Discussion Archive: December 2004

"Standard" Intranet site sections?

I was at a client site the other day, helping to set up a strategic
plan for developing an intranet portal when we got on the topic of
navigation and the different 'sections' of the intranet that may/may
not be available to users.

I was explaining some of the shortcomings of going with
department-based navigation options (arguing that they may have a
place in the overall structure, but they shouldn't be the primary
navigation mechanism), when someone on the client team said, "well,
can't we just use whatever the default navigation sections are as a
first step?"

We talked through th

Re: Design & RSI exposure (was When Interaction Design goes wrong)

Hi Andrei, Lilly, et al.,

Couldn't let this post (below) go by without pointing to the "pilot error" analogy. When a design is just good enough that it is *possible* for the pilot to have taken the correct action (however unlikely in the actual context of use), when the design fails the pilot, the official cause of the failure is "pilot error."

Yes, if users were better-informed, more self-motivated to avoid RSI, altered their behavior accordingly, had wider carpal tunnels, bought the most ergonomically advantageous input devices, they would succumb to fewer RSI's.

Interaction design for e-learning

Apologies for multiple postings.

A five-day workshop on interaction design for e-learning will be held in
the Industrial Design Centre, IIT Bombay from February 15-19, 2005. This
workshop intends to help participants understand and internalize the
principles and the processes involved in design and evaluation of
instructional material in an interactive medium using the constructivist
learning theory.

Software for requirements management

Hey there folks,

What are people using (especially for in-house types) for requirements
management throughout the entire product management lifecycle:
1. input channels and research capture
2. concept capture
3. requirements definition
4. design docs
5. technical docs
6. QC test scripts
7. launch, rollout, marketing plans

Something that deals w/ workflow and lifecycle management
Has strong permissioning
Well designed (something I would WANT to use)
Understands that software requires a designer (sheesh!)
works well on pc and mac

-- dave