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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: December 2004
Visio stencils for information architectsNick Finck has released a finalised set of Visio stencils for information architects. To quote: The Visio stencils on this page are free for downloading and using. They are designed to aid the work of Information Architects. In short, they are not for everyone, you may want to familiarize yourself with common IA practices before trying to use these stencils. Posted by jamesr at 02:15 PM
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Seasons Greetings!I'm just about to close up the office, and go on three weeks of holidays. The office will be reopening on January 17. So it would seem to be the right time to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! It's been a busy (but successful) year, and I'm looking forward to even greater things in the year to come... Posted by jamesr at 02:49 PM
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Intranet Planning DayAs our final piece of work for the year, we've released a new workshop titled the Intranet Planning Day. This day is designed to give you the opportunity to step back from the day-to-day running of the intranet, and to focus on your intranet strategy. It is equally relevant for organisations looking to redevelop their existing site, or those planning to implement a new intranet. Workshop dates: (Participants will get a complementary copy of the Intranet Roadmap, which forms the basis for the workshop structure.) Posted by jamesr at 02:44 PM
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Three steps to teaching decision-making onlineAmy Gahran has written a blog entry on teaching decision-making online. To quote: Decisions are a very important type of task. Maybe even the most important type, ultimately -- in business and other realms. I think e-learning can be incredibly valuable for teaching people how to make decisions such as evaluating, troubleshooting, researching, investigating, selling, communicating… you name it. But personally, I think that type of teaching is handled best if the act of making the decision (putting information to use) is separated from the "information dump" (facts, context, history, details, etc.). [Thanks to elearningpost.] Posted by jamesr at 08:02 AM
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Contextual editing: not dead yetAmy Gahran has written a blog entry on contextual editing in a CMS. To quote: In the realm of content management systems, I periodically see discussion of contextual (context-sensitive) editing: fine-tuning the final phrasing or presentation of content to suit the situation in which it will be displayed. There's a debate brewing over contextual editing for content that is handled by a CMS. Specifically, is contextual editing a thing of the past -- or should it be, at least for organizations that manage a ton of content via CMS? Posted by jamesr at 07:54 AM
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Web content management comes of age in 2004Gerry McGovern has written an article summarising web content management in 2004. To quote: 2004 was a year when web content came of age, as more and more organizations recognized it as an asset, not some commodity. More and more organizations have begun to put content first, technology second. Posted by jamesr at 08:02 AM
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Open Publish 2005This is an early announcement about Open Publish 2005, to be held in Sydney on 27-29 June 2005. For the first time, there will be a full stream devoted entire to web content management. I will be the co-chair for the conference, and will be responsible for this new focus. I think this will be an excellent conference which will give, for the first time, a real opportunity for practical discussion of web content management in an Australian context. Open Publish has always been a conference for practitioners, so the web content management stream will be much more than just "magic quadrants" and future directions. Posted by jamesr at 10:08 AM
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Usability & IA Fundamentals workshopsWe will very shortly be publishing a full calendar of workshops for the first six months of 2005. As a starting point, we've announced two pairs of "Fundamentals" workshops, as follows: Canberra:
Sydney:
Special note: for the first time, we are offering a $100 discount on the second day (IA) if you register for the first day (usability testing). Watch this space for more workshop announcements over the next fortnight... Posted by jamesr at 12:56 PM
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Using a Wiki for documentation and collaborative authoringMichael Angeles has written an article on using wikis for documentation and collaborative authoring. To quote: Documentation may help to ensure efficiency, continuity and consistency in library operations. Library technical staff might consider the use of collaborative publishing software for documenting their internal processes and procedures. Wiki software for collaborative web publishing has emerged as one of the viable and inexpensive options to consider for maintaining group documentation. There are many inexpensive or free Wiki packages at our disposal and while they may not necessarily bend to meet our every requirement, with a little work can serve many of our needs. (This article is written from a librarian's perspective, but is generally applicable to anyone looking for practical ways of collaboratively managing documentation.) Posted by jamesr at 08:23 AM
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The right trigger wordsJared M. Spool has written an article on using the right trigger words when designing sites. To quote: The Move-Forward-Until-Found Rule: When dealing with information, a web page can do only one of two things: either it contains the content the user wants or it contains the links to get them to the content they want. If a page doesn't follow this rule, then the users stop clicking and they aren't likely to find their target content. Posted by jamesr at 04:53 PM
