Re: [IxDA Discuss] Thoughts on Alan Cooper's Keynote

o means equates to no design. In short, I wouldn't generalize too much from your experience on the project you mention. It sounds like that org has other problems based on your description, such as lack of understanding of agile and/or the importance of UX in general. --Ambrose J. Amb

[IxDA Discuss] Agile & UCD (was Re: Thoughts on Alan Cooper's Keynote)

Honestly, I was looking for something else when I came across this just now: http://www.disambiguity.com/waterfall-bad-washing-machine-good-ia-summit-07-slides/ I thought it was pertinent because it is from a UX pro (IA) perspective and is very relevant to the discussion here. (Also, interesting

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Thoughts on Alan Cooper's Keynote

f calcifying and arguing about methodologies, as UX pros, I'd suggest you simply ensure that you make your needs clear to the biz and devs you'll be working with. Try to figure out how to work your needs into the process they have in place and be flexible (adapt). --Ambrose J. Ambrose Li

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Agile & UCD (was Re: Thoughts on Alan Cooper's Keynote)

nd architects work better together, gain better mutual understanding, and even maybe build better software all around, which is, after all, the point of agile as well as the point of UX. They're made for each other. What do you think? Am I missing any key components of UX? --Ambrose J. A

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Agile & UCD (was Re: Thoughts on Alan Cooper'sKeynote)

Hi Nick, Thanks for jumping in with your thoughts. I was reading the thread about prototypes and now reading this, and in both cases, the thing that jumps to mind is patterns. Patterns are a way to both learn and communicate good design. I won't debate the experience is highly valuable, particu

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Agile & UCD (was Re: Thoughts on AlanCooper'sKeynote)

Hi Sam, Interesting you should bring up the ownership/partnership question. There is a related thread going on right now ("Who does design engineering"). This is precisely where the agile approach to software really shines--it requires regular, repeated collaboration to sort of keep each other in

[IxDA Discuss] Finding Stuff: Search, Browse, Whatever

Hi folks, Apologies in advance for any topic duplication, banality, or blatant ignorance I show here. I only dabble in IA/IxD. I have this current thinking that goes something like this: 1. Search (be it for a Web site, application, whatever) should always just start with a single, keyword box.

Re: [IxDA Discuss] can we make it to easy?

On Sun, May 4, 2008 at 9:04 AM, Jared M. Spool <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On May 3, 2008, at 7:49 PM, Andrei Herasimchuk wrote: > > Sorry Jared, unless you cite people who've told you otherwise, I'm not > > buying it. I've never heard anyone in the software industry ever make the > > claim the

Re: [IxDA Discuss] seo and usability

On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 10:23 PM, mark schraad <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > http://searchengineland.com/080514-075657.php > I found this article a bit disturbing and am curious what others think, > particularly those that specialize in usability and usability research? I agree; it is a little di

Re: [IxDA Discuss] From Personal Computers to Personal InformationEnvironments: Apple's "MobileMe"?

Regarding MobileMe, it sounds like it is basically the same stuff as Microsoft's Live Mesh announced a while ago? What is Apple doing that is better? Or is it just that most folks here use Macs primarily? I'm genuinely curious--not interested in a general MS vs Apple debate (or commercial/spoofs

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Importance of Masters Degree for IxD Professionals

Adam, I've seen similar discussions in the software engineering field, where I come from. And you see similar answers. Those who have invested in schooling tend to want to defend it as important, which makes perfect sense--nobody wants to think they wasted their time and money, and higher degree

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Importance of Masters Degree for IxD Professionals

On Sat, Jun 21, 2008 at 3:25 PM, dave malouf <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I am feeling from some who are arguing against degree need, that they > are also arguing against degrees for anyone. Not I. Higher degrees of education have their purpose, to be sure. > I would argue that purely > organ

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Importance of Masters Degree for IxD Professionals

On Sat, Jun 21, 2008 at 6:06 PM, Christine Boese <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I like that, the journey-person model. My dad became an electrician 40+ > years ago, first as IBEW apprentice, then journeyman, then foreman. So long > as we get the benefits that come with it (the union or guild, for i

[IxDA Discuss] Examples of Advancements in Design

Hi folks, Following up on the recent thread about higher degrees in design and such, I find myself very curious to know about how current or past research/higher degrees have already advanced interaction design. Do you all have any examples of, e.g., dissertations, theses, acadmic projects, or pr

[IxDA Discuss] Is UCD Really Broken?

