More generally, this study calls into question the widely-held intuition that usability for Asian web sites should be different than usability for Western sites. http://tc.eserver.org/27173.html http://tc.eserver.org/27173.html Of the many challenges facing developers of museum Web sites, usability and engagement rank high. Many developers have adopted Macromedia Flash as a useful tool that allows greater interactivity and multimedia compared to HTML pages. This paper reports on a comparative evaluation of Flash and HTML versions of a single site, focusing on user information-seeking goals, behavior, and responses to each version of the site. We then compare the two versions based on holding power, time on task, user satisfaction, and qualitative interviews. Testing found notable differences between the two versions of the site, and between youth and adult tester groups. The results provide valuable insights into the relative strengths and weaknesses of Flash and HTML. While we cannot draw broad conclusions from a single case study, these data can help us begin the discussion around developing preliminary standards and basic frameworks for suggesting rationales for choosing Flash or HTML in a number of typical situations facing museum Web developers. http://tc.eserver.org/27172.html http://tc.eserver.org/27172.html 这项研究调查了西方可用性规则是否可以应用于中文网站。Nielsen 等在2000年根据研究领域内的观察提议了一套207条可用性规则。我们采用了其中48条作为子集，研究四家中文在线书店的依从率（译者注：另译为顺应度）（一个网站所符合的规则条数，除以总的规则条数），任务完成时间，任务准确程度，以及用户的可用性感受和喜好程度。结果显示遵从可用性规则和站点可用性有显著关系：随着站点依从率的升高，用户所感受到的站点的可用性和印象也在提高。这一结果揭示了决定中文用户行为的规则和西方用户极为相似。简言之，这一研究质疑了很多人认为亚洲站点和西方站点的可用性（标准）应该不一样这一普遍的直觉。 http://tc.eserver.org/27170.html http://tc.eserver.org/27170.html 过去的一年半，Tom Klinkowstein在四个国家和一些设计学生举行了一些工作坊的活动，叫做地平线项目，这个项目采用了NASA科学家John Anderson的方法。工作坊在纽约进行了半天，在土耳其伊斯坦布尔进行了两天，在中国上海进行了三天，在印度孟买进行了五天。 http://tc.eserver.org/26989.html http://tc.eserver.org/26989.html Google是一个什么样的公司？对于大多数人来说，对这个问题的回答会是“搜索”。虽然说Google确实是一个关注搜索的公司，它却并不靠搜索来生存。与之相反，和其它公司一样，由利益来决定。并且就像John Gruber所指出的，它通过出售广告来生存。 这使得Google成为一家广告公司。这意义也许比你一开始猜测的要深远的多了。 不过让我们不要走得太远。让我们来谈一会儿可用性。我将要向您解释Google对于广告的必要关注可以让我们学到很多可用性的内容。更严格的讲，这篇文章将描述一个困境，一个与Google对于发布商如何防止广告的建议紧密相关的困境。可用性解决了这个困境，也因此告诉我们许多如何将商务与用户体验结合起来。 http://tc.eserver.org/26988.html http://tc.eserver.org/26988.html Google's necessary focus on advertising can teach us a lot about playing the usability game. Specifically, this article will characterize a dilemma that is tied to Google's advice to publishers on how to place advertisements. The dilemma is resolved through usability, which in turn will teach us a lot about how to mix business and the user experience. http://tc.eserver.org/26958.html http://tc.eserver.org/26958.html 我正坐在百老汇的一间咖啡厅里写这篇文章。我坐在这里已经有一会了，写文章，回邮件，用手机和我的客户联系，看着窗外移动的世界，享受着 3美元一杯的咖啡。昨天晚上，我很荣幸作为嘉宾出席了在纽约市举行的的设计与营销的学术会议。那是一个美好的夜晚，我的演讲收到了很好的效果。会议结束后，组织部门的工作人员将我领到了离时代广场差不多一个街区远的一家非常棒的餐厅用餐。在享受美味的晚餐的同时，我们的话题自然地就转到了设计和推广出色的产品与服务上。谈了一会后，其中一个人问我，在我看来哪个设计是永远伟大的的设计。 http://tc.eserver.org/26962.html http://tc.eserver.org/26962.html 从心理学角度来讲，不同的颜色代表不同的意思。从这个观点出发，本文讨论网页界面中背景颜色和内容颜色的关系。了解这个关系，有利于：a) 为网页中不同的内容选择适合的颜色；b) 浏览网页时，可以方便的找到需要的内容。 http://tc.eserver.org/26963.html http://tc.eserver.org/26963.html 摘要电子商务成功的关键是理解什么是使人们在网上购买东西的诱因，并且为他们提供方法进行购物交易。电子商务网页设计者必须充分理解目标市场的消费者行为。对于在线顾客的心理和期待的研究不仅能够帮助消费者和电子商务，而且可以帮助支持提供这些商务设备和电信基础设施的制造者。