Information Architecture, Internet Strategy, User Experience Design, Visual Design

BBC Discusses Changes to Its New Look July 19th, 2010

The BBC’s news Web site got a new look this month. They started discussing the changes at the beginning of July before they started rolling them out. They continued in mid-July when the changes went live. And since then, they have blogged about the feedback and the questions they’ve been receiving about the new design here and here.

Usability, User Experience Design, User Research

To Scroll or Not to Scroll July 14th, 2010

Scrolling content is an often debated topic and usability consideration when designing an online experience. Ultimately the answer to whether the content or page should scroll is not always clear and often needs to be validated with user testing.  In order to get to user testing the design needs to first balance the user’s needs and the content needs. You need to find the answers to these questions: “what is the content”, “who is the user ?”, “what are the user’s goals?”  and “what are the user’s task?”

Information Architecture, Project Management, User Experience Design

Integrated Solutions: Part 3 – Project Engagements, Process, Best Practices and Implementation July 8th, 2010

NavigationArts has extensive experience in Web-enabled solutions.  Our engagements span from strategic consulting services to design, development and implementation.   Generally, for the purposes of best practice and process discussion, I group some of our offerings into four major categories:

1. Web Strategy
2. Strategy to Presentation Layer Design (Information Architecture and Visual Design)
3. Strategy to Technology  Implementation
4. End to End Integrated Web-Enabled Solutions

Regardless of the scope of engagement, User Experience should be at the foundation of every project.  User Experience Design (UXD) is based on Architecture, Interaction Design, Visual Design, Technology and Content Strategy.  Because this work inherently is conducted across several disciplines and often incorporates members from multiple teams (such as the NavigationArts’ team in conjunction with client teams), it is imperative to have repeatable, traceable, and auditable processes as well as best practices in place.  Incorporating best practices into these disciplines ensures that you can reconcile business goals, platform constraints and user needs in order to create a UXD that is valuable, credible, scalable and maintainable.

Internet Strategy, Usability, User Experience Design

A New Model for News From Yahoo July 7th, 2010

Yahoo is taking user-centric content to a whole new level.

Search is more often associated with “how to” topics than with news. Yahoo has always used its software to track search terms.  It will now begin to collect and provide that data to their staff in order to create news-related content.

Internet Strategy, Social Networking, User Experience Design

How to Get Familiar with the Principles of Web Design June 29th, 2010

Tune into Federal Tech Talk on 1500 AM radio at 11:00 AM EST, for an interview of Leo Mullen, CEO of NavigationArts, by host, John Gilroy. The topic is “How to Get Familiar with the Principles of Web Design.” Leo speaks to how the Web can be leveraged to engage citizens. The conversation also addresses the primary steps in building a Web site, the importance of user experience, social media, the power of mobile, search, and more.

Some highlights from the segment:

User Experience Design, Visual Design

Kayak Travel Planning June 16th, 2010

Kayak is a newcomer to the travel industry, but they have created such an engaging experience that it’ll be tough to ignore them the next time I start thinking about a vacation.

The Kayak Explore feature is something that I have not seen before – presented visually.

Information Architecture, User Experience Design

Web App Masters Tour: Your Homepage Should Not Reveal Your Corporate Underpants! June 11th, 2010

I also attended the Web Apps Masters Tour, and heard something in the opening address that made me smile! At almost every business stakeholder meeting I have had as a consultant, the most common thing I hear is  “ but where does my stuff go on the homepage, it is very important!”

So let’s take a step back and realize the reality on the Web in the present time:

Application Development, User Experience Design, mobile

Web App Masters Tour: Form Field Design June 10th, 2010

Along with several other members of the NavigationArts User Experience Design team, I attended the Web App Masters Tour.  Considering design in the Mobile space added an interesting new layer to a common design question:

Insight Article, User Experience Design, Visual Design

1 Web site + 1 Email = 1 User Experience. June 8th, 2010

Like most digital marketing consultants, I’m concerned with improving the online user experience for users of my clients’ Web sites – arguably the quickest way to provide a positive return on any Web marketing investment.  With few exceptions, upgrading the online experience to meet a marketing objective involves making enhancements to the email marketing program in parallel.  What I’ve noticed, lamentably, is the number of often systemic hurdles that prevent marketers from treating Web sites and emails as one user experience.