I've been following the frequent allusions to Google, 37signals, Facebook, et al (including Jared Spool's presentation) as evidence that UCD is somehow broken with interest. There's no debating that these products have been successful, but it is also worth considering that they are the exception,

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Is UCD Really Broken?

On Tue, Jun 24, 2008 at 12:13 AM, Spencer Nowak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I don't think the companies you mentioned should even be considered > exceptions to the rule. Facebook and 37signals both practice > self-centered design. 37s uses all their own products internally, and > I imagine most F

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Is UCD Really Broken?

First off, I have to say I was surprised in the directions this thread took. Not quite what I expected, but it is certainly interesting. Thanks to everyone who is participating. It is great to get different perspectives. On Tue, Jun 24, 2008 at 2:12 PM, Robert Hoekman Jr <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wr

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Is UCD Really Broken?

On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 7:10 AM, dave malouf <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Again, if all you want to think about is UCD as a philosophy of > empathy towards users than it needs to be considered as one part of > a greater whole of total design methods that have to include centers > of markets and te

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Is UCD Really Broken?

On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 11:07 AM, Andrei Herasimchuk < [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Design is not about having a set of standard techniques that you follow > blindly. Similarly, playing music is not about just hitting notes on > whatever instrument you play. If you want predictability or reliabilit

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Is UCD Really Broken?

On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 11:39 AM, dave malouf <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Ambrose, I would ask you why have any sort of centrism at all? > I also think there is a big difference between ethics and design > methods frameworks, no? I may choose one based on my ethical > underpinnings, but first sho

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Is UCD Really Broken?

On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 7:57 PM, Jared Spool <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Since my name was cited in the original post, I did want to suggest that > I've been talking about this problem for years. > > Most recently, I wrote about it here: > Surviving Our Success: Three Radical Recommendations >

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Is UCD Really Broken?

On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 10:38 PM, Robert Hoekman Jr <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > As for the people who pay the checks? All they care about is getting a >> > great product. If you design great stuff they don't care how you did it. >> > Guaranteed. >> > >> >> Andrei, I caution you against making

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Is UCD Really Broken?

On Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 12:00 AM, Andrei Herasimchuk < [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > If I sat down with a few business executives and showed them two versions > of their product, as well as showed them substantial proof that one of the > products, which had been tested over a three to six month peri

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Is UCD Really Broken?

On Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 4:15 PM, Robert Hoekman Jr <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > No one in their right mind would do this, but it doesn't mean your point > is accurate. I've never used a typical UCD process (well, not since > realizing it was a bad idea), but I've always had a plan at the beginnin

[IxDA Discuss] Great Online Banking Experiences?

Are there any stellar online banking experiences out there that you know of? --Ambrose Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Best Practices vs. Patterns

The notion of patterns and practices is fairly developed in the software engineering field. The idea of formalized software dev patterns originates from Christopher Alexander's series of books on the same subject applied to physical architecture. Back quite a while ago now, some folks saw the app

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Best Practices vs. Patterns

On Sun, Jul 6, 2008 at 8:02 PM, Jarod Tang <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > from above, we know, design pattern more like a checking/fix skill > than a stimulation of design, from my own design experience i also > find it's true in both software design and interaction design. > Hi Jarod, That is o

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Practical UX tips for developers

