Webremixed Articles for tags: information-architecture

WIRED on iPad: Just like a Paper Tiger…

Fri, 28 May 2010 10:51:37 GMT

First, the paper magazine was crammed into the little iPad frame. To compensate for the lack of interactive logic, this pretty package was provided with a fruity navigation. In the end it was spiced with in-app links, plucked with a couple of movies and salted with audio files ("interactive"). Then ...

Cosmic 140—Final Beta

Sat, 22 May 2010 11:06:08 GMT

[wp_eStore_fancy:product_id:7:end] Here it is, our next Web Trend Map. No Metro lines, no URLS. This time, it's the 140 most influential people on twitter, sorted by #name #handle #category #influence #activity. Plus: When they started tweeting and what they first said. It took quite some time until we had it in ...

Information architect on Web Worker Daily

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 23:09:12 GMT

The role of information architect is featured at Web Worker Daily today:

Web Worker Payoff: Information Architect

User account security measures offer annoying barriers without a reasonable payoff

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 22:54:12 GMT

Random internet browsing brought me to a choice user response to "internet security measures":

Like, I know they are there for good reason, but so many web sites require so many different variations of passwords, I just can't keep up with them all. My bank for example...It's one of those "password must contain atleas 8 characters, upper and lowercase and atleast one number". Okay, I did that, I've managed to remember it...but then, I have to have 8 different security questions. It doesn't always promt me with one, but about every 5th time I log into the site they throw me one of the questions. I can't keep up with all the answers. There are multiple answers to most of the questions. I don't have a fave band, I have several. I don't have a fave candy, or movie or any of that other crap.... So, if I answer wrong 3 times, they disable my account and make me re-register it.....*grumble*

Nielsen drops page view ranking

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 22:39:12 GMT

From USA Today, Nielsen drops page view rankings in favor of weighing time on site as more important.

Article specifically cites online video and Ajax as reasons why page views are meaningless.

Time on site is also skewed. Measuring content views would be a more precise measurement of user engagement. (You can track content views for both video and ajax.)

Joost offers innovative(?), new ad models

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 22:24:12 GMT

From Joost Unveils Stellar Brand Ad Launch Lineup, Partnership With IPG:

Joost is offering advertisers a range of formats beyond the traditional 30-second spot. Ten-second and 15-second pre-, mid-, and post-roll options are all available, all with interactive capabilities for users to delve deeper into ad messages if they desire.

Things You See - A conversation between Bob Goodman, Peter Jones, Eric Reiss and GK VanPatter

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 22:09:12 GMT

NexD Journal has a follow-up article to GK VanPatter's Unidentical Twins that triggered much discussion a few months ago. The follow-up is a 4 way conversation between Bob Goodman, Peter Jones, Eric Reiss and GK VanPatter.

I feel like I should post a witty summary, but it is too long to summarise, covers too much ground and (for me) is somewhat hard to grasp (though much easier than the first article).

Vision for a new video world

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 21:54:12 GMT

Online Media Daily quotes Jeremy Allaire's views on web video and advertising in Brightcove Founder Lays Out Media Vision For A New Video World.

His remarks were part of his keynote to the Outfront conference. (There's a link to the entire keynote you can watch, as well.)

Interesting comments fmor a smart gyu. Go read. Tasty bits to moisten your lips:

On Wireframing Tools for Microsoft Environments

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 21:39:12 GMT

Let's start with Boyd's IP Theft (oops, I mean Dictum) on Prototyping Tools: it is easier for someone who knows what they are doing to transfer a design concept on the back of a business card with a crayon than it is for someone without a clue to perform the same task with any other medium.

In other words, the important part is transferring the design concept not look at the size of my tool.

Sure, some tools make things easier. Some tools are more efficient than others.

The Forces of User Experience

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 21:24:12 GMT

Richard Dalton has a new blog, and an excellent post called The Forces of User Experience in which he extends Jesse James Garrett's elements of user experience diagram to represent the effect of strategy on other planes.

