Visual and Visible
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Icon Analysis
by Matt Queen | [34 comments]
Icons that are difficult to tell apart can lead to disastrous consequences. Queen shows us how studying the way the human visual system encodes information can lead to more effective icon design. more...
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Executive Dashboards
by Alex Kirtland | [7 comments]
Contrary to first impression, an “executive dashboard” is not found in a CIO's car. Rather, an executive dashboard, also known as a manager dashboard, executive cockpit, or digital cockpit, is a child of what in the 1980s was referred to as the Executive Information System (EIS). more...
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Visible Narratives: Understanding Visual Organization
by Luke Wroblewski | [13 comments]
Visual designers working on the web need an understanding of the medium in which they work, so many have taken to code. Many have entered the usability lab. But what about the other side? Are developers and human factors professionals immersed in literature on gestalt and color theory? more...
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Six Tips for Improving Your Design Documentation
by Ryan Olshavsky | [4 comments]
Good organization, complete information, and clear writing are, of course, key to the success of any design document, but there are some other, less-obvious techniques you can use to make your documents more readable and understandable. Here are a few of them. more...
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The Challenge of Dashboards and Portals
by Joe Lamantia | [20 comments]
Can components come to the rescue for executive dashboards? Much like IKEA uses interchangeable islands, counters, and cupboards to create a custom kitchen, by Joe Lamantia shows how it's possible to use a modular approach for executive dashboards. more...
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Ads Are Here To Stay: Planning For Ad Placement
by Alex Kirtland | [7 comments]
Site advertisements can interfere with content and disrupt layout. Yet they are most often part of website requirements, forcing IAs to come up with strategies for incorportating them. Is there a graceful way to handle ads online? more...
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Learning to Love the Pixel: Exploring the Craft of Icon Design
by Uday Gajendar | [5 comments]
Designing web-based enterprise software involves creating complex artifacts like architecture wireframes, object models, screen flows, and clickable prototypes in order to articulate aspects of the online experience for product stakeholders. But what does “craft” mean for interaction designers? more...
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What Does Rich Mean?
by Uday Gajendar | [14 comments]
Amid the hype of Web 2.0, "rich" has become a prime buzzword. Using the concepts of Classical rhetoric as a framework, Uday Gajendar looks to transcend the hype and dig into the value of richness for digital products. more...
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A Map-Based Approach to a Content Inventory
by Patrick C. Walsh | [24 comments]
A map-based approach to building a content inventory allows it to be a tool from the concept stages and throughout the life of the website. Patrick Walsh tells us why to use them, shows us how to create the maps, and how to leverage them over the long haul. more...
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Two Designers, Two Years, One Facelift...
by Alex Chang | [11 comments]
From contest winners to struggling to define what "magazine" means online, Alex Chang and Matt Titchener reinvented Boxes and Arrows' look and feel. Here is their tale... more...
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Building Block Definitions (Containers)
by Joe Lamantia | [4 comments]
Joe Lamantia dives deep into the components of the building block system. Each has a place in his design framework for dashboards and portals. See how you too can use these same elements in your work. (Part 3 in a series) more...
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Introduction to the Building Blocks
by Joe Lamantia | [14 comments]
Joe Lamantia covers the design principles underlying a building block system and the simple guidelines for combining blocks together to create any type of tile-based environment. (Part 2 in a series) more...
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Enhancing Dashboard Value and User Experience
by Joe Lamantia | [7 comments]
In this article, part five of a series, the author describes ways to enhance the long-term value and user experience quality of portals by encouraging portability and natural patterns of dialog and interaction around aggregated content. more...
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Three Lessons From Tufte: Special Deliverable #6
by Dan Brown | [1 comment]
Held up as a trio of “must have” books for the Information Architect, Tufte's books are the quintessential resource for information design. But many IAs may wonder how Tufte's principles can be applied to their daily work. Dan Brown offers three lessons from Tufte. more...
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Connectors for Dashboards and Portals
by Joe Lamantia | [4 comments]
This article is the fourth in a series sharing a design framework for dashboards and portals. In this installment, Joe Lamantia demonstrates how to connect content containers to ease navigation at all levels of the architecture. more...
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Using Design Visuals To Communicate Ideas
by Jeff Parks | [0 comments]
Jeff Parks talks to a few of the very talented folks from VizThink '08. more...
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Cues, The Golden Retriever
by Jamie Owen | [10 comments]
Jamie Owen explores how we can best utilize cues in our work by understanding how memory, cognitive psychology, and multimedia research affect how information is encoded and retrieved. more...