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All Blog Posts (28)

Chatsworth SEO and Web Design Services

The Lead Lounge offers Chatsworth SEO, web design services, your personal web design, SEO and SEM partner! Chatsworth SEO

Added by Trisha Fitzgerald on August 10, 2010 at 3:19am — No Comments

Usability and the mobile web

With new fashionable devices like the iPhone or the iPad, the mobile web has boomed. According to ComScore, global leader for analysing web trends and practices, the mobile web really exploded in the last 2 years. Between January 2008 and January 2009, the number of Americans accessing internet through mobile devices went from 36.8 to 63.2 millions. PC, mobiles or tablets website wireframes are more essential than ever.



The daily use of the… Continue

Added by Etienne on June 23, 2010 at 6:20am — No Comments

E-learning and the issue of usability

Wireframe, prototypes and usability in generale are still rather new to e-learning apps.



In the last few years, technology has improved so much that new domains like education started using it. E-learning is still a newly born science that can be defined as learning via information technology (IT). Internet is an obvious platform for e-learning and certainly the most popular tool. The American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) goes… Continue

Added by Etienne on June 2, 2010 at 7:49am — No Comments

Designing for the web 2.0: from wireframe to prototype

A wireframe is a rather ambiguous notion in web design. When preparing the design of an IT project, several concepts comes to mind like wireframe, design, sketches, prototypes. But at a time of exploding devices and new technologies like the web 2.0, it’s important to define all these notions and put them back into their current perspective.



With a handful of new devices and technologies launching everymonth, wireframes, design and… Continue

Added by Etienne on May 27, 2010 at 4:45am — No Comments

Selling your future app with a mere wireframe

Along with the growing market of mobile devices such as Apple´s iPhone or the iPad, web and mobile applications are booming. In such a competitive environment, a well-planned app is most definitely key to success.



From business plan, to user experience and even client prospection, it became important to prepare everything before you even start coding. A wireframe or a prototype can be the right answer to a successful project.…



Continue

Added by Etienne on May 19, 2010 at 5:22am — No Comments

To wireframe or not to wireframe...

Now-a-days, it has become almost compulsory to present a wireframe to your client. But at its early age, a wireframe was given to clients to put things in perspective, not just because you had to. Here we’ll look at what you should consider before starting a wireframe.



The relevance of wireframe



Whether they’re grey boxes sketched quickly or… Continue

Added by Etienne on May 11, 2010 at 6:30am — No Comments

On wireframe, prototypes and E-democracy

Using wireframe or prototypes to create E-government applications would help engaging more citizens in the business of politics.



According to UN´s last E-Government survey 2010, governments all over the world have made significant efforts to increase citizen participation and access to political affairs through the internet.



The survey states that during the last 2 years (the last survey dating back to 2008), E-participation has… Continue

Added by Etienne on May 5, 2010 at 7:50am — No Comments

How to master the art of wireframe

Today, a wireframe is fundamental to prepare any IT project effectively. Failing to plan development and design will ensure a bloody nose to the project.



Hence, wireframes are key to a well-planned development. Wireframing should appear right at the very beginning, when the first idea pops up. This article aims at giving you tips to create better wireframes.



Set a real objective

It´s… Continue

Added by Etienne on April 27, 2010 at 7:42am — No Comments

Wireframing RIAs

Just when the idea of wireframe was starting to be accepted as the standard method for UX/IA designers, the Information Architect game changed again with the coming of Rich Internet Applications (RIA).



With AJAX, php or Flex, RIA became both really dynamic and interactive. From a UX design perspective, this is a real challenge as it becomes harder but also more important to wireframe them.



Wireframes vs… Continue

Added by Etienne on April 20, 2010 at 11:30am — No Comments

User testing & wireframes: a stormy affair

“Is my new website be as sketchy as the wireframe?” I’m sure you’ve heard this comment when presenting a wireframe to a client?



A wireframe often confuses people, especially during usability tests with users who don’t know anything about the app in question. Here we´ll talk about a new agile methodology involving wireframe and user testing, putting all people involved on the same page.



