Crystal's Musings

Sweet Prezi O’ Mine

Crystal — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:14:14 +0000

So I recently discovered a cool new site, prezi.com, that lets presenters go beyond the limited powers of MS PPT and create interesting, dynamic presentations. It is srsly cool. See my new prezi below:

User Experience Overview: Selling User Experience and its benefits on Prezi

I told you it was cool.

I thought using the black and white silhouettes of people would add the necessary visuals of simplicity, ease of use and user focus. What do you think?

Usability Boot Camp

Crystal — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:43:13 +0000

Brian Sullivan, Usability guru over at Sabre, hosted an excellent boot camp this past Saturday. It was an insightful refresher course on the theory and practice of conducting usability tests. I will definitely be taking many ideas back to Verizon. The most awesome part though was running Brian’s lab there on the Sabre campus. Sweet! In the immortal words of Will Smith “I gotta get me one of these!”

Check out Brian’s presentation slides on his blog.

Happy testing!

Sketchboarding – collaborative sketching made easy

Crystal — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 16:05:30 +0000

If you haven’t checked out Sketchboarding yet, you should. This technique covered by the guys at Adaptive Path will show you a more efficient, better approach to wireframing with the customer in mind.

User Interface Reviews

Crystal — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 17:24:53 +0000

Excellent article on conducting a user interface review. I like how Rhonda emphasizes early entry for the UX architect. Otherwise you might as well call him or her QA…and that’s not the point.

Reviewing User Interfaces

Our Tangible IA

Crystal — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 16:26:47 +0000

I had a dream two nights ago. I was in a standard corporate office with people running around like mad. I turn and the manager in the room looks at me and says “but nothing you do is tangible!”. It was enough to make a young girl cry…

If only she had given this article, “Flexible Fuel: Educating the Client on IA“, to him. Every day I defend IA. Every day I tell people what Keith says here “IA establishes the baseline, or foundation, for a solid site structure. It helps create the traffic patterns and navigational routes that get the customer from A to B in language that is helpful and easy to understand. In fact, IA is the first step in meeting customer goals and can therefore increase brand awareness and product or service sales.”

Do you find yourself constantly defending IA? If so check this article out.

You don't have to do it by the book…

Crystal — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 03:18:49 +0000

I was right all along…you don’t have to do it by the book. Dana Chisnell, co-author of that most wonderful manual “Handbook of Usability Testing”, says ditch the book and do what works for you. I love the informal usability walkthrough vs. the sterilized feel of the lab. It gives me a chance to really dig into what the user is thinking without the fear of “Did I miss a step?” “Did I ask the wrong question?”. It’s that personal connection that makes the end product connect…

Read it here: Quick and Dirty Usability Testing: Step Away from the Book

Do you have IA Stone Soup?

Crystal — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:29:28 +0000

There are many things you CAN do without IA but making great websites is not one of them…
IA as Stone Soup

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BOO!

Crystal — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:13:17 +0000

We've been busy!

Crystal — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 18:38:44 +0000

Check out the new Marines Corp website! Ain’t it snazzy?

In other news the copy redesign will hopefully launch soon. Keep your eye on Floodsmart.gov for more updates!

Lysts_2008-239

Crystal — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 22:25:52 +0000

Lysts_2008-239

Originally uploaded by rthrelkeld

Aren’t we the cutest medieval couple?