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Column Two
News and opinion on all things KM & CM |
James Robertson
Step Two Designs
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Written by James Robertson Step Two Designs |
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Articles by Month: October 2004
Is usability repeatable?Kevin Cheng has written a blog entry, asking: is usability repeatable? To quote: When one hires a carpenter, one can expect similar results between a any skilled carpenters. They all have a basic set of tools: hammers, saws, screwdrivers. All of which are used to help them do their jobs right every time. Usability has a pretty impressive toolkit as well: contextual inquiries, think aloud testing, personas, interviews, focus groups, etc. So if someone hires a competent usability consultancy, they should expect mostly the same results as the next, right? Posted by jamesr at 11:47 AM
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Use of narrative in interactive designNancy Broden, Marisa Gallagher, and Jonathan Woyte have written an article on the use of narrative in interactive design. To quote: Can narrative play a role in creating meaningful experiences online---not just for users but for design teams as well? Beyond the conceptual, there are practical applications of narrative in web design that many of us already use in our practice. Even large, business-focused projects can be approached within a holistic narrative framework, benefiting both the usability and design process. Posted by jamesr at 04:46 PM
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KL intranet workshop movedDue to the late notice and the impact of the fasting period, the Designing an Effective KM Intranet to be held in KL, Malaysia has been moved to 25-26 January 2005. This gives everyone plenty of notice to register for what will be an interesting and challenging workshop... Posted by jamesr at 12:53 PM
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Less for successAlice Dragoon has written an article on a piecemeal approach to KM projects, instead of the "big bang" approach. To quote: Smaller projects also provide a safer environment for trying out new KM concepts and adapting them to fit your organization. "KM for your company will never be the same as the KM you hear about in other companies, so you need to do lots of iterations to learn as you go," says Sam Marshall, KM specialist at a global European-based consumer goods company that he won't identify. "You can't import someone else's KM success into your company and expect it to work the same way any more than I can tell you I had a fantastic holiday in Scotland and you book the same holiday and have the same experience." [Thanks to elearningpost.] Posted by jamesr at 10:29 AM
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Top 10 ways to lose your intranet usersPaul Chin has written an article on ways of losing intranet users. His list:
[Thanks to WebWord.] Posted by jamesr at 10:25 AM
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Latest thinking in usability & IA (Brisbane, November)Just a quick reminder that it's only three weeks until the half-day Latest thinking in usability & IA seminar, being run in Brisbane on 18 November 2005. This will be covering:
[Seminar flier and registration form] Posted by jamesr at 05:08 PM
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UITest.comUITest.com is an interesting new site that makes it easy to check a site against a dozen or more validators, including:
[Thanks to the eGovernment Resource Centre.] Posted by jamesr at 10:39 AM
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When to use focus groupsKath Straub has written an article on when to use focus groups during user-centred design. To quote: Focus groups have a place very, very early in the product innovation process. They are appropriate for exploring unknown territory. This is territory where stakeholders do not yet have a clear idea of what their target customers want or need. It may be territory where stakeholders seek to fill a known (but largely misunderstood) gap in a product line. To this end, focus groups provide a good strategy for defining new products, systems or functionality or, subsequently, exploring user attitudes about a proposed new product or tool. [Thanks to the eGovernment Resource Centre.] Posted by jamesr at 10:30 AM
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Using training during CMS selectionI'm really pleased when I come across a new idea that can help people select a content management system more effectively. Now, the key challenge when choosing a CMS is building sufficient confidence that it's the right tool for the job. In most cases, you would use approaches such as:
Often though, what you are most interested in is not the functionality of the product, but its usability, particularly for novice users. One very interesting way of assessing this is to get the vendor to run a normal end-user training session with some representative staff, as part of the evaluation process. (In other words, get each of the short-listed vendors to run training before you have chosen the final product.) This should only take 1-2 hours of the vendors' time, and will greatly help you to work out whether the product really can be understood and used the staff who will actually be using the CMS. A simple idea, but a good one. (All credit must go to Sonia Carter for this idea.) Posted by jamesr at 05:57 PM
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CMS Watch publishes Enterprise Search ReportCMS Watch has just announced the launch of a new product: Enterprise Search Report. To quote: Written by longtime search guru Steve Arnold, the Report provides a comprehensive overview of enterprise search solution providers and best practices. The bulk of the report entails 10- to 20-page comparative evaluations of 28 enterprise search solutions. Like other CMS Watch offerings, the Report does not rank "best" vendors, but instead details the strengths and weaknesses of the various players, isolating vendor tendencies and identifying their suitability for different use cases. If this is as good as Tony's The CMS Report, then it will definitely make for interesting reading! Posted by jamesr at 01:19 PM