User testing… Continue

Added by Etienne on April 13, 2010 at 6:30am — No Comments

The wrong way to wireframe

Wireframe is a very blurry notion that has been changing over time. We´ll see what it used to mean 10 years ago, what it means today and where it’s going.



Wireframes for specification purpose only, a thing from the past



A few years back, a wireframe was mainly a document cataloguing a long list of page elements… pretty dull to read. Its main goal was to specify a website or a piece of software.… Continue

Added by Etienne on April 8, 2010 at 7:00am — No Comments

Wireframing your interface to improve user experience

Wireframes are without a doubt the key to an efficient interface. They have been used to think and define webs and apps before developing them. From sketchy drawings to high-fidelity functional prototypes, a wireframe can be used for many purposes, before and even during development. Here we´ll see how you can significantly improve your user interface by using wireframe and/or prototype.



Defining… Continue

Added by Etienne on April 1, 2010 at 11:59am — No Comments

7 reasons to prototype (or at least wireframe)

Wireframes & prototypes didn´t use to be a priority for IT professionals. But as the IT industry develops, it becomes essential to build websites or apps on solid foundations. Here comes a non-exhaustive list of why we should all be using wireframes and prototypes more often.



1. We speak different languages

Imagine an English developer having to explain a future website to his client, a chinese businessman… I think this speaks… Continue

Added by Etienne on March 26, 2010 at 4:58am — No Comments

Why wireframes belong to the past

Yes, although wireframes are essential before building a website or a software, but they are now obsolete. I´ll tell you why in a second but first, we should do a bit of IT history.



Wireframes: a short history



At the beginning of (IT) times, if somebody wanted to build a website or an app (and this goes for any products made by men), putting… Continue

Added by Etienne on March 17, 2010 at 8:30am — No Comments

UX London Early Bird Discount Ends This Week

Just a reminder that the early bird discount for UX London runs out at the end of this week. So if you're interested in attending I'd recommend grabbing your tickets now to save £200.



Need some tips on getting your training budget approved? Kimberly Blessing has some excellent advice on this… Continue

Added by Andy Budd on January 25, 2010 at 7:18am — No Comments

Great article on creating "experience themes" to guide and unify UX design

Experience Themes: How a storytelling method can help unify teams and create better products by Cindy Chastain shares



"... a method drawn from storytelling that can help us build a better story about our product, unify teams, inspire design concepts and get us closer to evoking the pleasure, emotion and meaning of the experience we intend to… Continue

Added by Karen Bachmann on November 13, 2009 at 2:25pm — No Comments

LinkedIn's new look created using user-centered design practices

Kevin Bury, Principle UX Designer at LinkedIn, blogs about LinkedIn's new design and explains that it is based on user research and refined by usability testing. (Thanks, Alex, for posting the link through Twitter.)

Added by Karen Bachmann on November 9, 2009 at 12:37pm — No Comments

Web Slices: Letting users create their experience and control their content or a better idea than implementation?

Has anyone been using or creating web slices, a feature in IE8 (Microsoft's description of the feature)? When I first learned about web slices earlier this year, I was intrigued. Web slices seemed to allow users to turn their Favorites bar into essentially a customized portal, creating a new form of user experience with existing content. However, I haven't heard much about implementations or… Continue

Added by Karen Bachmann on August 4, 2009 at 2:38pm — No Comments

Interesting article series in Wired: "Design Under Constraint: How Limits Boost Creativity"

Design Under Constraint: How Limits Boost Creativity shares examples of how limitations have inspired creativity and innovative designs in a variety of products. Each example gives details showing how both aesthetics and usability improved in response to the challenges the design teams faced. Fun and thought-provoking.

Added by Karen Bachmann on March 10, 2009 at 4:22pm — No Comments

Useful freeware: Instant Eyedropper identifies HTML color codes from any pixel

One of the UX email newsletters I receive included a link to Instant Eyedropper. The product website describes this Windows software as "a free software tool for webmasters that will identify and automatically paste to the clipboard the HTML color code of any pixel on the screen with just a single mouse click."



I haven't used it yet, but given my reliance on the eyedropper tool when tweaking images and the frustrations I've… Continue

Added by Karen Bachmann on February 9, 2009 at 7:19pm — No Comments

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