Inter-Org Navigation Bar

Task: design a navigation bar for thousands of disparate experience design-type people in 15 minutes or less. Go.

Process

1. Users: assume users are only aware of the organization they are currently viewing. Therefore, include both the abbreviation and the full name in the nav.
2. List sites to include -> see Keith's user experience directory (did I miss any?)
3. Survey those sites to get a sense of current layout
4. Create nav bar layout that is compatible with most sites (all may be impossible)
5. or...create a few different versions and give each org the option of which to use (could this present an issue of inconsistent 'branding'? perhaps not if the above assumption about users is true)
6. Logos will be a color palette nightmare. Will each organization's users even recognize or learn to recognize them? Try leaving them out.
7. Try to separate content from presentation, e.g. use css tags for fonts to let each site specify the right size and face (another instantiation of the branding issue above)

Designs

I'm basically riffing off the work Keith has done since it's a great start.

A horizontal nav bar, and in context of the AIGA homepage (forgot to sync the link colors, which would make it blend better).

A vertical nav bar, and in context of the ASIS homepage.

Observations

• Both of these versions take up a lot of real estate, and reducing the word count will reduce meaningfulness. Perhaps instead of a nav bar it would be better to simply use a "Related professional organizations" link that went to Keith's user-experience.org site.
• Looking at the nav in isolation, with all those organizations together like that, is a beautiful thing. It sends a strong message.
• Surfing from site to site is weird, they're visually so different the connection isn't obvious. Could this experience raise more eyebrows than cooperation? Or might it challenge preconceived notions in a useful way?
• I don't think inserting a little nav bar on someone's homepage will be quite that easy. It feels like a sneaky back-door way of furthering a larger agenda.
• The actual time of this exercise was closer to an hour. Factoring in real HTML skills and the necessarily planning and coordination, this could require a few days worth of work and real graphic/HTML/CSS skills.
• Wow, the UPA kicks ass in the sponsorship department. Score one for righteous user-advocacy!