Hassle Free Harmony
It’s holiday time at Indirect Manipulation, so here are some user experience goodies which are certain to amaze and delight. (I trust your testing benchmarks are as strict as mine). And yes, they’re all re-gifted … but I don’t think the original providers will mind too much. All links noted as such:
- Dann Saffer offers some new items for the interaction design toolbox. The most interesting to me is Todd Warfel’s task analysis grid, a “single document (that) allows anyone looking at it to see the entire scope of a project, figure out what’s in this release (1) as well as what we’re planning for future releases (2, 3, and 4).”
- Boxes and Arrows gives us the goods on designing dashboard and portal screen architectures. Among the challenges are how to deal with scope and scalability:
Portlets are inherently flat, or two-dimensional. Flat portlets alone cannot provide a scalable, adaptable framework for growth and change within a consistent information architecture. Two-dimensional portlets will work in cases where information architecture is not a challenge (i.e., when a dashboard shows a small set of critical key performance indicators or functions to a select audience on a single page or screen). But as the amount of content and functionality (hereafter referred to simply as “content”) grows, the number of portlets increases. … Such horizontal sprawl is similar to the real world example of unmanaged residential growth around major cities – a pattern resulting in urban sprawl, traffic congestion, social isolation, and high ecological impact combined with low energy efficiency.
- Joe Clark provides a source list of links regarding zoom layouts. A zoom layout is a CSS method that automatically reformats the visual aspects of a page (text, colors and columns) for low-vision readability.
- Jonathan Follett of UXMatters (one of my favorite blogs of the year) wants us to understand the importance of good iconography when designing user experience. The idea is to not only replicate the paradigm of physical wayfinding in the digital space, but to also consider a standardization set that can span many different applications:
Unlike the DOT/AIGA symbols for traditional wayfinding, digital icons have no corresponding physical object for a user to locate—no staircase, no bathrooms, and no baggage lockers. Since digital icons have developed their meanings separate from the objects they represent, there is no real-world object that defines its meaning, only the idea of a type of user interaction. So, for every icon we all can agree upon, there are at least as many about which there is no agreement and that, therefore, remain in flux. …As more aspects of our lives migrate to digital environments—as applications and documents accumulate on our PCs, phones, and PDAs—it would make sense to deliberately undertake the development of a universal symbolic language for use in that sphere.
We’re off to Pennsyltuckey for a delightful weekend of fun, football and flatulence. All best to those out there who read this blog, and many thanks for your kind comments throughout the year. Be well and happy.