Good stuff.

Semantic analysis: Making sense of the chaos of free text

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 21:09:12 GMT

Matt Hodgson has posted a summary of a presentation he did for our local IA group recently. This is a truly awesome piece of IA work - he analysed a large volume of unstructured text and designed a framework to rewrite it in a consistent, machine-readable, human-readable way: Semantic analysis: Making sense of the chaos of free text

Watch this space

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 20:54:12 GMT

IAslash partner, the IA Institute, cherishes this resource and wishes to see it come back to life. Therefore, in my capacity as Institute director charged with web and technical initiatives, I have volunteered to undertake a rejuvenation of this site.

Over the next few weeks we will be cleaning up the aggregator subscriptions (retiring some venerable but defunct newsfeeds and adding some fresh new exciting ones) and working on developing a regular posting schedule.

Our goal is to enable you to rely on IAslash as a useful and informative filter and source of interesting news from the realm of IA and the related disciplines and practices of user experience (UX), interaction design (IxD), product management, design management, social web design, and internetworked business and entrepreneurship.

Discourse around Emergent Information Architecture

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 20:39:12 GMT

A couple of great blog posts by Peter Merholz – Emergent IA and Gene Smith – How do people co-create information environments? touching on topics surrounding emergent IA. There is also some follow up discussion in the IAI mailing list.

Christopher Fahey writes an interesting series on the “Smoke & Mirrors” of user research.

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 20:24:12 GMT

As designers look towards user research for the objective truth, Christopher questions the motives behind the research. He follows with a series of articles, the first of which discuss user research as a pseudo science pointing to absolutes that do not exist. He continues the discussion stating that tools such as eye tracking provide results that are already apparent to good UI designers. His latest article explains that a value of user research is often to cut through the politics and convince stakeholders to make good design decisions. His upcoming article: “Research as Bullshit”

10 Ways

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 20:09:12 GMT

If you haven’t already seen Getty Images' 10 Ways, it’s worth a look. Getty collaborated with 5 designers to create some very creative interactive experiences. They attempt to capture the compelling visual language of photography.

I’m not too sold on them as educational tools but they are neat interactive pieces none the less.

IAI Summary Question 1: To Content Inventory Or Not To Content Inventory

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 19:54:12 GMT

Inaugural Question of the Week for the IA Institute Member Mailing List

Leisa Reichelt of Disambiguity.com posted earlier this month against content inventories, positing that they immerse you in the status quo of the content types and approaches.

http://www.disambiguity.com/2006/05/why-you-shouldnt-start-ia-with-a-content-inventory/

Her position is interesting, but we'd like to hear from you about how you react to this post. How have content inventories affected your process and creativity on projects? Is completing a content inventory as one of your first major IA tasks good or bad?

Designing for iPad: Reality Check

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 22:52:06 GMT

Over the last two months we have been working on several iPad projects. Two news apps, a social network thing and a word processor—without having the actual device to test. The question "Are we designing apps, web sites or something entirely new?" has been torturing us until that magical package ...

iA’s 2006 Facebook Designs, Redesigned

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:54:48 GMT

From December 2006 to February 2007 we were in touch with the product manager of facebook. The prospective: Redesigning facebook. Eventually. Since the contract was never signed, we kept our designs in the drawer. Until now... As you might have noticed already, the two following two screens are not the ...

Meet Big Bang, Our Next Trend Map

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:54:07 GMT

It's one year since our last Web Trend Map. A lot has happened, but there are not enough changes in the landscape of domains in the last 12 months to create another domain based Web Trend Map. The big changes happened one level higher, on the social layer, that is: ...

API for News? Reuters, NYT & iA Inc.

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 08:58:17 GMT

Last week at Media2010, Marc Frons (Chief Technology Officer, Digital Operations, New York Times), Nic Fulton (Chief Scientist, Thomson Reuters) and me were asked to answer several questions on the future of news: When and how should news organizations release copyright-free material? What are the key points of design that ...

