Challis Hodge’s UXblog

Tog and the Nielsen Norman Group are building a new professional organization–IAA (Interaction Architects Association). See Tog’s July Column. Didn’t we just do this with AIFIA? Hasn’t the issue of respect been raised in every generation of designer since Raymond Lowey?

Tog mentions the usability Profession as a model example. Having been a part of that movement, I’m not sure I agree with his assessment.

I also have to say it felt really wrong reading this article while simultaneously being presented with the Nielsen Norman Group User Experience 2003 advert in the right column. Nothing wrong with either one by themselves, but together I’m not sure they work. I need a reality check here folks. What do you think about this?

Sign up to discuss this topic further: groups.yahoo.com/group/interactionarchitects

Lou Rosenfeld got his hands on the Top 25 UX Position Titles & Job Roles data and drew some conclusions.

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In Jakob Nielsen’s July 23, 2000 Alertbox: End of Web Design he suggests that users want all sites to be the same, that visual design is of little importance and that the user experience is in the network. While putting users through a maze of unfamiliar interface elements has always proved a bad move, cloning sites like Amazon.com is equally dangerous. There’s no doubt that content will continue to be shared and parsed to a variety of devices and platforms. The difficult part is predicting how users will insist on receiving and customizing this content. These types of predictions cannot be made by armchair quarterbacks. A clear picture of the context in which new products and services will be used is crucial. It requires deep user understanding, something that has been missing in the process of designing many digital products and services introduced recently. The result: many failed products and services, lost customers and revenues, and many dotbombs.Nielsen makes a good point when he suggests we need to move away from the software development legacy of sorting users into expert and novice classes. Technology, content, and context change so rapidly today that everyone is a novice yet everyone is an expert in their own lives.

Michael Sippey and Mark Hurst had some additional comments on the article. We all seem to agree that the network will be a major factor in delivering successful user experiences in the future. Suggestions on how ranged from standardized content and generic design to designers delivering highly customizable products and services. The real answer is somewhat in between. People will be adopting specific and relevant products and services that allow for minimal customization. Anything short of this will be rejected.

We will see many products and services come and go over the next 12-18 months as entrepreneurs and established businesses continue to learn the hard lessons of Understanding Their Customers!

Thanks Jakob, Michael and Mark

Seven Pitfalls to Avoid in Information Architecture
Good article by Louis Rosenfeld, President, Argus and Associates. Well said as usual Lou!

We haven’t seen the book yet, but judging by the site, Martin Dodge and Rob Kitchin’s Mapping Cyberspace is worth a look. For all the talk in the industry about navigation and information architecture, there are ideas here that could still use more hype. For instance, “sometimes structure *is* content.” The landscape as a whole can be as interesting and informative as any of the places on the map. Check out the gallery for a lot of inspiring scenery. We’re not sure much of this is ready for direct application to the workaday web; a lot of it was created for very narrow or specialized audiences. But it’s great to have all this material in one place. It reminds us that it’s possible to fit a *lot* of information in a single view, and that there are new exciting ruts for us to get stuck in well beyond the “sites and pages” metaphor. We also like the fact that Dodge and Kitchin draw attention to the social interactions that take place on this new landscape. Not pages, places. Not interactions with pages, but interactions in and through places, social
exchanges shaped by place.

On-line Library of Information Visualization Environments
Speaking of visualization… most of you blogites are probably already aware of the University of Maryland’s “Online Library of Information Visualization Environments,” or OLIVE for short. But just in case, here’s a reminder.