In UX Matters, Steve Baty describes the user research methodologies we can draw on when creating audience models and some alternative ways of communicating the results of an audience analysis.
http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2009/04/user-research-for-personas-and-other-audience-models.php
Jason Santa Maria started a sketchbook group on flickr.
Sketchbooks are not about being a good artist, they’re about being a good thinker. In the spirit of awareness, I’ve set up a Flickr group for this very purpose. Post one, and only one, spread/page from your sketchbook. It’s always fun to see how everyone else’s mind works.
Read more about it in Jason's post Pretty Sketchy.
The Wireframe and Storyboard notepads have been reprinted and are now selling exclusively via Amazon.com. The good news is, now that you ordered via Amazon, your order may qualify for Free Super Saver Shipping, and may be combined with other Amazon purchases in your cart. So if you spend $25 at Amazon, even by combining your purchase with other qualified products fulfilled via Amazon, your shipping will be free. Yay, you!
For more info about the note pads, see the product pages in the store.
Slick real time data visualization in the dashboard of web analytics service chartbeat.
http://chartbeat.com/dashboard/?url=avc.com&k=317a25eccba186e0f6b558f45214c0e7
The Freesound Project is a collaborative database of Creative Commons licensed sounds. Freesound focusses only on sound, not songs.
In the Cooper Journal, Tim McCoy responds to Bill Moggridge's comment after a screening of Objectified. He paraphrases Moggridge as saying interaction design has become pervasive, that anyone and everyone can be an interaction designer, and so the role of professional interaction designer is (or is becoming) unnecessary.
McCoy asks if interaction design is really dead. He goes on to point out a few factors that have allowed developers to build better interfaces without interaction designers. The main point I took away is that the need for the expertise and craft of interaction design is not dead, but the perception that the need for the role seems to be diminished given tools and awareness.
Awareness and tools alone, however, don't breed expertise. Clearly if it did, there'd be a lot less awfully designed stuff out there. Or to take a craft like video editing as an example, we'd see an awful lot more people doing much slicker looking stuff on YouTube.
It's a relevant point to make, however, that the tools and frameworks alone have enabled a lot of work to be done, especially in the building of web sites/apps, without need of an interaction designer. A lot of basic interactions can be implemented with design patterns. But not all needs are satisfied by a pattern, and isolated solutions can be implemented that don't relate to one another, or to the goals of the user. That's not to say that you need an interaction designer to design, but you do have to think of design in terms of the ecosystem, rather than of any solitary role within it. Any user experience designer that isn't doing that isn't worth his weight in business card titles.
http://www.cooper.com/journal/2009/04/is_ixd_a_dead_end_job.html
In SVA's Dot Dot Dot lecture series, Jason Santa Maria talks about the role of print design in influencing design on the web, and how visual designers might bring the same level of attention to designing online content with the same rigor and attention to visual meaning.
More printable sketch paper options, this time from Henk Wijnholds.
Via i heart wireframes.
http://www.concept7.nl/henk/prolonging-the-magic-a4-sketching-paper/
Lee Munroe has collected a slew of examples of Signup and Download call to action buttons that exemplify good CTA button design. He has 4 criteria for designing a good call to action button, involving the appropriate use of color, language, size, and white space around the button.
http://www.leemunroe.com/web-design-trends-call-to-action-signup-download-buttons/
This is a short entry about sites that use "Lazy Registration," or registration/sign up processes that often don't require any information from the user while they try out a site, until they decide to commit to using it. In some cases, sites bypass signup altogether, and in others, users are permitted to register once they've decided to go beyond simply "testing out" a site or application. As noted, the process of "getting your feet wet by trying," most likely leads to more sign ups because of the frictionless experience.
The article includes a collection of examples including StackOverflow and Drop.io. I personally like Soup.io's process as well and might include it among the good examples here. Check out all of the examples.