Information design blog posts

  • UK Museums on the Web 2012

    UK Museums on the Web is a one day conference organised by the Museums Computer Group. Representatives from museums and other organisations in the sector shared their experiences over the past year and beyond. These are my notes from the day.

  • The trouble with font classifications

    I want to design a new way for visual designers to find fonts which specifically suit their needs and the needs of their clients. This means approaching things by way of a user-centred design process. And I need your help.

  • The postcode lookup pattern

    As a way of enabling address input, the UK postcode look-up is fraught with danger and is rarely implemented well. As is often the case in UX design, everything is fine until an exception is reached.

  • A new design

    I’ve finally got around to redesigning clagnut.com.

  • See me speak

    I’m presenting Wireframing in a Web 2.0 World with James Box at South by Southwest, with a warm-up Skillswap in Brighton next week. I’m also involved with Singularity, an online conference to be held in October.

  • Clearleft is hiring

    We need a talented producer/information architect to join our team in Brighton.

  • Tagging blogs – a Reboot of sorts

    In acknowlegement of CSS Reboot I have created Clagnut 2.0 beta in which I have started exploring APIs and thinking more about tagging.

  • Zooming content

    Mike Stenhouse has written up thoughts on his recent redesign of Donotremove. Of particular note is his zooming content approach in which ‘the information view and relevance on the page zooms out as the page goes down’. Also: Adactio pour Homme.

  • Gruber’s footnotes

    I just noticed the way John Gruber handles footnotes on Daring Fireball. In particular the little arrow appended to the footnote which sends readers back to their place in the text.

  • And they’re off

    So the election has been announced. This, Election Blog, and other simple choices.

  • This blog is backwards

    When I started this blog, I built the CMS myself. Not using off-the-shelf software meant designing and building things like next/previous links and comments. But it seems I got it wrong – should I change things and go with convention?

  • Naughty use case scenarios

    Adam Greenfield has just published an eye opening article for Vodafone’s Receiver magazine where he perverts our current idea of use cases in favour of ‘designing for deception, dishonesty, and other happy facts of human nature’.

  • Continuum links

    In his new blog, Functioning Form, Luke Wroblewski has created a nifty bit of functionality he calls continuum links.

  • Findability

    Peter Morville, co-author of the classic Polar Bear book, has recently launched Findability, a portal to anything and anyone related to findability. Or as Morville puts it: [A] complex query, run against the brains of users, who will hopefully contribute additional ideas,…

  • Labelling in context

    Christina has come across a fantastic quote to illustrate the importance and ramifications of good labelling.

  • City of Sound

    City of Sound is a new addition to my blog roll. Written by Dan Hill, it’s a London-centric weblog with a somewhat grand raison d’être.

  • Users don’t care where they are

    Mark Hurst tell us that users don’t care where they are and that breadcrumbs are nice but irrelevent. Peter Merholz wholeheartedly disagrees and Christina Wodtke provides a little balance to the argument. Incidentally, Dan Cederholm has posed the question, how best…

  • Interface widgets

    Christina Wodtke has created Widgetopia, a collection UI elements, and discusses solving user interface problems – by best practice or common practice?

  • Site Indexes

    In a recent Friday Feast, Shirley notes that the new version of A List Apart could benefit from having a site index. A site index is a book-style alphabetical index, such as that compiled by Adaptive Path for PeopleSoft. All information laden sites like ALA would benefit from…

  • Sitemaps

    I’ve never been a big fan of sitemaps on Web sites, perhaps because I’ve too often seen them done badly. A recent Boxes & Arrows article explains how to do them properly.

  • Accessible interfaces

    The Disability Rights Commission publishes an inaccessible website demonstration. Try the simulation of a user who has difficulty controlling a mouse. Nielsen argues for separate interfaces for sighted on non-sighted users, saying that auditory methods need a 1-D approach.

  • On Information Design

    The Design Council has published a detailed look at what information design is and what is expected from information designers.

  • Buy buy

    Boxes & Arrows has a great article on the Principles of Task Flow for Web Applications which outlines the concept of views and forms. All the cool kids are doing it, so why not me. Go and buy Zeldman’s Designing with Web Standards, or better still get your employers…

  • Handy pointers

    This month in DigitalWeb mag, Jeff Lash talks about using Information Architecture to promote business goals as well as user needs: Using information architecture to meet business goals by focusing on user needs not only proves your professional worth, but makes users happy…

  • In accord

    It makes for really dull conversation when everyone agrees, but right now a number of people are talking sense and I feel better for it….

  • On your marks…

    Judging of the Guardian Best British Blog began this weekend. And yes, it was the kick up the backside I needed to get the About page up. This compo has other ramifications, particularly if you should win (like you may have to spend the prize money to pay for the extra…

  • Squabble

    Last month Adobe and Macromedia finally settled their patent squabbles. Perhaps it went like this: Adobe BigWig: Heh, those Macromedia palettes are just like ours! Let’s sue their ass! Macromedia BigWig: That does it! Your element blending & sound technology…

  • Simplicity itself

    I love the work that goes on over at 37signals; they are all about focussing on the task at hand. And guess what: form does indeed follow function – I firmly believe that easy-to-use things are inherently good looking. For proof, check out the make-over of FedEx’s…

  • Bent over a barrel

    Behind the typeface: Cooper Black – a brilliant satire. A cry for help with a smart quotes algorithm. Typography links including designing logos from ligatures. And how close to the real thing your wireframes should be when presented for user testing.

  • Toons

    BlogAmp is a free Winamp plugin that allows you to publish details of songs being played. I will be playing with it soon. This week Jakob tells us how to become Usability professionals, just like him. Experience is the key, my friend. Nick Usborne writes copy for web sites;…

  • Users define usable

    “Ultimately, of course, the users’ performance defines what’s usable. If users can easily accomplish what they want to do, then the design is usable.” Pixelsurgeon Interviews Jakob Nielsen. I have embarked on a project called ukbloggers with Ed from…

  • Tube

    Interesting article on how the London Underground presents a metaphor for information architecture. Nicely presented too. Get your clagnut fix. You can now sign up for the less than monthly clagnut newsletter. Summer has finally arrived so I’m off down the beach.

  • Home time

    Jakob’s latest rant is his Top Ten Guidelines for Homepage Usability which, while providing useful food for thought, is a desperately transparent plug for his latest book (blast: there’s another plug). Personally I would recommend the Home Page chapter of Steve…