Emails, particularly opt-in consumer marketing HTML format emails, basically look and feel like a web page, and invite interaction exactly the way a browser-based Web page would.  And they should – since the goal of non-transactional emails is to “get the click” and deliver a visit to the emailer’s Web site.   So why on earth would marketers allocate budget separately, deploy creative and technical resources inconsistently, and otherwise architect these systems in silos, and thus permit discordant and inferior user experiences to occur?

Usability, User Experience Design, User Research

User Research and Usability Testing, the Key to User-Centered Design June 3rd, 2010

The most successful Web sites are those that put the user’s needs, rather than the organization’s, at the center of its design.   But without User Research and Usability Testing, how can you have a user-centered design?

In this presentation to the Potomac Forum, Director of User Research, Toral Contractor, and Information Architect, Kirsten Miller, outline the following major methods of user research and usability testing, providing case studies for each method with tips and important discoveries.  And help you understand how each method fits in to the project lifecycle.

Check out the whole presentation or download it from slideshare:

Technology, Usability, User Experience Design, User Research, Visual Design

Integrated Solutions: Part 2 – Why User Experience Design is Important May 25th, 2010

User Experience Design (UXD) considers interaction flows, user research, usability, efficiency, visual design, navigation and technology.  It incorporates aspects of human performance factors and usability and focuses on the interaction between people and computer systems and the design that makes this interaction effective, optimal and valuable.

At NavigationArts,

UXD = IA + Visual Design + Technology

Internet Strategy, User Experience Design

Sell the Experience May 20th, 2010

This morning I came across an excellent summary of the value proposition for effective positioning of products to customers. Selling experiences instead of products is a way to provided added value, and in turn achieve increased margins.

User Experience Design

Integrated Solutions: Part 1 – Architects of the User Experience May 18th, 2010

As Leo Mullen has been known to say, “In the online world today, user experience is truly the only sustainable competitive advantage.”    I often think about this statement when my team is working on providing Web solutions for our clients.  So much business is conducted on the Web and many consumers of information, products and services rely on the “e-home” of most corporations.

What is an “e-home,” you ask?  It’s a term I use to think about Web sites.  Basically, I see it as the electronic home of the business (or individual) that is providing information, products, services or any combination of these.  If I were in the market for a home, previously constructed, newly developed or even architecting and designing a custom build, I would spend time to consider the following (to name but a few):

Information Architecture, Interaction Design, User Experience Design, Visual Design

Translation on the Web: Commonplace, Participatory, and Expected? May 14th, 2010

Above : “A Sampling of Chinglish” courtesy of The New York Times

On The Media is a favorite radio program of mine. Its hosts frequently present interesting takes on “new media” and recently, they had a fascinating segment on translation issues on the Internet. With only 27% of Internet users using English, it’s becoming unreasonable to expect English to be the default Internet language. To avoid the siloing that could occur along linguistic lines, innovative Web sites with an international or multilingual audience are experimenting with machine and human translation. (The importance of getting translation right should not be underestimated, as the images in a recent New York Times slideshow demonstrate.) Ethan Zuckerman, cofounder of the multilingual blog network, Global Voices, tells On The Media, “Translation is going to go from esoteric, rare, and expensive to becoming fairly commonplace, participatory, and expected.”

Information Architecture, Interaction Design, User Experience Design, Visual Design

Drawing is Not Just for Designers April 16th, 2010

Dan Roam gave the opening keynote at the IA Summit 2010 in Phoenix.  His premise was this:  “Whoever best describes the problem is the one most likely to solve it.”  In other words:  Whoever draws the best picture gets the funding.

That may sound disheartening, but he’s not talking about works of art here.  Dan believes that basic shapes and stick figures can illustrate what the problem is and what the solution can be.  He showed a series of examples where powerful ideas were drawn out in simple shapes on the back of napkins – like the sketch that started Southwest Airlines or a graph that ended up being the idea behind Reaganomics.

