Design games offer an alternative to traditional methods for brainstorming, collecting requirements, building team communication, modeling, and prototyping. Jess McMullin shows us how game principles and examples can complement existing methods.
Methods
Adam Polansky tells us about how “Faceted Feature Analysis” takes the subjective needs of stakeholders and blends them with objective constraints in a way that ensures all points of view are fairly considered.
Faceted Feature Analysis
How To Use Bias To Get Unbiased Project Scope
Though a possibly rewarding journey, starting a UX process can be a nightmare if approached from the wrong angle. Initiating a culture-shift, overhauling existing processes, evangelizing, strategizing, and educating is an enormous undertaking. Amy Hillman offers her perspective on how to build a UX process, from the ground up.
Pioneering a User Experience (UX) Process
Bill Wetherell talks with Tom Wailes about how one team at Yahoo! turned the normal design process on its head. Their thoughtful approach was successful, Wails posits, because they worked small and crafty while being inclusive in most useful ways. (Part 3 in a series)
Straight From the Horse’s Mouth with Tom Wailes
You Only See the Tip
Amid the hype of Web 2.0, “rich” has become a prime buzzword. Using the concepts of Classical rhetoric as a framework, Uday Gajendar looks to transcend the hype and dig into the value of richness for digital products.
What Does Rich Mean?
A Deeper Look at the Rich Experience
Using comics is a novel means of communicating complex design concepts. There is has been a lot of talk about it recently, but it this medium only reserved for artists? Rebekah Sedaca decided to give it a try. It worked and she’s outlined her process and tools that you may be able to use.
Comics: Not just for laughs!
The design of complex information systems often calls for early validation of the proposed classification schemes. Iain Barker offers an evaluation method that may help.
Measuring the Success Of a Classification System
Information architects working within enterprises are confronted by unique challenges, relating to organisational culture, business processes, and internal politics. James Robertson pulls the strands of situational spaghetti to get to the root of the project.
Enterprise IA Methodologies:
Starting Two Steps Earlier
In part one, Michael shared how to navigate company politics to set up great stakeholder interviews. Here he covers his five tips for navigating company politics, avoiding client bias, and eliciting the information you need to inform your design.
Setting Up Business Stakeholder Interviews Part 2
Gathering business requirements from stakeholders is critical to good design, but setting up quality interviews can be tough. Tossing out the org chart may be the best way to figure out who really wields influence over a company’s website.