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Is perceived usability/aesthetics more important than realDonald Norman has written an article that explores the importance of perceived usability/aesthetics. To quote: Websites and Web applications are meant to be used only once or few times, so are the perceived usability (correlated to aesthetics) more important than the real usability (time for task completion, number of errors encountered, etc) on the Web? [Thanks to the eGovernment Resource Centre.] Posted by jamesr at 04:36 PM
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Getting started with accessibility assessmentsAndrew Arch, Sofia Celic, Steve Faulkner and Brian Hardy have written an introductory article on conducting assessibility assessments. To quote: In this poster paper we will highlight the basic techniques that people can apply to identify many of the accessibility issues commonly observed. Applying a range of simple techniques means that web site owners and developers can identify many accessibility issues during the site's development phase and as part of an ongoing quality assurance strategy without having to understand all the technical aspects of how the web site works and is coded. [Thanks to the eGovernment Resource Centre.] Posted by jamesr at 05:32 PM
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Contextual enquiry - a primerGerry Gaffney has written an introductory article on contextual enquiry. To quote: The best way to get to know users is to spend time with them, in their own environments, watching them do the things that your Website is going to support or enable. Of course, you can just go out and visit a few users informally, and that in itself will provide valuable information. To get the most out of such visits, however, you need to take a more formal approach. Contextual enquiry provides a framework for doing so. Posted by jamesr at 08:38 AM
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People-centred design reportLouise Ferguson has written a blog entry that points to a new people-centred design report from the US. To quote: The mission report from the recent DTI Global Watch Mission for People-Centred Design, to the US, was launched this week at the Design Council. You can download the full report, 'Innovation through people-centred design - lessons from the USA' from the Global Watch website (where you'll also find a report summary). Posted by jamesr at 08:12 AM
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Funding enterprise design functionsLou Rosenfeld has written a blog entry discussing how to fund enterprise design activities. To quote: These enterprise design tasks are typically owned--if addressed at all--by a disjointed collection of business units concerned mostly with their own requirements and politics. The needs of the users of enterprise information and the managers concerned for those users often get left out. Posted by jamesr at 09:49 AM
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Three important benefits of personasJared M. Spool has written an article on the benefits of personas. To quote: Personas don't automatically get the benefits of preventing grounding, encouraging story telling, and enhancing role playing. They have to be carefully crafted to get those benefits. To get the benefits, the personas have to have rich, relevant detail. They need to accurately represent the users the team is aiming for. And they need to have a solid foundation in the experiences of real users to be believable and meaningful. Posted by jamesr at 09:26 AM
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I'm back!I'm finally back from all my travelling. It's great to be back home! Posted by jamesr at 09:19 AM
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Tell it like it isShawn Callahan has written an article on the use of anecdotes in the corporate environment. To quote: It's a workplace anecdote. A worker is talking about their life at work, about how they get things done, who they work with and the like. But it's more than casual conversation. The worker is providing organisational narrative -- a valuable supplement to the traditional approach to interviews and surveys. Posted by jamesr at 09:41 PM
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Archiving for dynamic CMS web sites - a hard problem with no easy answersPeter Bailey has written a blog entry on archiving for dynamic CMS websites. To quote: One of the Australian Government's Guide to Minimum Website Standards concerns archiving. Archives are important to be kept for all sorts of reasons. A purely sensible reason for this is that periodically there are held what are called Senate Estimates, which are a Parliamentary process designed to keep the Government of the day accountable. Public servants need to be able to produce tranches of information about what they (and their department or agency) have been up to. Among the issues that occasionally arises is what a member of the public has seen on a web site, or was told by a member of the agency on the basis of the information that they have access to. So a need exists to establish exactly what was able to be seen by the person concerned. Posted by jamesr at 08:51 PM
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Fine tuning your enterprise searchMartin Belam has written an article on fine-tuning enterprise search, based on his presentation at the recent Online Information conference. To quote: The result of this is the necessity to fine tune your enterprise search system once it has been implemented. You may imagine that to fix this you need to be a search engine boffin in the classic mad scientist mould, with banks of computers and multi-coloured liquids bubbling over Bunsen burners. However, the truth is somewhat less romantic, and it means placing an emphasis on the people in your business rather than the technology. By understanding their requirements and their behaviour better you can provide a better and more efficient service. Posted by jamesr at 08:36 PM
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Who should own the intranet?My CM Briefing for this month discusses who should own the intranet. To quote: One of the first challenges when establishing an intranet is to determine who should have overall ownership of the site, and where the intranet team should be located. While the responsibility for driving the intranet must be given to a single business area, this group must be located within the right area of the organisation if the intranet is to succeed. Posted by jamesr at 07:49 PM
