Content management: design for rule, not exception
Sound advice from Gerry McGovern: "People move around your website as if were driving down a motorway. If you want to communicate with them you need to be very clear and concise. That means making difficult choices. That means designing for the rule, not the exception. Give the exception an email address or phone number where they can make their special request."content management Add tag Permalink | Monday, May 24, 2004
Blogging behind the firewall
Insights from Infoworld's use of weblog in projects: "Weblogs are not just for the hard-core techies. Our editorial staff recently started its own Weblog to share updated style guides, edit calendars, and other tools of the trade. Istyle guide, blogging Add tag Permalink | Monday, May 24, 2004
Content Life: The Art of Archiving
A good article on archiving content on your intranet: "Far too many casual content owners take a lackluster approach to inputting content by piling more information onto an already crowded page. It's important to understand that as you add new content to the top of the list, you need to move (or delete, if the information in no longer relevant) content from the bottom of the list. Otherwise, you run the risk of turning your intranet into a scrapyard."Add tag Permalink | Thursday, May 20, 2004
Serious Games Summit
Here's a bunch of resources from the Serious Games Summit whose "overall charter is to help forge productive links between the electronic game industry and projects involving the use of games in education, training, health, and public policy." [thanks infodesign]gaming Add tag Permalink | Thursday, May 20, 2004
HazardCards
HazardCards is a project spearheaded by the Learning Lab Denmark. What is it? A bunch of visual cards to learn and teach about technological hazards. You can play a game with the existing cards or create your own cards. A new twist to a old method of disseminating facts and stories.Add tag Permalink | Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Digital Storytelling Cookbook
A comprehensive guide on digital storytelling. The seven design elements are of particular interest.- Have a distinct point of view
- Focus on answering the dramatic question
- Experiment with emotional content
- User the gift of your voice
- Utilize the power of the soundtrack
- Economize the use of the visual and auditory information
- Be conscious of the pace and rhythm of your story
storytelling Add tag Permalink | Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Transom.org
Radio storytelling for the masses: "Transom.org is an experiment in channeling new work and voices to public radio through the Internet, and for discussing that work, and encouraging more. We've designed Transom.org as a performance space, an open editorial session, an audition stage, a library, and a hangout. Our purpose is to create a worthy Internet site and make public radio better."Add tag Permalink | Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Learn how to implement an effective web style guide
Gerry McGovern outlines 5 steps to building an effective style guide for your online content management:- Definition of target reader
- Description of style and tone
- Description of key web writing conventions
- A-Z of usage
- References
style guide Add tag Permalink | Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Plogs?
Michael Schrage on project management blogs, or plogs: "The simple truth is, many organizations may need plogs to discover their own simple truths about how well (or how poorly) their projects are going."Add tag Permalink | Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Color Away
A neat coloring application for kids.Add tag Permalink | Monday, May 17, 2004
Design Research
Interesting design research publications from SonicRim.research Add tag Permalink | Monday, May 17, 2004
Capturing and Optimizing Screenshots for Print
A handy resource. [thanks xBlog].Add tag Permalink | Monday, May 17, 2004
The Power of Design
Business Week analyzes the IDEO innovation story.innovation Add tag Permalink | Thursday, May 13, 2004
Webby Awards 2004
The 2004 Webby Award winners are announced. Some great sites here. BBC's Human Body wins in the Education category.Add tag Permalink | Thursday, May 13, 2004
Making Yourself Understood
A through treatment on the need for good writing skills: "In short, this may be a digital world, but the written word remains the fundamental tool of communication, and being able to write effectively and persuasively -- whether creating a business plan, e-mail, report, appraisal, or positioning statement-is a core executive skill."Add tag Permalink | Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Play Games, Be Better Students?
Yet another push for using video game type of engagement in classrooms, this time from the Electronic Entertainment Expo conference. To quote: "group of 350 game designers, educators and government officials think that games can be used as a tool to teach critical thinking, and in the process, improve American education."gaming Add tag Permalink | Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Talent Management Tools
An introductory look at some talent management systems.Add tag Permalink | Tuesday, May 11, 2004
Live from Your Office! It’s ...
Interesting idea this: the corporate talk show to share knowledge. This paragraph says it best: "Think about it. In the Information Age, organizations that succeed are those that can quickly and effectively communicate critical knowledge to their people. And the best way to do that? Traditional top-down communication techniques -- from shotgun memos to routinized meetings to heavily touted "knowledge management" systems -- seem either heavily bureaucratic or unnecessarily technocentric. In the new workplace, rigid hierarchies are giving way to informality and networks -- which is another way of saying that the most important elements of any organization are personal relationships: between management and workers, between colleagues, and, of course, between a company and its customers. And how do you build deep, valuable, personal relationships? Not through formal memos and structured meetings but through repeated personal contact. Through informal contact. Through talk."Add tag Permalink | Tuesday, May 11, 2004
Telling Tales
Steve Denning has written an article on telling organizational stories in the latest Harvard Business Review. His main point is that different contexts require different kinds of stories. His website lists seven different contexts and their story telling strategies.Add tag Permalink | Monday, May 10, 2004
The new frontier of search
This is a nicely written article on trends in search and some techniques that have become popular. It briefly compares different vendor offerings as well.Add tag Permalink | Monday, May 10, 2004
Missing Manuals
Kevin Kelly on David Pogue's Missing Manual series: "Most manuals assume you have some knowledge, but no intelligence. Pogue assumes you have some intelligence, but no knowledge. He reminds constantly rather than assumes you remember."Add tag Permalink | Monday, May 10, 2004
Intranets and knowledge sharing
"This article challenges the vision of the corporate intranet as a publishing tool, or a static repository for web pages or documents. Instead, it looks at a number of ways in which the intranet can become a dynamic and living environment for knowledge-based activities."intranets Add tag Permalink | Thursday, May 06, 2004
10 Principles of Change Management
In-depth article on recognizing the human side in change management: "In major transformations of large enterprises, they and their advisors conventionally focus their attention on devising the best strategic and tactical plans. But to succeed, they also must have an intimate understanding of the human side of change management -- the alignment of the companyAdd tag Permalink | Thursday, May 06, 2004
Getting your e-learning project on the map!
Here's an application of the Interactive Decision Object: How to identify an e-learning project that satisfies both you and your stakeholder. This object and the discussions around it help clarify the real gaps that exist and the learning needed to close them. It also helps create a tangible ROI perspective.Add tag Permalink | Thursday, May 06, 2004
Redesiging the PDB: Big Type, Color Codes
Interesting story on the importance of Information Architecture (IA) in communications. The lack of clarity from Boeing engineers on what a piece of foam could do to the Columbia shuttle and the dense text of the President's Daily Brief on the threat of Osama Bin Laden are taken as examples that could have benefited from basic IA.information architecture Add tag Permalink | Wednesday, May 05, 2004