UIDesigner has an interesting in developing information architectures.

I’ve asked before: what are alternatives to card sorting that let us go beyond the superficial? I still haven’t heard any definitive answers though.

Gene Smith has collected quite a few . If you can’t get to one of , or if you’re wondering if you should go, this is a great place to wrap your head around EIA.

Lou Rosenfeld offers up his set of . Much more useful for evaluating findability than Jakob and Rolf’s original usability heuristics that were developed in DOS days.

Jeff Veen and Darcy DiNucci recently offered a . Jeff sums up lessons learned in the report with his article .

There’s a problem with endless copied and pasted pseudo-data in wireframes – if the numbers in the shopping cart don’t add up, or clients struggle with lorem ipsum, what’s an IA to do? Fake data can distract stakeholders and take valuable time away from examining core functionality. Dan Brown offers a in the latest Boxes and Arrows.

Michael Angeles has a for information architects looking for work. If you’re in the market for an IA job, particularly if you’re new in the field, go read it now. Caroline Jarrett’s recent take on has similar themes with some other tips mixed in as well.

Andrew Ottwell’s makes me want to .

Malcolm McCullough’s new book…is a readable and timely contribution to current interaction design. Using ideas drawn from architectural and design theory, cognitive science, and philosophy, McCullough significantly extends current ideas about pervasive computing and so-called experience design, while building on the foundation of traditional task-centered interface design. It’s the best current book on interaction design, and should appeal to both designers and theorists.

Gary Feldman at Cheskin shares some . This quote sums up the problem – becoming a "betamax first mover loser". His examples are Tivo (a great innovation) and satellite radio (a paid version of something you already have). The main difference between the two is that Tivo doesn’t integrate into the TV / Cable experience – buying a Tivo requires extra effort – while satellite radio is an option at the dealership.

The key insight for UX is that it’s the integrated experience that matters – not just the one specific product we might be working on.

btw, Cheskin’s is consistently insightful and refreshing.

A List Apart offers a in the page that were searched for by the user. You can to see the script in action.

Personal Video Recorders, like Tivo, have changed their owners’ viewing habits to the point of shifting advertising strategies. However, current PVRs have some significant interface drawbacks. Teehan+Lax, a Toronto UX consultancy, recently launched , and show UI comps for their improved PVR. It’s like the 37better project, but with a lot more material. With the popularity of the report, they’ve now added a blog and are looking to build business in the PVR space.

The latest issue of Digital Web Magazine gives us a chance to see some of the big picture thinking that Peter Morville has been working on in his . Interesting glimpse of what’s going into his new book.

Forrester Research recently completed a – congratulations to Dave and the rest of the IA team at Critical Mass that came out with the best overall results. User centered practices were key to Forrester’s evaluation…

Along with the overall report, there’s a free report on based on deliverables submitted by the above agencies, though actual samples aren’t included (registration required).

When I broadened my interest from IA to UX, I found the need for a new diagram to illustrate the facets of user experience – especially to help clients understand why they must move beyond usability – and so with a little help from my friends developed the user experience honeycomb.
The is a value centered description of the different aspects of the user experience (unlike the , with ux-as-user-process, or JJG’s ). The UX facets Peter describes are useful, usable, desirable, findable, accessible, and credible – and these all contribute to the central facet – valuable As a value-centered design booster, I think this is the key, and builds a bridge between business and user value – projects need to produce both ROI and Return on Experience.

Not all metadata are created equal as I learned last year when I attended the Wilshire Metadata & DAMA International Conference in Orlando, FL. However, when I sat in their meetings and learned this new aspect of metadata I discovered that there are some similarlities of concern, basically information organization, management, access, and retrievable.

If you come from the database modeling/administration world, I hear this is their equivalent to the IA Summit or CHI. The 2004 just concluded in Los Angeles. Their trip report is very informative, with enough information to get you to dig into new ways of thinking about information management.

Peter’s new meme is . Peterme’s Guruhood must lie only a few dogmatic stances beyond ;-)

Seriously, the notion of explicit design is extremely valuable. Quoth Peterme: "Through my work, what I’ve observed is that the web is all about managing expectations. Setting expectations, and then fulfilling them. That’s it."

I mostly agree – in fact, I’ve been talking with clients about expectations, instead of mental models, for the last couple years. Expectation forms the foundation of my (created when I needed The Elements of the User’s Experience to explain what a good experience involves). And here’s a snippet from a 2001 presentation on the experience gap – . Take a look at the first slide for thoughts on what actually goes into creating expectations.

Like all models, these are simplifications, but I believe that the notion of user experience practice as understanding, managing, and supporting expectations will help us gain traction with decision makers. We’ll see if Peter’s label for it catches on. Having a great tag for a simple concept can help spread the meme – let’s hope we see more awareness about user experience practice from this.