Dan summarized the ways in which our brains process visual information and then outlined the types of sketches that can be used to answer relevant questions as we try to solve a problem. Here’s how he broke it down:

Information Architecture, Usability, User Experience Design, User Research

IA Summit ’10 Part Four April 13th, 2010

The IA Summit ’10 has had a great mix of the tactical and the inspirational.  I’d like to share some highlights from a few of the sessions I attended.

Beyond Card Sorting:  Michael Hawley of Mad*Pow gave an overview of techniques other than basic card sorting to get content rich sites under control.  I’m eager to try out several on upcoming projects.

Information Architecture, User Experience Design

IA Summit ’10 Part Three: Prototyping April 12th, 2010

Building on my previous post, my second topic-of-interest at this year’s IA Summit is prototyping. I’m very interested in this topic because I’ve experienced, first hand, the mental leap needed when reviewing static images that attempt to convey dynamic, on-page behavior…it often involves a significant number of static pages, with text explaining the motion and interaction rules, and a lot of client review time. It is situations like these for which I’m most interested in presenting dynamic prototypes in the future.

While at the conference several sessions and conversations focused in the idea of prototyping in-general:

Information Architecture, User Experience Design

IA Summit ’10 Part Two: Pervasive IA April 12th, 2010

We finished the second day of IA Summit ’10 presentations and in general the sessions I’ve attended so far fall into two major categories:

-          Pervasive IA/cross channel marketing

-          Prototyping

In this post I’ll cover some of the revelations around pervasive IA. My interest in this topic has grown steadily in the past 5 years as the importance of mobile has grown…and also because, now more than ever, customers can interact with brands and related information in so many different ways, both in the cyber and physical worlds.

Information Architecture, Social Networking, Usability, User Experience Design

IA Summit ’10 Part One April 9th, 2010

With a few minutes to spare before boarding my flight to Phoenix I thought I’d kick-off my blog coverage of IA Summit 10. A small contingent of NavigationArts Information Architects / User Experience Designers will once again have the opportunity to chat with our peers, as well as share impressions of the current state of the discipline and where it’s going.

Sitting at the airport, heading to this conference, made me think: just to get this far I’ve already interacted with several interfaces designed by my peers…and in doing so I have seen the successes and pitfalls of how they’ve crafted their online processes:

User Experience Design

8th Annual DC United Kick-Off Luncheon April 2nd, 2010

NavigationArts was a table sponsor at the 8th Annual DC United Kick-Off Luncheon this Thursday.  Our partnership with DC United began in 2008 with the design of Behind the Badge, United’s official blog and then in 2009 expanded to include the design of the dcunited.com.   The website and our design won the “Outstanding Web Site” 2009 WebAward from the Web Marketing Association.  The architecture of the site was so well received that it is going to be adopted by all MLS teams.

NavigationArts looks forward to the DC United v New England Home Opener game tomorrow evening, Go DC United!

Above NavigationArt’s Caroline Mullen (left) and Meredith Casey (right) with DC United’s center defender, Dejan Jakovic, at the 8th Annual DC United Kick-Off Luncheon.

Check out our DC United case study.

Information Architecture, Interaction Design, Technology, User Experience Design, Web Development, HTML5, IE9, Microsoft

Microsoft MIX10: Day Two March 18th, 2010

Day two at MIX10 and the information overload continues:

Keynote Highlights:

IE9 and HTML 5

IE9 has true support for HTML 5 including HTML 5 video. Reduced processing capacity required for JavaScript and HTML 5 video. The demo provided was truly amazing. The demo ran on Windows 7. This made me wonder what the performance would be like on older versions of Windows as well as other OS platforms.

Information Architecture, Interaction Design, Technology, User Experience Design, Visual Design, Web Development, Microsoft, SharePoint2010, Silverlight

Microsoft MIX10: Day One March 17th, 2010

There’s a lot going on at MIX10, here are my thoughts on day one:

Keynote introduced the design and development community to the new Windows phone. The interface is interesting. As with most new concepts, there are some good things and some bad. Also introduced the Pivot Control for Silverlight 4, which uses content type attributes and values to help winnow down a large set of similar content types down to a narrow set.

