There is a potential problem if forms are involved and users have to choose between this and that in order to proceed. We should be alert if two or more forms are present on the same page, i.e. if there are two or more sets of input fields with each their submit button - especially if they are placed close to each other and if they work in a similar way.

There seems to be two ways to eliminate intersection problems. If possible, get rid of options which aren’t mission critical. If this isn’t possible, combine the options into one clear dialogue.

The most obvious Calls to Action are ones that say “Add to Shopping Cart” or “Buy Now” or “Subscribe.” A straight-forward “do this.” At the most basic level, they tell the visitor what she can accomplish on that page, and encourage her forward in the conversion process. When Calls to Action like these are paired with Point of Action assurances ("We Value Your Privacy,” “You can always remove the item later"), you motivate action and build confidence.

There are the Calls to Action that are meant to be part of the information-gathering process of the buying decision. You might offer these as Calls to Action: “Next” or “Click here to see alternate views” or “Read what our customers have to say about the Turbo 915.” It helps to pair this sort of Call to Action with an emotionally appealing benefit

Embedded links are less obvious Calls to Action, but when they look the way folks expect a text link to look, and when they intuitively imply where they go, they certainly can function as a Call to Action. These are the Calls to Action that will help you meet the various needs of all the different personality types who come to your site.

Web Application Solutions is a guide that helps designers, product managers, and business owners evaluate some of the most popular Web application presentation layer solutions available today. We compare each solution through consistent criteria (deployment & reach, user interactions, processing, interface components & customization, back-end integration, future proofing, staffing & cost, unique features) and provide an overview, set of examples, and references for each.

• Types of Web Applications:
  • Thin Client
    • uses web browser for security, state management, and script execution
    • most data processing and storage occurs on a remote server
  • Rich Internet Application (RIA)
    • enables richer locally processed user interactions, such as fluid animation, multimedia content, and real-time validation
    • also enables advanced remote messaging
  • Rich Client (smart client, desktop client)
    • a web-connected application that does not run within the browser, and can be delivered as compiled code
• Web Application Technologies:
  • (X)HTML
  • DHTML (HTML + JavaScript + CSS)
    • DHTML with Remote Scripting via iFrame
    • AJAX (DHTML with XMLHttpRequest
  • Flash (version 6 or higher)
    • Flash with Flex or Laszlo Presentation Server
  • Java Applets
  • Active X
  • Java Web Start
  • Windows Smart Clients

See also: Functioning Form - Web Application Continuums

Many Web Application technologies are an attempt to bridge the gap between Thin (browser-based) and Thick (desktop-based) clients. As a result, it’s useful to consider where they fall on a continuum between these two deployment and design options.

A poster from the ASIS&T 2005 Information Architecture Summit, outlining the different kinds of sample data you can use in wireframes:

• actual – real data; provides most accurate view of how information will appear; may also be distracting, particulalry if the data changes and the wireframe does not
• dummy – made-up data that looks real; best for addresses or other variables that are predictable or follow a specific format
• labeled – uses the variable name, with added information such as field length; should include notes on business rules, provide examples
• symbolic – field length and data type are illustrated through repeated characters (e.g. “9″, “X"); best used for numbers, currency, or dates
• lipsum – fake Latin or Greek text, used as a placeholder; consider rendering lipsum in grey in your wireframe, and superimposing a description of the actual content

(via Column Two and UXCentric)

• basic rule of thumb: one form = one page
• if that’s not feasible: one topic = one page
• scrolling is permissible – ideally, keep it within two screens (this will also fit nicely on letter-size paper if the user wants to print the form)
• it’s better to put form fields in a single column than in two

With any luck, there’ll be new content up here sometime early next week.

Cultronix - The Conceptual Space of Collage

Collage is a critical paradigm of the information age because it opens the range of possibilities through which we interpret information artifacts. Cut and paste enables semiotic construction that simultaneously leverages and detourns the means of production embodied by particular media elements. The recombination of genetic codes of meaning creates hybrid forms. Through these cross-currents, culture, and even knowledge, evolve.

I got to thinking about a few online news sites that rely heavily on a collage effect to transmit many news items in a visual way:

• Yahoo! Buzz Images and News – splays out a bunch of photos for you; mouse over them to get the textual summary
• 10 x 10 – an array of 100 keywords and 100 pictures
• newsmap – no pictures, but relies on size and placement of textual elements to convey importance or magnitude of coverage for a particular news item

Are we going to rely more on interfaces like this to cope with information overload? When are we going to get RSS aggregators that look this?

