“Social” is infiltrating not only consumer software, but also the enterprise. Designers must often add social capabilities with little guidance on what it means outside of Facebook or Twitter. Erin Malone gives us five steps to get started.
Methods
After hearing about Donna Spencer’s paper-based tree testing, Dave O’Brien and his colleagues were hooked, so much so that they built an online tool to allow you to effectively test a site hierarchy. Hear about the tree testing approach and see how O’Brien’s tool works.
Tree Testing
A quick way to evaluate your IA
Aaron Travis explores the importance of using sketchy wireframes early in the project
cycle. He then discusses the conversion of computer-based sketches into traditional wireframes and includes an analysis of “sketchy” capabilities of popular software tools.”
Sketchy Wireframes
When you can't (or shouldn't) draw a straight line
A screenwriter has a compass that can guide him through the writing process. Cindy Chastain chronicles how we can translate this approach to help us remember the quality and value of the experience.
Experience Themes
How a storytelling method can help unify teams and create better products
Peter Gremett shows how using a wiki to capture your design is a great way to be adaptive as you build and deliver product
in Agile environments.
Using Wikis to Document UI Specifications
How your design team can benefit from wiki collaboration while avoiding its pitfalls
Patrick Stapleton takes a look at some of the world’s most popular pattern libraries and presents the case for a standard approach to documentation and categorization.
UI Pattern Documentation Review
Visual design of software interfaces is becoming increasingly complex due to more possibilities and fewer platform standards. Milan Guenther introduces how to support interaction with the visible part of software, using photography as an example.
Photos for interaction
Visual Interface Design: The photography example
You’ve already learned how to use QTUT to reduce usability study prep time. Now, in part two of his article, Paul Nuschke describes how to expedite usability test sessions, and analysis & reporting.
Quick Turnaround Usability Testing, Part II
Looking for another way of realizing your design deliverables? XHTML are easy to code, can double as specifications, and create constraints that increase design effectiveness.
Prototyping with XHTML
Leverage Code as a Design and Specification Platform
Completing usability testing in a short amount of time is a challenge that consultancies and development teams often face. In the first part of a two-part series, Paul Nuschke describes how to cut time out of the preparation leading up to a study. Part two will discuss how to run the study and analyze the findings.