I can draw. I went to art school. I studied painting until I fell out with the abstract expressionists and switched to photography. But I can draw. What I cannot do is diagram. I always wanted to. I have models in my head all the time of how things work. But when it comes time to make a visual model of those ideas, I can’t figure out to to represent them. I find myself resorting to pre-existing models like four-squares
Continue readingWhat makes an icon a valuable addition to the interface, rather than a mere decorative element? Intuitiveness, aesthetic value, memorability, intercultural perception? While an effective icon would combine many of those characteristics, I’d like to focus on one measure–speed of recognition, or how fast a specific icon can be discovered and identified. In a simple leisure app, the difference in speed of recognition may be too subtle to have any noticeable effect on the overall experience. This may be different
Continue readingI work on interfaces used by college students to search for academic articles. Librarians buy these databases. Librarians happen to be wonderful clients to build products for because they always let you know what they don’t like. A few years ago, my department started hearing complaints about the “save” icon on our interface. The librarians were concerned that, since college students had never seen floppy disks, they wouldn’t know what the icon meant. In the next round of user testing,
Continue readingDan Roam kicked off the 2010 IA Summit by sharing his unique approach that helps solve complex problems through visual thinking.
Continue readingAaron 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.”
