Happy weekend.

Executive Summary: Things may be a little out of sync around the blog, especially regarding our podcasts, for the next day or so.

The Full Story:
Perhaps you heard that over the weekend there was a string of malicious attacks against WordPress installs that weren’t the absolutely newest version. Ours was out of date because we used a podcasting plug-in that was discontinued during a previous version of WordPress. Long story short, we had to hasten our upgrade to the new version and transition to a new podcasting package at the same time today, and sooner than we were prepared for. Not surprisingly, this has lead to a number of things breaking. I’m working on re-wiring everything as fast as possible.

If you see something pop up, like a PHP error, you’re welcome to let me know by commenting on this post. As I write this, about half of the podcasts are “miswired” and I’m manually fixing them one by one. If a podcast doesn’t play for you, it hopefully will soon.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

In part 2, we have new topics to muse over. Are you building out a web 2.0 strategy? Having trouble communicating and documenting the design process? How do you tie the visions of company culture and customer experience together?

We answer these burning questions and others with four more podcasts in the final part of this series. Here I focus on the following experts:

• Steve Mulder and Riccardo LaRosa on Web 2.0 Strategy and Design 
• Dan Brown on Documenting Design
• Brian Kalma on melding Zappos’ company culture with their customer experience
• Robert Hoekman on introducing design frameworks

So lets get started with this week’s podcasts.

Web 2.0 Strategy and Design with Steve Mulder and Riccardo LaRosa

When creating a web 2.0 strategy, you start thinking about what features to build, how to tell if the features are working as expected, and how results change over time. We brought these considersations to two of our favorite people when it comes to Web2.0 Strategy; Steve Mulder and Riccardo LaRosa

In this podcast, Steve and Riccardo focus on these issues and bring some great case study examples from Reebok and HumanaOne to life. We also talk about how starting small and iterating is most successful,but not an easy sell in many situations. You’ll want to listen to how they overcame this challenge and other Web 2.0 adventures they had.

Read more detail on Steve and Riccardo’s interview.

Documenting Design with Dan Brown

In this interview, Dan and I explore the documents that help make large design projects go smoothly. We discuss how these important docs can become living documents (ones that evolve when necessary) and how Dan believes there’s value in seeing them as actual team members. This may sound odd, but Dan nicely clarifies what he means in the podcast.  

During the podcast, we spent some time with two types of documents: concept models and flow charts. These particular documents are intriguing because they don’t cover concrete ideas (which are easier to document), but instead cover the higher-level abstract ideas that often power the site invisibly.

Read more detail on Dan’s interview.  

Company Culture Meets Customer Experience with Brian Kalma

Looking for ways to tie your company culture and customer experience together? Then you definitely want to hear this interview with Brian Kalma of Zappos. I reached out to Brian to find out how Zappos, a company that conducted over a billion dollars in online sales last year, brings together their web site, call center, and social media outreach, to create a unique customer experience.

Brian discusses Zappos’ four-week training program that everyone must go through within the company; how the entire company (over 1300 is part of his design team; and how Twitter and Facebook has empowered their employees to communicate with customers.

Read more detail on Brian’s interview. 

Introducing Interaction Design with Frameworks, with Robert Hoekman

So what are design frameworks anyway? Drawn loosely from the idea of coding frameworks that software developers use to more efficiently build software, design frameworks are an aid to assembling a design.

In this podcast, Robert Hoekman joins us to discuss design frameworks. You can compare frameworks to design patterns, although patterns tend to be smaller, more specific solutions. Frameworks, when built out, can contain design patterns. 

Frameworks help create consistency in interface elements to help solidify the UX. Robert uses frameworks on all his current projects. He starts out with a check list of all the main elements what will help a person accomplish a goal.

Read more detail on Robert’s interview.  

Podcast Library

The Web App Expert podcast interview series is just a small taste of the podcasts we offer. Look for our ongoing podcast show - Userability, where folks like you call in with their UX issues of the day. And we have many other podcasts on a smattering of topics from various experts.

Creating a Great User Experience at Your Organization

Brian Kalma’s podcast is all about creating a great user experience at Zappos. It’s exactly what we’re going to talk about at the UIE Roadshow: Secrets Behind Designing Great User Experiences, except we’ll be focusing on how to create a great user experience at YOUR organization. We’ll be in Seattle, Denver and Washington, DC at the end of June. Explore the program and be sure to use the promotion code SHOW09 when you register for a $75 discount off the individual price.

Enjoy the podcasts.

The answer to these questions, and many more, are in a series of podcast interviews I did with web app experts. Twitter has been abuzz over these interviews and we want to make sure you get to hear what all the tweets are about.(By the way, if you want be notified about each new podcast, or any UIE news, follow us on Twitter @uie.)