Hi Qixing, I have a presentation I've given to quite a few .NET user groups (devs) and at one architect conf (minus the .NET stuff): http://dotnettemplar.net/downloads/good-experience-dotNet.zip Up to Slide 28, it is introductory/rhetorical stuff for UX. Slide 28 starts talking about devs/archit

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Pattern Tap : Interface Design Inspiration

On Fri, Jul 25, 2008 at 9:10 AM, matthew Smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > @Jared > How would you best describe what Pattern Tap showcases? What language > would you change or redefine? I'd be interested to see how we can > gaurd those terms well, and honor the work of folks like yourself, > whil

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Pattern Tap : Interface Design Inspiration

On Sat, Jul 26, 2008 at 2:48 PM, Matthew Smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote: > @J.Ambrose > Can you point me to Jared's template? A quick googling produced a > few results without a template (that I could see) > Hi Matt, I don't want you to feel defensive, but I understand where you're coming from.

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Adaptive Path's Aurora ... Discuss

I think Aurora looks pretty darn cool. Whoever that guy was on the other end, it reminded me of somebody on *Prarie Home Companion*. Very folksy and friendly. Nice touch. :) I was surprised by a few things that I'd love to hear the thinking behind. I do get that this is about dreaming of the fu

[IxDA Discuss] Improving Software UI Design & Specification

Hi everybody! Infragistics, the company I work for, is sponsoring some research (i.e., they've asked me to do it!) on understanding and improving software UI design and specification. To that end, I've been contacting folks I know individually, but unfortunately I don't scale well, so I'd like to

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Dashboard Applications

On Sun, Feb 8, 2009 at 12:24 PM, Elroy Terzol wrote: > I'm looking for Dashboard applications guidelines or research on this > subject. Any ideas on where should I start. > We have a Dashboard pattern (Rich /HTML

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Right-Click Actions in Web Applications (Enterprise)

I'm curious. The focus here seems to be on whether or not to use alternate-click, with the primary concern being that it is not necessarily discoverable. What about other contextual command area approaches? There's the idea of "smart tags" where you show an affordance when an object is selected t

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Right-Click Actions in Web Applications (Enterprise)

Thanks, Todd and Mike, for the responses. Mike, yes, the question was specific to right-click (and apparently there are a lot of opinions just about that), but I was thinking that maybe it's a case of going to the doctor and saying your ear is hurting but his professional diagnosis suggests the roo

Re: [IxDA Discuss] IxD blog aggregator site - are you interested in contributing?

I think it can't hurt to provide another way to discover UX resources/blogs, so I added mine to the spreadsheet. ... In a similar vein, I registered and setup goodexperiencedesign.com not too long ago. Right now it's just one of my blogs for talking about good (or bad) experiences and, as much as

Re: [IxDA Discuss] IxD Greats?

Bill Moggridge's book, Designing Interactions, takes this explicit approach--interviewing folks who've had a big impact on the field. It's a pretty fun/interesting read, and there's a DVD w/ interviews, too. --Ambrose _

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Long / Large forms

Hi Chris, I think it's pretty common to use the Wizard pattern (HTML /Quince ) for these. TurboTax is a long-standing example in that space from what I've seen, though doubtless t

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Joel Spolsky claims the "Program Manager" role does UI design... ????

There's a ton of talk about good design on this list (and in articles and books and...). What I'd really like to see is with every discounting of software that other people have built (which happens a lot here, it seems), an offering of an example in the same space (e.g., in this case, bug trackin

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Persona skeptics

If you don't think personas are valuable, don't use them. If you do, do. They don't have to be universally valuable, and they will never be seen as such. Every professional has their own tools and techniques they swear by. This is OK. The best pros are the ones who do good work with their tool

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Joel Spolsky claims the "Program Manager" role does UI design... ????