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10 ways to continuously improve your intranetOur KM Column article for December has been written by both Donna Maurer and Tina Calabria, and it explores how to continuously improve your intranet. To quote: The amount of work involved in designing a new intranet or redesigning an existing intranet is minor compared to the time needed to maintain an effective intranet over the longer term. In fact, it is common for the initial excitement of a new intranet to fade away as the reality of day-to-day maintenance and the challenges of improving the intranet become apparent. Posted by jamesr at 07:39 PM
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Why it makes sense to do both expert review and usability testingKathleen Straub has written an article comparing expert reviews with usability testing. To quote: It is true that Expert Review (ER) can be executed more quickly than Usability Testing (UT). But, that has nothing to do with how comprehensive the method is. It reflects the practical problem of recruiting participants for UT. Within Expert Review we evaluate sites/applications against an extensive set of best practice guidelines. We conduct this review systematically. In fact, Expert Review is more comprehensive. [Thanks to the eGovernment Resource Centre.] Posted by jamesr at 09:57 PM
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Translating categories, translating termsPeter van Dijck has written a number of blog entries on international information architecture in general, and translating taxonomies in specific. To quote: In the UK, they are in the process of revising the two BS Standards on mono- and multi-lingual thesauri as one work under the title Structured vocabularies. They regard translating thesauri, in a way, as a special case of mapping thesauri. Posted by jamesr at 09:02 PM
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Heisenberg usability principleTom Chi has written an article on the "observer effect" within usability testing, where the testing environment influences the way participants behave. To quote: I don't know of studies that have been run to quantify this effect, but from testing experience I know that user behavior can shift quite radically. What's worse is that it doesn't shift in a predictable direction -- some users become anxious and fail where they normally wouldn't, while others stay calm longer to secure their 'usability gift pack' Posted by jamesr at 08:50 PM
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Using search log analysis to predict the futureLou Rosenfeld has written a blog entry on using search logs to predict future interest. To quote: If a company name shows up with great frequency in the search logs but hasn't been covered recently in FT articles, it may indicate a developing story about to hit daylight. Guy finds that this sort of anomaly is often a useful predictor of what the FT should consider covering in the coming days. Conversely, if a company name drops off the search logs, interest in a related story line may be waning, and FT can choose to invest its reporting resources elsewhere. Posted by jamesr at 08:43 PM
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Online Information presentationsIt's been great to travel across to London for the Online Information conference. During the event, I gave two presentations, one in the conference itself and the other on the exhibition floor:
Posted by jamesr at 05:01 AM
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UXnet meeting in LondonSince I happened to be in London, I attended the first local meeting of UXnet. This was excellent, featuring a talk from Kevin Cheng of OK/Cancel, and plenty of chatting down at the pub. We had a great turnout, and plenty of really interesting people to talk to. It's always a pleasure to hang out with other usability/IA folks, and thanks to Joshua Kaufman (and gang) for making this a reality. Maybe we'll have to do some of these in my neck of the woods... Posted by jamesr at 10:30 PM
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Resting up in LondonWell, things have finished up at the Online Information conference in London. It's been busy, but enjoyable. The best aspect of this trip has been finally meeting up with some folks that I've been conversing with via e-mail for some time, but hadn't yet met in person. Anyway, I now have a few days off to be a tourist in this big city, before heading home to Sydney... Posted by jamesr at 09:30 PM
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More feedback on the Intranet RoadmapI've just received some more positive feedback on the Intranet Roadmap: "The folks at Step Two Designs have released an excellent resource for those involved in the planning, creation, maintenance, and implementation of corporate intranets. It's called the Intranet Roadmap and includes a brief, quick-read 54-page guide to developing an intranet strategy, designing a framework, developing content, managing change, evaluating technology and tools, and selecting techniques that will address your organizational issues. It's one of the best resources available for intranet professionals to date! Posted by jamesr at 11:14 AM
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We've been listed on the EContent 100!I'm very excited to announce that Step Two Designs has just been listed on the EContent 100, in the consulting services category. To quote: While this consultancy is based in Australia, its perspective is global. Helping companies plot a course for successful Intranet, CM, KM, and related initiatives, this year marked the launch of Step Two Designs’ Intranet Roadmap, intended to demystify the process of developing (or redeveloping) a corporate intranet. The firm also released version 2.0 (at twice the size) of its widely acclaimed Content Management Requirements Toolkit, designed to help organizations to select an appropriate CMS. Step Two’s Web site aggregates useful information, penned by the staff and others, on KM, CM, IA, and usability, providing an excellent industry resource in itself. This is the second year in a row that we've been chosen for this, and it's a great honour to be on the list beside luminaries such as Peter Morville. Posted by jamesr at 05:44 PM
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