http://odeo.com/channels/48668-UIE-Brain-Sparks no UIE\'s latest insights on the world of design UIE\'s latest insights on the world of design The latest insights from User Interface Engineering on the world of design, including the SpoolCast, Userability, and the Usability Tools Podcasts. en 40 Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:44:50 -0800 Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:44:50 -0800 Technology http://odeo.com/episodes/25438142-UI14-Session-Sampler-Leah-Buley%E2%80%99s-A-UX-Team-of-One An audio selection from Leah Buley’s A UX Team of One 7.5MB – 14min 15sec If you didn’t attend the User Interface Conference this year, you may have missed the buzz over Leah Buley’s session entitled “How to be a User Experience Team of One”. Attendees loved it. Leah gave them tips and techniques used by top user experience teams that any UXer can use in a small team or an unsupportive environment. Below are some notes I took during Leah’s session and slides from this portion of the talk. The slides here are shrunk to fit our blog, but the materials on the disc are full-sized PDFs suitable for printing. Leah began with telling the story of her transition to a new job at Adaptive Path. Up until then, she had been a UX team of one at a financial firm. Her time was mostly spent walled up in a cubicle, headphones on, sketching and otherwise prepping wireframes on the computer, based on up-front meetings determining business requirements. After a... An audio selection from Leah Buley’s A UX Team of One 7.5MB – 14min 15sec If you didn’t attend the User Interface Conference this year, you may have missed the buzz over Leah Buley’s session entitled “How to be a User Experience Team of One”. Attendees loved it. Leah gave them tips and techniques used by top user experience teams that any UXer can use in a small team or an unsupportive environment. Below are some notes I took during Leah’s session and slides from this portion of the talk. The slides here are shrunk to fit our blog, but the materials on the disc are full-sized PDFs suitable for printing. Leah began with telling the story of her transition to a new job at Adaptive Path. Up until then, she had been a UX team of one at a financial firm. Her time was mostly spent walled up in a cubicle, headphones on, sketching and otherwise prepping wireframes on the computer, based on up-front meetings determining business requirements. After a few weeks she would emerge from her design cocoon with designs ready to be shown in a dog-and-pony show-style. Her first day at Adaptive Path was radically different. She was handed paper and a Sharpie and, along with a couple of other designers, was asked to tackle a problem by generating several solutions, collaboratively, on the spot. She was initially flush with panic. They didn’t teach this at library school! After a short while she warmed up to the process. To get to the quality ideas, you first must generate a lot of ideas, and be OK with many of them being subpar and others simply being tossed aside. Now instead of jumping to the finish, as she had at her previous job, she was exploring more ideas more efficiently with techniques you can use with or without collaborating designers. Leah used the idea of redesigning the eVite.com digital invitation and RSVP service to demonstrate some of the techniques she learned after joining Adaptive Path. (For the purposes of this blog post, we’ll be covering just the first part of the brainstorming process) She avoided the computer. Computers can lock you into only one idea and you often get sucked down by minutia you shouldn’t be addressing at this stage. She started with a “6-up” – a single sheet of paper with six, smallish, blank browser viewports and a pen. This allowed for 6 different ideas of how to solve one problem, say the eVite landing page. One or two ideas came easily. How do you push through to the next ideas? [Download a PDF file of Leah's 6-up template] Leah uses a couple of so-called “lightweight conceptual frameworks” to help push more ideas out of her head. A “Spectrum” is one such framework. A spectrum is a range from two opposing points. For example, what would the landing page at eVite.com look like if it was intended solely for a first-timer? What would it look like if it was solely for a long-time user of the service? What would pages on the spectrum in between those to points look like? What characteristic would they exhibit? None of the sketches you make on the spectrum may be the right solution. But that’s OK, because we’re not drawing solutions. We’re drawing ideas. This framework gets you to try ideas you might have avoided before. Now you have a pile of ideas to pick from. Perhaps the best design features aspects from several of these thumbnail sketches. You can hear the rest of Leah’s talk plus the other seven speakers and Jared Spool’s keynote presentation on the UI14 proceedings disc. The disc is loaded with over 12 hours of audio recordings, all the handouts from the Featured Talks and the presentation slides from the 8 full-day workshops. Order the proceedings disc by November 20, 2009 to guarantee your set and get the lowest price. An audio selection from Leah Buley’s A UX Team of One 7.5MB – 14min 15sec If you didn’t attend the User Interface Conference this year, you may have missed the buzz over Leah Buley’s session entitled “How to be a User Experience Team of One”. Attendees loved it. Leah gave them tips and techniques used by top user experience teams that any UXer can use in a small team or an unsupportive environment. Below are some notes I took during Leah’s session and slides from this portion of the talk. The slides here are shrunk to fit our blog, but the materials on the disc are full-sized PDFs suitable for printing. Leah began with telling the story of her transition to a new job at Adaptive Path. Up until then, she had been a UX team of one at a financial firm. Her time was mostly spent walled up in a cubicle, headphones on, sketching and otherwise prepping wireframes on the computer, based on up-front meetings determining business requirements. After a few weeks she would emerge from her design cocoon with designs ready to be shown in a dog-and-pony show-style. Her first day at Adaptive Path was radically different. She was handed paper and a Sharpie and, along with a couple of other designers, was asked to tackle a problem by generating several solutions, collaboratively, on the spot. She was initially flush with panic. They didn’t teach this at library school! After a short while she warmed up to the process. To get to the quality ideas, you first must generate a lot of ideas, and be OK with many of them being subpar and others simply being tossed aside. Now instead of jumping to the finish, as she had at her previous job, she was exploring more ideas more efficiently with techniques you can use with or without collaborating designers. Leah used the idea of redesigning the eVite.com digital invitation and RSVP service to demonstrate some of the techniques she learned after joining Adaptive Path. (For the purposes of this blog post, we’ll be covering just the first part of the brainstorming process) She avoided the computer. Computers can lock you into only one idea and you often get sucked down by minutia you shouldn’t be addressing at this stage. She started with a “6-up” – a single sheet of paper with six, smallish, blank browser viewports and a pen. This allowed for 6 different ideas of how to solve one problem, say the eVite landing page. One or two ideas came easily. How do you push through to the next ideas? [Download a PDF file of Leah's 6-up template] Leah uses a couple of so-called “lightweight conceptual frameworks” to help push more ideas out of her head. A “Spectrum” is one such framework. A spectrum is a range from two opposing points. For example, what would the landing page at eVite.com look like if it was intended solely for a first-timer? What would it look like if it was solely for a long-time user of the service? What would pages on the spectrum in between those to points look like? What characteristic would they exhibit? None of the sketches you make on the spectrum may be the right solution. But that’s OK, because we’re not drawing solutions. We’re drawing ideas. This framework gets you to try ideas you might have avoided before. Now you have a pile of ideas to pick from. Perhaps the best design features aspects from several of these thumbnail sketches. You can hear the rest of Leah’s talk plus the other seven speakers and Jared Spool’s keynote presentation on the UI14 proceedings disc. The disc is loaded with over 12 hours of audio recordings, all the handouts from the Featured Talks and the presentation slides from the 8 full-day workshops. Order the proceedings disc by November 20, 2009 to guarantee your set and get the lowest price. tag:odeo.com,2009-11-11,25438142 Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:44:50 -0800 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, Design, events, Design Process, Wireframes, UI14 http://odeo.com/episodes/25359285-SpoolCast-Innovation-Beyond-the-Buzzword Duration: 27.5m | 15MB Recorded: October, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] How many IBM or General Electric television ads do we need to see before we are groaning at the mention of the word “innovation”? It’s too late for me, personally. But that doesn’t mean real innovation is dead. Steve Jobs has been quoted saying Apple will innovate their way through tight times. This past week Apple announced record revenues for the past quarter on impressive sales of premium products that aren’t supposed to sell well during down times. How are they flourishing while their competition is not? How can you bring real innovation into your projects? That’s what I asked Scott Berkun when we spoke earlier this month. Scott is one of our favorite speakers on the topic of innovation and project manageme... Duration: 27.5m | 15MB Recorded: October, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] How many IBM or General Electric television ads do we need to see before we are groaning at the mention of the word “innovation”? It’s too late for me, personally. But that doesn’t mean real innovation is dead. Steve Jobs has been quoted saying Apple will innovate their way through tight times. This past week Apple announced record revenues for the past quarter on impressive sales of premium products that aren’t supposed to sell well during down times. How are they flourishing while their competition is not? How can you bring real innovation into your projects? That’s what I asked Scott Berkun when we spoke earlier this month. Scott is one of our favorite speakers on the topic of innovation and project management. He tells us you have to be opportunistic and start small. High-priority challenges may be a temping place to start, but he suggested looking first at low-hanging fruit. You can build momentum for positive change by racking up a number of small wins that together move the project in the right direction. Having these small successes under your belt gives you more influence when attempting larger changes later on. True innovation starts with you allowing yourself to be creative and recording your ideas religiously in a safe place like a notebook or sketchpad. Don’t self-censor, either. Initial precision and “getting it right” are the antithesis of creativity. It’s essential to let the ideas flow, and your ideas will improve as you continue to record them. Your journal is an incubator of ideas. Not every idea will be a success, and some will be terrible! But Scott says that’s OK. When an opportunity for change arises, you’ll have a treasure trove of ideas to pick though. Once you have an idea, you need to involve other people to make it happen. The key differentiator in successful, innovative environments is group trust. People need to feel they are safe to share ideas with their team. If you work in an environment where you’re fearful of this, find one person on your team who is the most enthusiastic and try sharing with them. Once you have other people on board with your idea, you’ll have an easier time sharing it with others. A common difficulty is honest and constructive critique among teams and individuals. This is an area where the most successful teams have excelled. Good critiques take practice and trust within your team. This usually requires time and commitment. Scott has a lot of great ideas for your team from his years of research into the habits of highly innovative teams. And we have asked him to present his findings in a full-day workshop at our User Interface 14 Conference, this November in Boston. Scott presented on this very topic last year and received rave reviews as one of our most entertaining and informative speakers. You won’t want to miss it. What experiences have you had trying to introduce new ideas? Politics and “we’ve tried that before” getting in the way? Let us hear about it in the comments. Duration: 27.5m | 15MB Recorded: October, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] How many IBM or General Electric television ads do we need to see before we are groaning at the mention of the word “innovation”? It’s too late for me, personally. But that doesn’t mean real innovation is dead. Steve Jobs has been quoted saying Apple will innovate their way through tight times. This past week Apple announced record revenues for the past quarter on impressive sales of premium products that aren’t supposed to sell well during down times. How are they flourishing while their competition is not? How can you bring real innovation into your projects? That’s what I asked Scott Berkun when we spoke earlier this month. Scott is one of our favorite speakers on the topic of innovation and project management. He tells us you have to be opportunistic and start small. High-priority challenges may be a temping place to start, but he suggested looking first at low-hanging fruit. You can build momentum for positive change by racking up a number of small wins that together move the project in the right direction. Having these small successes under your belt gives you more influence when attempting larger changes later on. True innovation starts with you allowing yourself to be creative and recording your ideas religiously in a safe place like a notebook or sketchpad. Don’t self-censor, either. Initial precision and “getting it right” are the antithesis of creativity. It’s essential to let the ideas flow, and your ideas will improve as you continue to record them. Your journal is an incubator of ideas. Not every idea will be a success, and some will be terrible! But Scott says that’s OK. When an opportunity for change arises, you’ll have a treasure trove of ideas to pick though. Once you have an idea, you need to involve other people to make it happen. The key differentiator in successful, innovative environments is group trust. People need to feel they are safe to share ideas with their team. If you work in an environment where you’re fearful of this, find one person on your team who is the most enthusiastic and try sharing with them. Once you have other people on board with your idea, you’ll have an easier time sharing it with others. A common difficulty is honest and constructive critique among teams and individuals. This is an area where the most successful teams have excelled. Good critiques take practice and trust within your team. This usually requires time and commitment. Scott has a lot of great ideas for your team from his years of research into the habits of highly innovative teams. And we have asked him to present his findings in a full-day workshop at our User Interface 14 Conference, this November in Boston. Scott presented on this very topic last year and received rave reviews as one of our most entertaining and informative speakers. You won’t want to miss it. What experiences have you had trying to introduce new ideas? Politics and “we’ve tried that before” getting in the way? Let us hear about it in the comments. tag:odeo.com,2009-10-23,25359285 Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:31:36 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, SpoolCast, Design Process, team management, UI14 http://odeo.com/episodes/25259826-SpoolCast-Visual-Design-for-the-Non-Designer Duration: 41m | 22MB Recorded: October, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] What can a non-designer do to harness the power of visual design without calling professional help? Quite a lot, says internationally-regarded visual designer Dan Rubin. We called Dan to talk about what design techniques are accessible to mere mortals. He also gave us a preview of his day-long workshop for non-designers at our User Interface 14 Conference, this November. Call it low hanging fruit, Dan says, but there are a lot of small, seemingly simple things that combine to have a strong, positive effect upon your site’s impact. If you’ve built with web standards, especially using CSS for style, these small changes can be trivial to execute across your site. Start with the spacing between elements. Consistency with the white space and... Duration: 41m | 22MB Recorded: October, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] What can a non-designer do to harness the power of visual design without calling professional help? Quite a lot, says internationally-regarded visual designer Dan Rubin. We called Dan to talk about what design techniques are accessible to mere mortals. He also gave us a preview of his day-long workshop for non-designers at our User Interface 14 Conference, this November. Call it low hanging fruit, Dan says, but there are a lot of small, seemingly simple things that combine to have a strong, positive effect upon your site’s impact. If you’ve built with web standards, especially using CSS for style, these small changes can be trivial to execute across your site. Start with the spacing between elements. Consistency with the white space and alignment bring an important sense of order to your pages. “Humans love patterns and order,” Dan tells us. Patterns and rules are tools pro designers use to organize page elements. Arbitrary placement leave sites looking cluttered and out of sorts. Creating rules — for example, the amount of space between certain elements — is something non-pros can do to bring order to a page. Choose a spacing and alignment scheme and stick to it. The earlier you set these rules and patterns, the easier it is to wrangle your page elements. Once rules are in place, you’re left with fewer arbitrary decisions to make. Arbitrary decisions are often the cause of disorder. Massive gains can be made by addressing typographical issues. Proper typography establishes the hierarchy of information, guiding your visitors through your site content. Create a visual identity for a kind of content, and then use it consistently. Dan says most pro designers limit the number of typefaces (fonts) in a design to one or two; often one serifed face (Georgia is an example), and one sans-serif (Verdana is an example). From there, Dan advocates restraint, by making the smallest effective change to call attention to differences. Don’t combine large text, bold, italics, and color on one element where bold alone would have sufficed. Color is a challenging topic. Many feel color choices are subjective, but there are considerations to consider. Using a color palette, like kuler.adobe.com, will help you pick colors that naturally work together… but if you already have brand colors, you should try to stick with them as much as practical. Remember, you can use black, white, and the spectrum of grays to accomplish a lot of your design’s heavy lifting. Be sure, when you do interject colors, to remember that they often have cultural, meanings. Dan used the example of red, in many cultures, representing a warning. Be wary of red in a context where it might lead a user to think they’re being warned when they are not. Try to work with these cultural perceptions instead of against them. Be sure to understand audience; those with color blindness and those from different cultures may literally view your colors differently. Dan wanted everyone to remember that, in design, “We’re solving problems… but not for ourselves.” He also had another bit of advice, “When you design something right, no one will pat you on the back, because now it works like it’s supposed to.” That might be hard to accept initially, but it means you can make small changes without startling people. An adjustment to the line-height of your text might not be noticed by a regular reader, but they’ll find themselves more comfortably reading the content. Dan has gathered all this advice and much more into his full-day User Interface 14 workshop, Visual Design Essentials for Non-Designers: Effortless Skills for High-quality Designs. It’s so full of enough valuable content, you’ll keep you tweaking your site for months to come. Are you responsible for the visual design on your site, without pro-design resources? What effective steps have you found to improve your site? Let us know in the comments. Duration: 41m | 22MB Recorded: October, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] What can a non-designer do to harness the power of visual design without calling professional help? Quite a lot, says internationally-regarded visual designer Dan Rubin. We called Dan to talk about what design techniques are accessible to mere mortals. He also gave us a preview of his day-long workshop for non-designers at our User Interface 14 Conference, this November. Call it low hanging fruit, Dan says, but there are a lot of small, seemingly simple things that combine to have a strong, positive effect upon your site’s impact. If you’ve built with web standards, especially using CSS for style, these small changes can be trivial to execute across your site. Start with the spacing between elements. Consistency with the white space and alignment bring an important sense of order to your pages. “Humans love patterns and order,” Dan tells us. Patterns and rules are tools pro designers use to organize page elements. Arbitrary placement leave sites looking cluttered and out of sorts. Creating rules — for example, the amount of space between certain elements — is something non-pros can do to bring order to a page. Choose a spacing and alignment scheme and stick to it. The earlier you set these rules and patterns, the easier it is to wrangle your page elements. Once rules are in place, you’re left with fewer arbitrary decisions to make. Arbitrary decisions are often the cause of disorder. Massive gains can be made by addressing typographical issues. Proper typography establishes the hierarchy of information, guiding your visitors through your site content. Create a visual identity for a kind of content, and then use it consistently. Dan says most pro designers limit the number of typefaces (fonts) in a design to one or two; often one serifed face (Georgia is an example), and one sans-serif (Verdana is an example). From there, Dan advocates restraint, by making the smallest effective change to call attention to differences. Don’t combine large text, bold, italics, and color on one element where bold alone would have sufficed. Color is a challenging topic. Many feel color choices are subjective, but there are considerations to consider. Using a color palette, like kuler.adobe.com, will help you pick colors that naturally work together… but if you already have brand colors, you should try to stick with them as much as practical. Remember, you can use black, white, and the spectrum of grays to accomplish a lot of your design’s heavy lifting. Be sure, when you do interject colors, to remember that they often have cultural, meanings. Dan used the example of red, in many cultures, representing a warning. Be wary of red in a context where it might lead a user to think they’re being warned when they are not. Try to work with these cultural perceptions instead of against them. Be sure to understand audience; those with color blindness and those from different cultures may literally view your colors differently. Dan wanted everyone to remember that, in design, “We’re solving problems… but not for ourselves.” He also had another bit of advice, “When you design something right, no one will pat you on the back, because now it works like it’s supposed to.” That might be hard to accept initially, but it means you can make small changes without startling people. An adjustment to the line-height of your text might not be noticed by a regular reader, but they’ll find themselves more comfortably reading the content. Dan has gathered all this advice and much more into his full-day User Interface 14 workshop, Visual Design Essentials for Non-Designers: Effortless Skills for High-quality Designs. It’s so full of enough valuable content, you’ll keep you tweaking your site for months to come. Are you responsible for the visual design on your site, without pro-design resources? What effective steps have you found to improve your site? Let us know in the comments. tag:odeo.com,2009-10-09,25259826 Fri, 09 Oct 2009 07:37:06 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, Design, SpoolCast, Visual Design, UI14 http://odeo.com/episodes/25244329-SpoolCast-Information-Architecture-Essentials Duration: 33m | 17MB Recorded: August, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Donna Spencer is our long-time, go-to expert on the topic of Information Architecture. We’re happy to bring her stateside again for the upcoming User Interface 14 conference. Recently, I spoke with her, all the way from Australia, in advance of her trip to Boston. I asked Donna, what happens when, one day, you’re asked into the boss’s office and they drop “the web site” and “information architecture” into your lap? Regardless of your experience, where do you begin? Donna says your first question should be, “Why do we bother to have a web site in the first place?” “What’s its purpose?” She says if you don’t get this out of the way first, you’ll run up against it when ... Duration: 33m | 17MB Recorded: August, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Donna Spencer is our long-time, go-to expert on the topic of Information Architecture. We’re happy to bring her stateside again for the upcoming User Interface 14 conference. Recently, I spoke with her, all the way from Australia, in advance of her trip to Boston. I asked Donna, what happens when, one day, you’re asked into the boss’s office and they drop “the web site” and “information architecture” into your lap? Regardless of your experience, where do you begin? Donna says your first question should be, “Why do we bother to have a web site in the first place?” “What’s its purpose?” She says if you don’t get this out of the way first, you’ll run up against it when you’re further along the trail and it won’t be easy to deal with. One strategy Donna likes is to work backwards. Start with what should not be on the site. Sometimes pruning your unnecessary or no longer timely content is an effective way of honing the site. You should ask, “What’s the value of this content? Is this still relevant?” Before you can answer this for certain, you need to research your users’ needs thoroughly. Along with establishing the site’s purpose, knowing your users is the most important step to begin with. These two items will work hand in hand. I asked Donna, once you have these established, should we just dive right into the homepage and start making changes? Generally, the answer is no. A few initial homepage tweaks aren’t always bad, especially if you can get some quick wins there. Hopefully your research has revealed the site sections in most need of assistance. Starting there will often be productive. You should most likely start with the content pages, where more people enter your site and where they spend most of their time. Be sure that your content pages work for their specific content, as all your content will not likely be all cookie-cutter. Generally, Donna shies away from using Lorem Ipsum text for content page designs. Also, if you know your customers don’t generally begin on the homepage, don’t create your navigation by starting with the homepage. Your goal should be to get something informed in front of people quickly. At some point you’ll need to take what you know and create a first draft. You’ll have to make some of it up. Don’t expect it to be 100% right. Check it against your research, show it to people within the organization, and tweak. Show it to users and see if it functions well. The good and bad should become