Deliverables
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Automating Diagrams with Visio
by Michael Angeles | [53 comments]
By doing the demanding intellectual work first and then forcing the tools to succumb to need to produce seemingly speedy deliverables, you can get around the difficulty of choosing between "Good, Fast and Cheap." Here's one approach using Excel and Visio. more...
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Bringing Your Personas to Life in Real Life
by Elan Freydenson | [5 comments]
The way you communicate the personas and present your deliverables is key to ensuring consistency of vision. Without that consistency, you’ll spend far too much time arguing with your colleagues about who your users are rather than how to meet their needs. more...
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Building a Data-Backed Persona
by Andrea Wiggins | [14 comments]
While the imaginary persona is helpful in the design process, a data-backed persona lends even more depth and focus to the development process. Andrea Wiggins reveals some effective ways to back up your personas with data easily available today. more...
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Coherence, Context, Relevance: Special deliverable #2
by Dan Brown | [5 comments]
There are a lot of things that make deliverables good: coherence, context and relevance hardly constitute a comprehensive list. But by focusing on techniques that achieve coherence, context and relevance, information architects can address the challenges of starting a document, focusing the document and explaining its value. more...
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Comics: Not just for laughs!
by Rebekah Sedaca | [21 comments]
Using comics is a novel means of communicating complex design concepts. There is has been a lot of talk about it recently, but it this medium only reserved for artists? Rebekah Sedaca decided to give it a try. It worked and she's outlined her process and tools that you may be able to use. more...
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Content Analysis Heuristics
by Fred Leise | [9 comments]
Many Web professionals consider content inventories critical parts of most projects. Are there certain specific things to look for during a content inventory? Fred Leise definitely thinks so. He proposes a set of content analysis heuristics and discusses how to utilize each one. more...
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Defining Feature Sets Through Prototyping
by Laura S. Quinn | [10 comments]
Defining requirements and features can be a daunting task under the best of circumstances. The Vision Prototype allows the user-centered vision to be seen—and discussed—by all team members and then easily translated into a set of functional requirements. more...
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Deliverables and Methods: Special Deliverable #8
by Dan Brown | [3 comments]
To date this column has focused on how to make deliverables more effective, either through their content or through the tools to create them. For this issue, I would like to explore the relationship between deliverables and methodology. Unfortunately, this calls for a definition of IA methodology, which may challenge the definition of IA as the hardest question in our field. more...
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Faceted Feature Analysis
by Adam Polansky | [22 comments]
Adam Polansky tells us about how “Faceted Feature Analysis” takes the subjective needs of stakeholders and blends them with objective constraints in a way that ensures all points of view are fairly considered. more...
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Getting Creative With Specs: Usable Software Specifications
by Brian R. Krause | [10 comments]
Building architects don't have to think much about what the actual deliverables are to contractors and their clients, because their industry has traditions and standards for blueprints, balsa wood models, and computer-generated renderings. As user interface consultants, we have to think about this anew for every project. more...
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IA Library Quick Reference: Special Deliverable #7
by Dan Brown | [1 comment]
In this column, you’ll find an overview of three IA books from a deliverables point of view. The purpose of this article is not to say whether one book is better than another, or even to comment on the overall quality of the books, but to provide a guide to what kind of deliverables information you can find in each book, and where. more...
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Interactive Prototypes with PowerPoint
by Maureen Kelly | [18 comments]
Many designers use MS PowerPoint to conceptualize wireframes and get buy-in on project direction. Maureen Kelly shows us how to bring those same artifacts to life as an interactive prototype that allows you to validate the design at many levels. more...
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Know Your Place
by Nathan Curtis | [10 comments]
Popular wireframing tools allow for reuse of repeated elements: change a centralized module once and have it update across all your screens. Nathan Curtis offers practical tips for increasing wireframing efficiency in this story. more...
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Opening Pandora's Box: Special Deliverable #1
by Dan Brown | [8 comments]
In the first of a continuing series, Dan Brown will seek to elaborate on the preparation of deliverables, a crucial component in the maturation of Interactive Design. He will regularly explore the nuances of artifacts and share techniques that can help make your deliverables more valuable to other team members and clients. more...
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PDF Prototypes: Mistakenly Disregarded and Underutilized
by Kyle Pero Soucy | [32 comments]
Creating clickable PDF prototypes for new designs is a valuable tool that is often overlooked and underutilized. Kyle Pero Soucy demonstrates how we can replicate most interactive design elements without investing a lot of time and effort. more...
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Personas and the Role of Design Documentation
by Andrew Hinton | [23 comments]
Andrew Hinton digs into the origins of the persona and reflects on how business uses (or misuses) design documentation. more...
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Practical Plans for Accessible Architectures
by Frances Forman | [13 comments]
Accessible information architecture builds a bridge between planning, design, and development. Frances Forman gives us a place to start thinking more deeply about how information can be structured and transformed to make user interaction more flexible for everyone. more...
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Real Wireframes Get Real Results
by Stephen Turbek | [34 comments]
Information architects, afraid to step on designers' toes, may actually render wireframes unusable. Stephen Turbek talks about Verizon, the similarities between wireframes and iPods, and how to get real. more...
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Representing Content and Data in Wireframes: Special Deliverable #10
by Dan Brown | [10 comments]
Visio practically groaned as I opened the wireframes for my current project, which were in something like the twentieth revision. It was the usual story—poorly defined requirements and business rules—and my project folder was fast becoming the poster child for Feature Creep Flu. more...
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Site Diagrams: Mapping an Information Space
by Jason Withrow | [23 comments]
Site diagrams can be quite helpful in answering all kinds of hard questions. How to create the right diagram became a personal challenge for Jason Withrow. He shares his story through tips and techniques... more...