Topics: User Science: Information Architecture
The semantics of user experience. (Nice, huh?) The art and science of organizing and labeling websites, intranets, online communities, and software to support usability and findability. An emerging community of practice focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape and especially to the web. Figuring out what users need and making it easy for them to achieve their objectives. Narratives of experience. Designing user flow. Pathways of desire. Wireframes, use cases, scenarios, persona development. (18 articles)
The Elements of Social Architecture
by Christina Wodtke
Issue 279March 3, 2009
While our designs can never control people, they can encourage good behavior and discourage bad. In this excerpt from Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web 2nd Edition, Christina Wodtke tells us how to make products that delight people and change their lives by remembering the social in social architecture.
Flexible Fuel: Educating the Client on IA
by Keith LaFerriere
Issue 273December 2, 2008
IA is about selling ideas effectively, designing with accuracy, and working with complex interactivity to guide different types of customers through website experiences. The more your client knows about IA's processes and deliverables, the likelier the project is to succeed.
Understanding Progressive Enhancement
by Aaron Gustafson
Issue 269October 7, 2008
Steven Champeon turned web development upside down, and created an instant best practice of standards-based design, when he introduced the notion of designing for content and experience instead of browsers. In part one of a series, ALA’s Gustafson refreshes us on the principles of progressive enhancement. Upcoming installments will translate the philosophy into sophisticated, future-focused design and code.
Mapping Memory: Web Designer as Information Cartographer
by Aaron Rester
Issue 266August 26, 2008
The rise of the social web demands that we rethink our traditional role as builders of digital monuments, and turn our attention to the close observation of the spaces that our users are producing around us. It's time for a new metaphor. Consider cartography.
Never Use a Warning When you Mean Undo
by Aza Raskin
Issue 241July 13, 2007
Are our web apps as smart as they should be? By failing to account for habituation (the tendency, when presented with a string of repetitive tasks, to keep clicking OK), do our designs cause people to lose their work? Raskin's simple, foolproof rule solves the problem.
Human-to-Human Design
by Sharon Lee
Issue 240June 26, 2007
Help your audience fall in love with you by moving beyond human-to-computer interfaces and embracing human-to-human design.
Paper Prototyping
by Shawn Medero
Issue 231January 23, 2007
Running with scissors isn't recommended for kids, but it might be ideal for your next big development project. With interfaces becoming more complex and schedules growing shorter, the best prototyping tools may be simpler than you think.
Where Am I?
by Derek Powazek
Issue 221August 8, 2006
It’s 2006 and we’re still messing up global navigation. Derek Powazek gets back to basics and offers a few simple guidelines for getting it right.
Home Page Goals
by Derek Powazek
Issue 211January 30, 2006
Home pages may get plenty of design attention, but that doesn't mean they don't need improvement.
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.
What’s the Problem?
by Norm Carr, Tim Meehan
Issue 193January 25, 2005
Freud asked, “What does a user really want?” Ten-plus years into web development, we still don’t know. One of the biggest problems in creating and delivering a site is how to decide, specify, and communicate exactly what we’re building and why. Use cases can help answer these questions by providing a simple, fast means to decide and describe the purpose of your project. In this quick-reading article, Messieurs Carr and Meehan introduce use cases and their, uh, uses.
Slash Forward (Some URLs are Better Than Others)
by waferbaby
Issue 138February 22, 2002
Some URLs are better than others: easier for visitors to remember, easier for designers and developers when it comes time to change the technology that drives the site. Waferbaby neatly and briefly considers the effect of web addresses on usability, design, and ease of maintenance and technological transition.
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.
The Curse of Information Design
by Scott Jason Cohen
Issue 96January 27, 2001
With the rise of information architecture, user experience consultants, and usability experts, the fate of a website is no longer left to chance, and its design is no longer a function of organic processes. That may be good for business, but is it really good for the web? Scott Cohen has his doubts.
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?
Experience Design
by Bob Jacobson
Issue 77August 18, 2000
It’s time for web designers to peek over the cubicle and start sharing ideas with their peers in related design disciplines. Jacobson suggests one way to do that in this overview of the emerging Experience Design paradigm.
Why IE5/Mac Matters
by Jeffrey Zeldman
Issue 57March 31, 2000
It complies with two key web standards. And leaves out two others. It's IE5 Macintosh Edition, the first browser on any platform to truly support HTML 4 and CSS-1. Its accessibility enhancements put the user in charge, and its clever new features solve long-standing cross-platform and usability problems. All this ... but still no XML or DOM. Zeldman explains what IE5/Mac means to the web.
The Money Page
by Alan Herrell
Issue 40November 5, 1999
Low tech, high yield: A funny thing happened on the way to the shopping cart. One Web designer found a simpler way to make e-commerce pay. Alan Herrell shows you The Money Page.
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