On Wed, Mar 11, 2009 at 12:23 AM, Todd Zaki Warfel wrote: > > On Mar 10, 2009, at 10:40 PM, J. Ambrose Little wrote: > > What I'd really like to see is with every discounting of software that > other people have built (which happens a lot here, it seems), an offering of >

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Represented (designer\'s) Model

Not sure if anyone pointed you to it, but Indi Young published a book entitled Mental Models last year. I don't know if it's quite the same thing you're looking into, but the name sparked my memory. -a ___

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Bowman leaves Google

On Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 9:37 AM, dave malouf wrote: > So if you want to research and derive > inspiration from research, or research and live by the data, that is > a choice, but I would argue that one is design and the other is not. > Dave, I think I agree. The problem with data is it requires

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Shopping cart design...

On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 11:50 AM, Patrick Neeman wrote: > What are people's studies/feelings about quantity box versus a link > that reads edit quantity, and then they can change the quantity? > I like simple plus/minus signs to click and increment/decrement the quantity. People usually don't h

Re: [IxDA Discuss] When to use icons and when to use text

Hi Mat, I thought you might find these posts useful. This one talks about how the Office 2007 team decided when to use icons or not: http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2006/03/06/544499.aspx This one talks about the importance of labels: http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2005/11/01/487661

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Its Just UX

On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 3:02 AM, Jeremy Kriegel wrote: > I have recently gravitated to User Experience as an umbrella term, > but I can't agree that 'User Experience Designer' is a title that > we should all use. It is too generic. I'd equate it with calling > anyone who writes code a 'Programmer

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Five things Interaction Design probably isn't

On Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 9:10 AM, Carl Alviani wrote: > The level of discourse and soul-searching within the IxD community is > incredibly high, and its theoretical tenets get debated with a > precision rarely seen in [many other professional communities], but that > discourse rarely seems to > ex

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Its Just UX

On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 5:56 AM, dave malouf wrote: > THEN! there is the false idol of UX. What the heck? Let's fess up > and admit that UX is as jargonny as Web 2.0. It is marketing speak > geared towards a segment of our world that needed it. For so much of > Design it is just a given. It is hu

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Its Just UX

On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 9:07 AM, Richard Dalton wrote: > I personally would much prefer to go to a 5 day, 1500 person UX conference > jointly sponsored > by ASIS, IAI and IxDA than 3, 500 person conferences. > Hear hear!! -ambrose

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Its Just UX

On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 11:40 AM, David Malouf wrote: > Maybe all the people out there who want this big UX thing just > haven't found the right community for you. This sounds a lot like one person is defining the IxDA, and if you don't like it, you can go play on some other playground. I can

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Some of the non-software things that interaction designers do

Thanks to folks for responding on this question. *Behavior is Our Medium* I watched the presentation by Robert Fabricant. It was interesting, very reminiscent of some themes in *interactions* lately. Social engineering has been around for a long time now. Using psychology as a tool to shape pe

[IxDA Discuss] Names are Important (was Re: Wood gatherers...)

Good grief! I mean, really?!? We are not cave people. We don't (only ;) ) communicate with grunts and chest beating. We have words. Words are one of the most valuable things we have as humans. They have real meaning. They build up language, which is at the heart of everything else we build a

Re: [IxDA Discuss] What does the number 0 imply?

On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 6:54 PM, J. Ambrose Little wrote: > A bunch of irrelevant stuff.. Oops. I missed the "site" part. My bad.. -a Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list

Re: [IxDA Discuss] What does the number 0 imply?

