Re: [IxDA Discuss] Screen Resolution Sources
Seems like standard screen resolutions have changed dramatically in the last few years with the rise of both netbooks/smartphones and the decreases in prices for widescreen LCDs. Also depends on what your target market is. For example, for my industry, a source for"standard" screen resolutions for a home users is somewhat useless for someone like me whose users are technical specialists in oil and gas exploration. In my case, direct observation or surveys of customer sites is more useful. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=44623 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] Fonts and paper prototyping
We have been using Tekton Pro as the "sketchy" font. To my eyes, Tekton Pro appears hand written, but neat enough to avoid being childish. Another advantage is that Tekton Pro seems to ship with Adobe products from Photoshop Elements on up. But, I think that the more important issue is making the lines used for boxes etc sketchy. We haven't yet found a good way to make the lines sketchy and make the resulting wireframe easy to modify to a non sketchy representation *and* keep all of the wireframes in one file that can be well documented. Ron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=32726 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] Recruiters
Helen Killingbeck wrote: > I think that a face to face with recruiters at a local chapter of > your favourite UX/IxD/UPA/IA meeting would be helpful. > Oooh, now that's a really clever and mutually beneficial idea for a good recruiter and a savvy local chapter to exploit. I have met some very good recruiters. Ones that have some understanding of what might be involved or at least the meanings of words and acronyms. Ones that take the long view and work at establishing relationships. I don't mind getting "not a particularly good match" calls or emails from these recruiters since I'd like to take the long view as well. Even if I'm not interested in that particular position or that position at this time, down the road, I might be interested in another position, know of someone who might be, or might need to fill a position myself. Then, I'll contact the ones that didn't make me feel like I got hit by errant buckshot. Ron 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] Recruiters
W Evans wrote: > Why can't recruiters read? > > I know I have had a resume posted on Monster since about 2003, and I do > update it every 6 months or so even though I have never gotten a job from > monster - but what really burns my goat is that I very clearly say: > 1. I have done IA and IxD work for a really long time > 2. I have no interest in relocating for short term contracts > 3. how much I cost > I think that a fair number of recruiters take the shotgun approach: if you throw enough shot into the air, eventually, something will hit. Or, they just blindly call/email whatever their automated tools hand them. I get the same sort of emails and calls from a local recruiting agency. They are using a 9 year old resume, and when I send them an updated resume and indicate that I now do IxD work, I'll still occasionally get calls about C++ and Cognos BI tools (which I used 9 years ago). Ron PS: On the flip side, at the end of 2006, when we were trying to fill a design/usability position, we had this one fellow apply. His main qualification, as far as I could tell, was that he completed a month of an automotive mechanics course. He also applied for every other position that the company had open, from sales to support to those requiring highly technical domain expertise. Again, shotgun approach. 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] UPA conferences
oliver green wrote: > Hi All, > > Needed some advice on the upcoming UPA conference - are these useful > for practitioners? How about from an academic point of view The UPA conferences are definitely geared towards practioners rather than academics. Almost all of the presentations are from practioners (or at least academics who do significant consulting on the side). I recommend going to them if you can. Ron 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] Cramming what we do into a few hours
I suggest coming up some sort of fun exercise which introduces your points as an ice breaker. Then, go into your points. And, expect that you'll need to periodically remind people what you can do for them. In the end, you'll probably gain more traction by showing your value on a few early projects and gaining converts one at a time. We were asked to do something similar for a group of managers and architects. After some discussion, we came up with an hour long exercise where the product managers, program managers, and architects were divided into groups. Each group was to build the same Lego set as a project, but the exercise was such that each group "involved" our usability/design group differently over the course of the "project". One group, representing full involvement, got documents representing the results of contextual inquiry, personas, concept sketches, wireframes, detailed interaction design, and usability testing. Another group, representing minimal late involvement, got only artifacts representing concept sketches, some basic requirements, and late usability testing. The other two groups got artifacts representing involvement that fell in between the first two. The exercise was fun for almost all the participants and served as a good introduction (which we followed up with a more standard presentation). Ron *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] Interview questions: Which by phone and which in person?