The TPUTH, Part II

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:42:42 GMT

Projects that will probably make some money one day are more probably running out of money very soon. So what is our revenue plan for TPUTH? How are we going to monetize satirical over sized headlines? As you might have seen, we have this big ass banner on the bottom. You ...

The TPUTH, Part I

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:37:41 GMT

TPUTH brings four major iA strings together: 1. designing news, 2. monitoring web trends, 3. monetizing content, and 4. being straight forward. In the first post, we'd like to explain some things about the Design and the Technology... 1. Designing News As you might know by now iA has designed a series ...

iPad Stencil for Omnigraffle

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 11:01:05 GMT

This is the first version of an OmniGraffle template for folks designing iPad apps. It's not complete; we plan to update it as we're working on our own designs. Contains backgrounds, title bars, buttons, selectors, and other iPhone UI elements Based the iPad PSD GUI by Teehan+Lax. Text is fully editable on ...

My Five Cents on The Thing

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 11:52:09 GMT

The Thing will save the publishing industry as much as the iPod has saved the music industry. Meaning: There are a couple of things in publishing and user interface design that it will change. What things? 1. What's Going to Happen to the News Industry? First of all, to have an impact ...

What’s Next in Web Design?

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 23:29:51 GMT

I've been asked by the Italian magazine L'Espresso to write an article on The Future of Web Design. Here is the English text. Thinking about what’s next online is fun because everything you wish to come true will come true. While commercial products obey to the laws of the market, which ...

Web Trend Map Video Interview

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 06:58:07 GMT

I sat down with the video team of GaijinPot.com for a short interview about the Web Trend Map. As you will learn we are planning to publish a book (a Web Trend Map Atlas) next year. Along with the next poster we plan to publish a book in cooperation with ...

Can Experience be Designed?

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 09:54:39 GMT

First, think about a number between one and ten. Then take a step back and look at the words "User Experience Design" as if you had never seen them. Look at them closely until you hear them with the vanilla motor voice of Christopher Walken: USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN. What do you ...

Dynamic Pricing for Digital Goods

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:32:41 GMT

We decided to sell the WordPress template of our own site. The problem we had to solve was not "why?" than "how much"? After a long back and forth we decided to try something new: Dynamic pricing. Here is how it works: Start selling at the lowest price you’d go ...

Kenya Hara On Japanese Aesthetics

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:03:41 GMT

What makes Japanese design so special? Basically, it's a matter of simplicity; a particular notion of simplicity, different from what simplicity means in the West. So are things in general better designed in Japan? Well, actually, it's not that simple... The New York Times asked us to get them in ...

Internazionale: Look and Feel

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:48:41 GMT

Here are a few design explorations on the possible look and feel for Internazionale. They are based on the beautiful work that Mark Porter, creative director of the Guardian editorial did for the print edition. We'd like to post them without comment as we're curious to hear what you think. ...

Google, Yahoo, Bing: Beyond the Hype

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:33:41 GMT

The story is quite clear: Yahoo is going down. Google is going up, Bing is insignificant. It's becoming quite clear who the real winner of the Yahoo!-Microsoft deal is. Compared to their competitors, Bing doesn't do that well on usability either. As for Yahoo!--the latest UI changes on Yahoo! (and the ...

Tell me again: Who Relaunched Krone.at?

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:18:41 GMT

I got an email the other day from a young entrepreneur that asked whether we send out press releases. The answer is twisted: So far I have refrained from sending out press releases. But that might change... Press Releases: Contra Press releases are not authentic. They're written in an obsolete sleazy PR ...

From Black to White: iA redesigns Krone.at

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:03:41 GMT

After covering a high percentage of newspaper sites in Switzerland and redoing DIE ZEIT, iA moved to the other very challenging side of the online news spectrum: With krone.at we updated one of the big players in the red top press industry. As of now, krone.at counts 124 Million page impressions, ...

