tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238934542008-07-02T18:56:33.165-04:00stephen turbekstephennoreply@blogger.comBlogger29125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23893454.post-59078499462491499742008-03-01T22:20:00.006-05:002008-03-01T22:49:50.436-05:00How to make personas useful (and it’s not stock photos)Personas are a popular user experience deliverable, whose purpose and use are often misunderstood. This article suggests ways to make personas useful, and not just a pretty face.
As a UX consultant, this was a familiar scene: our team had worked late hours for this Friday client review. The deliverable this week: Personas. After 4 weeks of user interviews, the client was getting anxious: were stephennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23893454.post-29484987644089129462008-01-16T21:16:00.004-05:002008-03-01T21:38:37.949-05:00Advancing Advanced SearchPublished on Boxes and arrows on 16 Jan 2008
16 Jan 2008
Advanced search is the ugly child of interface design -always included, but never loved. Websites have come to depend on their search engines as the volume of content has increased. Yet advanced search functionality has not significantly developed in years. Poor matches and overwhelming search results remain a problem for users. Perhaps stephennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23893454.post-63330990550374575382007-04-15T13:15:00.000-04:002007-10-16T21:38:02.753-04:00What I learned from my failed web 2.0 projectFrom April till December 2006, I conceived, designed, and coded survee.com (see some cached pages), an attempt to
build an new approach to online surveysexplore AJAX codingStart a companytry out new interaction modelsThough I dropped the project, it was very satisfying and it taught me some lessons. I'm attempting here to make those clear to myself and perhaps others. This project was no big stephennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23893454.post-53137082758769982952007-04-03T11:44:00.000-04:002007-04-03T14:26:59.771-04:00Automatically Create Table of Contents in VisioI use Visio to create wireframe documents, and as updating Tables of Contents in Visio is very dull, I wrote a macro (a small program) that automatically generates a Table of Contents list for a Visio document. It is stored in a Stencil.
The Table of Contents format is:
1 First Page
2 Another Page
3 Etc Page
(Where the page title comes from the page title seen in the tabs at the bottomstephennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23893454.post-1160573115661751132006-10-11T09:16:00.000-04:002007-04-03T14:04:55.858-04:00Real Wireframes Get Real Results by Stephen Turbek Published on 09/19/2006
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/real_wireframes
Read the PDF
“Just because project teams understand the purpose of wireframes, that doesn’t mean everyone will. Similar to listening to someone sing out loud to his iPod: we only hear the singing, while the person hears the whole stephennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23893454.post-1149524237130857772006-05-20T12:08:00.000-04:002006-06-05T12:17:17.153-04:00Improving Web Navigation with the "All-Menu" Navread the PDF
When DHTML was first introduced, there was much discussion over the complexity of dropdown menus. “Will users know to roll over the menu to display them?” “Can users handle elements that appear and disappear?”
Over time, the desire to include more links outweighed the additional complexity. Dropdown menus are a standard feature of many websites. But usability problems remain.
stephennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23893454.post-1145910299727076952006-04-24T16:19:00.000-04:002007-10-16T22:14:11.915-04:00Your Interface is your companyAvenue A | Razorfish whitepaper
Read the more beautiful PDF
Problem
Online interfaces have become the primary way clients transact with financial services firms, yet many of today’s interfaces are poor reflections of these firms.
Solution
Financial services firms should respond through a greater investment in online systems for internal and external users.
Benefit
A user-centered design stephennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23893454.post-1143688176773112592006-03-29T22:07:00.000-05:002007-06-22T21:55:43.093-04:00Better practices for rich internet applications in financial servicesA presentation at the 2006 Boston Usability Professionals Association Mini-Conference
see the PDF (1 meg)
stephennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23893454.post-1151600439336354702006-03-21T12:55:00.000-05:002006-06-29T13:00:39.346-04:00Presentation on Research and Workflow TechniquesResearch and Workflow Techniques: Designing complex applications with digital and manual components
Stephen Turbek and Mary-Lynne Williams
Presented to the Intranet Benchmarking Forum, 21 March 2006
This presentation summarizes techniques for designing complex applications, though as always with presentations, much more was said than appears on the slides.