Elizabeth Buie wrote: > What kinds of questions would you ask over the phone and what would you save > for the f2f sessions? > Sorry for the delay in reply. I use some of the same questions over the phone and in person (to see if the answers change or if I want more detail), but I mostly reserve the phone questions for the basic screening type questions. The questions that I ask over the phone (if I am doing the initial screening) are the ones that answer "are you probably qualified?" and "is it worth bringing you in to talk to people face to face?". For in person, I concentrate more on "do I want to work with you?" type questions. Ron *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] work relocation/housing question
Nina Gilmore wrote: > Do you have suggestions for quality (affordable?) corporate housing? > Other resources I may not know about? > > You might try doing a search at the Oakwood website (www.oakwood.com). Oakwood is a pretty big name in corporate housing. Not the cheapest, but they make it a bit easier to find a place, and the website might at least get you pointed in the right direction. A few years back, when we were trying to find a place in Omaha, we had more luck with Oakwood than with a local realtor. Working with a local realtor will probably get you a better deal though. You might be able to find a good local realtor by asking around (particularly at your client site) once you get to the area. Ron *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] Documenting interaction design specification
Sachendra Yadav wrote: > What tools do you use for documenting interaction design specification. > I use Canvas from ACD Systems. I created a IxD doc template that I use. I create the wireframes and mockups (depending on what is needed) directly within Canvas on the appropriate "page" of the document. Annotations and notes go to the right of the wireframes. Common elements go on layers on the Master Page for the document (and Master Page layers get turned on and off for individual pages as needed). I use the tabloid page size (11" x 17") so that I can draw the wireframes at 100% scale with plenty of room for the notes an annotation. The printer/copier combos that we have at work have tabloid paper loaded, and Acrobat Reader will scale the document when printing if the user prints on Letter sized paper (the text is still readable). On screen viewing can be at a reduced scale or 100% scale (so the wireframes look the same size as they should appear when implemented). I also add hyperlnked areas (graphic elements and text) to the wireframes for buttons and such so that when I save as a PDF, the document supports what I call "limited clickable navigation" which can give a reader a limited feel of what going through the mockup and clicking on buttons, menus, tabs, and such would feel like. Ron *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] What tools do you use for prototyping?
Joe wrote: > I concur with Bill--give me a good combined tool. While I like > Canvas, having used it since version 3.5, I am saddened by what > ACDeeSee has done to it. Latest version is Windows only, for example. > I'm saddened by what ACD has done (and not done) with Canvas as well. Here is this wonderful tool that I use every day for design work, that is close to being an ideal design tool for me, and its just being near neglected to death. ACD bought Deneba to raid Canvas for some tools for their favorite product (who needs yet another photo organizer/editor?), and has treated Canvas as the unwanted step child ever since. I use it in the same fashion that Bill does. If they could continue to make it multi-platform, fix some of the bugs, and put some additional features into it (for example, being able to render lines in strict or loose fashion ala Sketch-Up), it really would be an ideal tool for design specifications, wireframes, and low fidelity prototypes. At least they improved the already strong alignment tools in version 11. Being able to select the reference object all of the other ones are aligned against has made my life easier. Ron *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] What tools do you use for prototyping?
Sketchbook Pro Canvas (output as clickable PDFs) Eclipse or JBuilder on the rare occasions that I'm doing a high fidelity prototype. Ron *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://gamma.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://gamma.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://gamma.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Desktop Wallpapers
Kivi Shapiro wrote: > Speaking of "fits", or maybe "Fitt's", it might make sense to have the > rectangles all in a corner rather than centred. Unless you have a way to > quickly centre a window on your screen. > Given that Windows doesn't allow me to set the background to start at the upper left (centered, tile, or stretch are the options) and I use multiple monitor configurations over the course of a week (laptop only, laptop with projector, laptop with single 19" LCD, 2 LCDs), a single wallpaper that I can use on any configuration works better. Moving a window to the center of the screen really takes almost no time and much easier than having to reset the > I've been wanting to make one of these, but come to think of it maybe I'll > ask the list if anyone'd be willing to share theirs. > Extremely easy to make (at least in Canvas). Just get something (large) for a background (a plain one or picture), and then draw N number of rectangles (1 pixel line width, light gray color, transparent fill). Select all, center align, and then export to desired format. Ron *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://gamma.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://gamma.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://gamma.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Desktop Wallpapers
I use a plain teal background with a few centered concentric light grey, 1 pixel line width rectangles of common sizes: 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024. Helps me when I occasionally have to quickly check to see if a window or dialog box "fits". Ron Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://gamma.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://gamma.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://gamma.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Texas IxDers
David Shaw wrote: > I was wondering if there were any Texas IxD people on list... > specifically Austin or San Antonio. If so, do you have any IxD type > meetups? > Closest thing that we have in Houston in the Houston HFES quarterly meetings. There are only three people from Houston that are on this list. Two of us work at the same company and the third used to work at our company. Ron Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] List Guidelines http://beta.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://beta.ixda.org/help Unsubscribe http://beta.ixda.org/unsubscribe Questions .. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Home ... http://beta.ixda.org