Insight Article, Interaction Design, Technology, User Experience Design, Visual Design

The Web Typographers Essential Toolkit – 22 Tutorials, Tools, and Resources February 12th, 2010

This collection is for those of you who have already gulped down the typesetters Kool-Aid. You know who you are; the crowd who grimaces at badly kerned movie credits, who get misty-eyed about old motel signs, and who think comic-sans was created by fascists hell-bent on making your Chinese food menu look festive. It goes without saying, in any discipline you have to know the rules before you can break them, yet among young designers there is a perpetual debate revolving around the use of grids and scales. The bottom line is if you’re serious about your craft, these are fundamental tools. As a designer they are as crucial as internalizing the gestalt principles of perception or the basic tenants of color psychology.

Information Architecture, User Experience Design, prototype, Sketch, wireframe

Start Sketching: Sometimes Perfect Lines Can Get in the Way of Creative Thinking February 5th, 2010

Anyone involved with building a web site can benefit from sketching from time to time. It’s a natural activity. We’ve all sketched as kids, whether it was a detailed masterpiece or a stick figure. Sketching removes the intimidating wall not only between Information Architects and the team, but also between IAs and the task-at-hand.

Usability, User Experience Design, User Research

The Virtual Fence: Unmet User Requirements Can Cost Billions February 2nd, 2010

When designing a Web site or application a basic rule is to design with the user in mind.  Or, to quote an old HFI button, “Know thy users for they are not you.”

Easy concept, right?

Sometimes, the people who write the requirements preceding a Web project assume they know what those requirements should be. They rarely  involve the user upfront in the requirements process or solicit any feedback.

Information Architecture, User Experience Design, User Research, Webcast

Leveraging the Web to Extend Global Reach: SHRM India Case Study January 28th, 2010

If you missed the live session of “Leveraging the Web to Extend Global Reach: SHRM India Case Study,” you can check out the presentation on SlideShare.

User Experience Design, Web Development, Browsers, CSS, JavaScript

JavaScript-CSS Compatibility Layers to Save You Some Money? January 25th, 2010

Andy Clarke recently wrote about a new CSS JavaScript compatibility layer called IE-CSS3.js. The library allows users to write CSS using pseudo-element selectors, and have it work natively in IE8 via JavaScript. The JavaScript parses the linked CSS, and dynamically adds rules to the document. This means that the shortcomings of the browser’s CSS display methods can be automatically overcome by creating custom CSS with JavaScript. All users will thus see the same thing. Great.

Usability, User Experience Design, User Research

Applying for Improved User Experience January 20th, 2010

I recently helped my 17-year-old son apply to college. Not surprisingly, the process is a bit different than when I went through it years ago. Rather than painstakingly lining up a paper application in a typewriter, with lots of Liquid Paper on hand, applications are now most often submitted online. Sounds easy enough, right? Not so much. What a frustrating user experience!

Internet Strategy, User Experience Design, Video, Visual Design, Web Development

Learn More About the NavigationArts’ Team January 19th, 2010

Leo Mullen:

“Our strategy practices is designed to help our customers look around the corner a little bit and understand what’s coming and help them to prepare for that.”

Technology, User Experience Design, mobile

Windows Mobile 7 January 19th, 2010

At CES 2010 Microsoft announced that Windows Mobile 7 would be much more of a “revolution” in terms of user experience, compared with past versions of the mobile OS (http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/08/windows-mobile-7-coming-to-mwc-in-february-not-just-evolutiona/). To mobile enthusiasts like myself this initially sounds like a good thing. For years Microsoft’s Windows CE, Pocket PC and Windows Mobile OS’s frustrated users and spawned a legion of dedicated hackers and developers bent on making it better (if only for themselves). I was one of those Windows Mobile die-hards until succumbing to iPhone hegemony 2 years ago.