PDF version
Powerpoint versionstephennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23893454.post-1142124774153851682006-03-11T19:51:00.000-05:002006-03-23T18:05:21.270-05:00The Lazy IA's Guide to Making Sitemapsby stephen turbek
Published 29 Jan 2006 at boxesandarrows.com and Edited by Liz Danzico
This article further develops the excellent Automating Diagrams with Visio by Michael Angeles. Sitemaps are common deliverables, desired by clients who want a visual representation of a site. Since they are rarely used to make decisions, information architects may not consider them the valuable tools stephennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23893454.post-1143142427792419272005-04-13T14:23:00.000-04:002006-03-23T14:37:37.283-05:00Does IT outsourcing actually work?-a view from the trenches Stephen Turbek 13 April 2005
The goal of this essay is to educate business and technology leaders to make planning decisions. Even if your company has chosen to outsource development, project management decisions can determine the success or failure of the project. Why don’t we know? The discussion of IT outsourcing has been dominated by the advertisements stephennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23893454.post-1143140008599177732004-01-17T13:51:00.000-05:002006-04-05T10:19:55.726-04:00How to Argue By stephen turbek 17 January 2004 Everyone knows that you should be able to argue well. Anyone who doesn’t is an ignorant stooge and will get what’s coming to them. The philosopher Aristotle, one of the smartest people ever, said that logic was the highest form of thinking. All of the problems in the world, from poverty to war, are the result of a lack of logic. If only we would follow stephennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23893454.post-1143141434572764072003-01-01T14:15:00.000-05:002006-04-05T10:22:48.470-04:00Intelligence is not enoughIntelligence is not enough 2003
stephen turbek The emergence of cheap, powerful microchips has enabled us to build intelligence into everyday objects, from washing machines that sense dirt to refrigerators that order food. We are seemingly only steps away from building computers that can leave the desktop and take care of our chores. It is worthwhile to take a moment to look at what are stephennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23893454.post-1143139586938554632002-03-23T13:44:00.000-05:002006-04-05T10:11:38.053-04:00We're getting what we orderedWe're getting what we ordered What food additives say about us as consumers. 2002 By Stephen Turbek Edited by Liz Danzico If you are reading this article, you probably don't grow your own food. But consider what you've eaten today. Do you know where it came from? What was added to it? How old it is? In this age of mad cow disease and genetically modified corn, you cannot simply stephennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23893454.post-1142203728507336512001-03-26T17:45:00.000-05:002006-03-23T13:43:21.940-05:00The Good LoginA short paper on login best practices, part of the Razorfish "The Good..." series.
view the PDF (570K)
stephennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23893454.post-1142880201120939192001-01-31T13:37:00.000-05:002006-05-01T12:20:18.910-04:00What is Audio Design?By Gavin Shepherd with Stephen Turbek
31 January 2001Read original PDF
“A third of the effect of ‘Psycho’ was due to the music.” -Alfred Hitchcock Since the early days of film, sound has been added to increase the richness of the experience. Before there were soundtracks, an organist played a carefully crafted musical score along with the movie. Sound is necessary to tell the story: themesstephennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23893454.post-1143154608051278482001-01-29T17:55:00.000-05:002006-03-23T17:56:48.050-05:00The OSI Model and Youby David Neier, with Stephen Turbek
The Open System Interconnection (OSI) model describes the way in which information travels across a network. This report illuminates some of the inner workings of your computer as it browses the Web. 29 January 2001
Read the PDFstephennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23893454.post-1143154529287600252001-01-22T17:54:00.000-05:002006-03-23T17:55:29.286-05:00An Introduction to XMLXML, the eXtensible Markup Language is a simple, flexible, open system for sharing data between organizations. Though generally invisible to the user, it is rapidly changing the way information is exchanged and is used in thousands of applications. 22 January 2001
Read the PDFstephennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23893454.post-1143154481698620732001-01-12T17:53:00.000-05:002006-03-23T17:54:41.700-05:00Tales from the CryptographySecure Internet transactions have been as important as the Web browser in making the Internet useful. This report gives an overview of Public Key encryption and a brief history of cryptography. 12 January 2001
Read the PDFstephennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23893454.post-1143154432389186752000-12-11T17:53:00.000-05:002006-03-23T17:53:52.390-05:00Telecoworking and YouCollaboration with distant colleagues is one of the biggest challenges in the new workplace. Here are some ways to make it easier. 11 December 2000
Read the PDFstephennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23893454.post-1143141084458344192000-12-04T14:06:00.000-05:002006-03-23T17:42:30.160-05:00Analog and Digital
By stephen turbek 12/4/2000 What does it mean to be “digital”? Why has the word ‘analog’ become synonymous with natural, old, or human? Why exactly is the future digital? Is there a difference between ‘data’ and ‘media’? This report reviews the recent history of analog and digital technology and tries to explain why we went in this direction. What is ‘analog’? When we speak of stephennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23893454.post-1143154375897245112000-11-06T17:51:00.000-05:002006-03-23T17:52:55.896-05:00The Future of Plug and PlayPlug and Play technology is poised to make computers much simpler, if only we can agree on a standard.
Read the PDF stephennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23893454.post-1143154271706371222000-10-23T17:50:00.000-04:002006-03-23T17:51:11.706-05:00Are Cookies Monsters?Cookies have been fingered as agents against personal privacy, but in reality, they work for you.
Read the PDFstephennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23893454.post-1143154222901597462000-10-02T17:49:00.000-04:002006-03-23T17:50:22.900-05:00Digital Sharing Ends Media ScarcityDigital media can be easily duplicated, making it difficult to control the supply. A new model for commerce will emerge.
Read the PDF
stephennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23893454.post-1143154171990566892000-07-28T17:48:00.000-04:002006-03-23T17:49:31.990-05:00What Can We Learn From Games?Games illustrate what a good interactive experience can be.
Read the PDF
stephennoreply@blogger.com