Topics: Process: Project Management and Workflow
Tools and techniques for fighting entropy. Better collaboration through good planning. (64 articles)
Getting Clients
by Mike Monteiro
Issue 348April 10, 2012
Co-founder of Mule Design and raconteur Mike Monteiro wants to help you do your job better. From contracts to selling design, from working with clients to working with each other, his new book from A Book Apart, released today, is packed with knowledge you can’t afford not to know. A List Apart is pleased to present an exclusive excerpt from Chapter 2 of Design Is a Job.
Style Tiles and How They Work
by Samantha Warren
Issue 347March 27, 2012
How do you involve your client in a successful design process? Many of our processes date back to print design and advertising. It’s time we evolved our deliverables to make clients a more active participant in the process. The style tile is a design deliverable that references website interface elements through font, color, and style collections delivered alongside a site map, wireframes, and other user experience artifacts. Learn how style tiles can align client and designer expectations, expedite project timelines, involve stakeholders in the brainstorming process, and serve an essential role in responsive design.
Audiences, Outcomes, and Determining User Needs
by Corey Vilhauer
Issue 345February 28, 2012
Every website needs an audience. And every audience needs a goal. Advocating for end-user needs is the very foundation of the user experience disciplines. We make websites for real people. Those real people are able to do real things. But how do we get to really know our audience and find out what these mystery users really want from our sites and applications? Learn to ensure that every piece of content on your site relates back to a specific, desired outcome — one that achieves business goals by serving the end user. Corey Vilhauer explains the threads that bind UX research to content strategy and project deliverables that deliver.
Building Twitter Bootstrap
by Mark Otto
Issue 342January 17, 2012
Bootstrap is an open-source front-end toolkit created to help designers and developers quickly and efficiently build great stuff online. Its goal is to provide a refined, well-documented, and extensive library of flexible design components created with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for others to build and innovate on. Today, it has grown to include dozens of components and has become the most popular project on GitHub, with more than 13,000 watchers and 2,000 forks. Mark Otto, the co-creator of Bootstrap, sheds light on how and why Bootstrap was made, the processes used to create it, and how it has grown as a design system.
Being Human is Good Business
by Kristin Smaby
Issue 334September 6, 2011
Customers aren't shy about shouting their experiences—good and bad—to the world via Twitter and Facebook. When you see customer service as a cost center, you risk treating customers as a liability. Yet, customers are a valuable resource: their feedback is integral to shaping your product and building your brand. Customer service, by definition, is about serving people; it should be genuine, personalized, and compassionate—or, simply put, human.
A Modest Proposal
by Nathan Peretic
Issue 330July 5, 2011
Comedy is easy, proposals are hard. Even the toughest creative pros cringe when it’s time to put one together. Yet doing so is essential if you want to keep your doors open. A compelling proposal requires more than a jumble of clichés and a nervous estimate of costs. It needs structure, organization, and joie de vivre. Fortunately, you can provide that structure, no matter how complicated the final proposal needs to be. Learn the key questions every client needs answered—and how to use them as the basis of a proposal that convinces your client you’re the right team for the job.
Rapid Prototyping with Sinatra
by Al Shaw
Issue 324February 22, 2011
If you’re a web designer or developer, you’re well acquainted with prototyping. From raw wireframing to creating interfaces in Photoshop, designers map out how sites will work before they create them. Over the past few years, the protoyping process has changed significantly. With browser makers generally agreeing on web standards and the rise of tools such as Firebug and WebKit’s web inspector, we can sometimes skip Photoshop and go straight to the browser. Plus, JavaScript frameworks like jQuery let us play with browser events with only a few lines of code. But what if we need to do even more? As websites increasingly become web apps, we now need to prototype backend functionality, too. Learn how Sinatra, a so-called “micro” web framework, helps you create real (albeit simple) web apps extremely fast, letting you prototype flows and behavior you may want to integrate into a final product.
Get Started with Git
by Al Shaw
Issue 317November 2, 2010
Version control: It isn’t just for coders anymore. If you’re a writer, editor, or a designer who works iteratively on the web and you want to reshuffle or combine pieces of your work quickly and efficiently, version control is for you, too. Al Shaw shows us how easy it is to install, set up, and work with Git—open-source, version control software that offers you much, much, more than just “undo.”
