I’ve been waiting for someone to make the case for faceted browse and search for what seems like forever. I’m thrilled to find this article (via Stephen Francoeur) explaining the concept for super-charging breadcrumbs using facets.

What makes Integrated Faceted Breadcrumb (IFB) different
[...] I believe Integrated Finding Breadcrumb design is more intuitive and resourceful than other faceted breadcrumb solutions due to the following key design recommendations made based on several years of designing and researching finding interfaces:

1. Combine hierarchical Location & Attribute breadcrumbs
2. Use Change instead of Set-Remove-Set
3. Automatically retain relevant query information
4. Label breadcrumb aspects
5. Make it clear how to start a new search
6. Allow direct keyword manipulation.

• A List Apart has a good write-up called Usability Testing Demystified
• Normal Modes has an eye-tracking heatmap gallery
• The University of Minnesota Web Services committee has published a phase 1 report on user discoverability
• Functioning Form asks whether social models affect contribution
• UXMatters asks whether UX can be Agile
• Brian Fling speaks at dConstruct 2009 on how mobile devices are changing design [MP3]
• The YouTube blog discusses UX at YouTube
• WebSiteOptimization.com has a usability study finding that Men need Speed

• Boxesandarrows has a fascinating article on implementing prototypes into design
• A List Apart discusses how to use site analytics for a bottom-up analysis
• More web data analysis from A List Apart, this time using site search data
• UXmatters gives a detailed analysis and tips for designing tables
• UXmatters discusses best practices for designing faceted search filters
• We Are Colorblind has a wonderful collection of design patterns for the color blind, including lots of good and bad examples
• Jakob Nielsen discusses the pros and cons of redesign in Fresh vs. Familiar
• Evantage Consulting claims that playfulness, usability, and context serve to delight users
• Lucid Plot discusses Content Strategy
• The Society for Technical Communication has started a Content Strategy SIG
• Gartner talks about four classes of experts needed for next-gen technology jobs
• Christopher Cummings talks about the problem with personas
• A presentation by Harry Brignull on casting a critical eye on eye tracking results

Tools:

• HotGloo is taking beta signups for their new wireframe app.
• Usabilla is a rapid feedback tool that looks promising
• SitePoint has a tutorial on mega-dropdowns using jquery
• Debra Agnoli and Lucinda M. Hall publish a usability analysis of Pathfinder Pro
• Interesting white paper on showing eye tracking results to users in conjunction with the think aloud protocol

Visualization:

• Vizworld has a 10-minute interview with Edward Tufte

Eye Tracking:

• Oneupweb has an intriguing eyetracking presentation up that discovers “areas of interest” in a few social web sites
• Think Eyetracking has an interesting write up of ca. 1967 “gaze plots”
• Virtual Hosting offers 23 lessons from eye tracking studies which could marked “citations needed”

Library Usability:

• Usability Post has an article on improving your observation skills and breaks the discipline into these non-verbal elements:
  • Physical Characteristics
  • Personal Style
  • Body Language
  • Facial Expression
  • Vocal Rate and Tone
  • Eye Movement
• A copy of the UM Mansfield Library usability study poster presented at ALA 2009
• Holger Maassen gives an overview of Card Sorting practice

User Behavior:

• Search Engine Land discusses how search engine results can cause a shift in search behavior (interesting because she’s citing an LIS article to make her point)
• Leslie McNeil Weber publishes Design Ethnography: Strategy for Visual Communications

Design:

• Judith Siess talks about designing web pages for “mature” users
• Linda Coss has a few tips for improving readability
• UI Patterns wonders if links should always be blue
• Information Architects says that web design is 95% typography

Content Strategy:

• UX Matters has a practical guide to conducting a content analysis which should result in a clear description of what’s available, gaps & opportunities, prioritization, and themes.
• (new to me) Fred Leise published a set of 11 heuristics for content analysis

Intranets:

• Jakob Nielsen advocates both avoiding intranet design based on org charts and allowing role-based personalization

Library 2.0

• Christian Crumlish writes about the Information Architecture of Social Experience Design

• Marti Hearst’s new book Search User Interfaces is available for free on the web
• Design with Intent has a very interesting toolkit which boils down to several design patterns in poster format
• The same blog also has a post modeling different types of users: pinball, shortcut, and thoughtful users
• Tyner Blain has some tips for writing complete user stories when building personas
• UXMatters has a post on the Laddering Interview Technique which is claimed to assist in “eliciting goals and underlying values”
• Semantic Foundry talks about an interesting approach using Design Ethnography and Mood Maps
• User Focus has a list of 247 Web Usability Guidelines that can be downloaded to Excel
• New to me: Don Norman has a Ted Talk on 3 ways good design makes you happy

• Excellent article from A List Apart on the strained relationship between seriousness and aesthetics and the latter’s affects in user decision making.
  
• Jennifer Bove discusses five aspects of the concept of Service Design
• Jared Spool lays out the key guidelines for icons
• Intentional Design says Content is Contextualized Data
• Jakob Nielsen wants web designers to cease with the password masking
• UX Matters writes about experience design for social media
• New to me: A good list of UX Deliverables
• 10 low-budget tools for increasing usability of a site
• Interesting eye-tracking study comparing Google to Bing

• Lesson from American Airlines: “good design is necessarily the product of a heavily centralized structure”
• Bookmark: Interesting blog called Wireframes
• Lateral Action lines out the 9 ways users respond
• Smashing Magazine has some Useful Glossaries for Web Design
• Very funny: Dilbert on User Experience
• Smashing Magazine has an article on Modal Windows in Web Design
• New to me: 23 Actionable Items from Eye Tracking Studies
• Online Card Sorting with OptimalSort
• Frank Long makes that case that photos work better than illustrations when building personas
• Laurie the Librarian argues that instruction librarians should be managing the website

This link is meant to close the loop on an article I wrote for the wonderful blog In the Library with the Lead Pipe: Social Proof – A Tool for Determining Authority.

The question this article seeks to ask is: to what extent can the library website framework, with all of its catalogs, vendors, guides, etc., become recognized as an authority in the subject of research?

• The IMLS Digital Collections and Content research group is designing a collections dashboard
• UsabilityPost has a list of 8 Characteristics of Successful User Interfaces
• UX Booth has a post on using color theory
• Simon Day shows the effects a small color change can have by analyzing heatmaps of the page
• Austin Govella describes six strategies for combining UX and agile computing
• Johanna Brewer talks about the relationship between ethnology and design
• The blog InfoMatters has a post on the poverty of the term “user centered“
• Frontier Strategy has an excellent white paper on the topic of the five principles of  “co-creation”
  

• Ron Hudson has an entertaining post about social proof including a great YouTube video
• Usability Counts posts a few questions to ask when interviewing a UX specialist
• Researchers questioned on the scope of UX – interesting results
• Aaron Louie has a good write-up on evolving design which touches on user personas
• Craig Tomlin publishes a list of useful books related to design and usability
• UI Patterns talks about low-budget usability, which involves grabbing people and talking to them
• Wonderful list of 50 Free Tutorials in Graphic Design Theory including UX & IA topics