Hi, I'm Grace Smith » Web Development

30 Information Packed UX and IA Resources

Grace — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 14:48:18 +0000

User Experience (UX) Design describes the experience a person has as a result of their interactions with a particular product or service. It encompasses all aspects of the end-user’s experience and goes way beyond giving customers what they say they want, or providing them with checklist features.

Achieving a great user experience means taking into account a multitude of areas such as information architecture, usability, accessibility, functionality, content and the user interface.

This rundown of some of the best resources available both online and offline should offer some guidance in achieving User Experience nirvana.

Inspirational Flickr Groups & Sets

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Related UX Resources

UX is an area which constantly fascinates me and i’m particularly drawn to how Information Architecture (IA) can facilitate effective communication and user experience.

Are there any UX related articles or resource you would like to share? If so please feel free to drop a comment and share the link goodness.

Photo by Striatic

30 Information Packed UX and IA Resources is a post from: Grace Smith, a Freelance Web Designer based in Northern Ireland, UK. Grace runs a micro design studio called Postscript5 and works with range of entrepreneurs and small businesses throughout the world.

Big App Giveaway Code: ProductivityRocks

86 jQuery Resources To Spice Up Your Website

Grace — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:16:55 +0000

The second Theme Thursday’s topic was jQuery, yet again another great choice for the week’s theme. As one of my favourite JavaScript libraries i was super pleased it was the chosen topic, it seems im not the only one who loves all things jQuery, as lots of people joined in to share links and resources on the subject.

Future of Theme Thursday

From now on the links to the chosen theme each week will be tweeted from our new dedicated account: @themethursday, so in order for you to see the links you will need to follow that account or you will miss out on all the super useful resources tweeted each week! The reason for this is so as to avoid overwhelming my own followers and it’s also going to be used in conjunction with the website im developing for Theme Thursday (which should be up and running within the next two weeks).

I know you’re here for the jQuery linkage, so here’s the rundown:

Theme Thursday has now become one of the top trends on Twitter every Thursday with more and more people joining in each week, which is fantastic to see with the aim being to promote useful resources related to a particular theme. If you have any comments or feedback drop me a comment.

Photo by Dmitry Baranovskiy

86 jQuery Resources To Spice Up Your Website is a post from: Grace Smith, a Freelance Web Designer based in Northern Ireland, UK. Grace runs a micro design studio called Postscript5 and works with range of entrepreneurs and small businesses throughout the world.

Big App Giveaway Code: ProductivityRocks

Get Wireframing: The All-In-One Guide

Grace — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 19:43:53 +0000

Wireframing is a great tool to incorporate into your projects as it allows for rapid prototyping and helps to pinpoint any potential problems. I personally find it invaluable on projects to have a visual representation of content, hierarchy and layout. Overall it’s an excellent step to incorporate into your project before the design process begins for both you and your clients.

I am continually intrigued about how other firms and individuals incorporate the wireframing stage into their process. I know i’m not the only one, so this list aims to group together some of the best techniques, tools and resources to help you create effective wireframes.

Techniques

Building a Wireframe in Illustrator – From AiBurn – a step by step tutorial.
Grey Box Method from Jason Santa Maria (the method i personally use).
The 960 Grid System – Streamlines web development workflow and allows for rapid prototyping.
The ‘Boxing Glove’ Wireframing Technique – Very basic, quick sketches that force you to draw only the most crucial parts of the user interface.

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Tools

Omnigraffle – Create diagrams, process charts, quick page layouts and website mockups
Visio – Visualize, explore, and communicate complex information.
Protoshare – Collaborate online wireframe tool with real time communication and clickable wireframes.
Balsamiq – Easily and quickly created rough mockups with predefined elements
iPlotz – Quickly sketch wireframes of Web sites and demonstrate navigation between pages
Lovely Charts – Diagraming app that allows you to create site maps, flowcharts, wireframes and more
Jumpchart – Online collaborative wireframe
Axure – Rapidly create wireframes, prototypes and specifications for applications and web sites.
Gliffy – Create website wireframes and share web mockups with anyone.
MockupScreens – For the Non-Designers, allows you to sketch and organise screen mockups.
EasyPrototype – Works with your existing techniques such as paper sketches, Photoshop mockups etc.
Justinmind – Design a wireframe and test their web usability
OverSite – Provides a menu of widgets to create wireframes, or mockups with drag and drop features.
Fluid IA – Agile UI Prototyping
Pencil – Free sketching & GUI prototyping tool, can be installed as a Firefox add-on or as a standalone application.

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Wireframe Examples

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Wireframing Articles of Interest

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Paper Prototyping

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Useful Wireframing Resources

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Kick Ass Books

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I recommend reading the Complete Beginner’s Guide to Information Architecture at the UX Booth as a great introduction.

Are there any resources i haven’t listed that you recommend? If so, drop a comment with any useful links or resources for others to check out.

Photo by Giles Douglas

Get Wireframing: The All-In-One Guide is a post from: Grace Smith, a Freelance Web Designer based in Northern Ireland, UK. Grace runs a micro design studio called Postscript5 and works with range of entrepreneurs and small businesses throughout the world.

Big App Giveaway Code: ProductivityRocks