apparent once you put it through these paces. These points are of course just a few of the highlights from our conversation. Please join us for the complete discussion in the podcast. If you found this useful, you’ll likely also be interested in Donna’s full-day workshop at UI14, Information Architecture Essentials, Best Practices for Organizing Your Site’s Content, which was UI13’s highest-rated workshop, newly revised and updated. You won’t want to miss it. Have you had the task of redesigning your site’s IA just dropped in your lap out of the blue? Where would or did you start? Let us know in the comments! Duration: 33m | 17MB Recorded: August, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Donna Spencer is our long-time, go-to expert on the topic of Information Architecture. We’re happy to bring her stateside again for the upcoming User Interface 14 conference. Recently, I spoke with her, all the way from Australia, in advance of her trip to Boston. I asked Donna, what happens when, one day, you’re asked into the boss’s office and they drop “the web site” and “information architecture” into your lap? Regardless of your experience, where do you begin? Donna says your first question should be, “Why do we bother to have a web site in the first place?” “What’s its purpose?” She says if you don’t get this out of the way first, you’ll run up against it when you’re further along the trail and it won’t be easy to deal with. One strategy Donna likes is to work backwards. Start with what should not be on the site. Sometimes pruning your unnecessary or no longer timely content is an effective way of honing the site. You should ask, “What’s the value of this content? Is this still relevant?” Before you can answer this for certain, you need to research your users’ needs thoroughly. Along with establishing the site’s purpose, knowing your users is the most important step to begin with. These two items will work hand in hand. I asked Donna, once you have these established, should we just dive right into the homepage and start making changes? Generally, the answer is no. A few initial homepage tweaks aren’t always bad, especially if you can get some quick wins there. Hopefully your research has revealed the site sections in most need of assistance. Starting there will often be productive. You should most likely start with the content pages, where more people enter your site and where they spend most of their time. Be sure that your content pages work for their specific content, as all your content will not likely be all cookie-cutter. Generally, Donna shies away from using Lorem Ipsum text for content page designs. Also, if you know your customers don’t generally begin on the homepage, don’t create your navigation by starting with the homepage. Your goal should be to get something informed in front of people quickly. At some point you’ll need to take what you know and create a first draft. You’ll have to make some of it up. Don’t expect it to be 100% right. Check it against your research, show it to people within the organization, and tweak. Show it to users and see if it functions well. The good and bad should become apparent once you put it through these paces. These points are of course just a few of the highlights from our conversation. Please join us for the complete discussion in the podcast. If you found this useful, you’ll likely also be interested in Donna’s full-day workshop at UI14, Information Architecture Essentials, Best Practices for Organizing Your Site’s Content, which was UI13’s highest-rated workshop, newly revised and updated. You won’t want to miss it. Have you had the task of redesigning your site’s IA just dropped in your lap out of the blue? Where would or did you start? Let us know in the comments! tag:odeo.com,2009-10-06,25244329 Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:15:27 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, information architecture, SpoolCast, Design Process, UI14 http://odeo.com/episodes/25170953-SpoolCast-Prototyping-Experiences Duration: 39m | 21MB Recorded: August, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Todd Zaki Warfel has just finished two years of research into the tools and processes used in prototyping web sites. His findings will be published in a book due out this fall and we’ve asked him to give a full-day workshop on the topic at UI14. Did you know some people are actually building prototypes in Microsoft Excel? It’s true. “People are using what they have at their disposal and what they are comfortable with,” Todd tells me. In the podcast, we discussed a number of the more popular tools that are being used today, from Adobe Fireworks, to Axure RP, to good old PowerPoint. Todd doesn’t think your choice of tool is important if you are able to communicate your ideas effectively to your audience. He thinks it is w... Duration: 39m | 21MB Recorded: August, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Todd Zaki Warfel has just finished two years of research into the tools and processes used in prototyping web sites. His findings will be published in a book due out this fall and we’ve asked him to give a full-day workshop on the topic at UI14. Did you know some people are actually building prototypes in Microsoft Excel? It’s true. “People are using what they have at their disposal and what they are comfortable with,” Todd tells me. In the podcast, we discussed a number of the more popular tools that are being used today, from Adobe Fireworks, to Axure RP, to good old PowerPoint. Todd doesn’t think your choice of tool is important if you are able to communicate your ideas effectively to your audience. He thinks it is worth knowing the capabilities of a few other tools in the event you need to do something in the future that your current tool can’t handle. I got Todd to reveal the process his own shop, Messagefirst, is using to prototype. It may surprise you that they start with rough, black and white sketches which they share with their clients both early and often. Whereas some design shops may work hard on a prototype for three months before first showing it to their client, Todd thinks that’s a bad idea. There’s nothing worse than diving deep into a design direction only to have it unilaterally shot down in the first review. Instead, you need to get your client to give you lots of feedback very early in the process, starting with basic and rough sketches. It will save both sides a lot of time, effort and frustration. Once the design direction is solidified, Todd and his team move their prototypes into color and interactivity. The Messagefirst crew is now often jumping straight to HTML, CSS and JavaScript for the higher fidelity mockups. Todd tells us that someone with basic HTML skills can (and have) learned to create high fidelity prototypes in just a couple weeks of effort. The secret is the availability modular tools, for example, CSS frameworks like the 960 Grid System and JavaScript libraries like jQuery. This move to code earlier in the process is becoming more and more popular around the web. Todd and I talked more about his two years’ worth of findings and he gave us a preview of his UI14 full-day workshop. Tune in to the show for more on prototyping. We’d love to know what process and tools you’re using in your own designs. Have you incorporated feedback early into your process? Let us know in the comments! Duration: 39m | 21MB Recorded: August, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Todd Zaki Warfel has just finished two years of research into the tools and processes used in prototyping web sites. His findings will be published in a book due out this fall and we’ve asked him to give a full-day workshop on the topic at UI14. Did you know some people are actually building prototypes in Microsoft Excel? It’s true. “People are using what they have at their disposal and what they are comfortable with,” Todd tells me. In the podcast, we discussed a number of the more popular tools that are being used today, from Adobe Fireworks, to Axure RP, to good old PowerPoint. Todd doesn’t think your choice of tool is important if you are able to communicate your ideas effectively to your audience. He thinks it is worth knowing the capabilities of a few other tools in the event you need to do something in the future that your current tool can’t handle. I got Todd to reveal the process his own shop, Messagefirst, is using to prototype. It may surprise you that they start with rough, black and white sketches which they share with their clients both early and often. Whereas some design shops may work hard on a prototype for three months before first showing it to their client, Todd thinks that’s a bad idea. There’s nothing worse than diving deep into a design direction only to have it unilaterally shot down in the first review. Instead, you need to get your client to give you lots of feedback very early in the process, starting with basic and rough sketches. It will save both sides a lot of time, effort and frustration. Once the design direction is solidified, Todd and his team move their prototypes into color and interactivity. The Messagefirst crew is now often jumping straight to HTML, CSS and JavaScript for the higher fidelity mockups. Todd tells us that someone with basic HTML skills can (and have) learned to create high fidelity prototypes in just a couple weeks of effort. The secret is the availability modular tools, for example, CSS frameworks like the 960 Grid System and JavaScript libraries like jQuery. This move to code earlier in the process is becoming more and more popular around the web. Todd and I talked more about his two years’ worth of findings and he gave us a preview of his UI14 full-day workshop. Tune in to the show for more on prototyping. We’d love to know what process and tools you’re using in your own designs. Have you incorporated feedback early into your process? Let us know in the comments! tag:odeo.com,2009-09-23,25170953 Wed, 23 Sep 2009 07:45:00 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, Design, SpoolCast, Design Process, Design Documentation, Design Deliverables, UI14 http://odeo.com/episodes/25161364-SpoolCast-Designing-for-Facets-Followup You want your users to successfully sift through all of your site content, quickly and effectively. Faceted search delivers on that promise. Duration: 33m | 17MB Recorded: August, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] A few weeks back we held a UIE Virtual Seminar with Pete Bell and Daniel Tunkelang of Endeca. These guys are the experts we go to when talking about designing for facets.  As always, we had a number of excellent questions from the live audience that we couldn’t attend to during the seminar, so I got together with Pete and Daniel to record this podcast and cover a number of those remaining questions. If you didn’t attend the live seminar, and are interested in how to make the jump from a standard on-site search to faceted search, then you’ll still enjoy this podcast. If you find yourself wanting more afterward, ... You want your users to successfully sift through all of your site content, quickly and effectively. Faceted search delivers on that promise. Duration: 33m | 17MB Recorded: August, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] A few weeks back we held a UIE Virtual Seminar with Pete Bell and Daniel Tunkelang of Endeca. These guys are the experts we go to when talking about designing for facets.  As always, we had a number of excellent questions from the live audience that we couldn’t attend to during the seminar, so I got together with Pete and Daniel to record this podcast and cover a number of those remaining questions. If you didn’t attend the live seminar, and are interested in how to make the jump from a standard on-site search to faceted search, then you’ll still enjoy this podcast. If you find yourself wanting more afterward, don’t forget you can still purchase a recording of the session for another 90 minutes of Faceted Search. During the podcast, Adam asked Pete and Daniel to dig into these questions: Should we show counts for each facet? What about when using multiple selection? Can you elaborate on the mixing and matching of precision and recall results to construct facets? Is there a best practice for deselecting facets? Most search interfaces assume a flat list of results. What happens when you mix up different types of results, and how would you distribute them across a page? Tune in to hear more about designing for facets. Still have questions? Start the discussion in our comments, below. You want your users to successfully sift through all of your site content, quickly and effectively. Faceted search delivers on that promise. Duration: 33m | 17MB Recorded: August, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] A few weeks back we held a UIE Virtual Seminar with Pete Bell and Daniel Tunkelang of Endeca. These guys are the experts we go to when talking about designing for facets.  As always, we had a number of excellent questions from the live audience that we couldn’t attend to during the seminar, so I got together with Pete and Daniel to record this podcast and cover a number of those remaining questions. If you didn’t attend the live seminar, and are interested in how to make the jump from a standard on-site search to faceted search, then you’ll still enjoy this podcast. If you find yourself wanting more afterward, don’t forget you can still purchase a recording of the session for another 90 minutes of Faceted Search. During the podcast, Adam asked Pete and Daniel to dig into these questions: Should we show counts for each facet? What about when using multiple selection? Can you elaborate on the mixing and matching of precision and recall results to construct facets? Is there a best practice for deselecting facets? Most search interfaces assume a flat list of results. What happens when you mix up different types of results, and how would you distribute them across a page? Tune in to hear more about designing for facets. Still have questions? Start the discussion in our comments, below. tag:odeo.com,2009-09-21,25161364 Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:53:36 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks Uncategorized, taxonomy, development, searching, content, users, information architecture, web development, ux, SpoolCast, Scent of Information, UIE Virtual Seminar, Daniel Tunkelang, Endeca, Pattern Libraries, jared spool, designing for faceted search, Faceted Search, Facets, pete bell http://odeo.com/episodes/25100293-SpoolCast-Managing-Sites-for-Top-Tasks Guest Gerry McGovern speaks about finding out what tasks your customers want to complete on your site, and how to help them. Duration: 36m | 19MB Recorded: August, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] One of the most popular speakers in the history of our User Interface Conference is Gerry McGovern. Certainly most of that popularity is thanks to Gerry’s no-nonsense, customer-centric approach to content management strategy. Perhaps a small portion is due to his dulcet Irish brogue. Gerry coined the term “customer care words”, which are distinct words and phrases that visitors are looking for that lead them to success and satisfaction. This is complimentary to a concept we at UIE call “trigger words”, but not quite the same. Trigger words are content-related and navigational–words that help lead ... Guest Gerry McGovern speaks about finding out what tasks your customers want to complete on your site, and how to help them. Duration: 36m | 19MB Recorded: August, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] One of the most popular speakers in the history of our User Interface Conference is Gerry McGovern. Certainly most of that popularity is thanks to Gerry’s no-nonsense, customer-centric approach to content management strategy. Perhaps a small portion is due to his dulcet Irish brogue. Gerry coined the term “customer care words”, which are distinct words and phrases that visitors are looking for that lead them to success and satisfaction. This is complimentary to a concept we at UIE call “trigger words”, but not quite the same. Trigger words are content-related and navigational–words that help lead you along the path to what you seek. Care words are task-related not content-related; they are the words that visitors need to see to complete the task they are on your site for. These words are not always found in your search logs or in keywords that have led people from Google to your site. But, through polling, testing and observation, care words can be discovered. Customer care words are both a concept and a eponymous technique that Gerry uses with his clients. When enough participants take part in his processes, his technique both shows top words people are attracted to and, perhaps more importantly, reveals the top tasks the customers are visiting the site to accomplish. Top task management, quite simply, is what Gerry thinks your site’s whole design should revolve around. Most site owners view their sites as places that house information, but your visitors are on your site to accomplish a task. You should optimize your site, mostly through language, so that it excels in helping visitors accomplish their most common tasks. Traditional site management concentrates on technology, like search engines, and content. But all site projects should ultimately be judged by the satisfaction and success of the users… not by whether your new CMS transition went technically well. Once the content management system is in place, many organizations write and publish copy without knowing how it will be used. Optimizing your content for top tasks can produce increases in customer satisfaction and task completion. Gerry has seen this with many of his own clients, some of whom were skeptical at first. The biggest objection to optimizing for top tasks is the fear that your customers look to do many things on your site, not just these top tasks. However, if customers have trouble with their common tasks, why would they trust your site to dive into the other ones? In some cases, the top tasks weren’t the most obvious ones to site owners, underlining the importance of both talking to your customers and observing users on your site regularly. Measuring your customers’ success rate, time-to-completion and their disaster rate–when they think they’ve successfully completed their task, but actually have not–will show you whether or not your changes are beneficial. What’s key is to measure and to revisit these areas until we have them right. Too often, Gerry says, there’s a culture of “launch and leave” with sites: build it and then never revise. Constant, incremental improvement is a better culture to work towards. Gerry has seen seen customer satisfaction rates “sky-rocket” after such changes. There’s so much more Gerry and I discussed. Please listen to him in his own words on the podcast; your customers will thank you. And if these issues are truly hitting home for you, you won’t want to miss Gerry’s full-day workshop on Mastering Top-task Management for top tasks at our User Interface Conference this November. How are you ensuring your customers are completing their top tasks successfully on your site? Discuss your methods in the comments below. Guest Gerry McGovern speaks about finding out what tasks your customers want to complete on your site, and how to help them. Duration: 36m | 19MB Recorded: August, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] One of the most popular speakers in the history of our User Interface Conference is Gerry McGovern. Certainly most of that popularity is thanks to Gerry’s no-nonsense, customer-centric approach to content management strategy. Perhaps a small portion is due to his dulcet Irish brogue. Gerry coined the term “customer care words”, which are distinct words and phrases that visitors are looking for that lead them to success and satisfaction. This is complimentary to a concept we at UIE call “trigger words”, but not quite the same. Trigger words are content-related and navigational–words that help lead you along the path to what you seek. Care words are task-related not content-related; they are the words that visitors need to see to complete the task they are on your site for. These words are not always found in your search logs or in keywords that have led people from Google to your site. But, through polling, testing and observation, care words can be discovered. Customer care words are both a concept and a eponymous technique that Gerry uses with his clients. When enough participants take part in his processes, his technique both shows top words people are attracted to and, perhaps more importantly, reveals the top tasks the customers are visiting the site to accomplish. Top task management, quite simply, is what Gerry thinks your site’s whole design should revolve around. Most site owners view their sites as places that house information, but your visitors are on your site to accomplish a task. You should optimize your site, mostly through language, so that it excels in helping visitors accomplish their most common tasks. Traditional site management concentrates on technology, like search engines, and content. But all site projects should ultimately be judged by the satisfaction and success of the users… not by whether your new CMS transition went technically well. Once the content management system is in place, many organizations write and publish copy without knowing how it will be used. Optimizing your content for top tasks can produce increases in customer satisfaction and task completion. Gerry has seen this with many of his own clients, some of whom were skeptical at first. The biggest objection to optimizing for top tasks is the fear that your customers look to do many things on your site, not just these top tasks. However, if customers have trouble with their common tasks, why would they trust your site to dive into the other ones? In some cases, the top tasks weren’t the most obvious ones to site owners, underlining the importance of both talking to your customers and observing users on your site regularly. Measuring your customers’ success rate, time-to-completion and their disaster rate–when they think they’ve successfully completed their task, but actually have not–will show you whether or not your changes are beneficial. What’s key is to measure and to revisit these areas until we have them right. Too often, Gerry says, there’s a culture of “launch and leave” with sites: build it and then never revise. Constant, incremental improvement is a better culture to work towards. Gerry has seen seen customer satisfaction rates “sky-rocket” after such changes. There’s so much more Gerry and I discussed. Please listen to him in his own words on the podcast; your customers will thank you. And if these issues are truly hitting home for you, you won’t want to miss Gerry’s full-day workshop on Mastering Top-task Management for top tasks at our User Interface Conference this November. How are you ensuring your customers are completing their top tasks successfully on your site? Discuss your methods in the comments below. tag:odeo.com,2009-09-04,25100293 Fri, 04 Sep 2009 11:53:31 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, content, SpoolCast, Scent of Information, UI14 http://odeo.com/episodes/25073920-SpoolCast-Managing-Sites-for-Top-Tasks Guest Gerry McGovern speaks about finding out what tasks your customers want to complete on your site, and how to help them. Duration: 36m | 19MB Recorded: August, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] One of the most popular speakers in the history of our User Interface Conference is Gerry McGovern. Certainly most of that popularity is thanks to Gerry’s no-nonsense, customer-centric approach to content management strategy. Perhaps a small portion is due to his dulcet Irish brogue. Gerry coined the term “customer care words”, which are distinct words and phrases that visitors are looking for that lead them to success and satisfaction. This is complimentary to a concept we at UIE call “trigger words”, but not quite the same. Trigger words are content-related and navigational–words that help lead ... Guest Gerry McGovern speaks about finding out what tasks your customers want to complete on your site, and how to help them. Duration: 36m | 19MB Recorded: August, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] One of the most popular speakers in the history of our User Interface Conference is Gerry McGovern. Certainly most of that popularity is thanks to Gerry’s no-nonsense, customer-centric approach to content management strategy. Perhaps a small portion is due to his dulcet Irish brogue. Gerry coined the term “customer care words”, which are distinct words and phrases that visitors are looking for that lead them to success and satisfaction. This is complimentary to a concept we at UIE call “trigger words”, but not quite the same. Trigger words are content-related and navigational–words that help lead you along the path to what you seek. Care words are task-related not content-related; they are the words that visitors need to see to complete the task they are on your site for. These words are not always found in your search logs or in keywords that have led people from Google to your site. But, through polling, testing and observation, care words can be discovered. Customer care words are both a concept and a eponymous technique that Gerry uses with his clients. When enough participants take part in his processes, his technique both shows top words people are attracted to and, perhaps more importantly, reveals the top tasks the customers are visiting the site to accomplish. Top task management, quite simply, is what Gerry thinks your site’s whole design should revolve around. Most site owners view their sites as places that house information, but your visitors are on your site to accomplish a task. You should optimize your site, mostly through language, so that it excels in helping visitors accomplish their most common tasks. Traditional site management concentrates on technology, like search engines, and content. But all site projects should ultimately be judged by the satisfaction and success of the users… not by whether your new CMS transition went technically well. Once the content management system is in place, many organizations write and publish copy without knowing how it will be used. Optimizing your content for top tasks can produce increases in customer satisfaction and task completion. Gerry has seen this with many of his own clients, some of whom were skeptical at first. The biggest objection to optimizing for top tasks is the fear that your customers look to do many things on your site, not just these top tasks. However, if customers have trouble with their common tasks, why would they trust your site to dive into the other ones? In some cases, the top tasks weren’t the most obvious ones to site owners, underlining the importance of both talking to your customers and observing users on your site regularly. Measuring your customers’ success rate, time-to-completion and their disaster rate–when they think they’ve successfully completed their task, but actually have not–will show you whether or not your changes are beneficial. What’s key is to measure and to revisit these areas until we have them right. Too often, Gerry says, there’s a culture of “launch and leave” with sites: build it and then never revise. Constant, incremental improvement is a better culture to work towards. Gerry has seen seen customer satisfaction rates “sky-rocket” after such changes. There’s so much more Gerry and I discussed. Please listen to him in his own words on the podcast; your customers will thank you. And if these issues are truly hitting home for you, you won’t want to miss Gerry’s full-day workshop on Mastering Top-task Management for top tasks at our User Interface Conference this November. How are you ensuring your customers are completing their top tasks successfully on your site? Discuss your methods in the comments below. Guest Gerry McGovern speaks about finding out what tasks your customers want to complete on your site, and how to help them. Duration: 36m | 19MB Recorded: August, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] One of the most popular speakers in the history of our User Interface Conference is Gerry McGovern. Certainly most of that popularity is thanks to Gerry’s no-nonsense, customer-centric approach to content management strategy. Perhaps a small portion is due to his dulcet Irish brogue. Gerry coined the term “customer care words”, which are