这篇文章将讨论我们在我们研究中遇到的一些事项：1）理解是什么促使中国消费者在线消费。2）西方网络可用性指南是否适合于中国的消费者 http://tc.eserver.org/26960.html http://tc.eserver.org/26960.html 在我们着手开始内部网（译者注：本文中提到的内部网一词，指的是企事业单位中内部网中的在线应用，不是指硬件构架）或网站设计项目时，最重要的一点是了解用户需求。只有如此才有可能确定出产品功能和特色，最后保证项目的成功；也只有如此，才有可能保证设计出来的东西可以服务于不同级别和具有不同目标的用户。 http://tc.eserver.org/26956.html http://tc.eserver.org/26956.html 在‘三层模型’中，一个表单有三种属性：感知（布局）、对话（问题和回答）、和关系（任务的结构）。 http://tc.eserver.org/26964.html http://tc.eserver.org/26964.html 短信服务（SMS）是一个典型的迷人应用。不仅流行而且有利可图，给网络运行商带来了丰厚的收入。甚至还有强大的铃声下载，信息提醒以及交互式游戏的销售后市场。有意思的是，这样一个成功的产品在技术上是如此的被轻视。就所有的关于SMS市场的狂热的讨论来说，产品在最近几年中基本就没有变化。根据它的成功表现，业界应该投入更多的努力来理解SMS带给消费者的价值，并且推出能够延伸这种价值的新服务。 http://tc.eserver.org/26959.html http://tc.eserver.org/26959.html 我们常常看到这样的新闻报道：飞机坠毁夺走了好几百人的生命，某次工业事故导致几百万英镑的损失，某新发现的系统医疗错误致使数千病患重返医院。几个月后，公布的调查结果如下：操作机器设备时的人为错误导致了这些事故。人们使用‘人为错误’一词来表达‘操作上的错误’，而经常的情况是，这些‘人为错误’ 根本就是机器设备的人机界面设计或安装上本身固有的问题。低劣的人机界面会导致使用效率降低或者容易发生错误，严重的则会造成财产和生命损失。 http://tc.eserver.org/26965.html http://tc.eserver.org/26965.html 这个分为三部分的文章概述了一个直观的、省时省力的方法来提升访问网站的速度，这是基于网站性能有关的两个简单法则。 http://tc.eserver.org/26957.html http://tc.eserver.org/26957.html 本文的第一部分（二月份）介绍了如何通过优化代码来尽可能少的传输数据，在本文的第二部分中，我们将着重介绍如何利用Web端的缓冲技术（caching）来尽可能降低传输的频繁度。一旦您开始注意进行有效的缓冲设置，您便可以极大地减少网页加载的次数，尤其对于经常访问您网站的常客和忠诚的访问者来说更是如此，而且还可以降低您整体带宽的消耗，并减少您有限的服务器资源的占用。 http://tc.eserver.org/26961.html http://tc.eserver.org/26961.html 诺曼博士改变了一代设计师对人和科技的理解。在西方，他提出的可用性和情感方面的设计哲学，在人们日常产品的设计中被广泛应用。现在，中国设计界也开始受到他的影响。那么，诺曼博士对于中国的设计界和可用性行业有何看法呢？李鱼女士，代表uiGarden的编辑团队，对诺曼博士就这一问题进行了采访。 http://tc.eserver.org/26905.html http://tc.eserver.org/26905.html 草图和原型是产品的整个设计过程中不可缺少的一个环节，这对设计概念的产生，以及和他人进行讨论和评价时都十分重要，尤其是在以用户为中心设计的情况下。原型的方法是设计教育的必修部分、是专家的工具包，但如果能够将这一过程展示给产品和界面开发过程中其他学科的人士，也具备巨大的价值。 http://tc.eserver.org/26906.html http://tc.eserver.org/26906.html 为什么要保证我们的软件产品或应用程序中的文本、图像和字体、布局等问题呢，因为我们用户的终端显示设备通常型号和设置各异，如最近出现的16˙9，低于 8”的等最新款式移动手提电脑，我们的应用程序和软件产品通常会在这样的终端变得面目全非，而这显然给用户的使用带来了严重的问题，直接导致的问题如：操作易用性Usability、功能可接近性Accessibility、文本可读性Readability 等，而这样的问题并非不可逾越，要解决如何让我们的应用程序在高分辨率的显示下仍然保持正常可视，重点需要解决四个方面的问题文本和字体、图像（图形、图标和鼠标指针）、版面设置和重绘等。 http://tc.eserver.org/26904.html http://tc.eserver.org/26904.html Google 的真实情况是怎样的呢？回答是：它并不简洁。 瞧，我喜欢 Google。它是个很棒的搜索引擎，但是我比较反感听到有人表扬它的外观优雅而简洁。见鬼，所有的搜索引擎都有一部分是优雅而又简洁的：在输入框中输入要查询的词语，然后按“回车”键。 “不”，有人会马上反对说：“Google的搜索页面是那样的简洁、优雅，没有和其它的功能挤在一起”。 http://tc.eserver.org/26871.html http://tc.eserver.org/26871.html This article discusses how eye-tracking can be used to supplement traditional usability test measures. User performance on two usability tasks with three e-commerce websites is described. Results show that eye-tracking data can be used to better understand how users initiate a search for a targeted link or web object. Frequency, duration and order of visual attention to Areas of Interest (AOIs) in particular are informative as supplemental information to standard usability testing in understanding user expectations and making design recommendations. http://tc.eserver.org/26872.html http://tc.eserver.org/26872.html Anybody can make a simple-looking interface if the system only does one thing. If you want to do one of the many other things Google is able to do, oops, first you have to figure out how to find it, then you have to figure out which of the many offerings to use, then you have to figure out how to use it. http://tc.eserver.org/26785.html http://tc.eserver.org/26785.html