Discussion Archive: November 2006

Designing for change (was: JOB: Interaction designer for GoDaddy.com)

Schwab.com has done a pretty good job of managing change on their site. They
announced the pending change on the "positions" page months before they made the
change, complete with a link to see the new page (not a screen shot, but an
actual page with your stocks). Now, months after the change, they still have a
link back to the old page.

The changeover was done in the light of day, not overnight. It was introduced
and explained, and users had plenty of time to get used to it. Personally, I
love the new page and always went right to the new version after it was
introduced.

Revealing Keyboard Shortcuts

I am building a desktop application -- which may also find its way
to the web. A few months ago, for a different project, I researched
accessibility literature because there was a clear need for keyboard
shortcuts in some parts of the interface. In the literature, I didn't
find any ideas or consensus that gave me an 'A-ha' moment.

I'd like to make keyboard shortcuts very clear in the current
project. The only commonly-used method of which I'm aware is to
underline the shortcut character within the command name.

Information Architecture 3.0

Since this article was partly inspired by IxDA discussions, I think it's
only fair to post it here:

http://semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/000149.php

And, if I'm wrong about my predictions, at least I'll have time to write
more than one Semantics article a year. Cheers!

Peter Morville
President, Semantic Studios
http://semanticstudios.com/
http://findability.org/

Flow Theory as applied to UI

Here's a very interesting game that applies some pretty unique UI
concepts to support a concept entitled "flow theory."

Flow theory [is] a psychological concept first developed by Claremont
Graduate University's Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi ... it mostly boils down
to impulsive, easy-to-understand gameplay that eliminates disruptions.
Nothing comes between the gamer and the experience -- no menus, no
tutorials, no prompts or instructions; most of all, no dying.

http://tinyurl.com/yafs7b

(wsj.com)

Lorne