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NSW KM Forum (4 November, Sydney)Details on the upcoming NSW KM Forum meeting on 4 November in Sydney: The next meeting of the NSW KM Forum is on Thursday November 4th, at the usual Standards Australia venue. Posted by jamesr at 01:13 PM
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Using personas to create user documentationSteve Calde has written an article on using personas to create user documentation. To quote: Personas and other user-modeling techniques are often solely discussed as tools for product definition and design, but they are useful tools in other arenas, as well. Technical writers responsible for creating user documentation can benefit greatly from a well-defined persona set, too. [Thanks to InfoDesign.] Posted by jamesr at 10:20 AM
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Card sorting tools - final summaryDonna has posted another blog entry on card sorting tools, this time giving a summary of several of the most commonly-used. To quote: I posted a short summary of card sorting tools last week. At the time, I had looked at all of the tools and entered cards into the two that I thought would allow me to go further. I didn't intend on getting real users to use the tools - I ran a sort as part of a workshop and entered the outcomes into the tools myself. Posted by jamesr at 02:43 PM
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EthnoclassificationPeter Merholz has written a very approachable article on ethnoclassification, where users build their own "social" classification. To quote: But what if we could somehow peek inside our users’ thought processes to figure out how they view the world? One way to do that is through ethnoclassification -- how people classify and categorize the world around them. [Thanks to Tomalak's Realm.] Posted by jamesr at 11:41 AM
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Why you don't need a usability labElizabeth Neal has written on why you don't need a usability lab. To quote: You've read the usability articles on SitePoint.com and elsewhere, and you're convinced! It's time to get serious about testing the usability of your Website. Now you just have to convince your boss to spring for an elaborate laboratory with up-to-date computer equipment on one side and video monitor screens on the other, divided by a soundproof wall and a one-way mirror. Right? [Thanks to eGovernment Resource Centre.] Posted by jamesr at 06:58 PM
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Resistance to using breadcrumbsKath Straub has written an article exploring user resistance to breadcrumbs, and the issues surrounding their use in general. To quote: The resistance to using breadcrumbs is perplexing. They increase efficiency. They support site learning. They reduce the user's "where-was-I?" memory burden by providing a list of recently visited pages. They make it easier to cross levels of the navigation decision tree within the browse environment. Posted by jamesr at 04:52 PM
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IA trends survey results and analysisLou Rosenfeld has published the results of his recent IA survey. To quote: Swimming in the wake of disaster is a Good Thing: The surprising steadiness in the number of in-house IAs during the dark days of 2001-2002 makes more sense when placed in the broader context of IT budgeting. Organizations couldn't continue wasting large sums replacing one failed enterprise application with another that seemed more promising. It slowly became obvious to managers that CMS, portal, and search engine performance could be improved through the efforts of information architects and other humans who were actually far less expensive than purchasing a new silver bullet. Posted by jamesr at 05:11 PM
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Difference between a Content Management Framework and a Content Management System?Tony Byrne has written an entry examining the difference between a Framework and a System. To quote: The distinction between "framework" and "product" is most pronounced in the open-source community (c.f. the OSCOM matrix). People throw the two terms around loosely, but a framework typically represents a technology platform or base architecture, on which a CMS is a product (or several) can be built. I think this a useful distinction, and in fact, commercial CMS products roughly divide along these lines too, although most vendors now avoid calling their offerings platforms in an era where "out-of-the-box" has became de rigeur. Posted by jamesr at 03:58 PM
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Card sorting tools - a short summaryDonna has written a summary of currently-available card sorting tools. To quote: I was preparing a bundle of cards for a workshop today, and reminded by the recent discussion on a discussion list and peterme about cluster analysis, thought I'd have another look at computer-based card sorting tools. I was vaguely thinking of dropping the results into a couple of tools, comparing them and seeing if my reservations about cluster analysis were still valid. Posted by jamesr at 10:27 AM
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The top 5 risks of not managing your contentHilary Marsh has written an article on the top risks of not managing content effectively. The list:
Posted by jamesr at 09:56 AM
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The optimal layout of search result pagesHenrik Olsen has written an article on the layout of search results. To quote: The authors of this article have studied the optimal layout of search result pages. Their findings suggest that categorizing search results improve users' performance significantly. Posted by jamesr at 09:37 AM
