|
Friday, July 20, 2001
OPENING THANG
Does jargon have its place? Is there a right time to chuck plain English out the door and dazzle them with your bullsh*t? Great comment from Tony Burgess defending jargon on the blog
Posted by christina on Friday, 07/20/01 08:38 AM CST
IA MATTERS
Learning About and Keeping Up with Information Architecture
"This survey ran from June 1 through June 6, 2001, and was completed by 107 respondents...We asked:
"How do you keep up with the field? And what sources of information are most important? "
The latest ACIA interview, with Seth Gordon
old article from Victor Lombardi, from his razorfish days
"Pattern Languages for Interaction designs."
what Victor's up to today
Posted by christina on Friday, 07/20/01 08:38 AM CST
DESIGN MATTERS
Corporate Design Foundation (via xblog.com)
"Corporate Design Foundation is a nonprofit educational and research organization founded on the belief that individual and organizational interests can best be served through the effective use of design disciplines: product design, communication design and architecture. This site contains resources for business leaders, faculty, students and others interested in the integration of design and business."
"U&lc Online is ITC’s international journal of graphic design and digital media. U&lc Online needs no subscription; it’s part of the ITC web site, itcfonts.com. To read U&lc Online, just bookmark this page and check it out every month."
Posted by christina on Friday, 07/20/01 08:35 AM CST
USABILITY MATTERS
Marketing (not maddening) research
"Elemental forces shape the world we live in: oceans struggle with continents, wind erodes mountains, and marketing departments conflict with customers. Marketers need to know about customers in order to do their jobs, yet the methods that they use to get this knowledge can interfere with customers' desires to achieve their goals quickly and easily. And businesses fail when customers leave."
Posted by christina on Friday, 07/20/01 08:35 AM CST
TECH MATTERS
If you haven't heard of code red yet, and you are running on a Microsoft server, click here. A bad-ass virus is coming to town.
New Macromedia Web-based application for managing all aspects of the Web site production process. The beta is now available.
Posted by christina on Friday, 07/20/01 08:34 AM CST
EVENTS
The Science and Art of Effective Web Design
"Winning Web sites are those that balance user performance and visual appeal. This seminar draws on thousands of research studies on user behavior, and on the principles of successful visual design. You will learn to create sites that make sense to users while providing an enjoyable and compelling experience."
Posted by christina on Friday, 07/20/01 08:33 AM CST
APROPOS OF NOTHING
The Ugly American
"Until recently, it has been quite easy to pick an American out of a crowd on European streets, but no more. It’s not that the Ugly American has totally vanished -- there are still plenty of them wandering the world -- but in recent years they have been challenged by the Germans, English, Russians and a host of others."
German investors and the Romanian government are planning to develop Dracula Land, a "terror" theme
park in Transylvania that officials hope will boost the country's ailing tourism industry
Ethem Sahin thought his friends were kidding when they told him how he ended up in the hospital. But they witnessed the cow fall through the roof of the coffee house where they were playing dominoes and knock Sahin unconscious.
ambisinister (am-bi-SIN-uh-stuhr) adjective
Clumsy with both hands. (Literally, with two left hands.)
[Latin ambi- both, + sinister, on the left side.]
"Staff sergeant Gawkward hoped to win a medal or two by firing two
rifles at the same time. When he managed to hit his fellow soldiers
instead, all he earned was the remark ambisinister in his service record."
-Anu Garg, AWAD, Jul 20, 2001.
via http://wordsmith.org
Posted by christina on Friday, 07/20/01 08:33 AM CST
Wednesday, July 18, 2001
OPENING THANG
Sometimes I'm surfing around, and all the sites I find seem to be trying to tell me something. Last night they all seemed to be about the designer's role on the web. Without the control of print, with usability gurus breathing down their necks, with a host of consultants mouthing hastily invented best practices, with statistics appearing every a link changes from blue to purple, how can a designer get his/her head above water long enough to create?
talk about it
btw, I just picked up badpractices.com at the urging of mike (mr. biggerhand.com). anyone want to suggest how to use it, I'd love to hear from you.