Information Architecture, Interaction Design, User Experience Design

A Little User Experience Around the Holidays January 14th, 2010

As we end the year and our minds are preoccupied by the holidays I am once again reminded of how important web usability is and how it affects the bottom line everyday. The latest example came from an unlikely source: ballet. Not just any ballet production, though, but The Nutcracker. Let me explain:

User Experience Design, Video

User Experience Design in the Google Era January 8th, 2010

“The people in my group, the user experience group, are really by nature Jacks-of-all-Trades. And so they are really involved in the full life cycle of a project. In the early stages we’re really focused on researching to find out more about actual user needs and actual user goals. And we’re also involved in the formulation of business strategies and business requirements.”

User Experience Design, Video

Smart, Informed Web Design January 6th, 2010

“A design made up of much larger things needs to reconcile three key areas. And they are often competing, so that’s the challenge that we face.”

Application Development, Information Architecture, Interaction Design, Internet Strategy, Social Networking, User Experience Design, personas, prototype, scenarios, smithsonian, strategy

Smithsonian Commons: Vast, Findable, Shareable, Free December 3rd, 2009

Have you visited a Smithsonian website lately? Probably not. Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Even those we interviewed on the National Mall in Washington DC at a physical Smithsonian museum hadn’t considered using a Smithsonian website. It’s a shame, considering the rich education available on their numerous affiliated websites. Few also realize the tradition of excellent and influential research conducted by the Smithsonian. What a lost opportunity to learn from one of the nation’s greatest collections of history, culture, art and science.

Usability, User Experience Design, User Research

Spice of Life November 19th, 2009

How do you organize your spices? Depending on who you are, you might have a different answer. A grocery store organizes their spices differently than the normal person. In the grocery store it is important for the spices to be alphabetically sorted within each brand. They are grouped alphabetically within the brand groups because how else would someone find a particular spice? The grocery store is fulfilling particular user tasks.

Information Architecture, Internet Strategy, User Experience Design, Business Decisions, Web Redesign

Does Your Web site Need a Redesign? November 9th, 2009

Choosing whether to redesign your Web site can be a difficult decision to make, especially when many organizations are cutting costs in the midst of the current economic downtown. A Web site redesign project usually requires a cross-functional team with members from multiple departments and strong internal leadership. The resources required for a redesign can be considerable, particularly for organizations which already have a lot of Web content or have multiple third-party systems integrated with their Web sites.

Information Architecture, Insight Article, User Experience Design, Visual Design, Grids

Creative Standardization in Web Site Design September 1st, 2009

Beautiful Solutions

When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I only think about how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.

Buckminster Fuller, architect, designer, and inventor:

Recently, Jeff Applegate, an Art Director in our office gave a presentation explaining the origins and advantages of using grids in Web site designs. He explained that grids are used to create visually harmonious design layouts and that principles of good design are rooted in the Golden Mean, a mathematical proportion that—when followed—produces designs that are aesthetically pleasing to most people.

Information Architecture, Usability, User Experience Design, User Research, Webcast, Healthcare

M. D. Anderson: Creating a Hospital Web Site to Drive Value September 1st, 2009

If you missed the live session of the “M. D. Anderson Case Study: Creating a Hospital Web Site that Drives Value,” you’ll find the presentation below.

To learn more about applying Web strategy and a user experience design process to a hospital Web site, you’ll want to view the presentation.

The presentation covers:

Information Architecture, Insight Article, Internet Strategy, Usability, User Experience Design, User Research, Visual Design, Web Content Management, Healthcare

7 Principles for Designing a Successful Hospital Web Site August 1st, 2009

With health information Web sites like WebMD setting the standard, hospital Web sites must at a minimum meet basic user expectations. Your hospital Web site is a direct extension of your brand and a poorly designed or outdated Web site will translate in the public’s perception to a poorly run hospital with outdated services.

What are the keys to developing a successful hospital Web site? All of the principles outlined below are rooted in the practice of user-centered design.

User Experience Design, Visual Design, Webcast

How to Evaluate a Web Design August 1st, 2009

If you missed the live session of “How to Evaluate a Web Design,” you’ll find the presentation and a recording below.

To learn more about the user experience design process, and how to evaluate a Web design, check out my presentation.

