Boxes and Arrows: Comments by Chris Pallé

Chris Pallé — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 04:35:48 GMT

Hey There…
I actually went down the similar path. Not really by choice, but it was the education courses I had available to me. Technical communication principles are extremely valuable when is comes to creating the user experience: advocate for the audience and do it concisely. Which is loud-and-clear in this article.

It was not the technical skills Theresa applied that really stood out, though. It was the fervency with which she applied herself. She saw opportunities that interested her and she seized them. That’s awesome and ultimately that’s what it comes down to: You have to almost altruistically apply yourself and consistently champion the audience, the visitor – not the “user” – it’s all about the PERSONs who are going using your applications.

Nice article, Theresa. Very encouraging.

Chris Pallé — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 11:59:28 GMT

Hmm, I’m having quite a few, duh-why-didn’t-I-think-of-that moments reading this article and the great comments. I’ve thought though ideas in a storyboarding format before, but demonstrating the actual persons in different scenarios makes a ton of sense. Especially when persuading upper management, a client, or even your teammates to go with an idea. Interestingly, I rediscovered an application that came with my MacBook Pro called “Comic Life” produced by http://plasq.com/

The important part of the process here though is not how to get down on paper, but rather, the process. Rebekah made the most important point in Step 1. The ideas need to be well-crafted and articulate first. Ensure that what is put in the final is only the essentials.

Another point some of the comments alluded to here, that since the practitioners of our discipline are sometimes stereotyped, using comic illustrations (sequential art) does help us break out of that a bit. One comment reminded me of how an art director at an agency who totally typified me as an un-creative because my role there was to produce IA docs. I get the sense that is kinda true for a lot the visual folks. Involving them in this aspect of strategy could really help build bridges in the agency environment.

Great help, Rebekah. Thanks for the sparks.

Chris Pallé — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 15:29:53 GMT

This does sound appealing. Especially in light of the new gBrowser and Adaptive Path’s Aurora. Frankly, I still see the yet unsolved problem of extreme clutter. Aurora is exemplary of this. I get the browsing should be a personal experience, but what about systems that require a shared-space such as at work. Sure, I can concoct and build a system of file-naming conventions and bookmark sharing repositories, but why don’t browsers easily allow for a framework to work in an organized fashion? I get the personalization aspect, great, but sometimes it would be nice if I had browser that would stop me from leaving 40 tabs open to begin with.

Chris Pallé — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 10:53:51 GMT

Without a doubt, Yes! And I’ll take the editing job.