distinct words and phrases that visitors are looking for that lead them to success and satisfaction. This is complimentary to a concept we at UIE call “trigger words”, but not quite the same. Trigger words are content-related and navigational–words that help lead you along the path to what you seek. Care words are task-related not content-related; they are the words that visitors need to see to complete the task they are on your site for. These words are not always found in your search logs or in keywords that have led people from Google to your site. But, through polling, testing and observation, care words can be discovered. Customer care words are both a concept and a eponymous technique that Gerry uses with his clients. When enough participants take part in his processes, his technique both shows top words people are attracted to and, perhaps more importantly, reveals the top tasks the customers are visiting the site to accomplish. Top task management, quite simply, is what Gerry thinks your site’s whole design should revolve around. Most site owners view their sites as places that house information, but your visitors are on your site to accomplish a task. You should optimize your site, mostly through language, so that it excels in helping visitors accomplish their most common tasks. Traditional site management concentrates on technology, like search engines, and content. But all site projects should ultimately be judged by the satisfaction and success of the users… not by whether your new CMS transition went technically well. Once the content management system is in place, many organizations write and publish copy without knowing how it will be used. Optimizing your content for top tasks can produce increases in customer satisfaction and task completion. Gerry has seen this with many of his own clients, some of whom were skeptical at first. The biggest objection to optimizing for top tasks is the fear that your customers look to do many things on your site, not just these top tasks. However, if customers have trouble with their common tasks, why would they trust your site to dive into the other ones? In some cases, the top tasks weren’t the most obvious ones to site owners, underlining the importance of both talking to your customers and observing users on your site regularly. Measuring your customers’ success rate, time-to-completion and their disaster rate–when they think they’ve successfully completed their task, but actually have not–will show you whether or not your changes are beneficial. What’s key is to measure and to revisit these areas until we have them right. Too often, Gerry says, there’s a culture of “launch and leave” with sites: build it and then never revise. Constant, incremental improvement is a better culture to work towards. Gerry has seen seen customer satisfaction rates “sky-rocket” after such changes. There’s so much more Gerry and I discussed. Please listen to him in his own words on the podcast; your customers will thank you. And if these issues are truly hitting home for you, you won’t want to miss Gerry’s full-day workshop on Mastering Top-task Management for top tasks at our User Interface Conference this November. How are you ensuring your customers are completing their top tasks successfully on your site? Discuss your methods in the comments below. tag:odeo.com,2009-09-04,25073920 Fri, 04 Sep 2009 11:53:20 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, content, SpoolCast, Scent of Information, UI14 http://odeo.com/episodes/25038158-Userability-13-Renaissance-Man This week: how many hats can one UX practitioner actually wear? How do you market a wide range of skills in the job market? Duration: 14m | 23 MB  Recorded: July, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer  [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week we have our longest, and certainly one of our most interesting episodes to date. Jared and Robert met Joshua Muskovitz on the IxDA discussion list when Josh posted an innocent-enough question to the list: what do you call someone who sits squarely on the fence between interaction design and implementation? How do I market myself while job hunting when I have been in the industry so long that I have a really broad range of skills? Josh certainly does claim a wide range of skills, from interaction design and usability to front-end development, back-end programming, and business development. That brought up the question... This week: how many hats can one UX practitioner actually wear? How do you market a wide range of skills in the job market? Duration: 14m | 23 MB  Recorded: July, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer  [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week we have our longest, and certainly one of our most interesting episodes to date. Jared and Robert met Joshua Muskovitz on the IxDA discussion list when Josh posted an innocent-enough question to the list: what do you call someone who sits squarely on the fence between interaction design and implementation? How do I market myself while job hunting when I have been in the industry so long that I have a really broad range of skills? Josh certainly does claim a wide range of skills, from interaction design and usability to front-end development, back-end programming, and business development. That brought up the question an employer might also have when reading his resume… “Is this guy for real? Can he really do all of this stuff well?” As with most debates that Jared and Robert delve into, this one got messy, fast. But it also became very interesting. I knew I had to find Josh and invite him on Userability. I’m glad I did, as it made for a great podcast. Tune in to hear the debate, and if you have an opening for a man like Josh, won’t you let him know? Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! We want to hear your take on this debate. Can someone do all the things that Josh can, really well? Can he fit into a corporate structure, or does he need to find a small operation who can really put all his tools to work? Get the debate started again in the comments This week: how many hats can one UX practitioner actually wear? How do you market a wide range of skills in the job market? Duration: 14m | 23 MB  Recorded: July, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer  [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week we have our longest, and certainly one of our most interesting episodes to date. Jared and Robert met Joshua Muskovitz on the IxDA discussion list when Josh posted an innocent-enough question to the list: what do you call someone who sits squarely on the fence between interaction design and implementation? How do I market myself while job hunting when I have been in the industry so long that I have a really broad range of skills? Josh certainly does claim a wide range of skills, from interaction design and usability to front-end development, back-end programming, and business development. That brought up the question an employer might also have when reading his resume… “Is this guy for real? Can he really do all of this stuff well?” As with most debates that Jared and Robert delve into, this one got messy, fast. But it also became very interesting. I knew I had to find Josh and invite him on Userability. I’m glad I did, as it made for a great podcast. Tune in to hear the debate, and if you have an opening for a man like Josh, won’t you let him know? Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! We want to hear your take on this debate. Can someone do all the things that Josh can, really well? Can he fit into a corporate structure, or does he need to find a small operation who can really put all his tools to work? Get the debate started again in the comments tag:odeo.com,2009-08-28,25038158 Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:06:39 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, Careers, Userability http://odeo.com/episodes/25092263-Userability-13-%E2%80%93-Renaissance-Man This week: how many hats can one UX practitioner actually wear? How do you market a wide range of skills in the job market? Duration: 14m | 23 MB  Recorded: July, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer  [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week we have our longest, and certainly one of our most interesting episodes to date. Jared and Robert met Joshua Muskovitz on the IxDA discussion list when Josh posted an innocent-enough question to the list: what do you call someone who sits squarely on the fence between interaction design and implementation? How do I market myself while job hunting when I have been in the industry so long that I have a really broad range of skills? Josh certainly does claim a wide range of skills, from interaction design and usability to front-end development, back-end programming, and business development. That brought up the question... This week: how many hats can one UX practitioner actually wear? How do you market a wide range of skills in the job market? Duration: 14m | 23 MB  Recorded: July, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer  [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week we have our longest, and certainly one of our most interesting episodes to date. Jared and Robert met Joshua Muskovitz on the IxDA discussion list when Josh posted an innocent-enough question to the list: what do you call someone who sits squarely on the fence between interaction design and implementation? How do I market myself while job hunting when I have been in the industry so long that I have a really broad range of skills? Josh certainly does claim a wide range of skills, from interaction design and usability to front-end development, back-end programming, and business development. That brought up the question an employer might also have when reading his resume… “Is this guy for real? Can he really do all of this stuff well?” As with most debates that Jared and Robert delve into, this one got messy, fast. But it also became very interesting. I knew I had to find Josh and invite him on Userability. I’m glad I did, as it made for a great podcast. Tune in to hear the debate, and if you have an opening for a man like Josh, won’t you let him know? Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! We want to hear your take on this debate. Can someone do all the things that Josh can, really well? Can he fit into a corporate structure, or does he need to find a small operation who can really put all his tools to work? Get the debate started again in the comments This week: how many hats can one UX practitioner actually wear? How do you market a wide range of skills in the job market? Duration: 14m | 23 MB  Recorded: July, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer  [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week we have our longest, and certainly one of our most interesting episodes to date. Jared and Robert met Joshua Muskovitz on the IxDA discussion list when Josh posted an innocent-enough question to the list: what do you call someone who sits squarely on the fence between interaction design and implementation? How do I market myself while job hunting when I have been in the industry so long that I have a really broad range of skills? Josh certainly does claim a wide range of skills, from interaction design and usability to front-end development, back-end programming, and business development. That brought up the question an employer might also have when reading his resume… “Is this guy for real? Can he really do all of this stuff well?” As with most debates that Jared and Robert delve into, this one got messy, fast. But it also became very interesting. I knew I had to find Josh and invite him on Userability. I’m glad I did, as it made for a great podcast. Tune in to hear the debate, and if you have an opening for a man like Josh, won’t you let him know? Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! We want to hear your take on this debate. Can someone do all the things that Josh can, really well? Can he fit into a corporate structure, or does he need to find a small operation who can really put all his tools to work? Get the debate started again in the comments tag:odeo.com,2009-08-28,25092263 Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:06:39 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, Careers, Userability http://odeo.com/episodes/25036719-SpoolCast-Getting-to-Good-Design-Faster Guest Leah Buley speaks about getting to good design earlier in your process. Duration: 40m | 21MB Recorded: August, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] I had the pleasure of chatting with Leah Buley recently, in advance of her appearance at our User Interface Conference. She’ll be speaking about getting to a Good Design Faster with new techniques to getting at your creative ideas. She’s done some wonderful research on early-project design stages that you really need to hear. There’s a ton of great content in this podcast, and I can only share so much with you here, so please tune in for more of her insights. When Leah told me that wireframes are really holding back the design process, she grabbed my attention. Designers sit down with some rough ideas and start trying to fit them into one or two pages. Ne... Guest Leah Buley speaks about getting to good design earlier in your process. Duration: 40m | 21MB Recorded: August, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] I had the pleasure of chatting with Leah Buley recently, in advance of her appearance at our User Interface Conference. She’ll be speaking about getting to a Good Design Faster with new techniques to getting at your creative ideas. She’s done some wonderful research on early-project design stages that you really need to hear. There’s a ton of great content in this podcast, and I can only share so much with you here, so please tune in for more of her insights. When Leah told me that wireframes are really holding back the design process, she grabbed my attention. Designers sit down with some rough ideas and start trying to fit them into one or two pages. Next they start sliding design elements around until things feel good, and then they show it to someone for feedback. That someone or group then sees a design that’s pretty far along, and looks pretty concrete. If some of the ideas in the wireframe are not developed as much as they should be, it’s difficult to stop the forward momentum and reassess. How can we explore a range of solutions before diving into a single solution? Wireframes are very useful to the process, but instead, we should consider delaying them. Before wireframes, Leah suggests a very open, cross-team exploratory stage. Invite people from across your organization and even collaborate with those who might not normally be within the core design group. Leah suggests a week-long ‘design sprint’ that begins with a group brainstorming meeting in the morning with lots of people… and everyone’s opinions count. Then that afternoon, the group sketches out a large number of low-fidelity sketches further exploring the experience they’re looking to design, based on the morning’s activities. Sketching many iterations based on different perspectives like, ‘how would we optimize this for a first-time user?’ ‘how about for a power-user?’ ‘how about for this demographic?’ Then the week-long process continues. Grouping the different approaches together, sort the best from the bunch, mixing and matching the best ideas and build upon them (Leah calls this ’sketch-boarding’). Next, take the sketches and flows with the most potential, and make those the first round of wireframes, which you present to a group critique. At the end of the week, take the feedback from the group critique to improve the wireframes. The end result is a wireframe that has a tremendous amount of collaborative thought behind it. Instead of surprising many stakeholders at this point, their good ideas are already baked inside. You can now share these fire-tested ideas with the next groups that need to see them. This is clearly different from the way many groups and designers are using wireframes today, and I think it’s a really powerful proposition. Leah and I also talked about ways to become and effective sketcher, how to run productive group critique sessions and much more. You really need to listen in, this could really help your teams process. After our conversation, I’m even more excited to see her full-day workshop on this topic this November at UI14 in Boston. I hope to see you there, as well. Till then, what are your experiences with the early rounds of design? What are you doing in advance of your wireframing? Can you see implementing this process in your organization? Let us know in the comments! Guest Leah Buley speaks about getting to good design earlier in your process. Duration: 40m | 21MB Recorded: August, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] I had the pleasure of chatting with Leah Buley recently, in advance of her appearance at our User Interface Conference. She’ll be speaking about getting to a Good Design Faster with new techniques to getting at your creative ideas. She’s done some wonderful research on early-project design stages that you really need to hear. There’s a ton of great content in this podcast, and I can only share so much with you here, so please tune in for more of her insights. When Leah told me that wireframes are really holding back the design process, she grabbed my attention. Designers sit down with some rough ideas and start trying to fit them into one or two pages. Next they start sliding design elements around until things feel good, and then they show it to someone for feedback. That someone or group then sees a design that’s pretty far along, and looks pretty concrete. If some of the ideas in the wireframe are not developed as much as they should be, it’s difficult to stop the forward momentum and reassess. How can we explore a range of solutions before diving into a single solution? Wireframes are very useful to the process, but instead, we should consider delaying them. Before wireframes, Leah suggests a very open, cross-team exploratory stage. Invite people from across your organization and even collaborate with those who might not normally be within the core design group. Leah suggests a week-long ‘design sprint’ that begins with a group brainstorming meeting in the morning with lots of people… and everyone’s opinions count. Then that afternoon, the group sketches out a large number of low-fidelity sketches further exploring the experience they’re looking to design, based on the morning’s activities. Sketching many iterations based on different perspectives like, ‘how would we optimize this for a first-time user?’ ‘how about for a power-user?’ ‘how about for this demographic?’ Then the week-long process continues. Grouping the different approaches together, sort the best from the bunch, mixing and matching the best ideas and build upon them (Leah calls this ’sketch-boarding’). Next, take the sketches and flows with the most potential, and make those the first round of wireframes, which you present to a group critique. At the end of the week, take the feedback from the group critique to improve the wireframes. The end result is a wireframe that has a tremendous amount of collaborative thought behind it. Instead of surprising many stakeholders at this point, their good ideas are already baked inside. You can now share these fire-tested ideas with the next groups that need to see them. This is clearly different from the way many groups and designers are using wireframes today, and I think it’s a really powerful proposition. Leah and I also talked about ways to become and effective sketcher, how to run productive group critique sessions and much more. You really need to listen in, this could really help your teams process. After our conversation, I’m even more excited to see her full-day workshop on this topic this November at UI14 in Boston. I hope to see you there, as well. Till then, what are your experiences with the early rounds of design? What are you doing in advance of your wireframing? Can you see implementing this process in your organization? Let us know in the comments! tag:odeo.com,2009-08-28,25036719 Fri, 28 Aug 2009 07:52:48 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, Design, SpoolCast, Design Process, Wireframes, Design Deliverables, UI14 http://odeo.com/episodes/25000304-SpoolCast-The-Web-as-a-Conversation Guest Ginny Redish speaks about writing on the web. Duration: 45m | 25MB Recorded: July, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] One of my favorite people to speak with about the state of content on the web is Ginny Redish. She’s one of those people who cuts to the point so decisively that you’re left asking yourself… “why didn’t I think of that?” Ginny has made her career by helping organizations engage their users with captivating content. I had a chance to speak with her regarding what she’s up to and what she plans to talk about at our upcoming User Interface Conference and I was not disappointed. Ginny is using a new analogy in her workshops. Navigation and search, design, and technology are the three legs of a stool. In the stool sits the content: what your visitors are coming for. Why... Guest Ginny Redish speaks about writing on the web. Duration: 45m | 25MB Recorded: July, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] One of my favorite people to speak with about the state of content on the web is Ginny Redish. She’s one of those people who cuts to the point so decisively that you’re left asking yourself… “why didn’t I think of that?” Ginny has made her career by helping organizations engage their users with captivating content. I had a chance to speak with her regarding what she’s up to and what she plans to talk about at our upcoming User Interface Conference and I was not disappointed. Ginny is using a new analogy in her workshops. Navigation and search, design, and technology are the three legs of a stool. In the stool sits the content: what your visitors are coming for. Why do we spend all of our time building the stool, then all-but ignore what the stool is built to support? It’s like putting a beautiful front door on your house, and having nothing inside! Another analogy Ginny shared was “the web as a telephone.” You’ve put all this stuff up on the web so people won’t have to call you and ask for information. But if you don’t give it to them in that conversational, informative manner… they’re going to call you up anyhow! People come to your web site to answer the questions they have about your organization or your products. Have a conversation with your customers though your web site’s content just as you would have through the telephone. You can create significant savings for your organization by writing your content as a conversation. Ginny regularly travels the country to work with organizations and their content. After one of her clients re-wrote their site’s content following the techniques in her book, her client told her they were able to reduce the number of people staffing the phones by three full-time positions! One way to avoid success is through FAQs. Ginny says if you have FAQs on your site, that’s a sure-fire sign that the site content covering that topic has failed. If you’re receiving questions frequently, that means it’s time to update your site content because either the content is missing or isn’t findable by your customers. Remember, each topic should be a complete conversation with your customer. Ginny has found that writing toward personas can help produce this successful form of content creation. Of course the next step after writing is to test the content with your customers to see if it indeed answers their questions. But there’s an important next step, especially if you’re a larger organization. You must work cross-silos to make sure different departments are not having contradictory conversations with the same customers. You also have to ensure that all the information on your site is current. If one department updates data, they all must still agree! There was so much more in our conversation, so please tune in to the podcast for more inspirational ideas to get your site’s content fully tuned up. Ginny will be presenting Planning & Writing Web Content that Works, Content as Conversations at the User Interface 14 Conference this fall in Boston. Clearly, it’s not one to miss. What stumbling blocks are you hitting with your organization’s content? Let’s discuss in the comments. Guest Ginny Redish speaks about writing on the web. Duration: 45m | 25MB Recorded: July, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] One of my favorite people to speak with about the state of content on the web is Ginny Redish. She’s one of those people who cuts to the point so decisively that you’re left asking yourself… “why didn’t I think of that?” Ginny has made her career by helping organizations engage their users with captivating content. I had a chance to speak with her regarding what she’s up to and what she plans to talk about at our upcoming User Interface Conference and I was not disappointed. Ginny is using a new analogy in her workshops. Navigation and search, design, and technology are the three legs of a stool. In the stool sits the content: what your visitors are coming for. Why do we spend all of our time building the stool, then all-but ignore what the stool is built to support? It’s like putting a beautiful front door on your house, and having nothing inside! Another analogy Ginny shared was “the web as a telephone.” You’ve put all this stuff up on the web so people won’t have to call you and ask for information. But if you don’t give it to them in that conversational, informative manner… they’re going to call you up anyhow! People come to your web site to answer the questions they have about your organization or your products. Have a conversation with your customers though your web site’s content just as you would have through the telephone. You can create significant savings for your organization by writing your content as a conversation. Ginny regularly travels the country to work with organizations and their content. After one of her clients re-wrote their site’s content following the techniques in her book, her client told her they were able to reduce the number of people staffing the phones by three full-time positions! One way to avoid success is through FAQs. Ginny says if you have FAQs on your site, that’s a sure-fire sign that the site content covering that topic has failed. If you’re receiving questions frequently, that means it’s time to update your site content because either the content is missing or isn’t findable by your customers. Remember, each topic should be a complete conversation with your customer. Ginny has found that writing toward personas can help produce this successful form of content creation. Of course the next step after writing is to test the content with your customers to see if it indeed answers their questions. But there’s an important next step, especially if you’re a larger organization. You must work cross-silos to make sure different departments are not having contradictory conversations with the same customers. You also have to ensure that all the information on your site is current. If one department updates data, they all must still agree! There was so much more in our conversation, so please tune in to the podcast for more inspirational ideas to get your site’s content fully tuned up. Ginny will be presenting Planning & Writing Web Content that Works, Content as Conversations at the User Interface 14 Conference this fall in Boston. Clearly, it’s not one to miss. What stumbling blocks are you hitting with your organization’s content? Let’s discuss in the comments. tag:odeo.com,2009-08-21,25000304 Fri, 21 Aug 2009 14:06:28 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, content, Success Stories, SpoolCast, UI14 http://odeo.com/episodes/24954078-SpoolCast-Comps-vs-Code-Followup Answering questions with Ethan Marcotte following up his recent seminar Duration: 22m | 12 MB Recorded: August, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] A couple of weeks ago we held a UIE Virtual Seminar with Ethan Marcotte from Happy Cog West, a designer of beautiful websites. As always, we had a number of excellent questions from the live audience that we couldn’t attend to during the seminar, so Adam Churchill got together with Ethan to record this podcast and cover a number of those remaining questions. If you didn’t attend the live seminar, and are interested lessons learned from case studies on collaboration between designers and developers, then you’ll still enjoy this podcast. If you find yourself wanting more afterwards, don’t forget you can still purchase a recording of the session for another 90 minutes of “co... Answering questions with Ethan Marcotte following up his recent seminar Duration: 22m | 12 MB Recorded: August, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] A couple of weeks ago we held a UIE Virtual Seminar with Ethan Marcotte from Happy Cog West, a designer of beautiful websites. As always, we had a number of excellent questions from the live audience that we couldn’t attend to during the seminar, so Adam Churchill got together with Ethan to record this podcast and cover a number of those remaining questions. If you didn’t attend the live seminar, and are interested lessons learned from case studies on collaboration between designers and developers, then you’ll still enjoy this podcast. If you find yourself wanting more afterwards, don’t forget you can still purchase a recording of the session for another 90 minutes of “couples therapy.” During the podcast, Adam asked Ethan to dig into these questions:     When using a typographic grid on fluid sites, can you talk about what happens when the browser window is pulled in narrower than the “ideal” width or min width?     