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Jared M. Spool | 1 Nov 2003 23:58
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Re: [Sigia-l] top level navigation by user type

At 01:55 PM 10/28/2003 -0800, Stephanie Hornung wrote:
>i've found that a lot of government websites are organized by these user
>groups, and the person i'm working under at the agency wants to design it
>this way, but i'm not sure its the best idea.  does anyone have any
>information/opinions regarding how well this type of navigation works?

Hi Stephanie,

We've studied many sites with this type of home page organization and I can 
tell you that it rarely works the way the designers intend, especially for 
government sites.

As others have said, users primarily come to the site to accomplished 
focused goals. When the site uses a user-type scheme, it forces the users 
to guess where the designers might have hidden a particular resource or 
function.

I suggest you look at http://www.bls.gov as an example of a government site 
that tests very well with the different user communities its serves, while 
taking a very task-oriented approach.

I hope this was helpful,

Jared

Jared M. Spool        User Interface Engineering
http://www.uie.com    jspool <at> uie.com
Don't miss the new UIE Roadshow: Content Is Critical
Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago, and DC -- 12/03 - 3/04
http://www.uieroadshow.com
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Listera | 2 Nov 2003 09:47
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[Sigia-l] Fireworks MX 2004 as a prototyping tool

For those of you who do UI prototypes, this might be of interest.

Probably like most of you, I have been a Photoshop user for a long time.
(Actually, in my case, long before version 1.0 by Adobe, as a utility for
Binuscan.) Since I know every nook and cranny of Photoshop cold, I reach for
it at the earliest stages of UI prototyping, and have never paid much
attention to anything else out there for well over a decade.

I'm not a big fan Macromedia's rather sloppy and unpolished approach to UI.
(I'm especially frustrated by the abomination a.k.a Flash, given its
enormous potential.) Anyhow, probably like most of you, I haven't considered
Fireworks.

Due to a recent project in Flash MX 2004, I picked up Fireworks MX 2004, and
I must say I am thoroughly impressed. So much so that all the visual part of
my prototyping work has completely shifted from Photoshop to FW.

Since pretty much everything in FW is and remains as vector, it's very easy
to change stuff, to a degree Photoshop can't match. Doing rollovers, URLs,
buttons, widget behaviors, slices, tables, hierarchical nav menus, etc., are
all dead easy and powerful. With editable styles, it's easy to quickly
prototype stuff in lo-fi and selectively apply styles to objects to give the
client a taste of the final look/possibilities in hi-fi.

Bonus: most of the stuff you do for web is 80%-95% identical to how you do
them in Photoshop, so the learning curve is very flat, and you can pass
files with layers/text/groups/etc all intact between the two apps. That FW
works in tight integration with Dreamweaver and Flash is the icing on the
cake.
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Rachel Switzky | 2 Nov 2003 22:26

[Sigia-l] Chicago Happy Hour - Wed November 5

Hello all Chicago Information Architects!

Donna Fritzsche and I felt it was time for another informal gathering of fellow Chicago IAs. Come meet us at
6:00pm on Wednesday November 5 at Emmit's, a bar located at 495 North Milwaukee (corner of Grand,
Milwaukee, and Halsted, at the Grand Ave Blue Line stop). 

There's no agenda for the evening, just a time for us to catch up and see what everyone's been up to for the last
several months.

See you then,
Rachel
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David Heller | 3 Nov 2003 14:53

RE: [Sigia-l] Fireworks MX 2004 as a prototyping tool

I am amzed by Ziya's endorsement ... But I just want o 2nd it.
But I have discovered Fireworks years ago (v. 2 I think) and I want to say
that the only thing missing from making fireworks a viable prototyping tool
is that it doesn't have libraries that I have seen. Am I wrong? And if I
could use the same libraries for fireworks as I could in Flash, then it
would be a no brainer. The real question is, why not just prototype directly
in Flash. ;) ... Well, the drawing isn't as good and the layering isn't as
controlled. Its just not meant for it. But Fireworks also has another
advantage and that is in my experience that it exports the same files a lot
smaller in size.

The only thing I like photoshop for over Fireworks is photomanipulation.
Seriously that's it. PS is much better for taking my digital photos or scans
and cleaning them up, but I do have to say that FW is getting better and
better at this as well.

-- dave

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Livia Labate | 3 Nov 2003 16:55
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[Sigia-l] Amazon Search Inside the Book = 9% sales increase

"...a week after launching the new service, Amazon reported that sales for
full-text searchable books outpaced books without the feature by 9 percent.
Dozens of new publishers had also contacted Amazon to discuss joining the
program. Searchers who might find full-text retrieval pulling up too many
hits can still use the power searching mode to restrict searching to titles,
authors, subjects, dates, etc."

