Noise Between Stations

March 2004

  • A complex stream containing numerous clusters of value satisfactions

    •

    1 min read

    The Whole Whole Product is essentially about customer experience: ‘The core focus has shifted from ³how good can we make our product?² to ³how happy can we make our customers?² Two very different questions, looking at the marketplace from two very different perspectives.’ But it’s from a marketing perspective, so you get different terminology: ‘A…

  • Volunteering pays

    •

    1 min read

    In one week the Intro to IA brochure (PDF) I created with Dan Willis has been translated into Spanish and Japanese. The latter was also printed in the Japanese journal ‘WebSite Design vol.10,’ who did a great job with the layout, not surprisingly considering its overall quality. And they paid me $65. Not a huge…

  • Tools for Women

    •

    1 min read

    I saw the Barbara K tools for women in Bed, Bath & Beyond this weekend and they’re very nice, the handles are all curvy and feel great. After owning hammers whose head would slide off the handle I now own a solid, heavy hammer I love, but my wife thinks it’s too heavy. In a…

  • The IA goods, en español

    •

    1 min read

    The AIfIA Translation Initiative translated several new pieces from me and several others into Spanish.

  • Tyco Jury Sent Home to Calm Down

    •

    1 min read

    “This is not a hung jury based upon a lack of unanimity,” the note continued. “This is a jury that has ceased to be able to conduct respectful, open-minded, good-faith deliberations.” I was on a criminal court jury last summer, deliberating a case that could have put someone in jail for a long time. I…

  • Shut Up ‘N Draw Yer Wireframe

    •

    1 min read

    We’re posting our wireframe templates over on the Asilomar site.

  • Top Ten Things They Never Taught Me in Design School

    •

    1 min read

    From Michael McDonough, I’m still learning these lessons.

  • How topic maps and ontologies compare to taxonomies and thesauri

    •

    1 min read

    Metadata? Thesauri? Taxonomies? Topic Maps! Making sense of it all from Lars Marius Garshol, on my to-read list.

  • History

    •

    0 min read

  • Headline! Radio buttons originally controlled radios

    •

    1 min read

    If you’ve read About Face, you know about how to use radio buttons. But if you haven’t read Tog on Interface, you don’t know how they were invented, or why they’re called that. You really don’t need to, but it’s damn interesting, and while the book is outdated, Tog is funny as hell. Actually, it…

  • Cost and Style

    •

    2 min read

    My post on eBay-as-Flea Market received a bit of attention, including — judging by the referers — some folks from eBay. Later discussions with Tanya and Owen refined these ideas a bit, namely: I was a bit sloppy in my use of the word design. eBay’s design works, though the style of the site —…

  • Handling error messages

    •

    1 min read

    Julie Stanford and Todd R.Warfel offer a good guidelines for handling error messages.

  • Litmus test for scent/meaning

    •

    1 min read

    I’ve plowed through the research on information scent, and while they seem to be learning something about how people think about links and navigation, it’s not clear if there’s anything actionable for designers to take away from it. So I continue to think about how to create scent, or really, how to make links meaningful…

  • Shifting information goals

    •

    1 min read

    Peterme nicely illustrates shifting goals in the information seeking process — complete with screen shots — revealing the complexity of navigation design: ‘My original “goal” was to learn about Ann Willoughby. On reading that page about Ann, my goal shifted…. Shifting and evolving goals are not only common — they are the norm.‘ Someone at…

  • Interface Politics

    •

    1 min read

    I’m not sure if Christina coined the term, Interface Politics, but it so nicely sums up what it describes I need to steal it.