Population aging and environmental concern are two important factors that will effect the design of vehicles in the future. In response to the potential conflict between them, the authors propose a shift in focus from individual vehicles to transport services, from '€˜A Car for All'€™ to '€˜Mobility for All'€™, and offer strategies, scenarios and case studies of how this might be achieved. New service and vehicle typologies are introduced and discussed, and an area of future research and development is identified. http://tc.eserver.org/26784.html http://tc.eserver.org/26784.html Sketching and modeling are integral features of the design process, critical for both the generation of ideas, and the communication of concepts to others for discussion and evaluation, particularly in the context of human-centered design. While these methods are a natural component of the designer’s education and professional tool kit, there is immense value in exposing other professions involved in the development of products and interfaces to at least a limited set of these same basic tools. http://tc.eserver.org/26728.html http://tc.eserver.org/26728.html For an application to work well under a high resolution display environment, there are four major elements to consider: Text, Fonts, Image (Picture, Icon and Mouse Cursors), and Layout. http://tc.eserver.org/26729.html http://tc.eserver.org/26729.html In the uiGarden forum there has been much discussion about cultural differences in the web design, especially in reference to animation and flashy elements. It looks right to offer Professor Hofstede’s ideas to readers here. These ideas were first based on a large research project into national culture differences across subsidiaries of a multinational corporation (IBM) in 64 countries. http://tc.eserver.org/26396.html http://tc.eserver.org/26396.html Why do people say 'I’m not good with forms' or 'I don’t like forms' when a form is only a piece of paper, or a screen, with some printing on it? There must be something special about forms that inspires these comments. http://tc.eserver.org/26395.html http://tc.eserver.org/26395.html Almost two years ago, twenty students from all over the world came to Ivrea, a city that once was the epicenter of Olivetti and of the Italian Hi-tech. They came to study interaction design. http://tc.eserver.org/26393.html http://tc.eserver.org/26393.html One of my favourite Dilbert strips goes something like:'I’ve done it! I’ve invented the world’s most usable machine. It only has one button… and we press it before it leaves the factory.’ http://tc.eserver.org/26394.html http://tc.eserver.org/26394.html Are you worried as a designer in the U.S. that design jobs will migrate to China? Are you concerned about the increasingly competitive pricing on design jobs and its resultant outsourcing? Are you curious about the quality of design work over there? http://tc.eserver.org/26285.html http://tc.eserver.org/26285.html Dr Norman has changed the way a generation of designers in understanding people and technologies. His philosophy of usability and emotion has been widely used in designing products for people's everyday life in the west and is now also starting to have an impact upon Chinese design practices. What is Dr Norman's view on Chinese design and