Coincidentally, all these experts presented at UIE’s Web App Summit in late April. We offer a special CD with presentations from these experts. At the end of the post, there are details on this CD offer.

In part 1 of a 2 part series, I focus on the following experts:

• Derek Featherstone on how Ajax techniques can improve accessibility
• Nathan Curtis on using patterns and component libraries and the efficiencies you gain from them
• Luke Wroblewski on frequently asked questions with web form design
• Molly Holzchlag on web standards for web apps, specifically with HTML5 and CSS3
• Richard Rutter and James Box on why they use rough interactive prototyping over traditional deliverables 

Sounds intriquing? Here are this week’s 5 podcasts. 

Ajax Aids Accessibility with Derek Featherstone

Does Ajax aid accessibility? Yes, if you do it right, using Ajax techniques can improve accessibility. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. Ajax is like most techniques and technologies on the web — they are what you make of them.

In this podcast, Derek Featherstone, principal of Further Ahead, tells us that we first need to know how to think about Ajax as a design tool. Today’s toolkits (such as jQuery) can really help designers build functional prototypes to demonstrate their interaction concepts to developers, who will then integrate theirideas into the production system. Taking advantage of the many available libraries gives you a sandbox for trying out interactions without having to know the best practices for implementing the code.

More detail on Derek’s interview.

Achieving Pattern and Component Reuse with Nathan Curtis

Dealing with real-life web app production isn’t as glamorous as some aspects of design in the digital realm, but it is full of challenges and can honestly make or break a project. There are ways of truly optimizing certain aspects of the production so that you can create a product with consistent quality at a faster pace. To find out how, I turned to Nathan Curtis, principal and co-founder of EightShapes.

Hear how design pattern libraries and component libraries are defined. And how having these libraries can save you tremendous production time.

Using these repositories prevents each team from inventing their own wheels and engineering them from scratch. Nathan than compares pattern and component libraries to style guides, which were the first step toward this idea — one that is too often broken, over restrictive, and simply ignored. 

More detail on Nathan’s interview.

Web Form Design with Luke Wroblewski

How many pages should my complex form be? Are Dynamic Forms a good idea? When I get questions like these and others on web form design,I turn to to Luke Wroblewski, author of Web Form Design: Filling inthe Blanks and Senior Principal of Product Ideation & Design for Yahoo. Luke also has his own shop, LukeW Interface Designs.

In this podcast, you’ll hear the answers to the approve questions. Luke explains why there is no easy answer on the number of pages for complex forms and how the content should shape the form. And he’ll talke about how to use Dynamic Form correctly. In addition to answering some other questions, Luke also points out why he’s particularly interested in the concept of parti.

More detail on Luke’s interview. 

Web Standards for Web Apps with Molly Holzschlag

There are a number of new standards that have come out recently, HTML5 being perhaps the most notable for web applications, because it was brought forth with applications in mind. New features, like canvas, are designed to improve dynamic interactions between the presentation layer and the behavior layer. JavaScript’s usage has really matured and is almost indispensable with developers.

In this podcast, I reach out to my long time friend, Molly Holzschlag to discuss the impact these and other advancements are having on web application design and development, along with the tremendous benefits building with standards (or even a subset of them) brings to the lifecycle of a product.

Molly is the unsinkable author of a metric ton of web development books, is a noted teacher, and an in-demand consultant in the field. There’s likely no one better to ask about web standards than Molly.

More detail on Molly’s interview.

Roughing it with Interactive Prototypes with Richard Rutter and James Box

Without planning, web apps have no where to go. Planning documents for web app projects are often overlooked, despite their importance in the success of the product. As a designer, no matter how great your research is, or how amazing your programmers are, if your planning documents do not develop well, your project will fail.

James Box and Richard Rutter of Clearleft have been working on ways to plan highly interactive web apps that make the process more efficient.

Instead of using traditional deliverables, they show clients what they call ‘design tools.’ The advantage to these is that they stress design as a process, rather than set in stone. This method aids the flow of dialog between the designers and the client.

More details on Richard and James interview.

Information about Part 2

I think you’ll find great nuggets of information from all of these podcasts. Early next week, I’ll finish this series of podcasts with:

• Steve Mulder and Riccardo LaRosa on Web 2.0 Strategy & Design
• Dan Brown on Documenting Design 
• Robert Hoekman on Interaction Design with Frameworks 
• Brian Kalma on Company Culture Meets Customer Experience

CD Offer

If you enjoy listening to these podcasts you’ll want to check out the Web App Summit proceedings CD where you can hear the audio presentations from the Summit. For only $185, your CD will include 14 audio recordings and 22 presentation decks. Get more information on pricing and ordering the CD.  

Enjoy the podcasts.