During the session you’ll learn:

Usability, User Experience Design

Read More and Click Here Links July 29th, 2009

The recent posting on Smashing Magazine, Designing “Read More” And “Continue Reading” Links, made me chuckle. To read about advocating ‘click here’ links baffles me. WCAG 13.1 states Clearly identify the target of each link.

Interaction Design, Social Networking, Usability, User Experience Design, Visual Design, Web Development

Audio and Video Standards in HTML5 July 1st, 2009

Ian Hickson on the HTML5 spec and why it will not contain language around what codec browsers should support for the <audio> and <video> tags (emphasis mine):

I have therefore removed the two subsections in the HTML5 spec in which codecs would have been required, and have instead left the matter undefined, as has in the past been done with other features like <img> and image formats, <embed> and plugin APIs, or Web fonts and font formats.

User Experience Design, Gmail, Google

Gmail Goggles October 16th, 2008

Now Gmail makes you think twice before sending that late night email to an ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend. You just have to answer a few math questions (you pick the difficulty) before the email will send. It automatically kicks in late at night on the weekends, but you can adjust the time parameters to fit your needs. You can read more about it on Gmail’s Blog.  Now that’s thinking about the user’s needs!

User Experience Design

Two Noteworthy UX Design Resources October 3rd, 2008

From Human Factors Engineering, to User Interface Design, then to User Experience design, this field has experienced tremendous growth in the past 25 to 30 years. We as professionals in the field also have developed a lot of methods and patterns to help us adapt to the rapidly evolving technological innovations and user needs. I’ve recently come across two useful UX design resources. I thought to point them out so we can all take advantage of them without having to reinvent the wheel every time.

User Experience Design, UX Week 2008

Service Design August 14th, 2008

Hello once again from UX Week 2008!

Today’s focus at the conference is Service Design – basically designing for end-to-end services that involve many touchpoints and communication channels to users. The day started off with a keynote from the CEO of ZipCar, Scott Griffith, where he described the ZipCar service experience as well as the back office integration. Afterward, Jennifer Bove and Ben Fullterton gave a talk on making a memorable service experience. Their top 6 guidelines for services are:

User Experience Design, UX Week 2008

Welcome from UX Week 2008 August 13th, 2008

I’m out in San Francisco all this week attending UX Week 2008, meeting like minded experience design professionals, watching demonstrations of products aimed at making design professionals more effective, and generally thinking outside the box. I’ll be blogging from the conference all this week…not really live-blogging but more digesting the most important topics. 

I hope you enjoy the posts, and please don’t hesitate to ask me any questions you may have.

User Experience Design

Good vs. evil July 18th, 2008

What makes an experience good? Meet and exceed expectations. Allow the user to complete a task so efficiently that the system is almost unnoticeable. Here are two contrasting examples from recent excursions to Houston:

1) Good: Renting a Car
As we deplane we easily find and follow signs to “Rental Cars” and locate

Interaction Design, User Experience Design, Visual Design, Flash

Best Flash Site Ever? July 15th, 2008

Have you seen this site? It’s a listing of what Netmag believes are the 20 best Flash sites ever. Number one was Vodafone’s Future Site. For a site that was launched back in 2003 (5 years ago is an eternity in the Web world), it’s quite impressive even by today’s standards. What do you think are some of the best Flash sites around today? What would you say is your all time best Flash site ever?

Information Architecture, User Experience Design, transit

Good User Experience: NYC Subway's New In-Car LED Signs July 14th, 2008

I ride the Metrorail in DC (and Virginia) almost every day, and sometimes I have a hard time figuring out which stop my train is at. The trains’ windows are heavily tinted, and the underground stations are significantly darker than the interior of the cars, making it difficult to read signs through the windows. Also, the text on the signs is not particularly large—certainly smaller than the ample signs in many NYC Subway stations. My intention in this post is not to bash my home transit system (which, it should be noted, totally smokes NYC’s in several important ways). Rather, I bring up this issue with the signs because it can make for a frustrating user experience. I also bring it up because I’m fascinated by obsessed with public transit.