cimoc.de ~ news

Das komplette Interview von der New York Comic Con gibt's bei The Daily Cross Hatch.

Don Kyon hat nach seinem tragischen Tod ein neues virtuelles Zuhause bei myspace.com gefunden.

ein nächtliches Marathon-Monster aus Blot#4

eine traurige OpenSource-Monsterdame für Daily Monsters...

1. Making a Web Site Work - Consumer Sensitivity Boot Camp • Categories and Issues 1. Technical, e.g., interactivity, bandwith 2. Look and Feel, e.g., aesthetics, ease of use, consistency 3. Other, e.g., site navigation issues (Information Architecture) • What do you hate about the Web? • Can't find it - no index, table of contents, search, site map • Poor graphics and layout - huge eye stinging images, long and crowded pages • Bells and Whistles - unnecessary wow factors like improper use of Java applets, animated images, and blinking anythings • Inappropriate Tone - organizational jargon that alienates the user • Designer Centeredness - focus on the purpose of web site and not webmaster self expression • Under Construction - always to be avoided, usually synonymous with abandoned • Lack of Attention to Detail - typos, broken links, out-of-date or non-factual content • What do you like about the Web? • Aesthetics - cohesive and consistent look that creates a pleasing unique identity for the site • Big Ideas - effective communication with intelligent thought provoking writing and transparent page layout • Utility - the site's services matches the site's goal • Findability - good organization and ease of navigation • Personalization - tailoring the site to accommodate multiple audience types, e.g., browsers vs. searchers 2. Intro to Information Architecture • Role of the Information Architect • clarifies the mission, big picture understanding, and vision for the site • determines the content and functionality of the site • specifies how information will be found on the site by defining organization, navigation, labeling and searching systems • maps out a maintenance plan for the site for change and growth • thinks like an outsider but is organizationally savvy • thinks like an insider, knows the trenches and is aware of the politics • identifies the goals and content by getting bosses or clients to articulate their vision of the site • Disciplinary Background of the Information Architect • Graphic Design - creates integrated relationships between visual elements • Information and Library Science - organization of site working with searching, browsing and indexing technologies • Journalism - transfer of news wire skills to dynamic web information, e.g., push technology • Usability Engineering - testing and evaluating how the system works and system performance • Marketing - understands the audiences and communicates the message • Computer Science - sysadmin, programming skills that make the web "go", e.g., perl, javascript 3. Organizing Information • Organizational Challenges • support both casual browsing and directed searching • eliminate ambiguity, avoid one-size-fits-all approaches, rethink limited mental models of content labeling, be sensitive to political concerns • Organizing Web Sites and Intranets • Organizational Schemes - defines shared characteristics and groupings of content items 1. Exact - alphabetical (e.g., white pages), chronological (e.g., TV guide), geographical (e.g., US map) 2. Ambigious - topical (e.g., yellow pages), task oriented (e.g., menus), audience specific (e.g., members), metaphor driven (e.g, navigation elevator), hybrid (e.g., mixed ambigious sharing a page must still be somehow separated) • Organizational Structures - defines types of relationship between content items and groups 1. Hierarchical - mutually exclusive top-down tree approach with balanced breadth and depth 2. Database - bottom-up approach using controlled vocabulary, best used in subsites to repurpose the same content in different form 3. Hypertext - less structured flexible nonlinear links, best used for secondary organization to compliment hierarchical and database models • Creating Cohesive Organizational Systems • break site into components, information retrieval systems work best when applied to narrow domains of homogeneous content • provide multiple ways to access the same information • use a combination of hierarchical, database and hypertext on large web sites

• Logo - upper left corner and prominent • Tag Line - concise description of what the site is about and value to user • Emphasize Core Tasks - conspicuous location for controls used to select important tasks • Homepage - clearly identified as official starting page from all other pages on the site. No opening staging pages • About - info on the corporation/project • Contact Us - phone numbers and email addresses • Customer Focused Language - use labels and words that have the most meaning to the customer • Style Standards - consistency in layout, capitalization and general writing style • Abbreviations & Acronyms - efi (expand first instances) • Reveal Content - use examples if possible instead of descriptions • Archiving - recent content or searches should be available • Links - descriptive names (no click here) and color set for different states (link, visited, hover, active) • Navigation - instantly visible labeling containing similarly grouped items. Link to current page deactivated • Site Search - input box at top right on homepage • Graphics - decorate construction, never construct decoration (Pugin) • Scrolling - no horizontal scroll at 1024x768, most critical elements initially visible without vertical scroll • Text - limit font styles but use easily distinguishable styles and sizes to emphasize differences on a high contrast background • Window Titles - company name (do not include ".com" "welcome to.." or "homepage") with short tag line • URLs - simple to remember and should work with or without prepending www • News - succinct clickable headline that conveys information (not just copy). Include a "freshness" date • Ads - on the periphery, clearly labeled and identifiable as advertising • Site Downtime - scheduled maintenance notification. Custom 404 error page that includes site navigation • Registration - give short compelling reason/benefit for signing upJakob's Law of the Internet User Experience: Users spend most of their time on other websites.