Growing documents

Brown begins by suggesting that designers start documents with a basic nucleus of necessary information then adding detail in layers. He also put forward the idea that ideal documentation should be able to give a bird’s eye view and address the road-level details that developers and quality analysts need.

It seems to me that multiple documents become the best approach to meeting this ideal of providing the bird’s eye view and road level detail. In past work I’ve tended to use site maps or high level flow diagrams to give the high level information then use wireframes or lo-fi prototypes to get into the road level detail. (There is also need for technical documentation of both bird’s eye and road level detail but these tend to fall to the Front End and Back End team leads.)

Read Brian’s thoughts on the interview.

That’s why we’ve put together a series of podcasts with some of the experts in the field: Dan Brown, Molly Holzshlag, Steve Mulder, Riccardo LaRosa, and Nathan Curtis. In these interviews, we talk about documenting design, web standards for web apps, Web 2.0 design strategy, and using patterns and components. I’m sure you’ll find it both interesting and insightful.

You can subscribe to the podcast through iTunes, or you can listen directly on your PC.

By the way, Dan, Molly, Steve, Riccardo, and Nathan are all presenting full-day workshops on these topics at the UIE Web App Summit.

Documenting Design with Dan Brown

If you ask designers what the most frustrating parts about designing a project are, one of the top answers would undoubtedly be “communicating and documenting the design process.” And with good reason… it’s not easy.

That’s why we interviewed Dan Brown. I don’t know of anyone who knows more about solid design communications than Dan, the co-founder and principal of Eight Shapes, a UX firm in Washington, D.C. Dan wrote the excellent book Communicating Design: Developing Web Site Documentation for Design and Planning, one of our favorite design resources.

In this interview, Dan and I explore the documents that help make large design projects go smoothly. We discuss how these important docs can become living documents (one that evolves when necessary) and how
Dan believes there’s value in seeing them as actual team members. That may sound weird unless you think about large teams and the meetings. Sometimes, it’s easier to “ask the document” how something should work instead of figuring out who would be the best person to ask. At meetings, these documents can sit at the table and answer questions, as well!

In the podcast, we spent some time with two documents he cover’s in his book: concept models and flow charts. These particular documents are intriguing because they don’t cover concrete ideas (which are easier to document), but instead cover the higher-level abstract ideas that often power the site invisibly.

Listen to Dan’s interview.

Web 2.0 Strategy and Design with Steve Mulder and Riccardo LaRosa

We love to talk to Steve Mulder (from Molecular) and Riccardo La Rosa (from Isobar) about building out a Web 2.0 strategy and incorporating elements, such as social features and highly-interactive elements to the design.

Steve and Riccardo work with mainstream organizations. In this interview, they told me about the solutions they worked on with Reebok (a sports apparel company) and HumanaOne (a direct-to-consumer health
insurance company). We talked about the challenges they faced on these projects and what they needed to do to overcome them.

During the podcast, we discussed how to determine what features to build, how to tell if the features are working as expected, and how results changed over time. We talked about how starting small and iterating is most successful, but not an easy sell in many situations. You’ll want to listen to hear how they overcame this challenge and other Web 2.0 adventures they had.

Listen to Steve and Riccardo.

Web Standards for Web Apps with Molly Holzschlag

UIE reached out to Molly Holzschlag, to discuss the cutting edge of web standards as they apply to web application development. Molly is the unsinkable author of, what seems to be a million, books on web development, is a noted teacher, and an in-demand consultant in the field. There’s likely no one better to ask about web standards than Molly.

In this podcast, Molly and Jared discuss a number of new standards, such as HTML5, JavaScript, and other advancements, and the impacts it’s having on web application design and development. Also discussed is the tremendous benefits building with standards (or even a subset of them) brings to the lifecycle of a product.

In this podcast, Molly and I discussed the impact these and other advancements are having on web application design and development, along with the tremendous benefits building with standards (or even a
subset of them) brings to the lifecycle of a product.

Listen to Molly.

Achieving Pattern and Component Reuse with Nathan Curtis

Dealing with real-life web app production isn’t as glamorous as some aspects of design in the digital realm, but it is full of challenges and can honestly make or break a project. There are ways of truly optimizing certain aspects of the production so that you can create a product with consistent quality at a faster pace. To find out how, I turned to Nathan Curtis.

Nathan Curtis is a principal and co-founder of Eight Shapes in Washington, D.C., where he is spearheading research into design patterns and component libraries. Eight Shapes turns out great work in the UX and IA realms with some impressive clients.

In our discussion, Nathan and I first define design pattern libraries and component libraries. A pattern library is a repository for ideas and solutions to design interaction problems. Component libraries are comprised of actual functioning parts, with real code. If you’re designing even a moderately large site, having repositories can save you tremendous production time. You can multiply these savings if you have multiple teams working on different portions of the same property. Each team doesn’t need to invent their own wheels and engineer them from scratch.

