• 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

• Dawn Bastian Paschal is co-author of an interesting usability study on Colorado State’s digital collections in JAL 35 No. 3
• Design Mind has an article on how designers can influence behavior
• ColoRotate has a fascinating take on the color picker
• A compelling account of Kristina Halvorson’s talk regarding Content Strategy
• Karen McGrane talks Content Strategy: “It’s about action, not awareness”
• A Google Knol of Content Strategy
• Pew Internet has published a study on mobile adopters called The Mobile Difference with some interesting personas
• UserTesting.com offers inexpensive usability, but I’m not sure how relevant it would be for libraries
• Classic bookmark: Usability with 5 Users
• An eye-opening (ahem) comparison of results from Feng-Gui and a genuine eye tracking machine

• 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

• 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

• The color contrast check page has been updated. This is a great tool for checking the accessibility of any font / background color choices.
• New to me: 30 Days to a more accessible website: Dive into Accessibility
• Design Daily News has a list of recommendations for better linking using CSS
• Scobleizer weighs in on the Facebook redesign with why Facebook won’t listen
• Bokardo talks about demystifying design and Robert Fabricant’s controversial talk titled Behavior is our Medium
• Scott Barnes of Microsoft writes about investing in user experience
• Dr. John Morgan is interviewed by UX Booth and links library science to usability
• Luke Wroblewski has an interesting dissection of the components of user experience:
  • Information Architecture
  • Interaction Design
  • Visual Design
  • User Experience

• Great tongue-in-cheek advice from Boagworld: 10 things a designer would never tell you
• TechCrunch advises FaceBook to not give in to users
• Slate agrees with TechCrunch, saying users will get over it
• Smashing Magazine talks best practices with regard to breadcrumbs
• UXBooth has an intriguing beginners guide to information architecture
• Usability Counts reminds everybody to ask for referrals
• Library Clips talks about the differences between top-down creation and bottom-up requests from a community building POV
• Walking Paper mentions their usable library website poster presented at the 2009 IA Summit. Interesting comments as well.
• The Centered Librarian posts a User Hierarchy of Needs
• Jacquelyn Marie Erdman has advice for writers of library usability studies
• Australian UsableWorld hammers home the point that we look where they look