paper & pencil

most sites not usable

via iaslash:
Forrester Brief - Web Sites Continue To Fail The Usability Test - 375 sites were reviewed

scoring -50 to +50 the average score was -1.5

scores by industry

top failures

Interaction Ivrea

Interaction Ivrea is the Interaction Design Institute of Ivrea, Italy

they have a great explanation of what interaction design is and rather than try to distinguish between digital and physical interactions (like the interactiondesign yahoo group is thinking about) they emphasize the need for "a fusion of sound, graphic and product design, and time-based narrative"

Developing this new kind of design will lead to a new aesthetic: one of use and experience as well as of form.

The Design Process at Interaction-Ivrea

1. Understand the users' experience...
...how they live, what they need and want...

2. Imagine new opportunities
with brainstorming, opportunity mapping...

3. 'Just-enough' prototyping:
models to reveal the quality of the experience.
(It's not enough to see that the technology works.)

4. Design solutions:
. what is the role of the product or service in people's lives?
. what is the right mental model for the user?
. what is the look and feel of the interaction?
. what are the technical issues to solve?

5. Craft the interactive experience...
...what people will see, hear and feel.

6. Present and test the outcome

semantically correct over valid code

from kottke's Web standards and semantics (kottke.org)

example:

This is a Title





This is a Title







This is a Title




all of the above is valid code but only the 2nd one is sematically correct in that it is meaningful.

if your code is well structured and semantically correct you should be able to completely redesign your site by changing out the stylesheet.

see css zen garden

css google

from pseudo/design's entry on Semantic Markup:
redesign of Google to demonstrate semantic markup.

note how he defines lists and uses them for the 3 different navigation menus.

macromedia redesign

Behind the New, New macromedia.com:
great summary of the additional changes to macromedia.com, which was redesigned in early 2003. the changes stemmed from numerous suggestions from Forrester Research

do's:

• "broad flat navigational systems" - expose important sub-categories and use visual hierarchy for large navigation systems


• consistent interface elements


• customer service throughout


• graphics, icnons & symbols that are easily understood
  ex. Product pages had contained thumbnail graphics that were not useful; the new site now contains large screenshots of the product in use


• streamline - remove bloat (pages that are not used)


• increase prominence of "key calls to action

clement's new venture

via idblog:
clement mok has been working on a new venture - CMCD - Visual Symbols Library

i like how it's not just another stock photo service - the inventory has been carefully tagged to mimic how designers search for images.

When it comes to developing project concepts, the Library helps by providing access to one of the world's leading collections of iconographic stock photography. Our "picture dictionary" style is built on the idea that crisp, archetypal imagery is an essential tool for meeting day-to-day design challenges. The images are professionally styled and art directed by the team responsible for popular images like Desk Bell, Indi the Wonder Dog, and The Internet Guy.

eames quote

"The details are not the details. They make the design."

- Charles Eames

creative block

the daily flight offers some tips to keep creativity alive

faceted blog

from pixelcharmer:
*Pixelcharmer: Field Notes: Faceted Movable Type - an overview of her implementation of a faceted classification scheme for her MT blog

5 fundamental facets as applied to her blog:

PMEST is the classifier's friend. It's an acronym used in faceted classification for the five fundamental facets. It stands for "personality, matter, energy, space, and time." Loosely, you can look at my attempt at describing the ascertainable qualities of what I believed would be in the scope of what I wanted to save and comment on as having the following equivalencies:

• Personality=topic


• Matter=form


• Energy=process


• (Space=I don't believe I've used this facet, or perhaps it's the permalink of the post itself? Yes, let's go with that for now.)


• Time=date

visual organization

Great article from LukeW:Understanding Visual Organization [1] [1]

some goodies i wanted to capture:

Principles of Perception

Visual Contrast

Visual Hierarchy & Weight

 

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1. http://www.lukew.com/resources/articles/visible_narratives.html

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1. http://www.lukew.com/resources/articles/visible_narratives.html