usability industry then? Christina Li, on behalf of the uiGarden editorial team, brings us the experience of questioning Don Norman. http://tc.eserver.org/26244.html http://tc.eserver.org/26244.html There are many ways to identify the needs of users, such as usability testing, interviewing users, discussions with business stakeholders, and conducting surveys. However one technique that has grown in popularity and acceptance is the use of personas: the development of archetypal users to direct the vision and design of a web solution. http://tc.eserver.org/26247.html http://tc.eserver.org/26247.html Designing or redesigning a product often feels like a risky proposition, especially in today's business climate. http://tc.eserver.org/26243.html http://tc.eserver.org/26243.html In addition to providing clients with top quality design work, it is also important to help them think strategically. It adds a great deal of value for your clients when you help them to understand more about their users and their markets and about what the implications of this are for their designs. http://tc.eserver.org/26242.html http://tc.eserver.org/26242.html Is usability ready for primetime? Two industry leaders go head-to-head on this issue. http://tc.eserver.org/25395.html http://tc.eserver.org/25395.html Psychologically speaking, different color has different meaning. From this point, this article focuses on the relationship between the background color and content of the web interface. http://tc.eserver.org/25400.html http://tc.eserver.org/25400.html This three-part article outlines a common sense, cost-effective approach to Web site acceleration according to the two simple laws of Web performance: send as little data as possible; send it as infrequently as possible. http://tc.eserver.org/25391.html http://tc.eserver.org/25391.html Focuses primarily on sending that data as infrequently as possible by means of better utilization of caching on the Web. Once you start to design your sites with an eye towards effective caching control, you will dramatically reduce page load times for your users - particularly your most loyal, repeat visitors - as well as lower your overall bandwidth consumption and free up your server resources. http://tc.eserver.org/25390.html http://tc.eserver.org/25390.html Ferrari or Fiesta, which do you prefer if price is not a consideration? What does go through our minds as we make such comparisons actually? Russell Beale presents us with his thoughts in user-centred design. http://tc.eserver.org/25399.html http://tc.eserver.org/25399.html This position paper looks at two examples where the study of fun is at very least systematic, and quite possibly scientific. In the first, Virtual Crackers, a systematic process of 'deconstructing experience'; identifies the individual aspects of an experience (pulling crackers), which are then used to reconstruct a new experience in a new medium (the web). http://tc.eserver.org/25394.html http://tc.eserver.org/25394.html Why are scrollbars on the right, and is it the best place for them? There are good reasons to think that the left-hand side may be the better choice. In this short paper we'll talk about two cases, from which we can find: the best placement does not look right when you see it statically, but feels right when it is used.