No One Nos: Learning to Say No to Bad Ideas
by Whitney Hess
Issue 311August 3, 2010
You can't create what clients need when you're too busy saying yes to everything they want. As a user experience designer, it's your job to say no to bad ideas and pointless practices. But getting to no is never easy. Proven techniques that can turn vocal negatives into positive experiences for you, the client, and most importantly, the end-user include citing best practices and simple but powerful business cases; proving your point with numbers; shifting focus from what to who; using the "positive no"; and, when necessary, pricing yourself out.
Kick Ass Kickoff Meetings
by Kevin M. Hoffman
Issue 311August 3, 2010
Too many kickoff meetings squander the busiest, most expensive people's time reiterating what everyone already knows. If every meeting is an opportunity, why waste your first one? By asking stakeholders tough questions before the kick-off, and using the meeting itself to explore ideas and build relationships, you can turn a room of mutually suspicious turf battlers into an energetic team with shared ownership of the end-product and the kind of bond that can sustain the group through the challenges ahead.
JavaScript Minification Part II
by Nicholas C. Zakas
Issue 310July 20, 2010
Variable naming can be a source of coding angst for humans trying to understand code. Once you’re sure that a human doesn’t need to interpret your JavaScript code, variables simply become generic placeholders for values. Nicholas C. Zakas shows us how to further minify JavaScript by replacing local variable names with the YUI Compressor.
Quick and Dirty Remote User Testing
by Nate Bolt
Issue 306May 25, 2010
User research doesn’t have to be expensive and time-consuming. With online applications, you can test your designs, wireframes, and prototypes over the phone and your computer with ease and aplomb. Nate Bolt shows the way.
Letting Go of John Hancock
by Bjørn Enki
Issue 297December 8, 2009
Because clients expect everything to be faster, better, and simpler, web professionals must take an instant, foolproof, paperless, modern approach to how clients approve proposals and sign contracts. Implementing an instantaneous contract agreement helps to get projects off the ground, attract clients on tight timelines, and prevent potential delays. All it takes is a little PHP and some PDF magic.
Getting to No
by Greg Hoy
Issue 294October 20, 2009
A bad client relationship is like a bad marriage without the benefits. To avoid such relationships, or to fix the one you’re in, learn the five classic signs of trouble. Recognizing the never-ending contract revisionist, the giant project team, the vanishing boss and other warning signs can help you run successful, angst-free projects.
Erskine Design Redesign
by Simon Collison
Issue 289August 4, 2009
In a mere two years, Erskine Design grew from two people working at home into a full-fledged agency of eight, working with major clients. Their website needed to better reflect their achievements, abilities, and team strengths. They also sought to improve the quality of data collected during client inquiries. Simon Collison explores the agency’s thought processes, and the decisions they made as their own client.
Content Templates to the Rescue
by Erin Kissane
Issue 287July 7, 2009
As an industry, we’ve learned to plan our sites to achieve business goals and meet human needs while shipping on time and delivering compelling user experiences. Alas, despite all the sweat we pour into strategy sessions and GANTT charts, we still have to coax content out of our subject matter experts and get it onto every page of the site. This is where the strongest hearts grow frail, and even seasoned developers reach for Advil or something stronger. But help, in the form of content templates, is on the way. Seize the power.
Managing Werewolves
by Michael Lopp
Issue 285June 9, 2009
While you’re always optimistic when leading a team, you know that not everyone’s got your back. Liars and poor communicators can wipe out good work faster than a 404 error. Learn how to think critically about verbal and non-verbal behavior and to separate office politics from truth, so you don’t let the Werewolves win.
Getting Real About Agile Design
by Cennydd Bowles
Issue 273December 2, 2008
Agile development was made for tough economic times, but does not fit comfortably into the research-heavy, iteration-focused process designers trust to deliver user- and brand-based sites. How can we update our thinking and methods to take advantage of what agile offers?
Walking the Line When You Work from Home
by Natalie Jost
Issue 263July 15, 2008
Working from home as a freelance contractor or remote employee can be a great thing, particularly if you live alone. But what if you have a spouse and/or children at home with you while you work? Every work environment offers distractions, but those who work from home with their families face a unique set of issues—and need equally unique ways of dealing with them.