At what point do you folks check the accessibility and cross-browser compatibility?     Is the transition any different between front-end developer and the back-end developer?     Have you ever encountered a problem between the designer and a back end coder? If so, what was the problem? How did you overcome it? Tune in to hear more about Comps vs. Code. Still have questions? Start the discussion in our comments, below. Answering questions with Ethan Marcotte following up his recent seminar Duration: 22m | 12 MB Recorded: August, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] A couple of weeks ago we held a UIE Virtual Seminar with Ethan Marcotte from Happy Cog West, a designer of beautiful websites. As always, we had a number of excellent questions from the live audience that we couldn’t attend to during the seminar, so Adam Churchill got together with Ethan to record this podcast and cover a number of those remaining questions. If you didn’t attend the live seminar, and are interested lessons learned from case studies on collaboration between designers and developers, then you’ll still enjoy this podcast. If you find yourself wanting more afterwards, don’t forget you can still purchase a recording of the session for another 90 minutes of “couples therapy.” During the podcast, Adam asked Ethan to dig into these questions:     When using a typographic grid on fluid sites, can you talk about what happens when the browser window is pulled in narrower than the “ideal” width or min width?     At what point do you folks check the accessibility and cross-browser compatibility?     Is the transition any different between front-end developer and the back-end developer?     Have you ever encountered a problem between the designer and a back end coder? If so, what was the problem? How did you overcome it? Tune in to hear more about Comps vs. Code. Still have questions? Start the discussion in our comments, below. tag:odeo.com,2009-08-13,24954078 Thu, 13 Aug 2009 07:00:16 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, development, Success Stories, SpoolCast, Design Process http://odeo.com/episodes/24943757-Spoolcast-Search-Scent-the-Happiness-of-Pursuit-Followup Answering Questions from our recent seminar, Search, Scent & the Happiness of Pursuit Duration: 23m | 14 MB Recorded: August, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Last month we held a UIE Virtual Seminar where I presented my talk, Search, Scent, and the Happiness of Pursuit. As always, we had a number of excellent questions from the live audience that we couldn’t attend to during the seminar, so, with a little help from Adam Churchill, I recorded this podcast and cover a number of those remaining questions. If you didn’t attend the live seminar, and are interested in helping users find what they seek, then you’ll still enjoy this podcast. If you find yourself wanting more afterwards, don’t forget you can still purchase a recording of the session for another 90 minutes of Search, Scent, and the Happiness of Pursuit. Dur... Answering Questions from our recent seminar, Search, Scent & the Happiness of Pursuit Duration: 23m | 14 MB Recorded: August, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Last month we held a UIE Virtual Seminar where I presented my talk, Search, Scent, and the Happiness of Pursuit. As always, we had a number of excellent questions from the live audience that we couldn’t attend to during the seminar, so, with a little help from Adam Churchill, I recorded this podcast and cover a number of those remaining questions. If you didn’t attend the live seminar, and are interested in helping users find what they seek, then you’ll still enjoy this podcast. If you find yourself wanting more afterwards, don’t forget you can still purchase a recording of the session for another 90 minutes of Search, Scent, and the Happiness of Pursuit. During the podcast, I dig into these questions: Should the failed search log be getting smaller if the design is good? Is there a correlation between search volume and customer satisfaction? How important is the number of search results shown? Do users want to see lots of results and filter down, or see fewer results and browse? Would you expect these results to change if you were studying Intranet sites? Is Advanced Search relevant or necessary? Tune in to get some tips on how to get your users to what they seek. Still have questions? Start the discussion in our comments, below. Answering Questions from our recent seminar, Search, Scent & the Happiness of Pursuit Duration: 23m | 14 MB Recorded: August, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Last month we held a UIE Virtual Seminar where I presented my talk, Search, Scent, and the Happiness of Pursuit. As always, we had a number of excellent questions from the live audience that we couldn’t attend to during the seminar, so, with a little help from Adam Churchill, I recorded this podcast and cover a number of those remaining questions. If you didn’t attend the live seminar, and are interested in helping users find what they seek, then you’ll still enjoy this podcast. If you find yourself wanting more afterwards, don’t forget you can still purchase a recording of the session for another 90 minutes of Search, Scent, and the Happiness of Pursuit. During the podcast, I dig into these questions: Should the failed search log be getting smaller if the design is good? Is there a correlation between search volume and customer satisfaction? How important is the number of search results shown? Do users want to see lots of results and filter down, or see fewer results and browse? Would you expect these results to change if you were studying Intranet sites? Is Advanced Search relevant or necessary? Tune in to get some tips on how to get your users to what they seek. Still have questions? Start the discussion in our comments, below. tag:odeo.com,2009-08-11,24943757 Tue, 11 Aug 2009 12:35:58 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, searching, scent, SpoolCast, Scent of Information http://odeo.com/episodes/24822321-Userability-12-Hot-Link-Placement This week: Link placement: how many links and where? Duration: 14m | 8 MB Recorded: July, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week we receive a call for help from Louisiana, where the gumbo isn’t the only thing that’s hot. Ms. Tatum Dutile had this to ask the panel… Is it good to have multiple links to the same destination on one page, for instance, a link in the text, in the navigation bar, and on the right side of the page?  Or do too many redundant links make the page harder to use because people have to scan through more things to get to what they’re looking for? Tune in for a detailed discussion of the desert climate of Arizona compared to the oppressive humidity of the deep south… or tune in to gain some insights on where your users expect to find certain links within your designs. (We cater to many ... This week: Link placement: how many links and where? Duration: 14m | 8 MB Recorded: July, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week we receive a call for help from Louisiana, where the gumbo isn’t the only thing that’s hot. Ms. Tatum Dutile had this to ask the panel… Is it good to have multiple links to the same destination on one page, for instance, a link in the text, in the navigation bar, and on the right side of the page?  Or do too many redundant links make the page harder to use because people have to scan through more things to get to what they’re looking for? Tune in for a detailed discussion of the desert climate of Arizona compared to the oppressive humidity of the deep south… or tune in to gain some insights on where your users expect to find certain links within your designs. (We cater to many audiences.) Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! This week: Link placement: how many links and where? Duration: 14m | 8 MB Recorded: July, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week we receive a call for help from Louisiana, where the gumbo isn’t the only thing that’s hot. Ms. Tatum Dutile had this to ask the panel… Is it good to have multiple links to the same destination on one page, for instance, a link in the text, in the navigation bar, and on the right side of the page?  Or do too many redundant links make the page harder to use because people have to scan through more things to get to what they’re looking for? Tune in for a detailed discussion of the desert climate of Arizona compared to the oppressive humidity of the deep south… or tune in to gain some insights on where your users expect to find certain links within your designs. (We cater to many audiences.) Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! tag:odeo.com,2009-07-17,24822321 Fri, 17 Jul 2009 13:29:32 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, Userability http://odeo.com/episodes/25092264-Userability-12-%E2%80%93-Hot-Link-Placement This week: Link placement: how many links and where? Duration: 14m | 8 MB Recorded: July, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] [display_podcast] This week we receive a call for help from Louisiana, where the gumbo isn’t the only thing that’s hot. Ms. Tatum Dutile had this to ask the panel… Is it good to have multiple links to the same destination on one page, for instance, a link in the text, in the navigation bar, and on the right side of the page?  Or do too many redundant links make the page harder to use because people have to scan through more things to get to what they’re looking for? Tune in for a detailed discussion of the desert climate of Arizona compared to the oppressive humidity of the deep south… or tune in to gain some insights on where your users expect to find certain links within your designs. ... This week: Link placement: how many links and where? Duration: 14m | 8 MB Recorded: July, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] [display_podcast] This week we receive a call for help from Louisiana, where the gumbo isn’t the only thing that’s hot. Ms. Tatum Dutile had this to ask the panel… Is it good to have multiple links to the same destination on one page, for instance, a link in the text, in the navigation bar, and on the right side of the page?  Or do too many redundant links make the page harder to use because people have to scan through more things to get to what they’re looking for? Tune in for a detailed discussion of the desert climate of Arizona compared to the oppressive humidity of the deep south… or tune in to gain some insights on where your users expect to find certain links within your designs. (We cater to many audiences.) Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! This week: Link placement: how many links and where? Duration: 14m | 8 MB Recorded: July, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] [display_podcast] This week we receive a call for help from Louisiana, where the gumbo isn’t the only thing that’s hot. Ms. Tatum Dutile had this to ask the panel… Is it good to have multiple links to the same destination on one page, for instance, a link in the text, in the navigation bar, and on the right side of the page?  Or do too many redundant links make the page harder to use because people have to scan through more things to get to what they’re looking for? Tune in for a detailed discussion of the desert climate of Arizona compared to the oppressive humidity of the deep south… or tune in to gain some insights on where your users expect to find certain links within your designs. (We cater to many audiences.) Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! tag:odeo.com,2009-07-17,25092264 Fri, 17 Jul 2009 13:29:32 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, Userability http://odeo.com/episodes/24778753-Userability-11-The-Most-Influential-Books-in-UX This week: The Most Influential Books in UX Duration: 14m | 8 MB Recorded: July, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week a question from one of the world’s most well-read cities fittingly enquires about the must-read books in design. Damon Dimmock of Cambridge, MA, asked, If you had to recommend just three books on user experience (classic, new, fundamental, etc.), which ones would they be? How will Robert hold off from recommending his own books? You’ll have to tune in to see! Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! Here are links to each of the books Robert and Jared recommended: Robert: The Inmates Are Runn... This week: The Most Influential Books in UX Duration: 14m | 8 MB Recorded: July, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week a question from one of the world’s most well-read cities fittingly enquires about the must-read books in design. Damon Dimmock of Cambridge, MA, asked, If you had to recommend just three books on user experience (classic, new, fundamental, etc.), which ones would they be? How will Robert hold off from recommending his own books? You’ll have to tune in to see! Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! Here are links to each of the books Robert and Jared recommended: Robert: The Inmates Are Running the Asylum by Alan Cooper A Project Guide to UX Design by Russ Unger and Carolyn Chandler Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug Jared: Designing for People by Henry Dreyfuss Designing Interactions by Bill Moggridge User and Task Analysis for Interface Design by JoAnn Hackos and Janice Redish What are the most influential books you’ve read in the field? Share them with us in the comments! This week: The Most Influential Books in UX Duration: 14m | 8 MB Recorded: July, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week a question from one of the world’s most well-read cities fittingly enquires about the must-read books in design. Damon Dimmock of Cambridge, MA, asked, If you had to recommend just three books on user experience (classic, new, fundamental, etc.), which ones would they be? How will Robert hold off from recommending his own books? You’ll have to tune in to see! Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! Here are links to each of the books Robert and Jared recommended: Robert: The Inmates Are Running the Asylum by Alan Cooper A Project Guide to UX Design by Russ Unger and Carolyn Chandler Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug Jared: Designing for People by Henry Dreyfuss Designing Interactions by Bill Moggridge User and Task Analysis for Interface Design by JoAnn Hackos and Janice Redish What are the most influential books you’ve read in the field? Share them with us in the comments! tag:odeo.com,2009-07-10,24778753 Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:20:59 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, resources, ux, Userability http://odeo.com/episodes/25092265-Userability-11-%E2%80%93-The-Most-Influential-Books-in-UX This week: The Most Influential Books in UX Duration: 14m | 8 MB Recorded: July, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] [display_podcast] This week a question from one of the world’s most well-read cities fittingly enquires about the must-read books in design. Damon Dimmock of Cambridge, MA, asked, If you had to recommend just three books on user experience (classic, new, fundamental, etc.), which ones would they be? How will Robert hold off from recommending his own books? You’ll have to tune in to see! Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! Here are links to each of the books Robert and Jared recommended: Robert: Th... This week: The Most Influential Books in UX Duration: 14m | 8 MB Recorded: July, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] [display_podcast] This week a question from one of the world’s most well-read cities fittingly enquires about the must-read books in design. Damon Dimmock of Cambridge, MA, asked, If you had to recommend just three books on user experience (classic, new, fundamental, etc.), which ones would they be? How will Robert hold off from recommending his own books? You’ll have to tune in to see! Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! Here are links to each of the books Robert and Jared recommended: Robert: The Inmates Are Running the Asylum by Alan Cooper A Project Guide to UX Design by Russ Unger and Carolyn Chandler Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug Jared: Designing for People by Henry Dreyfuss Designing Interactions by Bill Moggridge User and Task Analysis for Interface Design by JoAnn Hackos and Janice Redish What are the most influential books you’ve read in the field? Share them with us in the comments! This week: The Most Influential Books in UX Duration: 14m | 8 MB Recorded: July, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] [display_podcast] This week a question from one of the world’s most well-read cities fittingly enquires about the must-read books in design. Damon Dimmock of Cambridge, MA, asked, If you had to recommend just three books on user experience (classic, new, fundamental, etc.), which ones would they be? How will Robert hold off from recommending his own books? You’ll have to tune in to see! Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! Here are links to each of the books Robert and Jared recommended: Robert: The Inmates Are Running the Asylum by Alan Cooper A Project Guide to UX Design by Russ Unger and Carolyn Chandler Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug Jared: Designing for People by Henry Dreyfuss Designing Interactions by Bill Moggridge User and Task Analysis for Interface Design by JoAnn Hackos and Janice Redish What are the most influential books you’ve read in the field? Share them with us in the comments! tag:odeo.com,2009-07-10,25092265 Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:20:59 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, resources, ux, Userability http://odeo.com/episodes/24726311-Userability-10-Live-from-VTM09-Personas-and-iPhone-Apps This week: Live from VTM’09: Tips on persona creation and the usability of iPhone apps Duration: 12m | 7 MB Recorded: April, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] For our tenth show we bring you a special edition of the Userability Podcast… recorded LIVE from the Voices That Matter 2009 Conference, held in San Francisco in April. We had two audience questions. The first question asked, are there are any applications or research best practices that Jared and Robert use to aid in persona creation? The second audience question asked about the the usability of iPhone applications, especially considering that on-the-go, handheld, touchscreen apps are a relatively new concept. Tune in to hear Jared and Robert duck and dive in front of a live studio audience. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman... This week: Live from VTM’09: Tips on persona creation and the usability of iPhone apps Duration: 12m | 7 MB Recorded: April, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] For our tenth show we bring you a special edition of the Userability Podcast… recorded LIVE from the Voices That Matter 2009 Conference, held in San Francisco in April. We had two audience questions. The first question asked, are there are any applications or research best practices that Jared and Robert use to aid in persona creation? The second audience question asked about the the usability of iPhone applications, especially considering that on-the-go, handheld, touchscreen apps are a relatively new concept. Tune in to hear Jared and Robert duck and dive in front of a live studio audience. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! Do you have any persona tricks and tips? What’s your take on the “new” territory of iPhone apps? Is it new territory? Let us know in the comments! PS— During the show, Robert referenced Apple’s iPhone/mobile Human Interface Guidelines, which are fully available from Apple. This week: Live from VTM’09: Tips on persona creation and the usability of iPhone apps Duration: 12m | 7 MB Recorded: April, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] For our tenth show we bring you a special edition of the Userability Podcast… recorded LIVE from the Voices That Matter 2009 Conference, held in San Francisco in April. We had two audience questions. The first question asked, are there are any applications or research best practices that Jared and Robert use to aid in persona creation? The second audience question asked about the the usability of iPhone applications, especially considering that on-the-go, handheld, touchscreen apps are a relatively new concept. Tune in to hear Jared and Robert duck and dive in front of a live studio audience. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! Do you have any persona tricks and tips? What’s your take on the “new” territory of iPhone apps? Is it new territory? Let us know in the comments! PS— During the show, Robert referenced Apple’s iPhone/mobile Human Interface Guidelines, which are fully available from Apple. tag:odeo.com,2009-06-18,24726311 Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:00:01 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks interaction design, personas, Userability http://odeo.com/episodes/24724790-Userability-10-Live-from-VTM%E2%80%9909-Personas-and-iPhone-Apps This week: Live from VTM’09: Tips on persona creation and the usability of iPhone apps Duration: 12m | 7 MB Recorded: April, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] For our tenth show we bring you a special edition of the Userability Podcast… recorded LIVE from the Voices That Matter 2009 Conference, held in San Francisco in April. We had two audience questions. The first question asked, are there are any applications or research best practices that Jared and Robert use to aid in persona creation? The second audience question asked about the the usability of iPhone applications, especially considering that on-the-go, handheld, touchscreen apps are a relatively new concept. Tune in to hear Jared and Robert duck and dive in front of a live studio audience. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman... This week: Live from VTM’09: Tips on persona creation and the usability of iPhone apps Duration: 12m | 7 MB Recorded: April, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] For our tenth show we bring you a special edition of the Userability Podcast… recorded LIVE from the Voices That Matter 2009 Conference, held in San Francisco in April. We had two audience questions. The first question asked, are there are any applications or research best practices that Jared and Robert use to aid in persona creation? The second audience question asked about the the usability of iPhone applications, especially considering that on-the-go, handheld, touchscreen apps are a relatively new concept. Tune in to hear Jared and Robert duck and dive in front of a live studio audience. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! Do you have any persona tricks and tips? What’s your take on the “new” territory of iPhone apps? Is it new territory? Let us know in the comments! PS— During the show, Robert referenced Apple’s iPhone/mobile Human Interface Guidelines, which are fully available from Apple. This week: Live from VTM’09: Tips on persona creation and the usability of iPhone apps Duration: 12m | 7 MB Recorded: April, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] For our tenth show we bring you a special edition of the Userability Podcast… recorded LIVE from the Voices That Matter 2009 Conference, held in San Francisco in April. We had two audience questions. The first question asked, are there are any applications or research best practices that Jared and Robert use to aid in persona creation? The second audience question asked about the the usability of iPhone applications, especially considering that on-the-go, handheld, touchscreen apps are a relatively new concept. Tune in to hear Jared and Robert duck and dive in front of a live studio audience. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! Do you have any persona tricks and tips? What’s your take on the “new” territory of iPhone apps? Is it new territory? Let us know in the comments! PS— During the show, Robert referenced Apple’s iPhone/mobile Human Interface Guidelines, which are fully available from Apple. tag:odeo.com,2009-06-18,24724790 Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:00:01 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks interaction design, personas, Userability http://odeo.com/episodes/25092266-Userability-10-%E2%80%93-Live-from-VTM09-Personas-and-iPhone-Apps This week: Live from VTM’09: Tips on persona creation and the usability of iPhone apps Duration: 12m | 7 MB Recorded: April, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] [display_podcast] For our tenth show we bring you a special edition of the Userability Podcast… recorded LIVE from the Voices That Matter 2009 Conference, held in San Francisco in April. We had two audience questions. The first question asked, are there are any applications or research best practices that Jared and Robert use to aid in persona creation? The second audience question asked about the the usability of iPhone applications, especially considering that on-the-go, handheld, touchscreen apps are a relatively new concept. Tune in to hear Jared and Robert duck and dive in front of a live studio audience. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool ... This week: Live from VTM’09: Tips on persona creation and the usability of iPhone apps Duration: 12m | 7 MB Recorded: April, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] [display_podcast] For our tenth show we bring you a special edition of the Userability Podcast… recorded LIVE from the Voices That Matter 2009 Conference, held in San Francisco in April. We had two audience questions. The first question asked, are there are any applications or research best practices that Jared and Robert use to aid in persona creation? The second audience question asked about the the usability of iPhone applications, especially considering that on-the-go, handheld, touchscreen apps are a relatively new concept. Tune in to hear Jared and Robert duck and dive in front of a live studio audience. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! Do you have any persona tricks and tips? What’s your take on the “new” territory of iPhone apps? Is it new territory? Let us know in the comments! PS— During the show, Robert referenced Apple’s iPhone/mobile Human Interface Guidelines, which are fully available from Apple. This week: Live from VTM’09: Tips on persona creation and the usability of iPhone apps Duration: 12m | 7 MB Recorded: April, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] [display_podcast] For our tenth show we bring you a special edition of the Userability Podcast… recorded LIVE from the Voices That Matter 2009 Conference, held in San Francisco in April. We had two audience questions. The first question asked, are there are any applications or research best practices that Jared and Robert use to aid in persona creation? The second audience question asked about the the usability of iPhone applications, especially considering that on-the-go, handheld, touchscreen apps are a relatively new concept. Tune in to hear Jared and Robert duck and dive in front of a live studio audience. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! Do you have any persona tricks and tips? What’s your take on the “new” territory of iPhone apps? Is it new territory? Let us know in the comments! PS— During the show, Robert referenced Apple’s iPhone/mobile Human Interface Guidelines, which are fully available from Apple. tag:odeo.com,2009-06-18,25092266 Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:00:01 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks interaction design, personas, Userability http://odeo.com/episodes/24851044-Userability-9-When-is-it-%E2%80%9CUsable-Enough-%E2%80%9D This week: When is your project “usable-enough”? Duration: 16m | 9 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week’s episode features a compelling question from Will Evans. Usually, this is the point in the post where I say something witty, but this is a question we hear so much, I will cut right to the chase! Will asked, When you are creating a web application or website, and you are ready to unleash it to the world, at what point can you say that it is “Usable Enough?” Tune in for one of the most in-depth Userability Podcasts yet, as Jared and Robert give you advice on how to find that “good enough” launch point. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing qu... This week: When is your project “usable-enough”? Duration: 16m | 9 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week’s episode features a compelling question from Will Evans. Usually, this is the point in the post where I say something witty, but this is a question we hear so much, I will cut right to the chase! Will asked, When you are creating a web application or website, and you are ready to unleash it to the world, at what point can you say that it is “Usable Enough?” Tune in for one of the most in-depth Userability Podcasts yet, as Jared and Robert give you advice on how to find that “good enough” launch point. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! Till then, if your’re in a situation like Will, let us know how you would handle it in the comments! This week: When is your project “usable-enough”? Duration: 16m | 9 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week’s episode features a compelling question from Will Evans. Usually, this is the point in the post where I say something witty, but this is a question we hear so much, I will cut right to the chase! Will asked, When you are creating a web application or website, and you are ready to unleash it to the world, at what point can you say that it is “Usable Enough?” Tune in for one of the most in-depth Userability Podcasts yet, as Jared and Robert give you advice on how to find that “good enough” launch point. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! Till then, if your’re in a situation like Will, let us know how you would handle it in the comments! tag:odeo.com,2009-06-09,24851044 Tue, 09 Jun 2009 08:24:17 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, usability testing, Userability http://odeo.com/episodes/24670339-Userability-9-When-is-it-%E2%80%9CUseable-Enough-%E2%80%9D This week: When is your project “useable-enough”? Duration: 16m | 9 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week’s episode features a compelling question from Will Evans. Usually, this is the point in the post where I say something witty, but this is a question we hear so much, I will cut right to the chase! Will asked, When you are creating a web application or website, and you are ready to unleash it to the world, at what point can you say that it is “Usable Enough?” Tune in for one of the most in-depth Userability Podcasts yet, as Jared and Robert give you advice on how to find that “good enough… launch!” point. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing... This week: When is your project “useable-enough”? Duration: 16m | 9 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week’s episode features a compelling question from Will Evans. Usually, this is the point in the post where I say something witty, but this is a question we hear so much, I will cut right to the chase! Will asked, When you are creating a web application or website, and you are ready to unleash it to the world, at what point can you say that it is “Usable Enough?” Tune in for one of the most in-depth Userability Podcasts yet, as Jared and Robert give you advice on how to find that “good enough… launch!” point. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! Till then, if your’re in a situation like Jamis, let us know how you would handle it in the comments! This week: When is your project “useable-enough”? Duration: 16m | 9 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week’s episode features a compelling question from Will Evans. Usually, this is the point in the post where I say something witty, but this is a question we hear so much, I will cut right to the chase! Will asked, When you are creating a web application or website, and you are ready to unleash it to the world, at what point can you say that it is “Usable Enough?” Tune in for one of the most in-depth Userability Podcasts yet, as Jared and Robert give you advice on how to find that “good enough… launch!” point. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! Till then, if your’re in a situation like Jamis, let us know how you would handle it in the comments! tag:odeo.com,2009-06-09,24670339 Tue, 09 Jun 2009 08:24:17 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, usability testing, Userability http://odeo.com/episodes/25092267-Userability-9-%E2%80%93-When-is-it-%E2%80%9CUsable-Enough-%E2%80%9D This week: When is your project “usable-enough”? Duration: 16m | 9 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] [display_podcast] This week’s episode features a compelling question from Will Evans. Usually, this is the point in the post where I say something witty, but this is a question we hear so much, I will cut right to the chase! Will asked, When you are creating a web application or website, and you are ready to unleash it to the world, at what point can you say that it is “Usable Enough?” Tune in for one of the most in-depth Userability Podcasts yet, as Jared and Robert give you advice on how to find that “good enough” launch point. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send yo... This week: When is your project “usable-enough”? Duration: 16m | 9 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] [display_podcast] This week’s episode features a compelling question from Will Evans. Usually, this is the point in the post where I say something witty, but this is a question we hear so much, I will cut right to the chase! Will asked, When you are creating a web application or website, and you are ready to unleash it to the world, at what point can you say that it is “Usable Enough?” Tune in for one of the most in-depth Userability Podcasts yet, as Jared and Robert give you advice on how to find that “good enough” launch point. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! Till then, if your’re in a situation like Will, let us know how you would handle it in the comments! This week: When is your project “usable-enough”? Duration: 16m | 9 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] [display_podcast] This week’s episode features a compelling question from Will Evans. Usually, this is the point in the post where I say something witty, but this is a question we hear so much, I will cut right to the chase! Will asked, When you are creating a web application or website, and you are ready to unleash it to the world, at what point can you say that it is “Usable Enough?” Tune in for one of the most in-depth Userability Podcasts yet, as Jared and Robert give you advice on how to find that “good enough” launch point. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! Till then, if your’re in a situation like Will, let us know how you would handle it in the comments! tag:odeo.com,2009-06-09,25092267 Tue, 09 Jun 2009 08:24:17 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, usability testing, Userability http://odeo.com/episodes/24657891-Presentation-Podcast-Revealing-Design-Treasures-from-the-Amazon Deep within Amazon’s pages are hidden secrets — secrets that every designer should know about. Duration: 54m | 31 MB Recorded: May, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Earlier this week we released a “slidecast” of Jared’s popular Revealing Design Treasures from the Amazon presentation, which features the audio of the talk synced with the slides. It’s almost like being there, except you can pause it. Since then, we’ve had a (metric) ton of requests for a version in audio-only/podcast format. Here you go. The audio was recorded at An Event Apart Seattle 2009. The session description was as follows: Revealing Design Treasures from The Amazon On its surface, Amazon.com just seems like a large e-commerce site, albeit a successful one. Its design isn’t flashy, nor is it much to write home abo... Deep within Amazon’s pages are hidden secrets — secrets that every designer should know about. Duration: 54m | 31 MB Recorded: May, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Earlier this week we released a “slidecast” of Jared’s popular Revealing Design Treasures from the Amazon presentation, which features the audio of the talk synced with the slides. It’s almost like being there, except you can pause it. Since then, we’ve had a (metric) ton of requests for a version in audio-only/podcast format. Here you go. The audio was recorded at An Event Apart Seattle 2009. The session description was as follows: Revealing Design Treasures from The Amazon On its surface, Amazon.com just seems like a large e-commerce site, albeit a successful one. Its design isn’t flashy, nor is it much to write home about. But deep within its pages are hidden secrets — secrets that every designer should know about. If one looks closely at what the team at Amazon has built, it’s filled with innovative functionality and clever designs, all of which creates a delightful experience for its users and directly produces regular profits for its shareholders. But not all is perfect. Some design changes in the last few years have not been the success that the team had hoped for. Amazon’s exceptional qualities and imperfections are critical knowledge for any designer that wants to dig deep into what makes the site tick. In this entertaining presentation, Jared will share some of UIE’s latest research into the hidden treasures of (the) Amazon. You’ll learn: The simple Yes/No question that increased revenues by more than $1 billion The elegant subtlety of Amazon’s security system Why Amazon’s business model is more than meets the eye (and why designers need to care) The wins and losses that Amazon has had with social media functionality Deep within Amazon’s pages are hidden secrets — secrets that every designer should know about. Duration: 54m | 31 MB Recorded: May, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Earlier this week we released a “slidecast” of Jared’s popular Revealing Design Treasures from the Amazon presentation, which features the audio of the talk synced with the slides. It’s almost like being there, except you can pause it. Since then, we’ve had a (metric) ton of requests for a version in audio-only/podcast format. Here you go. The audio was recorded at An Event Apart Seattle 2009. The session description was as follows: Revealing Design Treasures from The Amazon On its surface, Amazon.com just seems like a large e-commerce site, albeit a successful one. Its design isn’t flashy, nor is it much to write home about. But deep within its pages are hidden secrets — secrets that every designer should know about. If one looks closely at what the team at Amazon has built, it’s filled with innovative functionality and clever designs, all of which creates a delightful experience for its users and directly produces regular profits for its shareholders. But not all is perfect. Some design changes in the last few years have not been the success that the team had hoped for. Amazon’s exceptional qualities and imperfections are critical knowledge for any designer that wants to dig deep into what makes the site tick. In this entertaining presentation, Jared will share some of UIE’s latest research into the hidden treasures of (the) Amazon. You’ll learn: The simple Yes/No question that increased revenues by more than $1 billion The elegant subtlety of Amazon’s security system Why Amazon’s business model is more than meets the eye (and why designers need to care) The wins and losses that Amazon has had with social media functionality tag:odeo.com,2009-06-05,24657891 Fri, 05 Jun 2009 13:26:46 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts http://odeo.com/episodes/24647771-SpoolCast-Interaction-Design-Frameworks-Seminar-Q-A-Follow-up Guest Robert Hoekman, Jr. answers questions about interaction design frameworks. Duration: 22m | 12 MB Recorded: May, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Robert Hoekman, Jr. recently joined us for a Virtual Seminar on Interaction Design Frameworks, called, Web Anatomy: Interaction Design with Frameworks. The concept is a new one, and Robert and I are exploring and introducing the concept in new book due out shortly. The seminar (which is still available) was well-received, and we asked Robert back to help us answer some audience questions we did not have time to discuss during the seminar. Here’s the list of the questions we discussed, Do you see being able to abstract information architecture into set frameworks? Should design patterns really be referred to as production patterns that fit within creative frameworks?... Guest Robert Hoekman, Jr. answers questions about interaction design frameworks. Duration: 22m | 12 MB Recorded: May, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Robert Hoekman, Jr. recently joined us for a Virtual Seminar on Interaction Design Frameworks, called, Web Anatomy: Interaction Design with Frameworks. The concept is a new one, and Robert and I are exploring and introducing the concept in new book due out shortly. The seminar (which is still available) was well-received, and we asked Robert back to help us answer some audience questions we did not have time to discuss during the seminar. Here’s the list of the questions we discussed, Do you see being able to abstract information architecture into set frameworks? Should design patterns really be referred to as production patterns that fit within creative frameworks? Are you basing design patterns on generally accepted Web standards or what’s standard within the uses of the business? If you’re assembling a site with anatomical framework pieces, how do you avoid building a Frankenstein? Is there any relationship between an IxD framework, and a UI framework like jQuery? If everything is encapsulated and solved with an Interaction Design framework… will there be less need for Interaction designers in the future and more need for visual designers to differentiate? Tune in and see how Robert thinks frameworks could make your job noticeably easier and perhaps even more interesting. If you still have questions, let us know in the comments. Guest Robert Hoekman, Jr. answers questions about interaction design frameworks. Duration: 22m | 12 MB Recorded: May, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Robert Hoekman, Jr. recently joined us for a Virtual Seminar on Interaction Design Frameworks, called, Web Anatomy: Interaction Design with Frameworks. The concept is a new one, and Robert and I are exploring and introducing the concept in new book due out shortly. The seminar (which is still available) was well-received, and we asked Robert back to help us answer some audience questions we did not have time to discuss during the seminar. Here’s the list of the questions we discussed, Do you see being able to abstract information architecture into set frameworks? Should design patterns really be referred to as production patterns that fit within creative frameworks? Are you basing design patterns on generally accepted Web standards or what’s standard within the uses of the business? If you’re assembling a site with anatomical framework pieces, how do you avoid building a Frankenstein? Is there any relationship between an IxD framework, and a UI framework like jQuery? If everything is encapsulated and solved with an Interaction Design framework… will there be less need for Interaction designers in the future and more need for visual designers to differentiate? Tune in and see how Robert thinks frameworks could make your job noticeably easier and perhaps even more interesting. If you still have questions, let us know in the comments. tag:odeo.com,2009-06-03,24647771 Wed, 03 Jun 2009 13:05:04 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, interaction design, SpoolCast, Pattern Libraries, Design Process, Design Patterns http://odeo.com/episodes/25092268-Userability-8-%E2%80%93-The-Case-of-Multiple-Link-Types This week: How should you style links that trigger different types of interactions? Duration: 14m | 8 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] [display_podcast] This week’s episode features a shadowy UI Designer by the name of Jamis Charles, from a secretive organization located somewhere in Texas. Honestly, that’s all we know about him. Cloak and daggers aside, he brought an intriguing challenge to the show. Jamis, if that is his real name, asked, Should link treatments vary for different methods of displaying content to the user? For example, on a single page I have several links. The first one takes me to another page when I click. The second shows a hidden layer with more content if I click. The third shows more content if I hover. If these links should be styled differently, should the treat... This week: How should you style links that trigger different types of interactions? Duration: 14m | 8 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] [display_podcast] This week’s episode features a shadowy UI Designer by the name of Jamis Charles, from a secretive organization located somewhere in Texas. Honestly, that’s all we know about him. Cloak and daggers aside, he brought an intriguing challenge to the show. Jamis, if that is his real name, asked, Should link treatments vary for different methods of displaying content to the user? For example, on a single page I have several links. The first one takes me to another page when I click. The second shows a hidden layer with more content if I click. The third shows more content if I hover. If these links should be styled differently, should the treatments be organized by type of content, or by the user interaction method? Tune in to see how our hosts answer this challenge while our guest and his project maintain their anonymity. And to hear Robert wax nostalgic for a steak he once ate in Texas. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! Till then, if your’re in a situation like Jamis, let us know how you would handle it in the comments! This week: How should you style links that trigger different types of interactions? Duration: 14m | 8 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] [display_podcast] This week’s episode features a shadowy UI Designer by the name of Jamis Charles, from a secretive organization located somewhere in Texas. Honestly, that’s all we know about him. Cloak and daggers aside, he brought an intriguing challenge to the show. Jamis, if that is his real name, asked, Should link treatments vary for different methods of displaying content to the user? For example, on a single page I have several links. The first one takes me to another page when I click. The second shows a hidden layer with more content if I click. The third shows more content if I hover. If these links should be styled differently, should the treatments be organized by type of content, or by the user interaction method? Tune in to see how our hosts answer this challenge while our guest and his project maintain their anonymity. And to hear Robert wax nostalgic for a steak he once ate in Texas. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! Till then, if your’re in a situation like Jamis, let us know how you would handle it in the comments! tag:odeo.com,2009-05-29,25092268 Fri, 29 May 2009 08:56:58 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, Design, web applications, interaction design, Visual Design, Userability http://odeo.com/episodes/24625663-Userability-8-The-Case-of-Multiple-Link-Types This week: How should you style links that trigger different types of interactions? Duration: 14m | 8 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week’s episode features a shadowy UI Designer by the name of Jamis Charles, from a secretive organization located somewhere in Texas. Honestly, that’s all we know about him. Cloak and daggers aside, he brought an intriguing challenge to the show. Jamis, if that is his real name, asked, Should link treatments vary for different methods of displaying content to the user? For example, on a single page I have several links. The first one takes me to another page when I click. The second shows a hidden layer with more content if I click. The third shows more content if I hover. If these links should be styled differently, should the treatments be organized... This week: How should you style links that trigger different types of interactions? Duration: 14m | 8 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week’s episode features a shadowy UI Designer by the name of Jamis Charles, from a secretive organization located somewhere in Texas. Honestly, that’s all we know about him. Cloak and daggers aside, he brought an intriguing challenge to the show. Jamis, if that is his real name, asked, Should link treatments vary for different methods of displaying content to the user? For example, on a single page I have several links. The first one takes me to another page when I click. The second shows a hidden layer with more content if I click. The third shows more content if I hover. If these links should be styled differently, should the treatments be organized by type of content, or by the user interaction method? Tune in to see how our hosts answer this challenge while our guest and his project maintain their anonymity. And to hear Robert wax nostalgic for a steak he once ate in Texas. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! Till then, if your’re in a situation like Jamis, let us know how you would handle it in the comments! This week: How should you style links that trigger different types of interactions? Duration: 14m | 8 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week’s episode features a shadowy UI Designer by the name of Jamis Charles, from a secretive organization located somewhere in Texas. Honestly, that’s all we know about him. Cloak and daggers aside, he brought an intriguing challenge to the show. Jamis, if that is his real name, asked, Should link treatments vary for different methods of displaying content to the user? For example, on a single page I have several links. The first one takes me to another page when I click. The second shows a hidden layer with more content if I click. The third shows more content if I hover. If these links should be styled differently, should the treatments be organized by type of content, or by the user interaction method? Tune in to see how our hosts answer this challenge while our guest and his project maintain their anonymity. And to hear Robert wax nostalgic for a steak he once ate in Texas. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! Till then, if your’re in a situation like Jamis, let us know how you would handle it in the comments! tag:odeo.com,2009-05-29,24625663 Fri, 29 May 2009 08:56:58 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, Design, web applications, interaction design, Visual Design, Userability http://odeo.com/episodes/24595687-SpoolCast-Follow-up-Podcast-for-New-Ways-to-Think-About-Your-Taxonomy Seth Earley & Stephanie Lemieux answer questions about their recent UIE Virtual Seminar on Taxonomy. Duration: 35 m | 18.5 MB Recorded: May, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Last week we held a UIE Virtual Seminar with Seth Earley and Stephanie Lemieux of Earley & Associates, a premier builder of industrial-strength taxonomies for organizations large and small. As always, we had a number of excellent questions from the live audience that we couldn’t attend to during the seminar, so I got together with Seth and Stephanie to record this podcast and cover a number of those remaining questions. If you didn’t attend the live seminar, and are interested in taxonomies, then you’ll still enjoy this podcast. If you find yourself wanting more afterwards, don’t forget you can still purchase a record... Seth Earley & Stephanie Lemieux answer questions about their recent UIE Virtual Seminar on Taxonomy. Duration: 35 m | 18.5 MB Recorded: May, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Last week we held a UIE Virtual Seminar with Seth Earley and Stephanie Lemieux of Earley & Associates, a premier builder of industrial-strength taxonomies for organizations large and small. As always, we had a number of excellent questions from the live audience that we couldn’t attend to during the seminar, so I got together with Seth and Stephanie to record this podcast and cover a number of those remaining questions. If you didn’t attend the live seminar, and are interested in taxonomies, then you’ll still enjoy this podcast. If you find yourself wanting more afterwards, don’t forget you can still purchase a recording of the session for another 90 minutes of taxonomy know-how. During the podcast, I asked Seth and Stephanie to dig into these questions: What are “business drivers” and how do they relate to building a taxonomy? In the development of taxonomies, how do you avoid being bogged down in an organization’s structure and keep focused from a navigational vantage point? Do you use Personas to help develop your taxonomies? Why? How? How early do you integrate usability testing in the development process? We had many questions about Earley’s experience working with a global enterprise taxonomy system that they developed for Motorola. Stephanie discussed that process. How should you think about long term curation of your taxonomy? …and more Tune in to get some tips on how to tune up your taxonomy. Still have questions? Start the discussion in our comments, below. Seth Earley & Stephanie Lemieux answer questions about their recent UIE Virtual Seminar on Taxonomy. Duration: 35 m | 18.5 MB Recorded: May, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Last week we held a UIE Virtual Seminar with Seth Earley and Stephanie Lemieux of Earley & Associates, a premier builder of industrial-strength taxonomies for organizations large and small. As always, we had a number of excellent questions from the live audience that we couldn’t attend to during the seminar, so I got together with Seth and Stephanie to record this podcast and cover a number of those remaining questions. If you didn’t attend the live seminar, and are interested in taxonomies, then you’ll still enjoy this podcast. If you find yourself wanting more afterwards, don’t forget you can still purchase a recording of the session for another 90 minutes of taxonomy know-how. During the podcast, I asked Seth and Stephanie to dig into these questions: What are “business drivers” and how do they relate to building a taxonomy? In the development of taxonomies, how do you avoid being bogged down in an organization’s structure and keep focused from a navigational vantage point? Do you use Personas to help develop your taxonomies? Why? How? How early do you integrate usability testing in the development process? We had many questions about Earley’s experience working with a global enterprise taxonomy system that they developed for Motorola. Stephanie discussed that process. How should you think about long term curation of your taxonomy? …and more Tune in to get some tips on how to tune up your taxonomy. Still have questions? Start the discussion in our comments, below. tag:odeo.com,2009-05-22,24595687 Fri, 22 May 2009 07:16:26 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, taxonomy, Userability http://odeo.com/episodes/24547505-Userability-7-%E2%80%94-The-Strain-of-Relationships This week, how can you court favor with design teams you consult with? Duration: 14m | 8.5 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week’s episode features a surprise in-studio guest, Dana Chisnell of Usability Works. Dana is a usability consultant who pairs up with design teams on a regular basis, all around the U.S. She brought a relationship question to the show… apparently she had us confused with Loveline. (No Dr. Drew here!) Dana asked, When I work with design teams, there’s often a lot of competition for who on the team can spend the least amount of time working with the usability geek (me). What can I do, what do I have to do to court favor with the team to let them know that I’m not just an enforcer, but I’m on their side and that we can learn from one another? It’... This week, how can you court favor with design teams you consult with? Duration: 14m | 8.5 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week’s episode features a surprise in-studio guest, Dana Chisnell of Usability Works. Dana is a usability consultant who pairs up with design teams on a regular basis, all around the U.S. She brought a relationship question to the show… apparently she had us confused with Loveline. (No Dr. Drew here!) Dana asked, When I work with design teams, there’s often a lot of competition for who on the team can spend the least amount of time working with the usability geek (me). What can I do, what do I have to do to court favor with the team to let them know that I’m not just an enforcer, but I’m on their side and that we can learn from one another? It’s usually a long-distance situation, where the design team is in one place, geographically (and perhaps spiritually, mentally, etc.), and I’m in another. Tune in to see how our hosts answer this one without resulting to flowers and chocolate! (Though, those might not hurt anything.) Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! Till then, if your’re in a situation like Dana’s, let us know how you handle it in the comments! This week, how can you court favor with design teams you consult with? Duration: 14m | 8.5 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week’s episode features a surprise in-studio guest, Dana Chisnell of Usability Works. Dana is a usability consultant who pairs up with design teams on a regular basis, all around the U.S. She brought a relationship question to the show… apparently she had us confused with Loveline. (No Dr. Drew here!) Dana asked, When I work with design teams, there’s often a lot of competition for who on the team can spend the least amount of time working with the usability geek (me). What can I do, what do I have to do to court favor with the team to let them know that I’m not just an enforcer, but I’m on their side and that we can learn from one another? It’s usually a long-distance situation, where the design team is in one place, geographically (and perhaps spiritually, mentally, etc.), and I’m in another. Tune in to see how our hosts answer this one without resulting to flowers and chocolate! (Though, those might not hurt anything.) Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! Till then, if your’re in a situation like Dana’s, let us know how you handle it in the comments! tag:odeo.com,2009-05-14,24547505 Thu, 14 May 2009 12:27:51 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, Userability http://odeo.com/episodes/24587002-Userability-7-%E2%80%94-The-Strain-of-Relationships This week, how can you court favor with design teams you consult with? Duration: 14m | 8.5 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week’s episode features a surprise in-studio guest, Dana Chisnell of Usability Works. Dana is a usability consultant who pairs up with design teams on a regular basis, all around the U.S. She brought a relationship question to the show… apparently she had us confused with Loveline. (No Dr. Drew here!) Dana asked, When I work with design teams, there’s often a lot of competition for who on the team can spend the least amount of time working with the usability geek (me). What can I do, what do I have to do to court favor with the team to let them know that I’m not just an enforcer, but I’m on their side and that we can learn from one another? It’... This week, how can you court favor with design teams you consult with? Duration: 14m | 8.5 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week’s episode features a surprise in-studio guest, Dana Chisnell of Usability Works. Dana is a usability consultant who pairs up with design teams on a regular basis, all around the U.S. She brought a relationship question to the show… apparently she had us confused with Loveline. (No Dr. Drew here!) Dana asked, When I work with design teams, there’s often a lot of competition for who on the team can spend the least amount of time working with the usability geek (me). What can I do, what do I have to do to court favor with the team to let them know that I’m not just an enforcer, but I’m on their side and that we can learn from one another? It’s usually a long-distance situation, where the design team is in one place, geographically (and perhaps spiritually, mentally, etc.), and I’m in another. Tune in to see how our hosts answer this one without resulting to flowers and chocolate! (Though, those might not hurt anything.) Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! Till then, if your’re in a situation like Dana’s, let us know how you handle it in the comments! This week, how can you court favor with design teams you consult with? Duration: 14m | 8.5 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week’s episode features a surprise in-studio guest, Dana Chisnell of Usability Works. Dana is a usability consultant who pairs up with design teams on a regular basis, all around the U.S. She brought a relationship question to the show… apparently she had us confused with Loveline. (No Dr. Drew here!) Dana asked, When I work with design teams, there’s often a lot of competition for who on the team can spend the least amount of time working with the usability geek (me). What can I do, what do I have to do to court favor with the team to let them know that I’m not just an enforcer, but I’m on their side and that we can learn from one another? It’s usually a long-distance situation, where the design team is in one place, geographically (and perhaps spiritually, mentally, etc.), and I’m in another. Tune in to see how our hosts answer this one without resulting to flowers and chocolate! (Though, those might not hurt anything.) Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! Till then, if your’re in a situation like Dana’s, let us know how you handle it in the comments! tag:odeo.com,2009-05-14,24587002 Thu, 14 May 2009 12:27:51 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, Userability http://odeo.com/episodes/24547508-SpoolCast-Company-Culture-Meets-Customer-Experience-with-Brian-Kalma Guest Brian Kalma speaks about unique lessons from Zappos.com. Duration: 26m | 15MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week I wanted to share my interview with Brian Kalma, Director of User Experience and Web Strategy for the darling of Internet retail, Zappos.com. In case you’ve somehow missed out on their meteoric rise to top of online retail, now conducting over a billion dollars in sales a year, then you’re in for a treat. I can’t think of a company with a more interesting case study in employee involvement and fanatical customer service. It’s really nice to see a company succeed for all the right reasons. Zappos is a unique place. Every employee hired at their corporate headquarters in Las Vegas is required to go through the four-week customer loyalty (call-center trainin... Guest Brian Kalma speaks about unique lessons from Zappos.com. Duration: 26m | 15MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week I wanted to share my interview with Brian Kalma, Director of User Experience and Web Strategy for the darling of Internet retail, Zappos.com. In case you’ve somehow missed out on their meteoric rise to top of online retail, now conducting over a billion dollars in sales a year, then you’re in for a treat. I can’t think of a company with a more interesting case study in employee involvement and fanatical customer service. It’s really nice to see a company succeed for all the right reasons. Zappos is a unique place. Every employee hired at their corporate headquarters in Las Vegas is required to go through the four-week customer loyalty (call-center training) course, including answering phones. So every employee has a strong grasp on the experience of their customers, from lawyers to VPs, managers to software developers. You might be involved with a design team with a handful of designers or perhaps a large number of stake holders. Brian has a similar experience, with one notable exception. He regularly conducts web strategy meetings with an open invitation to the entire company. That’s more than 1,300 people! But design ideas are just the beginning. Employees are also encouraged to participate in other ways, from recording product videos, to being models on the site. In fact, all models on the site, which sells shoes, clothing, accessories, and more every day, are just regular employees. On top of these duties, Brian also passionately supports Zappos’ social media outreach, where all employees are encouraged to look for comments about their company on places like Twitter and Facebook, and then actively engage with those customers, without oversight. For many companies, that would be a nightmare. Brian says it’s an amazing by-product of their dedication to their employees and their employees’ dedication to the customers. This is the basis of the Zappos culture, which Brian has to translate into content on their web site and use to drive sales. And drive sales he has. 75% of their sales are from repeat customers, spending more than 2.5 times more in the following months than their initial purchase. And I asked Brian how he leverages their unique culture into their web presence to make these sales figures possible. Tune into to the podcast for more details on the life of Brian at Zappos and their experience success stories. [I should also mention that Brian is one of the expert speakers on our Web App Summit Proceedings disc, which we're now taking orders for. If you couldn't make it to the summit, this disc provides hundreds of pages of speaker materials, and 19 hours of presentation audio. Brian's 75-minute talk, Baking a Corporate Culture into the Online Experience is one of the 14 presentations included on the disc. The disc is a great source of information and inspiration for your work. Learn more about the Web App Summit Proceedings. You won't regret it!] Guest Brian Kalma speaks about unique lessons from Zappos.com. Duration: 26m | 15MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week I wanted to share my interview with Brian Kalma, Director of User Experience and Web Strategy for the darling of Internet retail, Zappos.com. In case you’ve somehow missed out on their meteoric rise to top of online retail, now conducting over a billion dollars in sales a year, then you’re in for a treat. I can’t think of a company with a more interesting case study in employee involvement and fanatical customer service. It’s really nice to see a company succeed for all the right reasons. Zappos is a unique place. Every employee hired at their corporate headquarters in Las Vegas is required to go through the four-week customer loyalty (call-center training) course, including answering phones. So every employee has a strong grasp on the experience of their customers, from lawyers to VPs, managers to software developers. You might be involved with a design team with a handful of designers or perhaps a large number of stake holders. Brian has a similar experience, with one notable exception. He regularly conducts web strategy meetings with an open invitation to the entire company. That’s more than 1,300 people! But design ideas are just the beginning. Employees are also encouraged to participate in other ways, from recording product videos, to being models on the site. In fact, all models on the site, which sells shoes, clothing, accessories, and more every day, are just regular employees. On top of these duties, Brian also passionately supports Zappos’ social media outreach, where all employees are encouraged to look for comments about their company on places like Twitter and Facebook, and then actively engage with those customers, without oversight. For many companies, that would be a nightmare. Brian says it’s an amazing by-product of their dedication to their employees and their employees’ dedication to the customers. This is the basis of the Zappos culture, which Brian has to translate into content on their web site and use to drive sales. And drive sales he has. 75% of their sales are from repeat customers, spending more than 2.5 times more in the following months than their initial purchase. And I asked Brian how he leverages their unique culture into their web presence to make these sales figures possible. Tune into to the podcast for more details on the life of Brian at Zappos and their experience success stories. [I should also mention that Brian is one of the expert speakers on our Web App Summit Proceedings disc, which we're now taking orders for. If you couldn't make it to the summit, this disc provides hundreds of pages of speaker materials, and 19 hours of presentation audio. Brian's 75-minute talk, Baking a Corporate Culture into the Online Experience is one of the 14 presentations included on the disc. The disc is a great source of information and inspiration for your work. Learn more about the Web App Summit Proceedings. You won't regret it!] tag:odeo.com,2009-05-07,24547508 Thu, 07 May 2009 08:53:59 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, Success Stories, ux, SpoolCast, Experience Design, Web App Summit, brand engagement http://odeo.com/episodes/25347954-SpoolCast-Web-App-Navigation-Q-A-Follow-up Guest Hagan Rivers answers questions about web app navigation. Duration: 45m | 25.5 MB Recorded: April, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Hagan Rivers is one of our favorite go-to people for web app design, and we recently had her host a UIE Virtual Seminar on Designing Better Navigation for Web Applications. The seminar (which is still available) was brilliant, and we asked her back to answer some audience questions we did not have time to discuss during the seminar. Here’s the list of the questions we discussed, How do you conduct your user research? How do you measure user confidence in the navigation? What are your thoughts on activating menus with a click versus “on hover”? What is your opinion on breadcrumbs? What about advanced breadcrumbs, like on lonelyplanet.com? How do you scale navigation fo... Guest Hagan Rivers answers questions about web app navigation. Duration: 45m | 25.5 MB Recorded: April, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Hagan Rivers is one of our favorite go-to people for web app design, and we recently had her host a UIE Virtual Seminar on Designing Better Navigation for Web Applications. The seminar (which is still available) was brilliant, and we asked her back to answer some audience questions we did not have time to discuss during the seminar. Here’s the list of the questions we discussed, How do you conduct your user research? How do you measure user confidence in the navigation? What are your thoughts on activating menus with a click versus “on hover”? What is your opinion on breadcrumbs? What about advanced breadcrumbs, like on lonelyplanet.com? How do you scale navigation for larger web apps or sites (circa 40,000 pages)? What are your thoughts on user segmentation, and navigation based on that (for example, UT’s Be A Longhorn)? At what point during the project do you design the global navigation? Are there different considerations when you’re educating users about a new process or activity? During our discussion of the user research question, we recommended Indi Young’s Mental Models as a great book on the topic. Don’t miss her UIE Virtual Seminar on Mental Models, either. Tune in for the meaty answers. This podcast had almost as much information as the seminar! Still have questions? Discuss them in the comments below! Guest Hagan Rivers answers questions about web app navigation. Duration: 45m | 25.5 MB Recorded: April, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Hagan Rivers is one of our favorite go-to people for web app design, and we recently had her host a UIE Virtual Seminar on Designing Better Navigation for Web Applications. The seminar (which is still available) was brilliant, and we asked her back to answer some audience questions we did not have time to discuss during the seminar. Here’s the list of the questions we discussed, How do you conduct your user research? How do you measure user confidence in the navigation? What are your thoughts on activating menus with a click versus “on hover”? What is your opinion on breadcrumbs? What about advanced breadcrumbs, like on lonelyplanet.com? How do you scale navigation for larger web apps or sites (circa 40,000 pages)? What are your thoughts on user segmentation, and navigation based on that (for example, UT’s Be A Longhorn)? At what point during the project do you design the global navigation? Are there different considerations when you’re educating users about a new process or activity? During our discussion of the user research question, we recommended Indi Young’s Mental Models as a great book on the topic. Don’t miss her UIE Virtual Seminar on Mental Models, either. Tune in for the meaty answers. This podcast had almost as much information as the seminar! Still have questions? Discuss them in the comments below! tag:odeo.com,2009-04-10,25347954 Fri, 10 Apr 2009 05:30:29 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, web applications, SpoolCast, Design Process, Breadcrumbs http://odeo.com/episodes/24442363-SpoolCast-Web-App-Navigation-Q-A-Follow-up Guest Hagan Rivers answers questions about web app navigation. Duration: 45m | 25.5 MB Recorded: April, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Hagan Rivers is one of our favorite go-to people for web app design, and we recently had her host a UIE Virtual Seminar on Designing Better Navigation for Web Applications. The seminar (which is still available) was brilliant, and we asked her back to answer some audience questions we did not have time to discuss during the seminar. Here’s the list of the questions we discussed, How do you conduct your user research? How do you measure user confidence in the navigation? What are your thoughts on activating menus with a click versus “on hover”? What is your opinion on breadcrumbs? What about advanced breadcrumbs, like on lonelyplanet.com? How do you scale navigation fo... Guest Hagan Rivers answers questions about web app navigation. Duration: 45m | 25.5 MB Recorded: April, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Hagan Rivers is one of our favorite go-to people for web app design, and we recently had her host a UIE Virtual Seminar on Designing Better Navigation for Web Applications. The seminar (which is still available) was brilliant, and we asked her back to answer some audience questions we did not have time to discuss during the seminar. Here’s the list of the questions we discussed, How do you conduct your user research? How do you measure user confidence in the navigation? What are your thoughts on activating menus with a click versus “on hover”? What is your opinion on breadcrumbs? What about advanced breadcrumbs, like on lonelyplanet.com? How do you scale navigation for larger web apps or sites (circa 40,000 pages)? What are your thoughts on user segmentation, and navigation based on that (for example, UT’s Be A Longhorn)? At what point during the project do you design the global navigation? Are there different considerations when you’re educating users about a new process or activity? During our discussion of the user research question, we recommended Indi Young’s Mental Models as a great book on the topic. Don’t miss her UIE Virtual Seminar on Mental Models, either. Tune in for the meaty answers. This podcast had almost as much information as the seminar! Still have questions? Discuss them in the comments below! Guest Hagan Rivers answers questions about web app navigation. Duration: 45m | 25.5 MB Recorded: April, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Hagan Rivers is one of our favorite go-to people for web app design, and we recently had her host a UIE Virtual Seminar on Designing Better Navigation for Web Applications. The seminar (which is still available) was brilliant, and we asked her back to answer some audience questions we did not have time to discuss during the seminar. Here’s the list of the questions we discussed, How do you conduct your user research? How do you measure user confidence in the navigation? What are your thoughts on activating menus with a click versus “on hover”? What is your opinion on breadcrumbs? What about advanced breadcrumbs, like on lonelyplanet.com? How do you scale navigation for larger web apps or sites (circa 40,000 pages)? What are your thoughts on user segmentation, and navigation based on that (for example, UT’s Be A Longhorn)? At what point during the project do you design the global navigation? Are there different considerations when you’re educating users about a new process or activity? During our discussion of the user research question, we recommended Indi Young’s Mental Models as a great book on the topic. Don’t miss her UIE Virtual Seminar on Mental Models, either. Tune in for the meaty answers. This podcast had almost as much information as the seminar! Still have questions? Discuss them in the comments below! tag:odeo.com,2009-04-10,24442363 Fri, 10 Apr 2009 04:30:29 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, web applications, SpoolCast, Design Process, Breadcrumbs http://odeo.com/episodes/25347956-SpoolCast-Introducing-Interaction-Design-with-Frameworks Guest Robert Hoekman, Jr. speaks about design frameworks. Duration: 28m 45s | 16MB Recorded: December, 2008 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week Robert Hoekman, Jr. joins us to discuss Design Frameworks. Drawn loosely from the idea of coding frameworks that software developers use to more efficiently build software, design frameworks are an aid to assembling a design. Frameworks sprung from research into web ROI that Robert conducted after a parade of clients came to him looking to improve their conversion rates. In the case of these clients, he needed to find the essential elements that encourage people to sign up for a web app. From there, he applied that process to other areas, like search elements. What combination of essential design elements had to be assembled for users to successfully obtain their goals? You ca... Guest Robert Hoekman, Jr. speaks about design frameworks. Duration: 28m 45s | 16MB Recorded: December, 2008 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week Robert Hoekman, Jr. joins us to discuss Design Frameworks. Drawn loosely from the idea of coding frameworks that software developers use to more efficiently build software, design frameworks are an aid to assembling a design. Frameworks sprung from research into web ROI that Robert conducted after a parade of clients came to him looking to improve their conversion rates. In the case of these clients, he needed to find the essential elements that encourage people to sign up for a web app. From there, he applied that process to other areas, like search elements. What combination of essential design elements had to be assembled for users to successfully obtain their goals? You can compare frameworks to design patterns, although patterns tend to be smaller, more specific solutions. Frameworks, when built out, can contain design patterns. Robert wrote a five-piece blog post series for Peachpit on his development of a sign-up a framework, called Five Tips in Five Days. Robert will detail the full story in a new book, co-authored with me, coming soon from New Riders. Frameworks help create consistency in interface elements to help solidify the UX. Robert uses frameworks on all his current projects. He starts out with a check list of all the main elements what will help a person accomplish a goal. Projects will require frameworks for many different parts of the project and they need to dovetail with one another. Robert shared with us a story of what happens when they do not. It winds up that examining where frameworks clash can act as a diagnostic tool for some usability issues. Tune into to the podcast for more details and a preview of the full-day workshop the Robert will be conducting at the UIE Web App Summit, entitled Web App Anatomy: Effective Interaction Design with Frameworks. We hope you join us April 19-22, 2009 in sunny Newport Beach to learn more about this useful new design method. Guest Robert Hoekman, Jr. speaks about design frameworks. Duration: 28m 45s | 16MB Recorded: December, 2008 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week Robert Hoekman, Jr. joins us to discuss Design Frameworks. Drawn loosely from the idea of coding frameworks that software developers use to more efficiently build software, design frameworks are an aid to assembling a design. Frameworks sprung from research into web ROI that Robert conducted after a parade of clients came to him looking to improve their conversion rates. In the case of these clients, he needed to find the essential elements that encourage people to sign up for a web app. From there, he applied that process to other areas, like search elements. What combination of essential design elements had to be assembled for users to successfully obtain their goals? You can compare frameworks to design patterns, although patterns tend to be smaller, more specific solutions. Frameworks, when built out, can contain design patterns. Robert wrote a five-piece blog post series for Peachpit on his development of a sign-up a framework, called Five Tips in Five Days. Robert will detail the full story in a new book, co-authored with me, coming soon from New Riders. Frameworks help create consistency in interface elements to help solidify the UX. Robert uses frameworks on all his current projects. He starts out with a check list of all the main elements what will help a person accomplish a goal. Projects will require frameworks for many different parts of the project and they need to dovetail with one another. Robert shared with us a story of what happens when they do not. It winds up that examining where frameworks clash can act as a diagnostic tool for some usability issues. Tune into to the podcast for more details and a preview of the full-day workshop the Robert will be conducting at the UIE Web App Summit, entitled Web App Anatomy: Effective Interaction Design with Frameworks. We hope you join us April 19-22, 2009 in sunny Newport Beach to learn more about this useful new design method. tag:odeo.com,2009-04-09,25347956 Thu, 09 Apr 2009 09:59:44 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, Design, web applications, interaction design, SpoolCast, Experience Design, Design Process, Design Patterns http://odeo.com/episodes/24429998-SpoolCast-Introducing-Interaction-Design-with-Frameworks Guest Robert Hoekman, Jr. speaks about design frameworks. Duration: 28m 45s | 16MB Recorded: December, 2008 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week Robert Hoekman, Jr. joins us to discuss Design Frameworks. Drawn loosely from the idea of coding frameworks that software developers use to more efficiently build software, design frameworks are an aid to assembling a design. Frameworks sprung from research into web ROI that Robert conducted after a parade of clients came to him looking to improve their conversion rates. In the case of these clients, he needed to find the essential elements that encourage people to sign up for a web app. From there, he applied that process to other areas, like search elements. What combination of essential design elements had to be assembled for users to successfully obtain their goals? You ca... Guest Robert Hoekman, Jr. speaks about design frameworks. Duration: 28m 45s | 16MB Recorded: December, 2008 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week Robert Hoekman, Jr. joins us to discuss Design Frameworks. Drawn loosely from the idea of coding frameworks that software developers use to more efficiently build software, design frameworks are an aid to assembling a design. Frameworks sprung from research into web ROI that Robert conducted after a parade of clients came to him looking to improve their conversion rates. In the case of these clients, he needed to find the essential elements that encourage people to