• the “page” currently functions as the basic presentation and organizational unit – both for people browsing the web, and for people who produce content for the web
• however, new trends on the web are challenging and disrupting the page metaphor:
  • Rich Internet Applications (RIA) – including those using Flash, Ajax, and Java
  • RSS / Atom / XML content – can be mixed/spliced with other content
  • “blurred boundaries” – between the desktop and the web, and between other devices that can share web content
• current IA tools, such as site maps and wireframes, are inadequate for modelling the new breed of websites/content
• new IA tools:
  • wireflows
  • canonical prototyping
  • content models
• a new website, RIAIA.com will be covering issues pertaining to IA for RIAs (no content there at the moment)
• see also: IAlog - RIAs and the death of the page (rumors greatly exaggerated)

Bloug - RIA and Log Analysis

• moving beyond the page metaphor may also pose a difficulty for web analytics – how do we measure these new sites?
  • Flash has user event capture functionality
  • Ajax still makes use of http request, which are logged by the server
• tracking inside these interfaces requires more tagging of content
• the potential exists to capture even more information than what is available with convential log files, such as data on mouse gestures and movements

• when a company is setting up a content management system, there’s a tendency to focus too much on the technology and design of the CMS, and not enough on the content itself
• inevitably, when it comes time to populate the CMS, the company runs into trouble – hence the need for a content inventory
• things to list in your content inventory:
  • all content on the current website
  • content that is to be migrated to the new site
  • web-based applications or transactional systems to be integrated with the new website
• information to capture for each piece of content:
  • description
  • content owner
  • content type
  • format
  • location
  • update frequency
  • status
  • general notes

(via Column Two)

Here are some additional resources on how to do a content inventory:

• New Architect - Taking A Content Inventory
• adaptive path - Doing a Content Inventory (Or, A Mind-Numbingly Detailed Odyssey Through Your Web Site) – includes an Excel worksheet that you can download and use
• SIGIA-L - summary of content inventory responses
• MCPS Web Services - Web Site Content Inventory Process (PDF, 274 kb)

The following are examples that you can look at or download:

• Perspective Software and Design - Content Inventory and Tracking
• Contentology.com Toolkit – includes three Excel spreadsheets: a Content Evaluation Matrix, a Content InventoryAssessment, and a Content Requirements Plan
• PageSolutions - Web Content Inventory – includes content inventory, preparation, and migration worksheets

Update: See also Bloug - Applications to Aid in Content Inventories?, for ideas and pointers to tools for performing content inventories in large, distributed enterprise environments.

EurekAlert! - How much can your mind keep track of?

• new research has shown that, when someone is trying to solve a new problem or do an unfamiliar task, the number of individual variables that they can handle is relatively small; four variables are difficult, while five are nearly impossible
• when problems are more familiar, people are able to break a larger number of variables into more manageable chunks, treating several variables as a single chunk

Which, of course reminded me of this (in)famous article:

The Psychological Review - The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information by George A. Miller (1956, vol. 63, pp. 81-97)

Everybody knows that there is a finite span of immediate memory and that for a lot of different kinds of test materials this span is about seven items in length. I have just shown you that there is a span of absolute judgment that can distinguish about seven categories and that there is a span of attention that will encompass about six objects at a glance.

Which has since been repudiated in its applicability to interface design:

Internetworking - Three Numbers That (Should) Have Nothing To Do With User Interface Design

(E)ven when it is cited correctly, Miller’s work is discussed as if the scientific understanding of short-term memory had not advanced at all in the last half century… More contemporary experiments show that an individual’s capacity for short-term remembering depends heavily on the nature of what is being remembered.

At best, Miller’s 7 ± 2 figure applies to immediate serial recall for a sequence of familiar, easy-to-pronounce, unrelated, verbal stimuli presented auditorily with no distracting sounds within earshot.

Net Return - Seven, plus or minus two. What’s the relevance for web design? (PDF, 90 kb)

• it is information scent, and not a user’s ability to remember a list of items, that determines their success in using a navigation structure that presents a large number of links
• information scent arises from wording used in labels and links that clearly conveys to the user what sort of information can be found if they click link

See also:

• iaslash - Magical numbers: the seven-plus-or-minus-two myth
• WardsWiki - Seven Plus Minus Two Discussion
• Ask E.T. - The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Not relevant for design of text

Also picking up on the news release from EurekAlert!:

beyond bullets - 7 x 20 = Overload

Many people justify 7 bullet points per slide by citing the George Miller article, but what’s always missing in the arithmetic is the total number of bullet points across all of the slides; e.g., 7 bullets per slide times 20 slides equals 140 bullet points.

In turn, beyond bullets links to these two items:

• Behavioral and Brain Sciences - The Magical Number 4 in Short-term Memory: A Reconsideration of Mental Storage Capacity by Nelson Cowan (2001)
• sociable media - The Science of Making Your PowerPoint Memorable: Q&A with Nelson Cowan