We go into more detail in the podcast and also compare these to style guides, which were the first step towards this idea—one that is too often broken, over restrictive, and simply ignored.

Tune in to hear how pattern and component libraries can help you.

Out of the 29 articles that we published this year, we’ve decided on five that we think had the most impact and really got people thinking. Even if some readers didn’t agree with our conclusions, it started a discussion and brought awareness to some important user experience issues. You can access the top 5 in the article Top Articles of 2008.

We also produced some outstanding podcasts covering a range of topics with several invited experts. We’ve selected our favorite podcasts that we feel strongly benefits anyone who works in the web design world. They’re loaded with some great take-aways. In the December 29 article, Top Podcasts of 2008, we’ve outlined what each podcast is about and a link to access them.

So, join us as we look back at the best articles and podcasts of 2008 and help us start to think about what we’ll need in 2009. If you have topics you’d like to hear about or challenges you’d like help facing, please pop us a note below or send a twitter message.

We’ve got great plans for our articles, podcast, virtual seminars, and live events — and we want to help you. So, as my Yiddish grandmother would always say, “Don’t be such a stranger.”

Thank you for encouraging our behavior throughout 2008. We wish you a successful and productive 2009.

This year, we thought we give our attendees a special UI13 advice podcast. The show covers getting to the conference, a brief overview of the conference agenda, and lots of tips for getting around the Boston metro.

If you’ve never been to the Boston-Cambridge area, it’s a wonderful place to visit. Plenty of history, sites to see and fun to be had. If you’re like me and light on traveling experience, I asked Jared for a bit of basic traveling advice. If you’re a road warrior like Jared, we have advice on getting around for you, as well. Plus, you’ll know where to eat drink and make merry.

If you’re a regular listener to our podcasts, you’ll notice we didn’t put this in our regular feed. We didn’t want non-attendees to become confused, perhaps think we’ve become a travel company or something.

Below you can listen to the podcast in the player (press the grey play button), or download and take it with you.

The UI13 Attendees Podcast — Direct Link to MP3 File

• Because of the economic downturn (due to the rising fuel costs and mortgage market crisis), some companies are laying off and some are disappearing outright.
• Because executives understand the competitive value of creating great experiences, user experience professionals are in great demand.

This convergence means you should have your resume and references up to date. Even if you’re likely only to change jobs within your current organization, having these prepared can make the difference between having a choice and missing an opportunity.

As a hiring manager, I often find people don’t really know how to prepare their references well. This podcast, from the fine folks at Manager Tools, does a great job of explaining how to recruit, prepare, and share your references. It should be a must for anyone who thinks they’d like to grow into a new job, either in the near or far future.

The podcast blurb:

This cast tells you how to handle requests for your references when engaged in a job search.

Even though “References Available Upon Request” is no longer a good idea, reference CHECKING is on the rise and will only increase in the coming years. It seems like since resumes don’t include the age-old line — the why of which we’ll share — somehow far too many job seekers are caught off-guard by reference requests. Ahh, Horstman’s Christmas Rule!

We’ll tell you how to manage and share your references in this cast. And hey, if you’re maintaining your network, this one is EASY!

Sharing Your References at Manager-Tools.com

“What’s that catchy intro music?”

Today, I thought I’d share.

SpoolCast: Mocean Worker – Right Now

SpoolCast Crew: Cal Tjader – Soul Sauce

Josh and Jared Show: Medeski Martin & Wood – End of the World Party

Usability Tools Podcasts: Medeski Martin & Wood – Mami Gato

The Userability Podcast: Honeycut – Exodus Honey

All of these titles should also be available through iTunes, as well.

We license this music through ASCAP.

(Updated to add the Userability Podcast theme)

If you don’t regularly listen to our podcasts, here’s a great chance to catch up on some of our greatest hits:

• Kevin Cheng on Using Comics to Communicate Concepts
• Kate Gomoll on Field Studies
• Jared Spool and Christine Perfetti discussing Home Page Design

We also would like to answer questions that you have. Email us at mailbag-at-UIE.com with your show suggestions, or leave them in the comments section below.

We’ll be back very shortly with more interviews with designers from around the world, and more of UIE’s leading edge research!

Last week’s winner was Cat – Congratulations! We’ve sent you an email with the details.

For the rest of you, I’ve got great news. We have a new podcast survey available to participate in this week, and we’re offering another $25 iTunes or Amazon Gift Certificate to a lucky participant.

If you took last week’s survey, you’re welcomed to take this week’s survey as well. However, we would ask that you simply answer the survey in regard to a different podcast.

We appreciate your feedback!