Card Sorting

Card Sorting is a technique for exploring how people group items, so that you can develop structures that maximize the probability of users being able to find items.



It enables

• easy and cheap to conduct
  
• Enables you to understand how 'real people' are likely to group items
  
• Identifies items that are likely to be difficult to categorize and find
  
• Identifies terminology that is likely to be misunderstoo
  

Card Sorting can be conducted in a variety of circumstances using various means - one-on-one, during workshops, by mail, or electronically. The following is the basic process.

You can use cluster analysis to get a pictorial representation of the resultant groupings. An easy way to do this is using IBM's EZSort program

People vary widely in the amount of time they take to sort cards. As a rule of thumb, allow half-an-hour for a participant to sort 50 items.

At times,it may vary considerably for different user groups. Does not take into consideration the user tasks. Participants may just sort it according to surface characteristics.

For existing site - closed card sorting
For new sites - Open card sorting

Preferred for small sites with simple and homogenous content


http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/card_sorting_a_definitive_guide.php

Cognitive Walkthrough..hmmn

It is a 'review technique' where 'expert evaluators' construct 'task scenarios' from a specification or early prototype and then role play the part of the user working with that interface. ( esp. for pointing out learnability issues )

Goals -> tasks -> actions (cognitive + physical)

Orig: Code walkthrough by developers.
Established process by Wharton et. al (1994). Hence abbreviated occassionally as WCW.

Every step evaluated using
1. Will the users achieve the right effect?
2. Will the user notice that the correct action is available?
3. Will the user associate the correct action with the effect the user is trying to achieve?
4. If the correct action is performed, will the user see that the progress is being made towards solution of the task?

Outcome: Learnability issues, gap in design, design ideas, faulty task flows.

Constraints: Lengthy design discussions, Design Defensiveness and Time Pressure

See Also:
Rick Spencer, "The streamlined cognitive walkthrough method"

IDE(Integrated Development Environment)

Allows programmers to edit code,design user interfaces, compile code, debug code, and perform most other programming tasks within a single computer program. Therefore, it tends to be extermely feature rich.

For eg:
Eclipse provides extensible tools and frameworks that span the software development lifecycle, including support for modeling, language development environments for Java, C/C++ and others, testing and performance, business intelligence, rich client applications and embedded development. Built in Java.

JCreator is a powerful IDE for Java. JCreator provides the user with a wide range of functionality such as : Project management, project templates, code-completion, debugger interface, editor with syntax highlighting, wizards and a fully customizable user interface. Built in C++.

How to be a millionaire...!

Hi, I had recently attended a conference in my company and here is what i got to know.

If you have a vision then convert them into goals which you could further break down into targets. Get it!

Vision -> Goals -> Target

So use this to become watever you want to become..;)

Java Swings...

It is the GUI toolkit of Java. It is part of JFC. Much fancier display than raw AWT. They are written in pure Java so provide the same look and feel across platforms unlike AWT. They are light weight components that have slower execution.

IFC (Internet Foundation Classes) - Graphics Lib of Netscape and JFC (Java Foundation Classes) combined to form Java Swings.

SWT (Standard Widget Toolkit) originally developed by IBM, now maintained by Eclipse Foundation is a competing toolkit. It is a heavyweight component which means that modifying it for a different look and feel gets tricky here. You have to convert it to lightweight component whereas Swing is already a light weight component. Therefore for custom crossplatform look and feel Swings is preferred.

It has pluggable look and feel support due to which it can have 100s of different look and feel. Provides accessibility for screen readers and braille readers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_Swing
http://javalobby.org/eps/galbraith-swing-1/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J2EE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J2EE
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/uiswing/components/html.html

Information Architecture

ID= IA+IV

IA:-
Structure and oraganization of descreet pieces of information..?!!
http://synapticburn.com/comments.php?id=24_0_1_0_C

BY Information Architecture Institute

1) The structural design of shared information environments.
2) The art and science of organizing and labeling web sites, intranets, online communities and software to support usability and findability.
3) An emerging community of practice focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape.

http://iainstitute.org/pg/about_us.php

Asilomar: refuge from sea (met: of information anarchy)

By Scott Nelson- Roles and resp in a a/w company

1) delivering and gathering information from end users (an IA, forexample, would not IMHO
design the Photoshop Interface.
2) less likely to involve Visual Design
3) probably a dedicateddesigner on team
4) more likely to involve content creation
5) somewhat "Production Tool Agnostic"; the final product's shape iswhat matters, not the
material used to build it.

skot@penguinstorm.com
http://www.penguinstorm.com/

For IV:- Look for Edward Tufte

Viral Marketing

Viral marketing describes any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message's exposure and influence.


An effective viral marketing strategy:

1.Gives away products or services - FREE!
2.Provides for effortless transfer to others - Keep it short, simple, compelling and and easy to transfer. It works the best on the Internet.
3.Scales easily from small to very large
4.Exploits common motivations and behaviors
5.Utilizes existing communication networks
6.Takes advantage of others' resources