Collaborate and Connect with Subversion
by Ryan Irelan
Issue 262July 1, 2008
Managing subcontractors and distributed projects is easy and fun. No wait, that's a lie. Luckily, a good version control may be just what you need to keep your projects on track.
Sketching in Code: the Magic of Prototyping
by David Verba
Issue 261June 17, 2008
The rise of Ajax and rich internet applications has thrown the limitations of traditional wireframing into painful relief. When you leave the world of page-based interactions, how do you document all but the simplest interactions? Flowcharts and diagrams don’t work. Prototyping saves the day by focusing on the application and conveying its "magic." Prototypes can help you sell a decision that is fundamentally or radically different from the client’s current solution or application. Sit a stakeholder down in front of a working prototype and show him or her why your approach is compelling.
Why Did You Hire Me?
by Keith LaFerriere
Issue 259May 20, 2008
Landing a new job or client is difficult in this economic climate. Undelivered contractual promises and work environment shortcomings can transform that challenge into a long-term nightmare. Keith LaFerriere shows how to get paid what you're worth; how to fight for control of your projects using management tools corporate cultures respect (even if they don't understand your work); and how to tell when it's time to jump ship.
The Cure for Content-Delay Syndrome
by Pepi Ronalds
Issue 259May 20, 2008
Clients love to write copy. Well, they love to plan to write it, anyhow. On most web design projects, content is the last thing to be considered (and almost always the last thing to be delivered). We’ll spend hours, weeks, even months, doing user scenarios, site maps, wireframes, designs, schemas, and specifications—but content? It’s a disrespected line item in a schedule: “final content delivered.” Pepi Ronalds proposes a solution to this constant cause of project delays.
Creating More Using Less Effort with Ruby on Rails
by Michael Slater
Issue 257April 22, 2008
The "why" of Ruby on Rails comes down to productivity, says Michael Slater. Web applications that share three characteristics—they're database-driven, they're new, and they have needs not well met by a typical CMS—can be built much more quickly with Ruby on Rails than with PHP, .NET, or Java, once the investment required to learn Rails has been made. Does your web app fall within the RoR "sweet spot?"
Hat Heads vs. Bed Heads
by Keith LaFerriere
Issue 246September 25, 2007
Every team and office includes people with potentially conflicting personalities and working styles. By applying the right relationship management techniques, you can calm tension, communicate more easily, and run your projects more efficiently. Keith LaFerriere shows us how.
Get Out from Behind the Curtain
by Sarah B. Nelson
Issue 245September 11, 2007
Client input: positive process or creative noose? Many designers would probably say the latter. But it needn't be that way. Adaptive Path's Sarah Nelson shows how to create collaborative work sessions that take the clients' needs in hand while leaving creative control in yours.
Frameworks for Designers
by Jeff Croft
Issue 239June 12, 2007
Frameworks like Rails, Django, jQuery, and the Yahoo User Interface library have improved web developers' lives by handling routine tasks. The same idea can work for designers. Learn how to harness the power of tools, libraries, conventions, and best practices to focus creative thought and energy on what is unique about each project.
You Are Not a Robot
by Jonathan Kahn
Issue 239June 12, 2007
Are we not (wo)men? Cut us and we bleed. Present us with a problem and we solve it—using judgement, experience, and the ability to generalize. Learn why machines will never be able to do our jobs, and how knowing that fact can build respect for the profession.
Stand and Deliver
by David Sleight
Issue 237May 8, 2007
You've got thirty seconds to sell your work to the well dressed nemesis who's paying you. Handle the next few moments gracefully, and the project will be one you can be proud of. Flub an answer, and you can kiss excellence goodbye. Are you prepared? Can you deliver?
Avoid Edge Cases by Designing Up Front
by Ben Henick
Issue 228December 5, 2006
By the time they reach the coding stage, many web projects are a tangle of exceptions -- and that can make standards-based development a nightmare. Better planning may be exactly what you need to avoid markup derangement or, even worse, a dysfunctional product.
In Defense of Difficult Clients
by Rob Swan
Issue 227November 13, 2006
Challenging clients: avoidable pain or necessary stepping stone to enlightenment? Rob Swan considers the benefits of un-perfect clients.