Links in Print: Story of a Beautiful Failure

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:48:41 GMT

In January 2009 we were invited to take part in a paid pitch for the print redesign for the Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger. All in all five agencies took part in the pitch. We were the only UX oriented agency. The story of a beautiful failure. We put all eggs in one ...

Concept Internazionale

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:33:41 GMT

L’Internazionale is rightfully proud of its very dedicated readership. Out of 100'000 readers, 30'000 come to Ferrara each year to meet the editors. The facebook group of Internazionale boasts 23'000 fans, a huge number if you compare it to the groups of Newsweek with a circulation of over 3 Million ...

Zeit Online, Freshly Squeezed

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:18:41 GMT

iA has redesigned ZEIT ONLINE, the Internet edition of the weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT. DIE ZEIT (German pronunciation: [diː tsait], literally The Times,) is a German nationwide weekly newspaper that is highly respected for its quality journalism. With a circulation of 488,036 and an estimated readership of slightly above 2 million, ...

Trends we can Believe in: Webtrendmap.com

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 10:37:02 GMT

We've finally launched the interactive version of our popular poster. Webtrendmap.com turned out to not just be the base for our next year's poster, it is a new way to find high quality content. iA's newest product helps you finding the hottest links in the last 24 hours Unlike the common ...

Pronto?

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 10:22:02 GMT

While everybody is chatting about the future of news, we're shaping it. Currently, we're working with the Italian magazine Internazionale, who is trying to figure out where to move with their website. As only an advanced process can result in advanced results, Internazionale agreed to open up the design process ...

The Value of Information

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 10:07:02 GMT

When confronted with the necessity of offering news for free, editors are quick at pointing at the cost involved in news production. Which of course is beside the point. Information on the Internet is as common as snow in the arctic. You can't expect Eskimos to buy a snowman. But, ...

The Spectrum of User Experience (1)

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 09:52:02 GMT

As we all perfectly know, designers are narcissists; programmers are nerds, and whoever wears a tie must be a clueless jerk. Designers, programmers and business people love to hate each other. That's why we keep them separated: Can't we just all get along? Or leave each other alone? We can't. The ...

Introducing webtrendmap.com

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 09:37:02 GMT

Where is this year's clickable version of the Web Trend Map? And the screen savers? And the background images? And the PDFs? Answer: Forget about that. We have something way better in the making. Currently iA is building an interactive version of the Web Trend Map under webtrendmap.com. The idea ...

Web Trend Map 4: Coolest Gift For Geeks

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 09:22:02 GMT

The beta version has been featured all across the web from TechCrunch to BoingBoing, and Gawker. Now the latest version of our popular Web Trend Map is up for grabs. The Web Trend Map plots the Internet's leading names and domains onto the Tokyo Metro map. Domains and personalities are carefully ...

Kill Blog Comments?

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 09:07:02 GMT

Blog comments have an innate communication problem: You can't discuss and moderate the discussion at the same time. Moderating blog comments I often feel like being pushed in the role of the understanding father that needs to calm down his rebellious teenage son. Blogs comments are useful to evaluate how ...

Web Trend Map 4 – Final Beta

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 08:52:02 GMT

Here it is, posted in a panic: Web Trend Map 4. We'll give you a week for final feedback before we send it to the printer. Download: For the final feedback round, we only offer a PNG (2.6MB). There are more formats to come. Feedback: Use the comment section below for feedback ...

Social Media Marketing? Kaboom, Baby!

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 08:37:02 GMT

Last week on twitter, writing the dirty draft for this article, I claimed that social media marketer is just another word for spammer. If that upset you, don't read the following text. First, what are we talking about here? What is marketing? Marketing is "the commercial processes involved in promoting and ...

New and Dirty: Tweet Blogging

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 08:22:02 GMT

We all waste too much time reading (and writing!) boring text. Here is one solution to the problem. One might speculate if the true reason for boring text are the boring writers... but I prefer to blame it on the word processors. Word processors are all about orthography, grammar, editing, and ...