I draw boxes

November 2, 2009

Life as a consultant

Filed under: General musings — Chris @ 6:54 pm

I’ve just finished my first 2 months working as a consultant. On 1st September 2009 I started work at EMC Conchango, the number 2 digital agency in the UK (according to the NMA top 100 list). Life as a consultant definitely seems different to working in an agency. I’ve jotted down a few of the differences here. (more…)

November 14, 2008

Great digital marketing ebooks from Wunderman

Filed under: General musings — Chris @ 3:39 pm

I came across these great digital marketing ebooks (PDFs) from agency Wunderman. In particular the one entitled How to think digital. They seem to be freely available – enjoy!

http://pubs.wunderman.com/digital/

July 24, 2008

The user experience of a toilet on South West Trains

Filed under: General musings, Product design, User Experience — Chris @ 5:21 pm

Whitney Hess’s recent post about the user experience of a staircase reminded me that user experience design is everywhere and affects us everyday. Don Norman’s seminal work The design of everyday things analyses the design of many objects, such as telephones and doors. I came across this terrible design recently and had to share it here. (more…)

July 9, 2008

Structuring my presence on the web

Filed under: Information Architecture — Chris @ 2:46 pm

Since I started I draw boxes I’ve realised that I’d like to have more on my website than just information architecture resources. Which leads me to wonder what the best way to structure my site is. (more…)

July 7, 2008

Should IAs be involved thoughout the web development process?

Filed under: General musings, Information Architecture, Interface design — Chris @ 5:49 pm

A fundamental question for me relating to the information architect role is how we fit in to and interact with the wider web team, and to what extent IAs should be involved throughout the web process. (more…)

June 19, 2008

First impressions of Axure software

Filed under: Information Architecture, Interface design, Technology — Chris @ 5:55 pm

I’ve spent the afternoon installing and reading about Axure web prototyping software. It takes Visio functionality to the next level, by adding the ability to define and output complex interactivity and AJAX-style controls. (more…)

June 16, 2008

Wireframes are simply facilitators for discussion

Filed under: Information Architecture — Chris @ 4:20 pm

The title of this article should really be: IA documentation is simply a facilitator for discussions. And the key point is this: in a web project we’re all (as a team) trying to develop a set of complex shared understandings about what this product will be and how it will work. As long as the IA documentation helps us do this in the most effective way, that is all that matters. (more…)

The stupidity of rel=nofollow

Filed under: Search engines, Technology — Chris @ 3:01 pm

I am truly baffled by the existence of the rel=nofollow attribute on wordpress comments. Even more so by that fact that it is enabled by default, and can only be disabled by installing a plugin.

It seems to me that inter-linking between blogs is exactly what the web is about. Democracy of content, freedom of speech and sharing opinions. Why shouldn’t a commenter on a blog get some search engine ‘credit’ from the page they have chosen to enrich by commenting on? (more…)

Good books

Filed under: Books, Information Architecture, Interface design — Chris @ 11:06 am

Two books that have changed the way I look at design. (more…)

June 12, 2008

Yes/no questions: dropdown, radio buttons or checkbox?

Filed under: Information Architecture, Interface design — Chris @ 3:09 pm

Today I came across a dropdown menu in a web form for a yes/no question, and it didn’t sit well with me. Far too much for the user to think about when making their choice.

To enable the user to express a preference in this way you could use:

  • Radio buttons
  • A checkbox
  • A dropdown menu (more…)
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