Designing Through the Storm
by Walter Stevenson
Issue 220July 25, 2006
As designers, we all face the inevitable slump. That point where our creativity stagnates and we find ourselves at a dead end. Walter Stevenson offers suggestions on staying productive and creative.
I Wonder What This Button Does
by Mike West
Issue 220July 25, 2006
We've all lost work to file overwrites and other minor disasters. There are remedies -- and as Mike West explains, you don't have to have awe-inspiring technical skills to take advantage of them.
The Four-Day Week Challenge
by Ryan Carson
Issue 216May 9, 2006
Constantly stressed out? Not enough hours in the day to get things done? Ryan Carson has a theory: your problem is too much work time, not too little.
Never Get Involved in a Land War in Asia (or Build a Website for No Reason)
by Greg Storey
Issue 205October 10, 2005
If you don't know what the website you're working on is supposed to _do_, it's going to be really hard to succeed. Greg Storey offers a simple web strategy development process for everyone.
Educate Your Stakeholders!
by Shane Diffily
Issue 237May 8, 2007
Who decides what's best for a website? Highly skilled professionals who work with the site's users and serve as their advocates? Or schmucks with money? Most often, it's the latter. That's why a web designer's first job is to educate the people who hold the purse strings.
Use Cases Part II: Taming Scope
by Norm Carr, Tim Meehan
Issue 196March 2, 2005
The use-case model can be a powerful tool for controlling scope throughout a project’s life cycle. Because a simplified use-case model can be understood by all project participants, it can also serve as a framework for ongoing collaboration and a visual map of all agreed-upon functionality. Use it to plan, to negotiate, and to prevent scope creep.
Separation: The Web Designer’s Dilemma
by Michael Cohen
Issue 181May 14, 2004
Presentation separated from structure. Structure separated from content. The foot bone connected to the ... what were we talking about? Michael Cohen steps in to examine our assumptions and relieve our separation anxiety.
The Problem, the Balloon, and the Four Bedroom House
by Joe Di Stefano
Issue 177April 16, 2004
Without a problem, there is no project. Where there is a problem, however, there is a stakeholder who is desperate for a solution and who has a delivery deadline — which is normally sometime yesterday. Find out how a good process can tame even the most unruly project.
Tackling Usability Gotchas in Large-scale Site Redesigns
by Jeffrey Zeldman
Issue 163November 14, 2003
Redesigns can solve old usability problems while creating new ones that must be solved in turn. From the lessons of the ALA 3.0 redesign comes this quick study in remapping content without frustrating readers.
A Standards-Compliant Publishing Tool for the Rest of Us?
by Jeffrey Zeldman
Issue 157June 6, 2003
Publishing with web standards is not for experts alone. A new tool hopes to make it easier for anyone. ALA interviews Six Apart’s Anil Dash about his company’s easy-to-use, standards-compliant publishing tool, TypePad.
In Defense of Scope Creep
by Hal Helms
Issue 150September 20, 2002
Scope creep seems inevitable. Our attempts to gather our clients’ requirements early on often seems a futile effort. Scope creep distorts our carefully structured schedules, making project managers weep. Have we run out of strategies for fighting this evil scourge? Is it hopeless? Maybe not. Maybe, thinks Hal Helms, it can even be beneficial.
Time Management: The Pickle Jar Theory
by Jeremy Wright
Issue 146June 22, 2002
Time management theories come and go, and we’re glad when most of them leave. But this one caught our fancy. No charts, no grids, no five-syllable words, just a simple idea that can help you get more done with less stress. New ALA contributing writer Jeremy Wright uncorks the Pickle Jar Theory of Time Management.
Modifying Dreamweaver to Produce Valid XHTML
by Carrie Bickner
Issue 141March 22, 2002
You don’t have to wait for Dreamweaver 5 (or 6) to squeeze valid XHTML out of the web’s most popular visual editor. Carrie Bickner’s illustrated tutorial will show you how to modify Dreamweaver to make it a standards–friendly authoring tool.
Build a Cross-Platform Testing Station in Mac OS
by Paul Sciortino
Issue 139March 1, 2002
Everybody talks about cross-platform testing, but nobody’s shown how to do it on a nuts-and-bolts level. Until now. Sciortino’s comprehensive tutorial for Mac-based web designers will set you up with the testing platform of your dreams.