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Content management without a systemD. Keith Robinson has written an article on content management without a system. To quote: It is quite possible, in fact could be preferable, to manage content and distributed authorship without the use of a content management system (CMS). Regardless, it’s very important to have a process in place before you chose a CMS. Posted by jamesr at 10:56 AM
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Headline syndication for intranetsAmy Gahran has written an article on content syndication and intranets. To quote: One way to increase interest in, and usage of, intranets is to tell people what's available there in an effective way. On that front, here's an opportunity to consider: You can feed relevant content to them, in nice, digestible chunks of headlines, allowing employees to quickly browse and choose what is relevant to them at that particular moment. Posted by jamesr at 10:51 AM
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An introduction to using patterns in web designRyan Singer has written an introductory article on using patterns in web design. To quote: There is a better way to manage this vast complexity than by making big decisions up front and hoping for the best. To make better sites -- sites that are functional, beautiful, and "usable" -- we have to break our design problems up into small independent chunks based on the real issues within our requirements. Christopher Alexander, who came up with this stuff, calls these chunks patterns. [Thanks to Nick Finck.] Posted by jamesr at 10:43 AM
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Information HuntersJuan C. Dürsteler has written a short article on information foraging theory, from a practical standpoint. To quote: One of the most interesting topics is, consequently, which strategies may be more appropriate in order to improve that search and how to implement them in the systems that serve and gather said information. [Thanks to elearningpost.] Posted by jamesr at 09:15 AM
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Using a "strawman" for page layout designDonna has also written the second CM Briefing, on the use of a strawman for page layout design. To quote: Designing the page layouts for a new or redesigned intranet can be complex. One of the most difficult aspects is creating the first layout. Starting with an empty screen, you need to determine what will go on each page and where it will go. Posted by jamesr at 05:42 PM
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Is your intranet "Under Construction"?Donna has written the first CM Briefing for this month, discussing the issue of intranet "under construction" signs. To quote: In the early days of the web, it was very common to find entire websites marked as 'under construction', complete with animated roadwork icons. It was so common that there are a number of websites dedicated to the issue, highlighting it as poor practice. Posted by jamesr at 05:32 PM
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Rolling out a records management systemMy KM Column for this month looks at rolling out a records management system. To quote: With the shift towards electronic records (including documents and e-mails), efforts have instead turned to rolling out an electronic records management system (RMS) across the entire organisation. The challenge then becomes ensuring that staff throughout the organisation adopt the use of the system, and take on the added responsibilities involved. Posted by jamesr at 05:25 PM
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Making a better open source CMSJeffrey Veen has written a blog entry on open source CMS products. To quote: I did some research recently at OpenSourceCMS.com -- a fantastic site that lets you play with dozens of CMS installations -- and left pretty depressed. What I experienced was obtuse and complex software that was packed with gratuitous features at the expense of usability and user experience. It was software written by geeks, for geeks. This whole category of software desperately needs to be redesigned with writers, editors, designers, and site owners in mind. Posted by jamesr at 11:38 AM
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Buy local...Australians doCMS Watch has published an article I've written on the Australian CMS marketplace, and regional markets in general. To quote: Based on press coverage, you could be forgiven for thinking there are only a handful of international Web CMS vendors that dominate the marketplace. In fact, the opposite is true, with many areas of the globe served by a strong set of local CMS vendors, with few if any dominant players. Regions such as Australia, Europe and even the USA all have a well-established local marketplace, with a range of products that are little heard-of outside national or regional boundaries. Posted by jamesr at 11:33 AM
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Server side usabilityHenrik Olsen has written an article on server-side usability. To quote: Most usability professionals don't have a driver's licence to web servers and are not aware of the steps that can be taken to make servers behave in a user-friendly way. In this article, we'll take a look at how to avoid that server technology becomes an obstacle to usability. [Thanks to InfoDesign.] Posted by jamesr at 07:09 PM
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Overseas tripsIn the last few months I've had a number of requests to present at conferences, or run whole workshops, overseas. This is what's booked in for the rest of the year:
These should all be great events, and I look forward to meeting some of you there... Posted by jamesr at 04:17 PM
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