On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 10:55 AM, Eugene Kim wrote: > What does it imply to you? > Operator--someone to talk to. Seriously. When I'm listening to the tiresome phone menus and just want to talk to someone, I hit 0. I would be reluctant to assign it to anything but that. But, if you have to, t

Re: [IxDA Discuss] New York Public Library\'s Infomaki

Hey this is pretty nice. I sort of feel like it's a bit much being asked after every question if I want to answer another. I think I'd prefer just telling me up front I can click a very prominent "EXIT" button to move on once I get tired of answering questions. Then each question wouldn't requir

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Some of the non-software things that interaction designers do

I apologize for the late reply. Too much work distracting me. ;-) I agree with you, Dave, that healthy debate is a positive activity. It is not "bickering" but rather an age-old way to discover truth or at least hone our own understandings of it. Anyways, I appreciate your non-defensive respons

Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes of IA and IxD

To your specific thoughts/questions, Liz.. On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 1:52 PM, Elizabeth Bacon wrote: > If there's silicon, there's near-infinite > complexity to mold into order. Nicely put. I would maybe say if there's "software" instead of "silicon" (as per my recent discussion with Dave et al)

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Google Reader: The Good and The Bad

On Thu, Apr 2, 2009 at 2:45 AM, James Haliburton wrote: > I think Google has recognized that people star things for different > reasons. It's weird. I was just thinking about their choice of star a day or two ago. I thought it strange at first, thinking star was maybe not neutral enough. I t

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Adobe Air / MS Silverlight... what's next

On Thu, Apr 9, 2009 at 12:56 PM, Petroff, Greg wrote: > If you are working with Air or Silverlight ... where do you think it's > going? What is the current state of the tools? There yet? Not? How do we > see these changing what we do? > Well, I'm pretty familiar with Silverlight. That's what we

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Adobe Air / MS Silverlight... what's next

On Thu, Apr 9, 2009 at 12:17 PM, greg wrote: > One thing I am > wondering about is how people might work with Rich Clients that > become almost sovereign over the desktop. Will there be issues or > will it be a logical place for people to fall on. > I think if it is "the" environment that folks

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Adobe Air / MS Silverlight... what's next

On Thu, Apr 9, 2009 at 12:56 PM, chadvavra wrote: > Silverlight = not so stable, bloated IE framework This just perpetuates prejudice and ignorance. The Reality Silverlight is not an "IE framework." It is based on the .NET framework, which has been in production since 2002. The UI engine was

Re: [IxDA Discuss] How to get better results from developers

Hi Jonathon, Overall, I think you have some valuable insights, but the way you express them belies what I think is a wrongheaded approach to interacting with devs. The subject line as well as numerous things in the text imply a goal of manipulating and controlling and conflicting (and even condes

Re: [IxDA Discuss] How to get better results from developers

On Fri, Apr 24, 2009 at 12:18 PM, Dustin Savery wrote: > In response to your comments, Ambrose, I would agree with you IF > everything was in an ideal workplace and all developers were team > players rather than looking out for their own self-interests. Good > design usually means more work for t

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Who am I?

On Thu, May 21, 2009 at 12:31 PM, Robert Hoekman Jr wrote: > > > > I've found no evidence to suggest that someone talented couldn't be great > > at both, if they put the effort into it. > > > > The second you start dividing your time, your coding skills suffer. As someone with such a background

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Who am I?

On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 12:00 PM, Robert Hoekman Jr wrote: > Look, I didn't make this up. I experienced it myself, and have talked about > it with many other people — they've all agreed. If this wasn't the case for > you folks that are objecting, well, then great — lucky you. But that > doesn't >

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Who am I?

On Mon, May 18, 2009 at 1:05 AM, Joshua Muskovitz wrote: > What do you call someone who sits squarely on the fence between interaction > design and implementation? > By the way, Microsoft suggests ( http://windowsclient.net/wpf/white-papers/thenewiteration.aspx) that this kind of role is called

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Google Wave

On Fri, May 29, 2009 at 11:01 AM, Mark Canlas wrote: > I'm absolutely shocked no one has posted this yet. > http://wave.google.com/ > > Thoughts? > Be careful what you ask for! :) Briefly put, that's some impressive engineering! *wink wink nudge nudge* Given the hype, I went into watching the

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Advice on Grid for Visual Studio Developers?

