The Flicker Blog and Podcast

Convert pixels to ems, and ems to pixels.

A very nice interaction pattern for simplifying sign-in and sign-up processes – solving the issue of accidentally typing your sign-in credentials into the 'sign-up' box. For the impatient amongst you, the recommendation is at the end of the post.

A thorough and detailed article on the process of writing use cases. 

A very instructive article on measuring (and improving) user engagement, defined in the article as: 'Repeated interactions that strengthen the emotional, psychological or physical investment a customer has in a brand.' 

Part 2 of the Smashing Magazine article on CSS layouts

A good intro to the basic principles (and benefits) of using CSS to layout and present HTML content. Many key themes – separating content and presentation, progressive enhancement, diverse users and platforms and modular CSS are covered. 

Jeremy Keith on the security conscious, but user hostile process of password masking (referencing an interaction pattern that addresses it, and the elegant approach implemented by Apple). 

A highly opinionated (and somewhat entertaining) outburst by Derek Powazek against the practice of SEO, which takes the stance that all SEO activity is inherently evil.I don't agree with all of the comments – SEO to increase the flow of visitors to relevant content is absolutely justified in my opinion. However, it does raise some very valuable points – On Google: "it’s their job to find the best of the web for their results. Your audience is your readers, not Google’s algorithm." 

A great introduction to the work and thinking of Alan Cooper – specifically, the approach to the user centered design process championed by him in his books (The Inmates Are Running The Asylum & About Face: The Essentials Of Interaction Design). A good introduction to the use of personas, and the key differences between goals and tasks. 

A helpful and instructive article on a strategy to improve the consistency, structure and user-focus of your web copy – using 'content templates' to embed in each page, specific elements, structure and examples. 

Second installment of the article – more useful and practical photoshop tips.

Useful and practical tips on Photoshop usage – with a focus on the creation of assets for websites. 

An informative and instructive article on the use of inline validation in web forms by Luke Wroblewski – covering the where, when and how. The research made some significant findings:'a 22% increase in success rates,a 22% decrease in errors made,a 31% increase in satisfaction rating,a 42% decrease in completion times, anda 47% decrease in the number of eye fixations.' 

A helpful collection of screengrabs on Flickr, pulling together examples of various design conventions/patterns (tabs, pagination, footers, sign-up forms) etc. 

A very helpful article – outlining specific metrics to effectively quantify the frequently dicussed (but highly elusive) quality of engagement on a website. 

A useful selection of links covering multiple aspects of persona creation and use.

Some interesting research on 'front-loading' the copy in lists, links and calls to actions with specifics. When scanning a page, the first few characters of each list item get the most attention – so it is important to make every character count.# Use plain language# Use specific terminology# Follow conventions for naming common features# Front-load user- and action-oriented terms 

An old, but no less relevant article by Jakob Nielson & John Morkes on the impact of brevity, focus and avoidance of hyperbole on websites. The test case wasn't an e-commerce site, but the data showing impact on scannability, usability and recall is very interesting and relevant:'A common thread between conciseness, scannability, and objectivity is that each reduces the user's cognitive load, which results in faster, more efficient processing of information.' 

Andy Budd uses a simple, but powerful metaphor to stress the importance of focussing on retention of customers over acquisition of new ones. In short, don't value footfall over sales – or SEO over conversion.

An interesting post on leveraging limited budget to achieve effective results. The ideas aren't radical, but do lend credence to the notion of phased, incremental and prioritised development over 'big bang' re-designs. Realign rather than redesign! 

Dave Shea on the optimisation of image use for calls-to-action and backgrounds etc. In a nutshell, put several images (such as multiple background states for buttons) into a single image, then use selective CSS to show only, the relevant part. This will dramatically reduce the number of http requests to the server when a page is loaded, as the main image need only be loaded once by the client. 

37Signals post on using A/B software to optimise copy on the sign-up page of Highrise. Intesting that there was a 30% improvement achieved just by changing the wording in the headline and subhead on the page.

A new (and probably Google Analytics biased) blog about online conversions. Worth watching to see how it develops though.

Cennydd Bowles, user experience designer for Clearleft talking about the agile development process from the product design perspective.

An excellent talk by Leisa Reichelt at dConstruct 07 on the failings of the traditional waterfall development process. She touches on Agile – not as a silver bullet solution, but why many of its approaches are better that ‘throwing things over the fence’ to the next discipline. One important (paraphrased) point: Design decisions continue to be made at all stages of any process – with or without designers.

Link to the slides from Alan’s talk in Toronto, 2008.

A presentation by Maria Guidice on slideshare discussing the pros and cons of the agile and waterfall product development methodologies.

Smashing Magazine run a nice feature on creative use of grid-based layouts – with some great illustrations of how a grid need not be constrictive.

Absolutely stunning kinetic sculpture that utilises magnetic particles in oil and water. I recommend watching the video.

Elegant, simple and accessible data visualisations using nothing more than the data and CSS.
See www.alistapart.com/d/accessibledata/ for instructions.

A rather impressive prototype from Mozilla Labs that (to my mind) takes the idea of the semantic web, and brings a great deal of contextual utility to users via language based instruction. Put simply – embedding relevant material from the web (instead of links) becomes trivial and very, very useful. Exciting stuff!

Great idea – and taking a cue from Marty Neumeier's statement about brand – 'it's not what you say it is, it's what they say it is':
User generated tag clouds created for established brands that can give insight into public sentiment.