Stories
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Quick Turnaround Usability Testing
by Paul Nuschke | [10 comments]
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. more...
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Getting a Form's Structure Right: Designing Usable Online Email Applications
by afshan kirmani | [12 comments]
Online forms can be challenging as even in their utility and necessity, we generally need to lure users to complete them. Afshan Kirmani takes the example of an online email application form and explains some fundamental principles that can help us design effective forms. more...
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Information Architecture for Audio: Doing It Right
by Jens Jacobsen | [5 comments]
Audio content is becoming increasingly prevalent. How do you design it effectively? Jens Jacobsen combines information architecture, journalism, usability engineering, and interface design to resolve some of the issues that arise from introducing audio. more...
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IDEA 2008: An Interview with Elliott Malkin
by Liz Danzico | [0 comments]
Where the seams of information and public space overlap and intersect, Elliott Malkin creates projects that span genres from religion to natural science. Malkin talks to us as a preview to his upcoming IDEA conference talk. more...
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IDEA 2008: An Interview with David Armano
by Russ Unger | [0 comments]
David Armano is a macro-interactive name in a micro-interaction world. As interactions get smaller and more focused, experiences become bigger and broader. David is here to shepherd the way to the promised land. more...
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User Experience Week
by Jeff Parks | [2 comments]
User Experience (UX) Week was held in San Francisco, CA from August 12 – 15. Boxes and Arrows, in co-operation with Adaptive Path, interviewed some of the great speakers for your design listening enjoyment. more...
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IDEA 2008: An Interview with Andrew Hinton
by Russ Unger | [0 comments]
We all need context to better understand how to react to environments. Andrew Hinton thinks deeply about how context pertains to a world where architecture is
not made of tangible objects. He shares some of these thoughts with Russ Unger. more... -
Applying Turing's Ideas to Search
by John Ferrara | [15 comments]
Alan Turing's ideas about artificial intelligence have not panned out exactly as he expected back in the 1950s. These ideas, however, can be used in interface design. John Ferrara shows us how they apply to designing search. more...
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People Finder: Searching Without Logic?
by Vivek Deshmukh | [10 comments]
In large organizations, finding
people is a very common intranet task. Vivek Deshmukh gives us advice on how to improve people search and really help staff find
one another. more... -
IDEA 2008: An Interview with Bill DeRouchey
by Russ Unger | [3 comments]
Bill DeRouchey is fascinated with buttons and the history of interface design. He talks to us about how people might expand their sources of inspiration to include just about anything in their everyday lives. more...
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Design for Emotion and Flow
by Trevor van Gorp | [31 comments]
Trevor van Gorp explains how psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's concept of "flow" can help you design emotional web experiences by cutting through information overload to engage users. more...
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Your New Excuse to Get an Xbox
by Mia Northrop | [7 comments]
Games are fun and immersive, while websites, for the most part, are not. How do we get users to suspend disbelief on the web? Mia Northrup examines how some techniques for developing games can lead to better digital experiences. more...
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Building the UX Dreamteam - Part 2
by Anthony Colfelt | [16 comments]
In this second part of a two-part series, UX manager Anthony Colfelt follows up with some solid considerations when looking for your next superstar. Building a dreamteam goes beyond looking for tight technical skills: personal chemistry is needed to find that perfect match. more...
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Calling in the Big Guns
by Will Evans | [2 comments]
In his new book, Luke Wroblewski lays out strategies and best practices for getting users past
your web forms and onto more important interactions. Will Evans tells us why reading this book
might help diffuse some of the opinionated discussion about form design decisions. more... -
On A Scale of 1 to 5
by Alex Kirtland and Aaron Schiff | [12 comments]
Rating and reputation systems
can reduce uncertainty decisions during online transactions. Alex Kirtland and Aaron Schiff give us solid practical advice on how to design them successfully. more... -
MindCanvas Review
by Sarah A. Rice | [3 comments]
Mindcanvas is an online research service designed for IAs by IAs. Sarah Rice has used it during the course of various projects, and in this review she gives us an introduction to the service and its strengths and weaknesses. more...
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Quick and Easy Flash Prototypes
by Alexa Andrzejewski | [23 comments]
Alexa Andrzejewski shares her quick yet powerful way for translating static screen designs (from wireframes to visual comps) into interactive prototypes using Flash. Only fairly basic ActionScript knowledge required. more...
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Comics for Consumer Communication
by Rahel Anne Bailie | [5 comments]
Though popular in the development process, designers can use comics for communication to consumers as well. Rahel Anne Bailie digs into her past to show us how she has used comics in the past in the hope that we can utilize them with a wider audience. more...
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UX Design-Planning Not One-man Show
by Holger Maassen | [11 comments]
Holger Maassen posits his ideas about the process of planning and designing for User Experience Design-Planning (UXD-P) as Expectation Design. more...
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Leading Designers to New Frontiers
by Jeff Parks | [0 comments]
The MX San Francisco conference focused on helping managers and designers deal with the complexity, challenges, and opportunities that make every day so entertaining. Jeff Parks and Chris Baum sat down with several of the conference speakers and organizers to further examine the issues that the sessions revealed. more...