On Wed, Jun 10, 2009 at 3:09 PM, j.scot wrote: > Is anyone aware of a developer's reference on defining a layout grid > (or the atomic unit thereof) in Visual Studio? Full disclosure: I work for Infragistics. But I'm not recommending this because of that fact. It's just we have something that

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Music to Design to - What gets your creative juices flowing?

Often I find I have to turn off more mood-based music (like metal, rock, indie, etc.) because mood changes or it starts feeling repetitive and even annoying. This stuff I can just listen to for hours (even tho Pandora repeats a lot on this station) w/ my Bose headphones (which provide the nice thw

Re: [IxDA Discuss] ARTICLE: Designers who wireframe

On Fri, Jun 26, 2009 at 2:33 AM, Kim Bieler wrote: > I wrote an article recently exploring the potential pitfalls of > designers who also do IA (in this case, wireframes) and I'd love > some feedback. I'm also interested in adding more before-and-after > examples if anyone is willing to share. >

Re: [IxDA Discuss] In search of: form design pattern

On Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 4:57 PM, Alan Wexelblat wrote: > I'm debating using different > chunking patterns such as an accordian or tabbed form and wondered if > anyone had an example of a favorite pattern they would recommend. > Hi Alan, Quince has a number of patterns related to layout includin

Re: [IxDA Discuss] In 10 words or less, what is software design to you?

On Fri, Jul 3, 2009 at 11:08 PM, Russell Wilson wrote: > *So I’m interested… in 10 words or less, what is software design to you?* > Enter more than one if you like (as seperate comments). > Hi Russell, Here's mine: Making digital things that work for people. I'm surprised (not really) at the a

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Password Masking research

On Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 2:20 PM, James Page wrote: > Has anybody actually done some research into how many people it effects? > I find most times I type a wrong password it is not because of a typo, > but because it is the wrong password. Masking/Unmasking will not help here. > For example typing

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Software Design Models and/or Design Patterns

On Tue, Jul 14, 2009 at 10:43 PM, Dave Wood wrote: > and any guidance on whether Design Patterns is just a synonym for > Design Models or something different. I have a few academic papers > that cite Christopher Alexander's name. > Yes, for seminal work, Alexander is the (physical architecture)

Re: [IxDA Discuss] The infamous \'generic gray head\' icon: Your design experiences, stats?

On Wed, Jul 15, 2009 at 7:37 AM, Dana wrote: > I think it's reasonable to assume that 'many' or 'most' people > don't go to the trouble of manually changing these. I'd like to > have more to support my theory, but a cursory web search on this > topic hasn't turned up much. > I'm curious what you

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Software Design Models and/or Design Patterns

On Wed, Jul 22, 2009 at 9:24 AM, Joan Vermette wrote: > Here's your correction, William - a gallery of real built spaces on > Alexander's principals, from his website: > http://www.patternlanguage.com/picturegallery/picturegallery.htm > > He was a real working architect with college campuses, num

Re: [IxDA Discuss] "His/Her" vs. "Their" in website copy

I have a theory, which is that there is a direct relationship between the theoretical nature of a thread and the thread length, i.e., the more theoretical, the more replies. And its correlative that even a simple, rather concrete/straightforward topic can be made to be theoretical in order to faci

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Types of Faceted Search

On Mon, Jul 27, 2009 at 12:48 PM, Vishal Iyer wrote: > The VW example leads another question- search v/s filtering. Its > always 'faceted filtering' not > search, isn't it? > We discuss this in the Faceted Navigation

Re: [IxDA Discuss] date pickers starting on Sunday

On Sat, Jul 25, 2009 at 1:10 AM, wrote: > It could also be related to Catholicism: God created the Heavens and > the Earth and on the seventh day he rested. Which means that his week > started on Monday :-) > A point of clarification: The Jewish tradition came before the Catholic one, and

Re: [IxDA Discuss] toggle on / off design pattern

On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 10:09 AM, Sam Menter wrote: > Can anyone point me in the direction of a useable design pattern for > an on / off toggle switch to be used online ie using JS / html / css > rather than flash? Well, you could look at the Toggle Switch on the iPhone. You could emulat