    "Search Inside the Book": Full-Text on Amazon
    http://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/nb031103-1.shtml

And if you thought only the music industry was like that...

"...Upon testing the new feature, staff from the Authors Guild managed to
print out "108 consecutive pages from a bestselling book," though they
admitted the process, though "quite simple" was "a bit inconvenient". A week
later, the Authors Guild reported that Amazon had disabled the print
function on the new feature..."

Livia Labate
liv <at> livlab.com | http://livlab.com | http://aifia.org

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kent | 3 Nov 2003 17:28

[Sigia-l] Language Detection vrs. Splash Screen

Hopefully I'm not repeating a thread here but surprisingly I couldn't find 
anything comprehensive about this issue: Languages. 

A client wants to serve up both an English and French version of a website. 
We do not want to default to English with the thinking that this might 
"offend" our French audience, for lack of a better word. So we have two 
options: 

1. A splash page with language choice/selection.
2. Utilize a script to detect the default langauge set on the user's 
browser. 

So, I am wondering how effective it is to rely on detection of the language 
setting of the user's browser. I have noticed that none of the big websites 
(IBM nor al.) give me a French page when I change the language option in my 
browser. Does anyone know why this language detection is not utilized more 
often? 

As for a splash page, I tend to dislike adding this extra step for entering 
a site. But in order to deal with this language issue, is this the 
recommended course of action? I need the site to be search engine- friendly, 
which is another reason why I want to avoid a splash page. 

If anyone would reply to directly to me, I can post a summary. 

Thanks, 

Kent 

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susan.paulsen | 3 Nov 2003 23:21

[Sigia-l] Test Subjects: Compensation for a non-profit site study?

Hello,

I'm looking for experience and opinions on how to compensate high-net
worth usability test subjects for a study looking at a non-profit
(charity) web site.

Since our recruits will be high net worth individuals who donate to other
charities, is it wise to appeal to them by asking them to consider their
time a donation?  I'm wondering if even offering them any other type of
incentive might seem like the non-profit has money to throw around, when
what we really want is donations and grants.

Any guidance is appreciated.

Thank you,
Susan Paulsen

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Listera | 3 Nov 2003 23:56
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Re: [Sigia-l] Test Subjects: Compensation for a non-profit site study?

"susan.paulsen" wrote:

> how to compensate high-net worth usability test subjects for a study

Why do you think you need to compensate "high-net worth" people at all?

Ziya
Nullius in Verba 

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Chris Chandler | 4 Nov 2003 00:56
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Re: [Sigia-l] Test Subjects: Compensation for a non-profit site study?

"susan.paulsen" wrote:

>> how to compensate high-net worth usability test subjects for a study

Ziya wrote:

> Why do you think you need to compensate "high-net worth" people at all?

Good point. Maybe you could get by with just scraping and bowing.

"Dear Luminary,

Although we are not worthy even to touch the bottom or your shoe, we hope you will consider a plea from the
little people who humbly wish only to create web sites and applications to better serve the needs of you,
our betters.
..."

Or, alternatively:

"Dear Sir or Madam,
We are an extremely exclusive testing firm only interested in the opinions of the finest people. At least
one of our a-list, educated and refined clients has suggested that you may be worthy talking to.
..."

Seriously Susan, maybe you could offer to acknowledge their contribution to the web site on an online
"donor board" page?

-cc

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Whitney Quesenbery | 4 Nov 2003 01:11

Re: [Sigia-l] Test Subjects: Compensation for a non-profit site study?

At 03:56 PM 11/3/2003 -0800, Chris Chandler wrote:
>"susan.paulsen" wrote:
>
> >> how to compensate high-net worth usability test subjects for a study
>
>Ziya wrote:
>
> > Why do you think you need to compensate "high-net worth" people at all?

It's not just about "high net worth" - there are situations in which cash 
compensation can backfire - usually when the participants already have a 
strong association with the site/company/organization, or when it might be 
otherwise insulting to suggest that they would participate for the money.

In those situations, an offer of a spiff like a shirt, hat, clipboard, mug 
with the company name on it, along with an immediate paper letter thanking 
them for their time, can be enough.

At a UPA conference session a few years ago, the folks from Staples 
reported that the gift certificates that they gave out as incentives were 
rarely used. I was doing some work with a university and we offered to pay 
transportation costs. No one took us up on it.

Just all part of being sensitive to the people we work with <grin>

Whitney Quesenbery
Whitney Interactive Design, LLC
w. www.WQusability.com
e. whitneyq <at> wqusability.com
p. 908-638-5467
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Gmane