CMS and the Single Web Designer
by James Ellis
Issue 133January 11, 2002
Content Management Systems free designers from the gruntwork of individual web page production. They may also free companies from the need to retain design staff. How do content management systems work, and what impact will they have on a web designer’s job?
Process, Methodology, Life Cycle, Oh My!
by Meryl K. Evans
Issue 118July 27, 2001
Process, methodology, life cycle. No matter what label you slap on it, if you want to manage your web projects, you need a system that works the way you do. Meryl K. Evans’s overview will help you kick-start your own process.
Nipping Client Silliness in the Bud
by Robin (roblimo) Miller
Issue 116July 6, 2001
Slashdot’s Robin (Roblimo) Miller could write a book about web clients’ mistakes. In fact, he’s writing it now – but he needs your help.
CSS Talking Points: Selling Clients on Web Standards
by Greg Kise
Issue 116July 6, 2001
Selling your clients on standards-compliant design doesn’t have to hurt. Kise's four-point CSS Selling Plan helps the medicine go down.
The Client Did It: A WWW Whodunit
by Robbie Shepherd
Issue 114July 15, 2001
Shepherd on the fine art of telling bad clients to buzz off.
Cheaper Over Better: Why Web Clients Settle for Less
by Adam Schumacher
Issue 114July 15, 2001
Schumacher investigates why clients hire bad web designers — and what good web designers can do about it.
A Failure to Communicate
by George Olsen
Issue 103March 30, 2001
It’s ironic that, as professionals dedicated to clear communication, information architects and user interface designers are having such trouble communicating with each other. Information designer George Olsen digs up the roots of communication breakdown and explores the three aspects of web design.
From Table Hacks to CSS Layout: A Web Designer’s Journey
by Jeffrey Zeldman
Issue 99February 16, 2001
Redesigning A List Apart using CSS should have been easy. It wasn’t. The first problem was understanding how CSS actually works. The second was getting it to work in standards-compliant browsers. A journey of discovery.
Breaking out of the Cubicle: How a Small, Swiss Company Got its Groove On
by Makiko Itoh
Issue 97February 3, 2001
In the mid-1990s, Makiko Itoh and her partner left New York’s cubicle land for a web shop of their own in the suburbs of Zurich. Learn from her tips on running your own web agency.
The Art of Topless Dancing and Information Design
by Denice Warren
Issue 93December 20, 2000
Creating a web site makes for all sorts of strange working relationships. What does an information designer have to do to get a little cooperation?
Separation Anxiety: The Myth of the Separation of Style from Content
by Bob Stein
Issue 89November 17, 2000
The separation of style from content has long been the web’s holy grail. But is it a myth? Stein claims that when design communicates, style and content are inextricably wed.
The Ins and Outs of Intranets
by Dave Linabury
Issue 88November 10, 2000
Sooner or later, most web designers will be called upon to create an internal site. And will quickly learn that one’s own company can be tougher to deal with than any client. Dave Linabury offers tips on surviving the process (and building something good in spite of it).
Daemon Skins: Separating Presentation from Content
by Mark Newhouse
Issue 87November 3, 2000
There ’s more than one way to skin a website. Newhouse demonstrates creative scripting techniques that give viewers and designers the control they crave.
A Design Method
by Ross Olson
Issue 71July 7, 2000
In a high-powered production environment like the web, a design method can help you get more done faster ... and provide you with rules to break. New ALA writer Ross Olson shares his company’s game plan.
Bridging the Gap
by Robert Miller
Issue 66June 2, 2000
How can we work together if we don't understand each other? Systems administrator Robert Miller describes the view from his side of the cubicle, and attempts to break down the barriers between "creative" and systems professionals.
Fragments (of Time)
by Pär Almqvist
Issue 64May 19, 2000
The best web interfaces take time – the one asset that seems to be in perpetually short supply. Leading Scandinavian web developer Pär Almqvist presents a time-based perspective on web interfaces and the network economy.
The Creative Process
by Mattias Konradsson
Issue 8March 12, 1999
Ideas are like policemen — they're never around when you need them. Mattias Konradsson sketches a campaign to seduce the Muse.
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