Noise Between Stations

Month: May 2004

  • AIfIA, WSJ, and the PDB

    In today’s Wall Street Journal the Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture achieved something we wished for from the beginning, notice in the mainstream press. The story, Redesiging the PDB, quotes Wodtke and Morville among others in discussing how IA could influence attention paid to the infamous Presidential Daily Brief on Bin Laden.

    Unfortunately, the design community can’t agree on something as simple as Greg Storey’s one-page PDB redesign versus the undesigned original. One would think any attention paid to this document would be a good thing, but Edward Tufte disagrees, stating, ‘I think the design’s irrelevant.’ I hope that’s just the reporter screwing up his words.

    Perhaps the most cogent statement came from Janice Fraser who pointed to the intentions of the document’s originators: ‘[Mr. Storey’s redesign] shifts responsibility — and, moreover, accountability — for interpretation to the analyst or advisor who prepares the brief.‘

    Get more from Brett.

  • Expedia Link-Button

    Just when you thought you knew how radio buttons should work, Expedia introduces the Link Button:

    I stared for a few seconds, then guessed upon clicking the link it would give me an explanation of the term. Nope. It selects that option, same as if you clicked the radio button. Did Expedia do usability testing and found no one knew how to use radio buttons?

    More interesting is what lies just above the radio buttons, another form of mutually exclusive navigation:

    In this case the selected state is represented by a button which is not clickable. My personal preference is for links to load a new screen of information, not new form options, but that’s not a big deal. What’s odd is that they use two different and somewhat unconventional UI widgets right next to each other to do the same thing. Other options include putting some questions on the previous screen, inserting wizard questions, using all radio buttons, and even Amazon-style tabs might be more clear and exhibit more consistent behavior. Heck, why not use them all?

  • Rotman on Design

    I’ve mentioned the Rotman Management (University of Toronto) design issue (.pdf) recently, but having finished it I’d like to point out what’s worth reading in this worthy mag:

    First, if you’re printing just do pgs. 5-30. The rest is fluff and alumni only.

    The dean’s column on page 7 contrasts the business focus on optimization throughout the 20th Century with the design focus on invention: ‘Value creation in the 20th century was largely defined by the conversion of heuristics to algorithms. It was about taking a fundamental understanding of a ‘mystery’ ­ a heuristic ­ and driving it to a formula, an algorithm ­ so that it could be driven to huge scale and scope… I would argue that in the 21st century, value creation will be defined more by the conversion of mysteries to heuristics ­ and that as a result, we are on the cusp of a design revolution in business.‘

    On page 12 Darden professor Jeanne Liedtka takes a more intellectual view, contrasting design and science: ‘The most fundamental difference between the two, they argue, is that design thinking deals primarily with what does not yet exist; while scientists deal with explaining what is. That scientists discover the laws that govern today’s reality, while designers invent a different future is a common theme. Thus, while both methods of thinking are hypothesis-driven, the design hypothesis differs from the scientific hypothesis.‘

    Demand Innovation on page 26 is a quick case study by Adrian Slywotzky of Mercer Management Consulting on a product company that looks at the higher-order needs of its customers and creates services that help customers use its products. ‘These companies are focused on creating new growth and new value by addressing the hassles and issues that surround their products rather than by improving the products themselves. They have shifted their approach from product innovation to demand innovation.‘

  • IHT design evolution

    The IHT site received a lot of attention for its front-end code, but John Weir also put thoughtful work into the layout. Check out his case study on Smoking Gun (no permalink, click on the map of the world). It hurts that he strived to avoid scrolling and now IHT has two banner ads that push the article navigation below the fold, even on 1024×768.

    Update: The editor was kind enough to write in to say they are working on the problem and in the meantime it’s possible to use the entire right column to link to the next page. Although there’s no perceivable affordance, it’s a pretty neat form of navigation.

  • Free Flash gallery and slideshow apps

    What Flash does well: SimpleViewer, a gallery from Felix at Airtight, and Slide Show from Todd Dominey of Dominey Design. Thanks guys!

  • Kuniavsky on smart furniture

    Mike Kuniavsky has a nice spread in the new Metropolis magazine (not online yet). It’s great to see a blog post become a magazine article, with responses from the likes of IDEO.

  • 22 Questions for Peter Morville

    The InfoDesign interview:
    Q: Lesson Learned From .Com Burst:
    A: People live longer than companies.