Archive for User Experience

Feb
04

“Hate” surfing

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It’s a new term I heard yesterday. “Hate” Surfing is when a business owner surfs the web looking around to see what others have posted about her business, such as negative comments, etc. This is part of the bigger picture called Reputation Management, and it also helps businesses to constantly improve their operation and offerings.

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Feb
03

Responsive Design reading

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New topics around Responsive Design such as Responsive Content and Responsive Content Thinking are emerging, and this ClickZ article handles these in a Feb. 1 post titled Responsive Design, Nimble Architecture. The bottom line is that a lot of upfront preparation and thought go into achieving a responsive site and good information architecture is essential. Web analytics can play an essential part of migrating an existing site into a new information architecture and responsive design. On the other hand, implementing a new design/architecture is a great time for a web analytics implementation checkup.

Jan
29

Toolbox Post: WhichLoadsFaster.com

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Most of my posts are probably ‘toolbox posts’ as it turns out. Ever wondered which of two sites load the fastest? A site called Which Loads Faster can help you win bets, or at least get a handle on what is going on when two web sites load in the browser. Use the site to perform a test between two sites in the splash screen when you first hit the site, or select your own matchups. Have fun learning!

Jan
22

Mobile User Experience (UX) topics

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This well laid-out writeup of mobile web experience delivery came through a LinkedIn discussion today. I enjoyed reading it, because it mentioned the Responsive Web Design concept, which I can’t seem to get enough of. The following methods are detailed, and pros and cons for each delivery method are listed:

  • Standard Website
  • Responsive Web Design
  • Mobile Website
  • Mobile Application (mobile apps)

Enjoy!

Oct
20

Real-time analytics application

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Wow – how time flies. I’ve gone too long without posting!

New Relic appears to be an interesting performance and app monitoring package with a modern interface and great tools. I came across it the other day looking for some other web analytics information. A free trial is available, so I may give it a run and write about it here.

Until next time…!

Jul
30

Taxonomy and Information Architecture

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I’m still keeping lists of useful sites as I learn about information architecture (IA) concepts, taxonomy, user experience (UX) and knowledge management. The Taxonomy Guide at the University of Toronto in Canada contains many useful links and resources on these topics.

The University of Minnesota, Duluth is not to be outdone by UToronto – there are dozens of links to IA materials at their site. This site digs deep into IA methods such as card sorting, content inventory methods, prototyping and wireframing.

Here’s another site chock full of IA links.

Something for everyone…
There is definitely a site out there for everyone. This site is all about site indexes and there is even a special index group (SIG) dedicated to building a site index for any site.

Picking up again on the taxonomy topic, I found that Heather Hedden has written and spoken extensively about taxonomies, indexing and search. Her site contains links to numerous whitepapers, articles and presentations.

There’s even a Taxonomy Bootcamp (gasp!) in D.C. this November. It is co-located with some other related events such as the Knowledge Management World conference, the SharePoint Symposium and the Enterprise Search Summit.

Before getting too deep into a new information architecture, it may be time to chill out and take a content inventory.

Jun
12

Easy Web Site Analyzer

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I read about WooRank just today and I like it. Of course a paid offering exists, but the free offering covers a lot of ground when you need a quick read when evaluating a new website. It quickly summarizes traffic, search engine ranking, SEO qualities, server and other info to get you started quickly. If you need some background history on a site or domain, supplement the WooRank data with info from Netcraft.com.

While looking for Information Architecture (IA) tools recently, I just came across a new Firefox plugin which will be useful for User Interface (UI) prototyping and design called FluidIA. I’ve been using the Pencil plugin for Firefox off and on for a year now, so it will be nice to work with a new tool. FluidIA promises Fluid Information Architecture in the category of agile UI prototyping, which sets a high bar for usability and end results.

Along the same theme of this post…. have a look at the Midwest User Experience 2011 conference slides from last week.  Something here for everyone, and a neat little web analytics presentation as well.  Enjoy!

Mar
07

Good Riddance IE6

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In a merciful move to encourage (or shame) users into upgrading browsers, Microsoft has launched a campaign including a website to begin a countdown to a world free of its infamous Internet Explorer version 6 browser. Ask any developer about IE6 and you’ll get an earful of complaints about how it breaks sites coded with the best intentions and legal html and css. Enjoy the site, and tell a friend who might still run IE6 that the time is right to upgrade. (Unfortunately web developers still may need to keep a version around for testing purposes.)

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