http://www.steptwo.com.au/columntwo/archives/001138.html Jared M. Spool has written an article on the using a technique he calls inherent value testing. To quote: Inherent Value Testing showed us what was valuable about the site and its underlying services. It gives us a concise, easy way to learn how well the site communicates value and where it falls short. With the results of this…
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Usability: drawing outside the lines
Molly Holzschlag writes about the tension between usability heuristics and real-world needs. To quote: Although one-size-fits-all usability concepts provide a good foundation for designers interested in creating usable sites, a great user experience has far more to do with what you know about your users than what the books tell you. Molly Holzschlag shows you how to draw outside the…
User centered information retrieval
Marcel van Mackelenbergh has created a fascinating site on user centered information retrieval. This answers a range of common questions, such as “How to test information retrieval” and “How to improve metadata?”. A good site, well worth visiting.[Column Two]
Building better teams
MITSloan Management Review has published the results of research into knowledge sharing in teams. To quote: There were two major findings. First, teams that shared knowledge, both intragroup and externally, tended to perform better. This result confirmed much earlier research. Second, as the diversity of teams increased so did the correlation between external knowledge sharing and performance. That is, structurally…
Ethnography applied to new product development
Elizabeth Sanders has written an article on applying ethnography to product development. To quote: Applied ethnography is gaining widespread acceptance as a research technique. But many companies are still puzzled by it, or do not know how to use it effectively – especially in the new product development (NPD) process. This article will explain the fundamentals of this technique, and…
New project : topic maps Wiki
Alexander Johannesen has started a project to develop a topic maps-based Wiki, which looks to be very interesting. To quote: I’ve been planning a new project for some time, and this is the initial Release of Ideas. The project has been brewing for some time, but needs have arisen for me to actually get it up an running in a…
Blogs for Professional Advantage
http://ross.typepad.com/blog/2004/02/blogs_for_profe.html John Battelle‘s collumn at Business2.0 suggests that blogs will become a staple of business (reg. req.): So here’s my prediction: Blogs will soon become a staple in the information diet of every serious businessperson, not because it’s cool to read them, but because those who don’t read them will fail. In short, blogs offer an accelerated and efficient…
Wizards and Guides: Principles of Task Flow for Web Applications Part 2
In part one of this article the discussion was one of views, forms, and the manner in which they could be combined into a task structure known as a hub. This installment expands on those themes by exploring two other types of task structures commonly employed in web applications–wizards and guides.
NewsGator RSS Aggregator
I pulled the trigger and bought a copy of NewsGator today. I live, breathe, and dream in Outlook and it is by far the best solution I have found to date for reading news via RSS. I have been a long-time Radio user and will most likely continue to maintain my weblog there, but the aggregator has been giving me…
Test post from Newsgator
This is a test post from Newsgator via Outlook.