This week we take a walk through computing history with noted engineer and designer Bill Verplank, who was present at many of the defining points!

 

 SpoolCast: The History of Interaction with Bill Verplank [38:09m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We recorded a special episode comprised entirely of questions from our customers. On August 14, we held the UIE Virtual Seminar - Galleries: The Hardest Working Pages on Your Site. During the seminar, we received far more questions than time would allow answering. As is tradition, we put together this follow-up podcast to answer even more of your excellent questions.

 

 SpoolCast: Q&A Follow-Up from Galleries Seminar [26:18m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We’ve received some interesting comments about last week’s article on site maps as design cop-outs. Christian & Michael both asked: Why is it a cop-out to provide a site map anyway? Christian explained that they are easy to create and maintain, so what’s the big deal?
It’s a good question. While creating a site map is [...]

We’ve got a unique and exciting UIE Virtual Seminar coming up in September:
Testing Your Critiquing Skills: Site Navigation
Date: Wednesday, September 24th, 2008
Time: 1pm ET / Noon CT / 11am MT / 10am PT
When looking over someone else’s design, how do you ensure you’re delivering valuable insights that bring new perspectives to the table?
The best critique [...]

What is the difference between good and great interaction designers?
That is the subject matter for this week’s show, which features a compelling conversation with Kim Goodwin. Kim is the VP of Design and General Manager at Cooper, one of the world’s premier design consultancies, in San Francisco.

 

 Excelling at Interaction Design with Kim Goodwin [28:39m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The design process is filled with tradeoffs. We have to decide what functions are in and what functions are left on the cutting room floor. We have to decide how we’re going to present the functions to the user and what we’re going to hide from them. And we have to decide what problems we’re [...]

Innovation has become such a buzzword, it’s nearly meaningless. But that doesn’t mean innovation itself is dead. In this week’s show, we sat down with Scott Berkun, the dynamic speaker and author of “The Myths of Innovation.“

 

 SpoolCast: Creating a Culture of Innovation with Scott Berkun [30:34m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Several years ago, we came to the realization that there are eight distinct types of navigation pages that a user may encounter, as they work through a web site, trying to locate their target content. Since then, our research consistently shows that the designers who understand these different page types are far more likely to [...]

The Agile development process is about breaking things into small pieces and acting on each piece really quickly. Yet, traditional user experience practices aren’t used to working fast. How do we adjust our practices to survive in a fast-paced agile process?

That’s the question we posted to Jeff Patton, the noted independent UX/Agile consultant and speaker, who joined me on this week’s show.

 

 UX in an Agile Environment [42:55m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

When shooting the movie, the director doesn’t necessary film the scenes in the order they’ll appear once edited. Instead, the filmmakers shoot the pieces according to other constraints, such as the availability of actors or locations, or accommodating variability in the weather. It’s not unusual for the movie’s final climax to be among the first [...]