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Usability of Buttons versus Links for Navigation

I skimmed this thread with interest. I agree with the proposal that if you want a specific action to help guide the users to know it is okay (i.e., sometimes clicking Back breaks things and may make some folks tentative), then having a "Back to results" kind of link is good. It's a familiar patte

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Just Because You Can Innovate Doesn\'t Mean You Should

I agree. Seems that, as you put it, the degree of innovation needs to be factored in as a design constraint. It seems to me that a successful/ideal/best design is the one that best fits the context and constraints. It may not be the most admired, but I think that's often because the potential ad

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Latimes.com Redesign - No Link Colors

Seems to me that the "rule" of making links distinctive is far more important if they're being used as Intriguing Branches within a larger body of text. You can use Command Areas (as they do) to offset groups of links and the Tag Cloud is another case like this. Titles, especially in the context o

Re: [IxDA Discuss] We don\'t make consumer products, hence no need for a User Centered Design development process.

On Thu, Aug 27, 2009 at 2:17 PM, Jordan, Courtney wrote: > But it still holds true that to the user, Joan, it wasn't "immediately > learnable" given a high-stress, potentially dangerous situation. - All this seems so odd to me, maybe cuz I can't relate directly.. If I were safety conscious

Re: [IxDA Discuss] We don't make consumer products, hence no need for a User Centered Design development process.

On Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 6:37 PM, Jared Spool wrote: > Personally, I think that trying to force our notion of a good experience > onto companies as some sort of ethical obligation is an arrogant position. > Who is to say we have the right to tell other people how they should design > their product

Re: [IxDA Discuss] UCD vs Design Again? Really?!? [was: We don't blah blah blah]

Jared, Andrei, Charlie, et al, I'm writing as someone working full time in the software industry for over 10 years and a hobbyist/wannabe for most of my life. I came up through the ranks with no formal computer, science, or design education. The only degree I hold is in history and humanities.

Re: [IxDA Discuss] UCD vs Design Again? Really?!? [was: We don't blah blah blah]

*sigh*.. well, it was worth a shot. Argue on, my friends. -a Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidel

Re: [IxDA Discuss] UCD vs Design Again? Really?!? [was: We don't blah blah blah]

Hi Dave, Okay, I'll bite. :) On Sun, Aug 30, 2009 at 6:57 AM, David Malouf wrote: > Ambrose, I don't even see an argument to be had. > Everyone is saying, "we need balance" in one way or another. Everyone has very strange ways of saying this. ;) > But > when they say it they are just saying

Re: [IxDA Discuss] UCD vs Design Again? Really?!? [was: We don't blah blah blah]

On Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 8:36 AM, Jared Spool wrote: > Which makes it a practically useless term, since no two practitioners of > UCD do the same thing and nobody can differentiate quality UCD from poorly > executed UCD. > On the other hand, it may be its flexibility that enables it to succee

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Why isn\'t the OS a browser?

On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 1:16 PM, Kim Bieler wrote: > I hope this isn't a dumb question, but I've been thinking about how > much duplication there is between the OS and the browser -- each has > its own navigation, its own file structure, its own applications and > plug-ins, and all that real-esta

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Why isn\'t the OS a browser?

On Fri, Sep 11, 2009 at 11:08 AM, Nasir Barday > wrote: > Ambrose wrote: > >> They might cache apps/data locally temporarily, but it's not as permanent >> as local apps. >> > > Google Gears took this distinction away from local apps long ago, no? > --- Depends on how you look at it; it's definit

Re: [IxDA Discuss] nice read: On Apple's connection with the consumer

I think drawing too many general design principle inferences from Apple is dangerous for many of the reasons given. The main one for me is context and purpose. Their approach works for them because of who they are and what they are trying to make. I thought the same thing watching the Palm WebOS