sign up for a web app. From there, he applied that process to other areas, like search elements. What combination of essential design elements had to be assembled for users to successfully obtain their goals? You can compare frameworks to design patterns, although patterns tend to be smaller, more specific solutions. Frameworks, when built out, can contain design patterns. Robert wrote a five-piece blog post series for Peachpit on his development of a sign-up a framework, called Five Tips in Five Days. Robert will detail the full story in a new book, co-authored with me, coming soon from New Riders. Frameworks help create consistency in interface elements to help solidify the UX. Robert uses frameworks on all his current projects. He starts out with a check list of all the main elements what will help a person accomplish a goal. Projects will require frameworks for many different parts of the project and they need to dovetail with one another. Robert shared with us a story of what happens when they do not. It winds up that examining where frameworks clash can act as a diagnostic tool for some usability issues. Tune into to the podcast for more details and a preview of the full-day workshop the Robert will be conducting at the UIE Web App Summit, entitled Web App Anatomy: Effective Interaction Design with Frameworks. We hope you join us April 19-22, 2009 in sunny Newport Beach to learn more about this useful new design method. Guest Robert Hoekman, Jr. speaks about design frameworks. Duration: 28m 45s | 16MB Recorded: December, 2008 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week Robert Hoekman, Jr. joins us to discuss Design Frameworks. Drawn loosely from the idea of coding frameworks that software developers use to more efficiently build software, design frameworks are an aid to assembling a design. Frameworks sprung from research into web ROI that Robert conducted after a parade of clients came to him looking to improve their conversion rates. In the case of these clients, he needed to find the essential elements that encourage people to sign up for a web app. From there, he applied that process to other areas, like search elements. What combination of essential design elements had to be assembled for users to successfully obtain their goals? You can compare frameworks to design patterns, although patterns tend to be smaller, more specific solutions. Frameworks, when built out, can contain design patterns. Robert wrote a five-piece blog post series for Peachpit on his development of a sign-up a framework, called Five Tips in Five Days. Robert will detail the full story in a new book, co-authored with me, coming soon from New Riders. Frameworks help create consistency in interface elements to help solidify the UX. Robert uses frameworks on all his current projects. He starts out with a check list of all the main elements what will help a person accomplish a goal. Projects will require frameworks for many different parts of the project and they need to dovetail with one another. Robert shared with us a story of what happens when they do not. It winds up that examining where frameworks clash can act as a diagnostic tool for some usability issues. Tune into to the podcast for more details and a preview of the full-day workshop the Robert will be conducting at the UIE Web App Summit, entitled Web App Anatomy: Effective Interaction Design with Frameworks. We hope you join us April 19-22, 2009 in sunny Newport Beach to learn more about this useful new design method. tag:odeo.com,2009-04-09,24429998 Thu, 09 Apr 2009 08:59:44 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, Design, web applications, interaction design, SpoolCast, Experience Design, Design Process, Design Patterns http://odeo.com/episodes/25347959-Userability-Podcast-6-%E2%80%93-20-Years-No-Improvement Duration: 14m | 8 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week’s episode features a surprise guest for Jared and Robert. Actually, every guest is a surprise, but this one is a surprise and an ambush by a friend of UIE, the always entertaining Scott Berkun. Scott wanted to know, what gives? Don Norman’s seminal, The Design of Everyday Things, is approaching it’s 20th year in print. It explained why so many basic things in life are poorly designed and hard to use, such as pull handles on doors that need to be pushed. Since the world has been aware of these design flaws for two decades, why are so many basic usability failures still around? Listen in to hear if Robert and Jared’s answer is what you would’ve said. Would you have answered differently? Leave a comment below. Hav... Duration: 14m | 8 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week’s episode features a surprise guest for Jared and Robert. Actually, every guest is a surprise, but this one is a surprise and an ambush by a friend of UIE, the always entertaining Scott Berkun. Scott wanted to know, what gives? Don Norman’s seminal, The Design of Everyday Things, is approaching it’s 20th year in print. It explained why so many basic things in life are poorly designed and hard to use, such as pull handles on doors that need to be pushed. Since the world has been aware of these design flaws for two decades, why are so many basic usability failures still around? Listen in to hear if Robert and Jared’s answer is what you would’ve said. Would you have answered differently? Leave a comment below. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! Till then, if you think you know why so many usability failures remain, let us know in the comments! Duration: 14m | 8 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week’s episode features a surprise guest for Jared and Robert. Actually, every guest is a surprise, but this one is a surprise and an ambush by a friend of UIE, the always entertaining Scott Berkun. Scott wanted to know, what gives? Don Norman’s seminal, The Design of Everyday Things, is approaching it’s 20th year in print. It explained why so many basic things in life are poorly designed and hard to use, such as pull handles on doors that need to be pushed. Since the world has been aware of these design flaws for two decades, why are so many basic usability failures still around? Listen in to hear if Robert and Jared’s answer is what you would’ve said. Would you have answered differently? Leave a comment below. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! Till then, if you think you know why so many usability failures remain, let us know in the comments! tag:odeo.com,2009-04-03,25347959 Fri, 03 Apr 2009 11:42:49 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, ux, Userability http://odeo.com/episodes/24403358-Userability-Podcast-6-20-Years-No-Improvement Duration: 14m | 8 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week’s episode features a surprise guest for Jared and Robert. Actually, every guest is a surprise, but this one is a surprise and an ambush by a friend of UIE, the always entertaining Scott Berkun. Scott wanted to know, what gives? Don Norman’s seminal, The Design of Everyday Things, is approaching it’s 20th year in print. It explained why so many basic things in life are poorly designed and hard to use, such as pull handles on doors that need to be pushed. Since the world has been aware of these design flaws for two decades, why are so many basic usability failures still around? Listen in to hear if Robert and Jared’s answer is what you would’ve said. Would you have answered differently? Leave a comment below. Hav... Duration: 14m | 8 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week’s episode features a surprise guest for Jared and Robert. Actually, every guest is a surprise, but this one is a surprise and an ambush by a friend of UIE, the always entertaining Scott Berkun. Scott wanted to know, what gives? Don Norman’s seminal, The Design of Everyday Things, is approaching it’s 20th year in print. It explained why so many basic things in life are poorly designed and hard to use, such as pull handles on doors that need to be pushed. Since the world has been aware of these design flaws for two decades, why are so many basic usability failures still around? Listen in to hear if Robert and Jared’s answer is what you would’ve said. Would you have answered differently? Leave a comment below. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love you to feature you on the show! Till then, if you think you know why so many usability failures remain, let us know in the comments! Duration: 14m | 8 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week’s episode features a surprise guest for Jared and Robert. Actually, every guest is a surprise, but this one is a surprise and an ambush by a friend of UIE, the always entertaining Scott Berkun. Scott wanted to know, what gives? Don Norman’s seminal, The Design of Everyday Things, is approaching it’s 20th year in print. It explained why so many basic things in life are poorly designed and hard to use, such as pull handles on doors that need to be pushed. Since the world has been aware of these design flaws for two decades, why are so many basic usability failures still around? Listen in to hear if Robert and Jared’s answer is what you would’ve said. Would you have answered differently? Leave a comment below. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love you to feature you on the show! Till then, if you think you know why so many usability failures remain, let us know in the comments! tag:odeo.com,2009-04-03,24403358 Fri, 03 Apr 2009 10:42:49 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, ux, Userability http://odeo.com/episodes/25092269-Userability-Podcast-6-%E2%80%93-20-Years-No-Improvement Duration: 14m | 8 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] [display_podcast] This week’s episode features a surprise guest for Jared and Robert. Actually, every guest is a surprise, but this one is a surprise and an ambush by a friend of UIE, the always entertaining Scott Berkun. Scott wanted to know, what gives? Don Norman’s seminal, The Design of Everyday Things, is approaching it’s 20th year in print. It explained why so many basic things in life are poorly designed and hard to use, such as pull handles on doors that need to be pushed. Since the world has been aware of these design flaws for two decades, why are so many basic usability failures still around? Listen in to hear if Robert and Jared’s answer is what you would’ve said. Would you have answered differently? Leave a ... Duration: 14m | 8 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] [display_podcast] This week’s episode features a surprise guest for Jared and Robert. Actually, every guest is a surprise, but this one is a surprise and an ambush by a friend of UIE, the always entertaining Scott Berkun. Scott wanted to know, what gives? Don Norman’s seminal, The Design of Everyday Things, is approaching it’s 20th year in print. It explained why so many basic things in life are poorly designed and hard to use, such as pull handles on doors that need to be pushed. Since the world has been aware of these design flaws for two decades, why are so many basic usability failures still around? Listen in to hear if Robert and Jared’s answer is what you would’ve said. Would you have answered differently? Leave a comment below. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! Till then, if you think you know why so many usability failures remain, let us know in the comments! Duration: 14m | 8 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] [display_podcast] This week’s episode features a surprise guest for Jared and Robert. Actually, every guest is a surprise, but this one is a surprise and an ambush by a friend of UIE, the always entertaining Scott Berkun. Scott wanted to know, what gives? Don Norman’s seminal, The Design of Everyday Things, is approaching it’s 20th year in print. It explained why so many basic things in life are poorly designed and hard to use, such as pull handles on doors that need to be pushed. Since the world has been aware of these design flaws for two decades, why are so many basic usability failures still around? Listen in to hear if Robert and Jared’s answer is what you would’ve said. Would you have answered differently? Leave a comment below. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love to feature you on the show! Till then, if you think you know why so many usability failures remain, let us know in the comments! tag:odeo.com,2009-04-03,25092269 Fri, 03 Apr 2009 10:42:49 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, ux, Userability http://odeo.com/episodes/25347962-Userability-Podcast-5-%E2%80%93-Just-One-UX-Method Duration: 15m | 8.5 MB Recorded: January, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Userability is back with another episode. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love you to feature you on the show! This week, we spoke to Miles Dowsett from Cambridge, UK who is straddling the worlds of desktop and web-based applications. He wanted to know, What do you think is the most important or significant UX deliverable/activity in a web project, and why? Tune in to hear Jared and Robert lock horns on their different approaches on must-have UX techniques… and leave your suggestions here, in the comments! Duration: 15m | 8.5 MB Recorded: January, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Userability is back with another episode. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love you to feature you on the show! This week, we spoke to Miles Dowsett from Cambridge, UK who is straddling the worlds of desktop and web-based applications. He wanted to know, What do you think is the most important or significant UX deliverable/activity in a web project, and why? Tune in to hear Jared and Robert lock horns on their different approaches on must-have UX techniques… and leave your suggestions here, in the comments! Duration: 15m | 8.5 MB Recorded: January, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Userability is back with another episode. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love you to feature you on the show! This week, we spoke to Miles Dowsett from Cambridge, UK who is straddling the worlds of desktop and web-based applications. He wanted to know, What do you think is the most important or significant UX deliverable/activity in a web project, and why? Tune in to hear Jared and Robert lock horns on their different approaches on must-have UX techniques… and leave your suggestions here, in the comments! tag:odeo.com,2009-03-23,25347962 Mon, 23 Mar 2009 12:23:09 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, ux, Design Process, Userability, Design Deliverables http://odeo.com/episodes/24347441-Userability-Podcast-5-Just-One-UX-Method Duration: 15m | 8.5 MB Recorded: January, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Userability is back with another episode. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love you to feature you on the show! This week, we spoke to Miles Dowsett from Cambridge, UK who is straddling the worlds of desktop and web-based applications. He wanted to know, What do you think is the most important or significant UX deliverable/activity in a web project, and why? Tune in to hear Jared and Robert lock horns on their different approaches on must-have UX techniques… and leave your suggestions here, in the comments! Duration: 15m | 8.5 MB Recorded: January, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Userability is back with another episode. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love you to feature you on the show! This week, we spoke to Miles Dowsett from Cambridge, UK who is straddling the worlds of desktop and web-based applications. He wanted to know, What do you think is the most important or significant UX deliverable/activity in a web project, and why? Tune in to hear Jared and Robert lock horns on their different approaches on must-have UX techniques… and leave your suggestions here, in the comments! Duration: 15m | 8.5 MB Recorded: January, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Userability is back with another episode. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love you to feature you on the show! This week, we spoke to Miles Dowsett from Cambridge, UK who is straddling the worlds of desktop and web-based applications. He wanted to know, What do you think is the most important or significant UX deliverable/activity in a web project, and why? Tune in to hear Jared and Robert lock horns on their different approaches on must-have UX techniques… and leave your suggestions here, in the comments! tag:odeo.com,2009-03-23,24347441 Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:23:09 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, ux, Design Process, Userability, Design Deliverables http://odeo.com/episodes/25092270-Userability-Podcast-5-%E2%80%93-Just-One-UX-Method Duration: 15m | 8.5 MB Recorded: January, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] [display_podcast] Userability is back with another episode. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love you to feature you on the show! This week, we spoke to Miles Dowsett from Cambridge, UK who is straddling the worlds of desktop and web-based applications. He wanted to know, What do you think is the most important or significant UX deliverable/activity in a web project, and why? Tune in to hear Jared and Robert lock horns on their different approaches on must-have UX techniques… and leave your suggestions here, in the comments! Duration: 15m | 8.5 MB Recorded: January, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] [display_podcast] Userability is back with another episode. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love you to feature you on the show! This week, we spoke to Miles Dowsett from Cambridge, UK who is straddling the worlds of desktop and web-based applications. He wanted to know, What do you think is the most important or significant UX deliverable/activity in a web project, and why? Tune in to hear Jared and Robert lock horns on their different approaches on must-have UX techniques… and leave your suggestions here, in the comments! Duration: 15m | 8.5 MB Recorded: January, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] [display_podcast] Userability is back with another episode. Have a serious UX question? Send it in and Jared Spool and Robert Hoekman, Jr. will answer it with a healthy dose of levity. Please send your deep, vexing questions to us at userability@uie.com. We’d love you to feature you on the show! This week, we spoke to Miles Dowsett from Cambridge, UK who is straddling the worlds of desktop and web-based applications. He wanted to know, What do you think is the most important or significant UX deliverable/activity in a web project, and why? Tune in to hear Jared and Robert lock horns on their different approaches on must-have UX techniques… and leave your suggestions here, in the comments! tag:odeo.com,2009-03-23,25092270 Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:23:09 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, ux, Design Process, Userability, Design Deliverables http://odeo.com/episodes/25347964-SpoolCast-Follow-up-Podcast-for-An-Agile-UX-Primer Duration: 48 m | 27.5 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week we are happy to share with you a followup podcast to our recent Virtual Seminar with Jeff Patton, one of the world’s foremost teachers and consultants on the agile development process. If you missed the seminar, don’t worry, if you’re interested in agile, there’s plenty here for you too. During the seminar we received, as usual, more questions than we had time to answer. So Jeff and I discussed them here. Our first question asked about the international nature of agile. Jeff noted while the ideas of agile were founded in the U.S. there’s a great deal of momentum and excitement for the process in Europe and Asia, as well. A question was raised about the use of low-fidelity prototypes within the agile process... Duration: 48 m | 27.5 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week we are happy to share with you a followup podcast to our recent Virtual Seminar with Jeff Patton, one of the world’s foremost teachers and consultants on the agile development process. If you missed the seminar, don’t worry, if you’re interested in agile, there’s plenty here for you too. During the seminar we received, as usual, more questions than we had time to answer. So Jeff and I discussed them here. Our first question asked about the international nature of agile. Jeff noted while the ideas of agile were founded in the U.S. there’s a great deal of momentum and excitement for the process in Europe and Asia, as well. A question was raised about the use of low-fidelity prototypes within the agile process. Jeff prescribes to the value of paper prototyping and is a fan of UIE-alum Carolyn Synder’s work in the field. Jeff believes that paper prototyping fits well within the process and says it’s worth the work to convince doubters who may not immediately see the value. He also brought up the use of testing those early prototypes on just about anyone, even if they aren’t your ideal user. It’s better to test on someone than no one, and in between your regularly planned tests with your targeted audience, short sessions with most folks will still yield important, and fast feedback. Jeff and I discussed many more things including, • RITE and introducing design concepts to developers • The role of iterations in refining current work and how to move forward developing new components • The emerging confluence of UI design patterns and the agile methodology • The prioritization of quality in the agile process and your organization as a whole • Converging UX and agile: upcoming agile conferences, and is Alan Cooper coming around to agile? During the podcast, we mentioned these two links: Salesforce’s Postcard Patterns – An Agile UI Pattern Creation Process, a presentation from IxDA ‘09, and Agile Usability: Best Practices for User Experience on Agile Development Projects a 95 page PDF report. Jeff is a wonderful explainer in the Q&A format and I think you’ll learn a lot from our conversation. You’re welcome to leave your questions in the comments below, as well. Duration: 48 m | 27.5 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week we are happy to share with you a followup podcast to our recent Virtual Seminar with Jeff Patton, one of the world’s foremost teachers and consultants on the agile development process. If you missed the seminar, don’t worry, if you’re interested in agile, there’s plenty here for you too. During the seminar we received, as usual, more questions than we had time to answer. So Jeff and I discussed them here. Our first question asked about the international nature of agile. Jeff noted while the ideas of agile were founded in the U.S. there’s a great deal of momentum and excitement for the process in Europe and Asia, as well. A question was raised about the use of low-fidelity prototypes within the agile process. Jeff prescribes to the value of paper prototyping and is a fan of UIE-alum Carolyn Synder’s work in the field. Jeff believes that paper prototyping fits well within the process and says it’s worth the work to convince doubters who may not immediately see the value. He also brought up the use of testing those early prototypes on just about anyone, even if they aren’t your ideal user. It’s better to test on someone than no one, and in between your regularly planned tests with your targeted audience, short sessions with most folks will still yield important, and fast feedback. Jeff and I discussed many more things including, • RITE and introducing design concepts to developers • The role of iterations in refining current work and how to move forward developing new components • The emerging confluence of UI design patterns and the agile methodology • The prioritization of quality in the agile process and your organization as a whole • Converging UX and agile: upcoming agile conferences, and is Alan Cooper coming around to agile? During the podcast, we mentioned these two links: Salesforce’s Postcard Patterns – An Agile UI Pattern Creation Process, a presentation from IxDA ‘09, and Agile Usability: Best Practices for User Experience on Agile Development Projects a 95 page PDF report. Jeff is a wonderful explainer in the Q&A format and I think you’ll learn a lot from our conversation. You’re welcome to leave your questions in the comments below, as well. tag:odeo.com,2009-03-20,25347964 Fri, 20 Mar 2009 10:11:57 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, ux, SpoolCast, Design Process http://odeo.com/episodes/24334578-SpoolCast-Follow-up-Podcast-for-An-Agile-UX-Primer Duration: 48 m | 27.5 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week we are happy to share with you a followup podcast to our recent Virtual Seminar with Jeff Patton, one of the world’s foremost teachers and consultants on the agile development process. If you missed the seminar, don’t worry, if you’re interested in agile, there’s plenty here for you too. During the seminar we received, as usual, more questions than we had time to answer. So Jeff and I discussed them here. Our first question asked about the international nature of agile. Jeff noted while the ideas of agile were founded in the U.S. there’s a great deal of momentum and excitement for the process in Europe and Asia, as well. A question was raised about the use of low-fidelity prototypes within the agile process... Duration: 48 m | 27.5 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week we are happy to share with you a followup podcast to our recent Virtual Seminar with Jeff Patton, one of the world’s foremost teachers and consultants on the agile development process. If you missed the seminar, don’t worry, if you’re interested in agile, there’s plenty here for you too. During the seminar we received, as usual, more questions than we had time to answer. So Jeff and I discussed them here. Our first question asked about the international nature of agile. Jeff noted while the ideas of agile were founded in the U.S. there’s a great deal of momentum and excitement for the process in Europe and Asia, as well. A question was raised about the use of low-fidelity prototypes within the agile process. Jeff prescribes to the value of paper prototyping and is a fan of UIE-alum Carolyn Synder’s work in the field. Jeff believes that paper prototyping fits well within the process and says it’s worth the work to convince doubters who may not immediately see the value. He also brought up the use of testing those early prototypes on just about anyone, even if they aren’t your ideal user. It’s better to test on someone than no one, and in between your regularly planned tests with your targeted audience, short sessions with most folks will still yield important, and fast feedback. Jeff and I discussed many more things including, • RITE and introducing design concepts to developers • The role of iterations in refining current work and how to move forward developing new components • The emerging confluence of UI design patterns and the agile methodology • The prioritization of quality in the agile process and your organization as a whole • Converging UX and agile: upcoming agile conferences, and is Alan Cooper coming around to agile? During the podcast, we mentioned these two links: Salesforce’s Postcard Patterns - An Agile UI Pattern Creation Process, a presentation from IxDA ‘09, and Agile Usability: Best Practices for User Experience on Agile Development Projects a 95 page PDF report. Jeff is a wonderful explainer in the Q&A format and I think you’ll learn a lot from our conversation. You’re welcome to leave your questions in the comments below, as well. Duration: 48 m | 27.5 MB Recorded: March, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week we are happy to share with you a followup podcast to our recent Virtual Seminar with Jeff Patton, one of the world’s foremost teachers and consultants on the agile development process. If you missed the seminar, don’t worry, if you’re interested in agile, there’s plenty here for you too. During the seminar we received, as usual, more questions than we had time to answer. So Jeff and I discussed them here. Our first question asked about the international nature of agile. Jeff noted while the ideas of agile were founded in the U.S. there’s a great deal of momentum and excitement for the process in Europe and Asia, as well. A question was raised about the use of low-fidelity prototypes within the agile process. Jeff prescribes to the value of paper prototyping and is a fan of UIE-alum Carolyn Synder’s work in the field. Jeff believes that paper prototyping fits well within the process and says it’s worth the work to convince doubters who may not immediately see the value. He also brought up the use of testing those early prototypes on just about anyone, even if they aren’t your ideal user. It’s better to test on someone than no one, and in between your regularly planned tests with your targeted audience, short sessions with most folks will still yield important, and fast feedback. Jeff and I discussed many more things including, • RITE and introducing design concepts to developers • The role of iterations in refining current work and how to move forward developing new components • The emerging confluence of UI design patterns and the agile methodology • The prioritization of quality in the agile process and your organization as a whole • Converging UX and agile: upcoming agile conferences, and is Alan Cooper coming around to agile? During the podcast, we mentioned these two links: Salesforce’s Postcard Patterns - An Agile UI Pattern Creation Process, a presentation from IxDA ‘09, and Agile Usability: Best Practices for User Experience on Agile Development Projects a 95 page PDF report. Jeff is a wonderful explainer in the Q&A format and I think you’ll learn a lot from our conversation. You’re welcome to leave your questions in the comments below, as well. tag:odeo.com,2009-03-20,24334578 Fri, 20 Mar 2009 09:11:57 -0700 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, ux, SpoolCast, Design Process http://odeo.com/episodes/24265430-SpoolCast-Roughing-it-with-Interactive-Prototypes Duration: 31 m | 16.5 MB Recorded: December, 2008 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Without planning, web apps have no where to go. Planning documents for web app projects are often overlooked, despite their importance in the success of the product. As a designer, no matter how great your research is, or how amazing your programmers are, if your planning documents do not develop well, your project will fail. One of the great user experience success stories in the U.K. is the Brighton-based agency Clearleft. They’ve developed successful, sophisticated methods of planning for their projects. I was able to get a hold of two of their talented crew to discuss those methods in this episode of the SpoolCast. James Box (UX) and Richard Rutter (Co-founder and Production Director) have been working on ways to plan highly interact... Duration: 31 m | 16.5 MB Recorded: December, 2008 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Without planning, web apps have no where to go. Planning documents for web app projects are often overlooked, despite their importance in the success of the product. As a designer, no matter how great your research is, or how amazing your programmers are, if your planning documents do not develop well, your project will fail. One of the great user experience success stories in the U.K. is the Brighton-based agency Clearleft. They’ve developed successful, sophisticated methods of planning for their projects. I was able to get a hold of two of their talented crew to discuss those methods in this episode of the SpoolCast. James Box (UX) and Richard Rutter (Co-founder and Production Director) have been working on ways to plan highly interactive web apps that make the process more efficient. And that’s exactly what we spoke about during the podcast. James and Richard first told me that they hold back from traditional deliverables, and show clients what they call ‘design tools.’ Some clients prefer tidy deliverables, but many clients like these rougher documents. The advantage to these is that they stress design as a process, rather than set in stone. Sometimes overly polished documents can make a solution appear complete, without the client being able to change its course. This method aids the flow of dialog between the designers and the client. Rough prototypes help your client stay focused on the core issues you’re demonstrating, like interactions, while avoiding getting caught up on visual elements that aren’t important at this very moment. As an example, when possible, they leave color out altogether. A key element to the success of their design tools is that prototypes are interactive. They make many prototypes with HTML and enough jQuery to demonstrate the interaction. They don’t feel this process takes any longer than using relatively static tools like Visio or OmniGraffle, and offers more utility. They’re always looking for ways to improve the process with reusable pattern and code libraries. There were more quality nuggets in the conversation too, so please tune in for more on peer reviewing, prioritizing usability testing and real code production. James and Richard will be joining us in California this April for our Web App Summit, where they will be conducting a full-day workshop on “Wireframing and Prototyping for Highly Interactive Web Apps.” If you enjoyed this conversation, please join us to learn how their techniques can help in your organization. Have you moved to interactive prototyping for expressing complex situations? Let us know in the comments. Duration: 31 m | 16.5 MB Recorded: December, 2008 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Without planning, web apps have no where to go. Planning documents for web app projects are often overlooked, despite their importance in the success of the product. As a designer, no matter how great your research is, or how amazing your programmers are, if your planning documents do not develop well, your project will fail. One of the great user experience success stories in the U.K. is the Brighton-based agency Clearleft. They’ve developed successful, sophisticated methods of planning for their projects. I was able to get a hold of two of their talented crew to discuss those methods in this episode of the SpoolCast. James Box (UX) and Richard Rutter (Co-founder and Production Director) have been working on ways to plan highly interactive web apps that make the process more efficient. And that’s exactly what we spoke about during the podcast. James and Richard first told me that they hold back from traditional deliverables, and show clients what they call ‘design tools.’ Some clients prefer tidy deliverables, but many clients like these rougher documents. The advantage to these is that they stress design as a process, rather than set in stone. Sometimes overly polished documents can make a solution appear complete, without the client being able to change its course. This method aids the flow of dialog between the designers and the client. Rough prototypes help your client stay focused on the core issues you’re demonstrating, like interactions, while avoiding getting caught up on visual elements that aren’t important at this very moment. As an example, when possible, they leave color out altogether. A key element to the success of their design tools is that prototypes are interactive. They make many prototypes with HTML and enough jQuery to demonstrate the interaction. They don’t feel this process takes any longer than using relatively static tools like Visio or OmniGraffle, and offers more utility. They’re always looking for ways to improve the process with reusable pattern and code libraries. There were more quality nuggets in the conversation too, so please tune in for more on peer reviewing, prioritizing usability testing and real code production. James and Richard will be joining us in California this April for our Web App Summit, where they will be conducting a full-day workshop on “Wireframing and Prototyping for Highly Interactive Web Apps.” If you enjoyed this conversation, please join us to learn how their techniques can help in your organization. Have you moved to interactive prototyping for expressing complex situations? Let us know in the comments. tag:odeo.com,2009-03-06,24265430 Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:28:25 -0800 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, Design, Ajax, web applications, Success Stories, SpoolCast, Design Process, Design Patterns, Design Documentation, Wireframes, Design Deliverables http://odeo.com/episodes/25092271-Userability-Podcast-4-%E2%80%93-Just-One-UX-Message Duration: 13m30s | 7.5 MB Recorded: January, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] [display_podcast] Userability is the show that answers your vexing UX questions with irreverence and useful advice. Remember, Userability is 100% Soylent, which means it’s made of people—Err—people’s questions. Please send your deep thoughts to us at userability@uie.com. This week we continue the international flare with a call from Shanghai, China. Daniel Szuc, of ApogeeHK had a question that stopped Jared and Robert in their tracks, If there was ONE thing you would want an organization to take on board immediately to help UX in that organization, what would it be and why? Tune in to hear what Robert and Jared would tell your executives if pressed. How would you have answered? Let us know in the comments! Duration: 13m30s | 7.5 MB Recorded: January, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] [display_podcast] Userability is the show that answers your vexing UX questions with irreverence and useful advice. Remember, Userability is 100% Soylent, which means it’s made of people—Err—people’s questions. Please send your deep thoughts to us at userability@uie.com. This week we continue the international flare with a call from Shanghai, China. Daniel Szuc, of ApogeeHK had a question that stopped Jared and Robert in their tracks, If there was ONE thing you would want an organization to take on board immediately to help UX in that organization, what would it be and why? Tune in to hear what Robert and Jared would tell your executives if pressed. How would you have answered? Let us know in the comments! Duration: 13m30s | 7.5 MB Recorded: January, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] [display_podcast] Userability is the show that answers your vexing UX questions with irreverence and useful advice. Remember, Userability is 100% Soylent, which means it’s made of people—Err—people’s questions. Please send your deep thoughts to us at userability@uie.com. This week we continue the international flare with a call from Shanghai, China. Daniel Szuc, of ApogeeHK had a question that stopped Jared and Robert in their tracks, If there was ONE thing you would want an organization to take on board immediately to help UX in that organization, what would it be and why? Tune in to hear what Robert and Jared would tell your executives if pressed. How would you have answered? Let us know in the comments! tag:odeo.com,2009-02-26,25092271 Thu, 26 Feb 2009 11:41:42 -0800 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, ux, Userability, Experience Visions http://odeo.com/episodes/24216244-Userability-Podcast-4-Just-One-UX-Message Duration: 13m30s | 7.5 MB Recorded: January, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Userability is the show that answers your vexing UX questions with irreverence and useful advice. Remember, Userability is 100% Soylent, which means it’s made of people—Err—people’s questions. Please send your deep thoughts to us at userability@uie.com. This week we continue the international flare with a call from Shanghai, China. Daniel Szuc, of ApogeeHK had a question that stopped Jared and Robert in their tracks, If there was ONE thing you would want an organization to take on board immediately to help UX in that organization, what would it be and why? Tune in to hear what Robert and Jared would tell your executives if pressed. How would you have answered? Let us know in the comments! Duration: 13m30s | 7.5 MB Recorded: January, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Userability is the show that answers your vexing UX questions with irreverence and useful advice. Remember, Userability is 100% Soylent, which means it’s made of people—Err—people’s questions. Please send your deep thoughts to us at userability@uie.com. This week we continue the international flare with a call from Shanghai, China. Daniel Szuc, of ApogeeHK had a question that stopped Jared and Robert in their tracks, If there was ONE thing you would want an organization to take on board immediately to help UX in that organization, what would it be and why? Tune in to hear what Robert and Jared would tell your executives if pressed. How would you have answered? Let us know in the comments! Duration: 13m30s | 7.5 MB Recorded: January, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Userability is the show that answers your vexing UX questions with irreverence and useful advice. Remember, Userability is 100% Soylent, which means it’s made of people—Err—people’s questions. Please send your deep thoughts to us at userability@uie.com. This week we continue the international flare with a call from Shanghai, China. Daniel Szuc, of ApogeeHK had a question that stopped Jared and Robert in their tracks, If there was ONE thing you would want an organization to take on board immediately to help UX in that organization, what would it be and why? Tune in to hear what Robert and Jared would tell your executives if pressed. How would you have answered? Let us know in the comments! tag:odeo.com,2009-02-26,24216244 Thu, 26 Feb 2009 11:41:42 -0800 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, ux, Userability, Experience Visions http://odeo.com/episodes/24223303-Spoolcast-Ajax-Aids-Accessibility Duration: 23 m | 12 MB Recorded: January, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Yes, if you do it right, using Ajax techniques can improve accessibility. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. Ajax is like most techniques and technologies on the web—they are what you make of them. I had a chance to talk with Derek Featherstone, a world renown expert on web accessibility and principal of Further Ahead, a consulting firm out of Ottawa, Ontario that helps their clients get the most out of their web site designs. In the podcast, Derek tells us that we first need to know how to think about Ajax as a design tool. Today’s toolkits (such as jQuery) can really help designers build functional prototypes to demonstrate their interaction concepts to developers, who will then integrate their ideas into the production system. Taking adv... Duration: 23 m | 12 MB Recorded: January, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Yes, if you do it right, using Ajax techniques can improve accessibility. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. Ajax is like most techniques and technologies on the web—they are what you make of them. I had a chance to talk with Derek Featherstone, a world renown expert on web accessibility and principal of Further Ahead, a consulting firm out of Ottawa, Ontario that helps their clients get the most out of their web site designs. In the podcast, Derek tells us that we first need to know how to think about Ajax as a design tool. Today’s toolkits (such as jQuery) can really help designers build functional prototypes to demonstrate their interaction concepts to developers, who will then integrate their ideas into the production system. Taking advantage of the many available libraries gives you a sandbox for trying out interactions without having to know the best practices for implementing the code. Derek also discussed common misconceptions about Ajax. He said that, while implementing Ajax that aids accessibility has its challenges, it’s within the technical reach of most developers. I was glad when he reminded me that many interactions that improve experiences for people with special needs also improve the experience of average users. Techniques like managing large data sets on one page through Ajax-powered content updates can also help users with special needs by maintaining context which is normally degraded by full-page refreshes. As always, I found Derek’s insights fascinating and I bet you will too. [In case you hadn't heard, this year we asked Derek to build a brand-new, full-day seminar just for UIE's Web App Summit. His session, Designing Great Interactive Experiences for Everyone: Implementing Ajax and Accessibility will unleash a torrent of information about integrating Ajax best practices into your design workflow. For people who are new to Ajax, he'll define the technologies and techniques involved, and describe what they're really good for and what they are not. For those who are using Ajax currently, Derek will delve into where to get your biggest wins with these interactions and what the best practices are for enhancing accessibility with Ajax. It's going to be a great session from one of our best-rated presenters. You won't want to miss it.] Duration: 23 m | 12 MB Recorded: January, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Yes, if you do it right, using Ajax techniques can improve accessibility. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. Ajax is like most techniques and technologies on the web—they are what you make of them. I had a chance to talk with Derek Featherstone, a world renown expert on web accessibility and principal of Further Ahead, a consulting firm out of Ottawa, Ontario that helps their clients get the most out of their web site designs. In the podcast, Derek tells us that we first need to know how to think about Ajax as a design tool. Today’s toolkits (such as jQuery) can really help designers build functional prototypes to demonstrate their interaction concepts to developers, who will then integrate their ideas into the production system. Taking advantage of the many available libraries gives you a sandbox for trying out interactions without having to know the best practices for implementing the code. Derek also discussed common misconceptions about Ajax. He said that, while implementing Ajax that aids accessibility has its challenges, it’s within the technical reach of most developers. I was glad when he reminded me that many interactions that improve experiences for people with special needs also improve the experience of average users. Techniques like managing large data sets on one page through Ajax-powered content updates can also help users with special needs by maintaining context which is normally degraded by full-page refreshes. As always, I found Derek’s insights fascinating and I bet you will too. [In case you hadn't heard, this year we asked Derek to build a brand-new, full-day seminar just for UIE's Web App Summit. His session, Designing Great Interactive Experiences for Everyone: Implementing Ajax and Accessibility will unleash a torrent of information about integrating Ajax best practices into your design workflow. For people who are new to Ajax, he'll define the technologies and techniques involved, and describe what they're really good for and what they are not. For those who are using Ajax currently, Derek will delve into where to get your biggest wins with these interactions and what the best practices are for enhancing accessibility with Ajax. It's going to be a great session from one of our best-rated presenters. You won't want to miss it.] tag:odeo.com,2009-02-20,24223303 Fri, 20 Feb 2009 14:14:13 -0800 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, Ajax, accessibility, SpoolCast http://odeo.com/episodes/24147914-Spoolcast-AJAX-Aids-Accessibility Duration: 23 m | 12 MB Recorded: January, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Yes, if you do it right, using Ajax techniques can improve accessibility. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. Ajax is like most techniques and technologies on the web—they are what you make of them. I had a chance to talk with Derek Featherstone, a world renown expert on web accessibility and principal of Further Ahead, a consulting firm out of Ottawa, Ontario that helps their clients get the most out of their web site designs. In the podcast, Derek tells us that we first need to know how to think about Ajax as a design tool. Today’s toolkits (such as jQuery) can really help designers build functional prototypes to demonstrate their interaction concepts to developers, who will then integrate their ideas into the production system. Taking adv... Duration: 23 m | 12 MB Recorded: January, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Yes, if you do it right, using Ajax techniques can improve accessibility. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. Ajax is like most techniques and technologies on the web—they are what you make of them. I had a chance to talk with Derek Featherstone, a world renown expert on web accessibility and principal of Further Ahead, a consulting firm out of Ottawa, Ontario that helps their clients get the most out of their web site designs. In the podcast, Derek tells us that we first need to know how to think about Ajax as a design tool. Today’s toolkits (such as jQuery) can really help designers build functional prototypes to demonstrate their interaction concepts to developers, who will then integrate their ideas into the production system. Taking advantage of the many available libraries gives you a sandbox for trying out interactions without having to know the best practices for implementing the code. Derek also discussed common misconceptions about Ajax. He said that, while implementing Ajax that aids accessibility has its challenges, it’s within the technical reach of most developers. I was glad when he reminded me that many interactions that improve experiences for people with special needs also improve the experience of average users. Techniques like managing large data sets on one page through Ajax-powered content updates can also help users with special needs by maintaining context which is normally degraded by full-page refreshes. As always, I found Derek’s insights fascinating and I bet you will too. [In case you hadn't heard, this year we asked Derek to build a brand-new, full-day seminar just for UIE's Web App Summit. His session, Designing Great Interactive Experiences for Everyone: Implementing Ajax and Accessibility will unleash a torrent of information about integrating Ajax best practices into your design workflow. For people who are new to Ajax, he'll define the technologies and techniques involved, and describe what they're really good for and what they are not. For those who are using Ajax currently, Derek will delve into where to get your biggest wins with these interactions and what the best practices are for enhancing accessibility with Ajax. It's going to be a great session from one of our best-rated presenters. You won't want to miss it.] Duration: 23 m | 12 MB Recorded: January, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] Yes, if you do it right, using Ajax techniques can improve accessibility. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. Ajax is like most techniques and technologies on the web—they are what you make of them. I had a chance to talk with Derek Featherstone, a world renown expert on web accessibility and principal of Further Ahead, a consulting firm out of Ottawa, Ontario that helps their clients get the most out of their web site designs. In the podcast, Derek tells us that we first need to know how to think about Ajax as a design tool. Today’s toolkits (such as jQuery) can really help designers build functional prototypes to demonstrate their interaction concepts to developers, who will then integrate their ideas into the production system. Taking advantage of the many available libraries gives you a sandbox for trying out interactions without having to know the best practices for implementing the code. Derek also discussed common misconceptions about Ajax. He said that, while implementing Ajax that aids accessibility has its challenges, it’s within the technical reach of most developers. I was glad when he reminded me that many interactions that improve experiences for people with special needs also improve the experience of average users. Techniques like managing large data sets on one page through Ajax-powered content updates can also help users with special needs by maintaining context which is normally degraded by full-page refreshes. As always, I found Derek’s insights fascinating and I bet you will too. [In case you hadn't heard, this year we asked Derek to build a brand-new, full-day seminar just for UIE's Web App Summit. His session, Designing Great Interactive Experiences for Everyone: Implementing Ajax and Accessibility will unleash a torrent of information about integrating Ajax best practices into your design workflow. For people who are new to Ajax, he'll define the technologies and techniques involved, and describe what they're really good for and what they are not. For those who are using Ajax currently, Derek will delve into where to get your biggest wins with these interactions and what the best practices are for enhancing accessibility with Ajax. It's going to be a great session from one of our best-rated presenters. You won't want to miss it.] tag:odeo.com,2009-02-20,24147914 Fri, 20 Feb 2009 14:14:13 -0800 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, Ajax, accessibility, SpoolCast http://odeo.com/episodes/24087118-Userability-Podcast-3-Blind-to-Average-Users Duration: 13m | 7.5 MB Recorded: January, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week’s episode demonstrates the lengths that people will go to be a part of the Userability Podcast. Or, at least how far their Skype connection will go; a bit over 10,000 miles (16,400km) in this case! We were joined by Keith Lang, co-founder of Plasq, makers of Skitch all the way from Canberra, Australia. He blogs at UI&us. Keith offered this question, All of us UI designers spend a lot of time with computers and become blind to certain problems. What would you say are the most common UIs, or processes, that confuse or impede the average computer-user? For example, I notice many people having problems paying attention to dialogue boxes, and recalling what they said. They just click OK, even on ones with brief text–sometimes with... Duration: 13m | 7.5 MB Recorded: January, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week’s episode demonstrates the lengths that people will go to be a part of the Userability Podcast. Or, at least how far their Skype connection will go; a bit over 10,000 miles (16,400km) in this case! We were joined by Keith Lang, co-founder of Plasq, makers of Skitch all the way from Canberra, Australia. He blogs at UI&us. Keith offered this question, All of us UI designers spend a lot of time with computers and become blind to certain problems. What would you say are the most common UIs, or processes, that confuse or impede the average computer-user? For example, I notice many people having problems paying attention to dialogue boxes, and recalling what they said. They just click OK, even on ones with brief text–sometimes with bad results. Tune in to hear what Jared and Robert thought. We’re always looking for guests to stump Jared and Robert. Send us an email at userability@uie.com with your burning design-related questions. What do you have to add to Robert and Jared’s list? What do you see confusing users? Let us know in the comments! Duration: 13m | 7.5 MB Recorded: January, 2009 Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer [ Subscribe to our podcast via ?This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Direct Link to MP3 File ] This week’s episode demonstrates the lengths that people will go to be a part of the Userability Podcast. Or, at least how far their Skype connection will go; a bit over 10,000 miles (16,400km) in this case! We were joined by Keith Lang, co-founder of Plasq, makers of Skitch all the way from Canberra, Australia. He blogs at UI&us. Keith offered this question, All of us UI designers spend a lot of time with computers and become blind to certain problems. What would you say are the most common UIs, or processes, that confuse or impede the average computer-user? For example, I notice many people having problems paying attention to dialogue boxes, and recalling what they said. They just click OK, even on ones with brief text–sometimes with bad results. Tune in to hear what Jared and Robert thought. We’re always looking for guests to stump Jared and Robert. Send us an email at userability@uie.com with your burning design-related questions. What do you have to add to Robert and Jared’s list? What do you see confusing users? Let us know in the comments! tag:odeo.com,2009-02-13,24087118 Fri, 13 Feb 2009 14:11:27 -0800 no UIE Brain Sparks podcasts, Design, users, Userability