Thank you readers, clients, partners and friends for a great 2009 – we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2010!
Read postYear: 2009
Tip: Print out your usability testing tasks
Moderated, task-based testing is the mainstay of usability testing and most practitioners are familiar with it. At Volkside we normally give participants their tasks verbally, however more recently we have experimented with also giving them a printed copy of each task. Read the full post for more.
Read postKeep your memos to one page or less
Ricardo Semler urges us to keep our memos short: “If you really want someone to evaluate a project’s chances, only give them a single page to do it — and make them write a headline that gets to the point, as in a newspaper.” Semler is the CEO of the industrial conglomerate Semco and the author of Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World’s Most Unusual Workplace (1993). Read the full post for more.
Read postPoster: Card sorting guidelines for participants
In recent card sorting sessions, we have made a poster with “card sorting guidelines” available to the participants. These guidelines serve as a quick reference when the participants are immersed in sorting the cards and remind them of the “do’s” and “don’ts” in grouping and labelling. Read the full post for more.
Read postDesign detail: An easier music video directory
We helped redesign an online service called Dancentral, “the ultimate dance music video directory.” See the full post for ‘before’ and ‘after’ screenshots and further details.
Read postTest your information architecture using C-Inspector
It is important that users can easily find the information they are looking for on your website – otherwise they’ll leave. It’s a good idea to test your new information architecture with real users before building the site.
Read the full post on how to run effective IA testing using a new tool called C-Inspector and how it compares to Optimal Workshop’s Treejack.
Read postIntroducing Spiritedd: Share your favourite drives online
We have just launched a new online service Spiritedd – “inspiring drives for spirited drivers.” It allows you to post your favourite drives online and share them with fellow spirited drivers. Read the full post for background and further information.
Read postNaview videos: Introduction and sharing navigation structures
Read the full post for a video introduction to Naview and an overview of the new sharing functionality.
Read postCV and resume pointers for user experience designers
A friend of mine recently wanted to pick my brains on CVs and resumes for User Experience designers. Read the full post for my response with useful pointers to various online resources.
Read postDesign detail: An easier login form
Jakob Nielsen recently posted an article urging designers to stop masking passwords on web forms. We came up with several additional ways of improving your website login form – read the full post for details.
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