january 2011 archives

I read Jakob Nielsen’s latest AlertBox today, and wondered—even with all his caveats—what planet he lives on, suggesting that content sites should quiz their users to improve retention. I can’t see that working for any but a fraction of educational and maybe training sites. Unless maybe it was a user-initiated link: “Want to remember this tomorrow? Take a quiz!” (Which most users would probably ignore or find annoying anyway.)

On the up-side, the article contained a link to an older and more palatable article on the first rule of usability: Don’t listen to users (meaning watch and listen, don’t just listen).

posted by ted 2 hours ago

The Sartorialist is fashion blog run by blogger/photographer Scott Schumann out of New York. I like the “out of the box” thinking he has. The video touches on art, fashion and doing what you like. Awesome.

posted by frank 3 days ago · 0 comments

“Do you like to ski and eat chocolate?”
Tantalizing first sentence of an Information Architect job posting for the UN in Switzerland. Got my attention!

posted by ted 6 days ago

“Parallel & Iterative Design + Competitive Testing = High Usability”
Title equation from an interesting
article on usability and design process.
Nielsen makes it sound so easy…

posted by ted on Wednesday, Jan 19, 2011

Armin from Brand New posted last month a very interesting two part article of the best and worst identities of 2010:
The Best and Worst Identities of 2010, Part I: The Worst
The Best and Worst Identities of 2010, Part II: The Best

posted by pepe on Tuesday, Jan 11, 2011

We’re looking for designers to help create the websites and applications of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Qualifications:

Preferred Skills:

Examples of our websites:

LDS.org

Mormon.org

Newsroom.lds.org

Joseph Smith Papers.org

LDS Gospel Library for Mobile

LDS Mobile Tools *

Apply

Please apply online at https://careers.ldschurch.org/ for job ID#60463 (contract) or job ID# 60457 (full time). Note: an LDS Account is required to view jobs.

Please direct questions to [email protected]

posted by emmy on Monday, Jan 10, 2011

An interesting Top 10 List of Research-Based Usability Findings from Jeff Sauro’s “Measuring Usability” site. (I like his site, though I think it somewhat overemphasizes the importance of objective measures. So much of what is learned during a usability test, especially regarding potential solutions, is subjective and not easily measured…)

posted by ted on Thursday, Jan 06, 2011