To save costs, some companies are outsourcing Web projects to countries with cheap labor. Unfortunately, these countries lack strong usability traditions and their developers have limited access — if any — to good usability data from the target users.
Every site has structure, and visitors will form their first and most lasting impressions of that structure by looking at the links, buttons, tabs, and other controls that form the “navigation.”
http://www.adaptivepath.com/publications/essays/archives/000048.php
Consider the humble URL. In a few short years it’s become so ubiquitous as to be rendered invisible. It’s hard to imagine a world without it, and it’s hard to remember that there was once a time when not having a uniform means of locating resources was considered a fundamental stumbling block to the deployment of any large-scale hypertext system never mind a world-wide one.
http://www.adaptivepath.com/publications/essays/archives/000058.php
One of the purposes of information design is to realize a vivid experience of content. The “World Geo-Graphic Atlas” is a demonstration of this challenge. Edited and designed by Austrian graphic designer Herbert Bayer between 1949 and 1952, and endorsed by industrial pioneer Walter Paepcke’s Container Corporation of America (Chicago), the “World Geo-Graphic Atlas” was released in 1953. Its debut came decades before the impact of desktop publishing on the design process and before the entry of the term “information design” into the evolving lexicon of visual communications.
Designing a website that takes into account the human element requires both an understanding of our nature as well as our physiological limitations. Usable websites incorporate human tendencies and limitation into its overall design.
Indexes are important information-finding tools that can enhance website usability. They offer easy scanning for finding known items, they provide entry points to content using the users’ own vocabulary and they provide access to concepts discussed, but not named, in the text. Perhaps most importantly, site indexes provide direct access to granular chunks of information without the need for traversing multiple links in a hierarchy.
With the ever-increasing progression towards online newsletters as a principal source of information presentation, the Web has offered many opportunities as well as challenges that are unique to this environment.
http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews/42/depth.htm
An information architect is a vital member of a Web development team, playing a critical role in how content is organized on a Web site. This article seeks to clear up some of the misconceptions about information architecture and help define the role an information architect plays in Web site development.
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/usability/library/us-inarch.html
>> A funny cartoon for a fiesta friday.
- John
http://www.uoregon.edu/~ftepfer/SchlFacilities/TireSwingTable.html
Ask online marketing experts whether it is possible to build a brand strictly by using the Web; most of them will say it is.
Having wrestled with the best way to track time and manage work at Pelago, we understand how processes should work. We built Intervals to manage chaotic work loads — and to help others do the same.
