Re: [IxDA Discuss] How much of menu levels should you show?
Don't make me think.. ;) Look up http://www.useit.com/ where you will find plenty of research which has covered the options available to you here. Regards, B -Original Message- From: new-boun...@ixda.org [mailto:new-boun...@ixda.org] On Behalf Of Jonas Skoglund Sent: 26 January 2010 01:31 To: disc...@ixda.org Subject: [IxDA Discuss] How much of menu levels should you show? Hi all! Usually when I designing a web site I always show the full hierarchical structure when someone drilling it self down to a sub page, pretty much like the Windows Explorer tree navigation. Like this for example when a surfer visits the page "Subservice item 1": 1. Home2. Services 2.1 Service Item 1 2.2 Service Item 1 2.2.1 SubService Item 1 2.2.1 SubService Item 1 2.2.1 SubService Item 1 2.3 Service Item 1 2.4 Service Item 13. Products4. About us5. Contact This approach unfourtnually generates a pretty big menu that is seldom suiteble for horisonatal navigation. How much do you expose of the menu structure? Often I see web sites that just shows the top level menu making it hard to show the surfer where they are in the structure. Best regardsJonas _ Hitta hetaste singlarna på MSN Dejting! http://dejting.se.msn.com/channel/index.aspx?trackingid=1002952 Reply to this thread at ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=48638 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 9.0.730 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/2645 - Release Date: 01/25/10 19:36:00 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] Problems with axure vertical widgets.
Hi, Currently experiencing problems with creating a left hand vertical widget within axure while still maintaining the visual style of the site. The trade off that I am stuck with is between having a site that is as visually accurate as possible or a site which contains all of the navigational functionality which the client requires. I'm looking to see whether anyone else has experienced problems with the default vertical widget and found ways around the problem. Thanks, Bowen Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] What are your principles for making digitalproducts/services
Hi, I would wholly agree with the methods and procedures that you prescribe throughout this mail and think that there are some very strong points for those in the start up / design stages to follow. Yet point 5 flies in the face of so much established knowledge it seems as though its been thrown in to check if people read that far. With out the need to list the backdrop of various papers that show the strength in getting the views of more than just the design team. You seem to have put a glib statement in and offered weak rational as to why you view it as the case. Regards, B Hendy -Original Message- From: new-boun...@ixda.org [mailto:new-boun...@ixda.org] On Behalf Of Thomas Petersen Sent: 14 September 2009 22:46 To: disc...@ixda.org Subject: [IxDA Discuss] What are your principles for making digitalproducts/services I would like to hear what principles different people use when making digital products. Here is a the most fundamental of mine: 1. Start simple, stay simple. It cannot be said enough. Less is more - much more, and there is a very good explanation that it pays to understand. If you do less you can measure more. If you can measure more you can better experiment with what works. Most products are simple, based on simple insights. Make sure that you stay true to that idea as you develop until you know you have done everything possible to test it. Don't add new features and think that it will help, it wont, not yet. When Zyb was designed in 2005 they made sure to make their product as focused around the administration of mobile data. They didn't change until they had tried out different possibilities to see what worked. http://000fff.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/021.png 2. Build to integrate. Think about whether your product could be a good extension to already existing products/services. That way you are tapping into the already existing digital ecosystems out there. This will make it easier for people to adopt your product and provide you with a trust factor that you have a very hard time obtaining on your own. 3. Don't confuse change with improvement. One of the biggest challenges when record artist produce their albums is the fatigue from listening to the same riffs over and over. It's one of the reasons why many of them have a problem listening to the album when it's finally out. Startups as intense and time consuming as they often are can be similar. It's very tempting after a couple of months of looking at the same interface over and over to want to change it. Don't submit to this whether you are a manager, designer, & developer. stay on target. You are making this for your customers not yourself and they, unlike you haven't seen anything before. 4. Don't do everything that is possible only what is necessary. Constrain yourself. A good product has limitations. It doesn't just succumb to every temptation that comes along. Focus on what makes the product the product and only add features if you get clear signs that it is needed. Most users will have to learn your product anyway so don't try to impress them with features that might be cool but that is simply not elemental to your success. I-Tunes have many flaws, Basecamp from 37Signals leaves a lot to be asked for, but when all is said and done, their products are rock solid and there is no feature like the solid feature. 5. Don't do usability tests or focus groups. I could write a whole book about why usability test and focus groups are bad for you and your customers but I wont. Instead I will offer the following few observations. Most products are fairly simple and most of the testing can be done in house. Most usability tests are not even close to reflect any realistic version of the environment your product will end up in. The mistakes that you might find are not going to be those that will determine the success of your company. Many usability tests consist of max 10 people which is simply not a significantly high enough number to make any decisions based on. The single best solution is to start simple simple and make sure you can measure how people use your product. If people are having problems you will find out soon enough and you will find out where it matters. 6. Think how, not what The feature war is over, actually it's been for a long time. So much can be gained from thinking about how to make the features that you have stand out and ad value. If you can solve it on the back-end then do it. When I started working on the Nasdaq Market Replay application I soon realized (as most people probably did) that market data is kind of like a sound sample. Once that insight was made we approached stock info like we would music. This meant that you could trim your stock sample and replay it like a piece of music. http://www.adobe.com/resources/business/rich_internet_apps/?ogn=EN_US-gntray _sol_ria#nasdaq Reply to this thread at ixda
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Online brochure vs. PDF download
Marianne, Our company izzydesign (izzydesign.com) uses PDF brochures in a "Downloadable tools" section. When I was involved in designing the site we ran through several rounds of research and decided that we would offer PDFs. There were a few reasons for this: 1. That is what our sales force wanted. The request was to have easy-to-download and print files. 2. PDF downloads were the easiest solution at the time. We already had the files and it was easy to post them for download 3. With our audience and my inability to often successfully implement new technology in an easy to use solution (why I joined this group...needed to learn more) the PDF seemed to be a good fix. All that said there have been some drawbacks. 1. For things like fabric swatches (we need these for sampling of our chairs) PDFs must be extremely large with hi-res files. Our fabric PDFs have been miserable failures 2. The linear fashion doesn't fit web very well. Putting something that has been designed for print online causes some issues. If I want to search and get specific info, it is much more difficult with PDFs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=24885 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Co-Relations between Graphic - Digital Media Design
First off, please excuse this post's soon to be rambling nature. This is my first post and the ideas are flowing in a quite non-linear fashion. I currently have the postion title of "Interactive Media Designer" at my company althought I find myself creating random print flyers and pieces when we do not have the budget or time to use our outside creative firm. I study Digital Media Arts and Tech. and never intended to create web or screen based content. Rather I intended to produce audio and video content. While taking courses in Flash/HTML/CSS and some script/programming classes I stumbled into internship and job opportunities that lead to where I am today. All of that said I find 2 major difference arise when trying to create for screen and print. 1. The ability to merge media of all types: Digital Media (web or otherwise) not only has the ability to incorporate audio/video/graphic media, but flourishes when this is done correctly. I know audio and video are still often shunned on websited, but argue that this is due to poor implementation. By adding motion or audio Digital Media designers have the ability to engage the user differently through sound and directional content. Watching how users become engaged and attached to sound is very intriguing to me. 2. Information structure: With print, even when working with our creative firm I find the graphic designers and print specialists tend to lay things out in a linear format (3 follows 2 follows 1). When I collaborate with interactive designers the information structure resembles webshmmm go figure. The challenges are different. Graphic: How to put the information in the right order/ Digital: How to logically connect the nodes. Hope this lends some light. Patrick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=23455 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
