The Usability Architect

hi, nice article, but no examples are attached......

2010-04-22T06:48:05.253+02:00

hi,

nice article, but no examples are attached...please upload some sketches/diagrams.

thank you!

this is the published thesis, which is almost simi...

2010-04-10T09:39:42.097+02:00

this is the published thesis, which is almost similar to the book. In the book we made some updates before publication.

hallo thomas, does the book have the same coneten...

2010-04-10T06:01:56.392+02:00

hallo thomas,

does the book have the same conetent as this pdf?
http://kops.ub.uni-konstanz.de/volltexte/2009/7992/pdf/Diss_Memmel.pdf
thanks!

Thanks for all your interesting inputs here.
2010-02-24T12:54:51.465+01:00
Thanks for all your interesting inputs here.

Free nx cash

User Experience is rapidly becoming the catchphras...

2010-01-11T16:37:34.020+01:00

User Experience is rapidly becoming the catchphrase to drop every flashified, gimmicky junk gizmo into a UI.

Forget the future, User Experience has Already devolved to mean branding, which has come to mean nothing at all. Like all pop phrases, UX as bizarro world opposite to the spirit and letter of UX design.

In this brave new (old) world there is no user testing, no methodology (beyond usability on the rare occasion), just designer whim and fad chasing.

Not to mention you built your UX house on the warmed over leftovers of usability. Now you reap the consequence as the current Donald Norman's current "Technology First, Needs Last" crisis of faith.

In my own experience working at larger companies s...

2009-12-31T15:49:06.705+01:00

In my own experience working at larger companies such as Yahoo! and such, I see less and less IA's these days and more and more Interaction Designers. From my own experience, it's a little bit of a west coast vs. east coast thing, or in house vs. agency thing, whereas west coast & in house companies tend to refer to us Interaction Designers, and the east coast or agencies tend to prefer IA's.

Personally, I'd prefer my role to be titled "Product Designer" (and I've always hated trying to explain the title "information architect" to a layman), sense every in-house job I've had is working with product managers and we refer to our experiences/designs as "products". IA, Interaction Design, Usability, Information Design, etc., are all just skillsets that I've come to employ myself over the last 6-7 years to stay relevant in an ever changing career.

For me, it's more about making sure the designer is able to build time into the project schedule to flesh out the IA. Maybe I'm spoiled, or perhaps it's just that I expect to do some level of mentoring with any new hire to round out the skills I need them to use on a regular basis. But frankly, 90% of the IA I've done for my web projects in the past could easily be handled by thoughtful designer with a little time.

In addition, in my own experience, again at Yahoo! and at my more recent employer, I see more and more hybrid interaction visual designers. As I look to build my own team in the near future, this is definitely the type of designer that I'd prefer to hire. I'm not as concerned with hiring an IA because most teams I've worked with are able to work with the designer to iterate effectively on the this subject.

That all said, I guess my main point is that I don't see IA going away as skillset, but people who've been working solely in IA should start to round out their other skills more in order to stay relevant as I don't see the individual role staying around that much longer. Heck, I don't see my traditional of Interaction Designer staying around that much longer and I need to work on my visual design skills in order to stay relevant.

Hi all, I am happy my post raised some discussion....

2009-12-30T19:08:43.625+01:00

Hi all, I am happy my post raised some discussion. Maybe you like to read through the first chapters of Alan Coopers book About Face 3.0 - he also discusses the topic.

However, I agree with you that a combination of IA and UX in one person demands special skills and advanced knowledge in both fields. Speaking for myself, I think we will see more such generalist specialists in the future.

Have a nice year end party!

No, no, no. Every time our Experience Architectur...

2009-12-30T16:38:40.661+01:00

No, no, no.

Every time our Experience Architectures/UX people try to do the job that an Information Architect/IA people should be doing, it all goes to hell.

User Experience Architecture is about making something logical and easy to use for end users. It's got very little to do with content. The role is important on all sites/systems that have a user interface.

Information Architecture is about classifying content. It is what taxonomists and librarians and card sorting exercises and clever search engines do. Content needs a good IA even if it is never shown on a website, or is shown on multiple sites.

Occassionally I've met good UX people that can also do IA, and the other way round. But it is the exception, not the rule. Keep the disciplines separate please.

Thanks for listening
Jon

I agree with you on many aspects of this article. ...

2009-12-30T16:32:02.932+01:00

I agree with you on many aspects of this article. However, I do think that the huge volumes of content most organizations need to manage today still need to have structure, organization, and cohesiveness -- regardless of interactivity.

The task of organizing content is different from UX or UXD. This is what information architecture always meant to me, but regardless of what you call it, it is a separate discipline that will live on and grow in the next decade.

Great article! I think the key here is that usabil...

2009-12-28T20:18:25.008+01:00

Great article! I think the key here is that usability testing is accessible to everyone now and ROI is the goal. Really you just need to define what that "return" is to you because its not always dollars :)

Thomas, thanks for sharing this list of prototypin...

2009-07-07T20:25:13.121+02:00

Thomas, thanks for sharing this list of prototyping tools! There are a lot of options out there depending on one's needs.

I'd also like to point you to ProtoShare - a web-based wireframing and prototyping tool that encourages collaboration among stakeholders. Companies use it for low-fidelity wireframes to high-fidelity prototypes and even user testing prior to building the final site. We offer a free 30-day trial and I'd be interested in your feedback.

Cheers,
Andrea
andrea [at] protoshare.com

Hi, we have developed a solution for those who wan...

2009-06-25T00:25:24.674+02:00

Hi,
we have developed a solution for those who want to comments pages and administrate their prototypes online: ax-admin
you should be interested like axure inc.
http://www.axure-users.net/ax-admin/

Best Regards
Régis Minot

Dear Edwin, you can request an installer file at h...

2009-06-12T17:57:45.974+02:00

Dear Edwin, you can request an installer file at http://hci.uni-konstanz.de/inspector. The tool is non-commercial. All the best, Thomas

Thomas, Do you have a linke where we could downlo...

2009-06-10T16:27:13.060+02:00

Thomas,

Do you have a linke where we could download a trial?

And what is the price setting for this tool?

Regards

Hello Thomas, I fully agree with your opinion. T...

2009-06-08T01:11:06.336+02:00

Hello Thomas,

I fully agree with your opinion. The big usability gurus tackle sometimes with numbers (1000% more traffic, 500% more sales!) which an individual "small" usability engineer usually never will reach. IMHO, they are doing usability, as an issue, more harm than good. Customers know (sometimes) these figures as well and could have unrealistic expectations and may discourage usability talent. I have been searching some time for serious material about ROI and usability for my blog and I can’t find anything. Maybe I am not looking in the right places or it does not exist at all.

I share your opinion that it is usually impossible to calculate what is responsible for the increase in traffic or sales figures: the usability cure or the marketing campaign around it?

I have a business background and I am sometimes struck by the childish logic of these so-called usability gurus. Most say the following:
`
"In order to calculate ROI, calculate the costs and predict in a conservative way the benefits."

Very reasonable, but now it comes…

"If the benefit is small or nonexistent, drop some usability tasks or run them cheaper (less or different tests, for example). Repeat this until there is a significant advantage.

They do not mention the fact that less usability tasks or less usability tests also affects the quality of the application or website and thus sales and visitor numbers.

2009-06-08T01:05:33.434+02:00

This comment has been removed by the author.

Check out www.beta.Lila.io. We're working on exact...

2009-04-04T22:21:00.000+02:00

Check out www.beta.Lila.io. We're working on exactly what you refer to in your post.