Posted by christina on Wednesday, 07/18/01 08:38 AM CST
DESIGN MATTERS
Web Woes
"My erstwhile students found themselves doing more and more static, formulaic stuff and being less and less happy. If Jacob Nielsen had his way they'd be doing nothing that resembled design and a lot of clients are listening to what Nielsen has to say. Is mundane and pedestrian work under the flag of "usability" the future of the web?"
Posted by christina on Wednesday, 07/18/01 08:37 AM CST
DESIGN MATTERS
One guy proving design, usability and --gasp-- programming talents can live in the same person.
check out his True Design Company paper.
but don't stop there. there is a ton of good stuff on his site.
Posted by christina on Wednesday, 07/18/01 08:37 AM CST
DESIGN MATTERS
Speaking of beautiful...
Posted by christina on Wednesday, 07/18/01 08:36 AM CST
IA MATTERS
The Baseball Project
"Hugh Dubberly describes this series of work as a step-by-step approach to introducing information architecture. More than a sequence of related assignments, this is a significant plan for an entire course where students come to understand a body of content in preparation for designing interactive systems. Dubberly has chosen the game of baseball and how to play it as the content. Specifically, he asks students to "describe how to play baseball to an adult speaker of English (someone over 12) who is unfamiliar with the game." "
Posted by christina on Wednesday, 07/18/01 08:36 AM CST
IA MATTERS
been here yet?
Understanding USA
just checking....
Posted by christina on Wednesday, 07/18/01 08:35 AM CST
TECH MATTERS
In response to user's frustrations wiht LGF's font sizes, they added a tool for user to set their own font preferences.
now that users can set their own fonts to whatever is comfortable, this hands design over to the users even more, and makes the challange to design for any number of situations even more onorous.
Posted by christina on Wednesday, 07/18/01 08:35 AM CST
APROPOS OF NOTHING
I'm watching Simpsons, the one where Homer makes a dating video for Ned.
Lisa: "There are other wipes than star wipes"
Homer: "Why have hamburger when you can eat steak every day?"
I'm sure there's a metaphor in there somewhere.
Posted by christina on Wednesday, 07/18/01 08:33 AM CST
Monday, July 16, 2001
OPENING THANG
My husband Philippe got his green card, after a year of paperwork and
fussing with the INS. I have only one thing to say.
YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Posted by christina on Monday, 07/16/01 10:24 AM CST
IA MATTERS
Interesting discussion of IA vs. ID in Design Matters. Lou Rosenfeld,
Richard Saul Wurman start it off, followed by a bunch of second generation
IA's and old school ID's, including Andrew Dillon, Nathan Shendroff, Bob
Jacobson and myself.
download the PDF
George Olson throws his hat in the ring: he attempts to come to a definition
for "what we do." It's an interesting essay on the elements of user
experience. (he has a browser bug that may require you to scroll down to the
content)
HannaHodge is closed -- "It is with both sadness and great pride that I must inform you of the end of an era for us at HannaHodge. As of July 2001 we will cease operations."
Steering Users Isn't Easy
"Many users go to Web sites seeking specific information--and are eager to leave as soon as they find it. This means designers may have trouble steering users to material they're not actually looking for, even if the users would find the information valuable. "
Posted by christina on Monday, 07/16/01 10:21 AM CST
DESIGN MATTERS
Design Crimes (via iaslash) -- "Everybody wants to be a web designer. Design Crimes was established in order to showcase the worst attempts."
Everybody needs stock photos at some time in their career. On a list I'm on,
they are exchanging their favorite resources, which I share with you beloved
readers.
public-domain images (free with restrictions)
iStockPhoto (free)
Links (scroll down to free stock photos)
Hemera (reasonably priced CD).
London based company: image 100 (royalty free)
Posted by christina on Monday, 07/16/01 10:19 AM CST
MARKETING MATTERS
Rebecca Blood writes: "behold the power of branding"
Posted by christina on Monday, 07/16/01 10:18 AM CST
NEWS & COMMENTARY
When Site Sponsorship Threatens Credibility
How does a me-zine develop standards that allow it to accept advertising
without harming its credibility?
Posted by christina on Monday, 07/16/01 10:17 AM CST
APROPOS OF NOTHING
Chasing the sun is a lovely content-rich site about aviation. dude! (via
littlegreenfootballs.com)
Posted by christina on Monday, 07/16/01 10:16 AM CST
|
