word | Card Sorting Occasionally, as designers, we have preconceived notions of how things should work, and what the flow should look like, and how things should be grouped together. This isn’t a bad thing — knowledge of our field is required to do good work, but sometimes it’s important to get an objective read on what we’re doing. That’s why user testing and observation is important, and why we do card sorts. A card sort is an extremely simple, but fascinating exercise. With a sharpie, some index cards, and a few people you can start to see how users would look at a system and group the information, so you can make interface decisions about things like hierarchy and navigation. We found this really useful on a one of our client projects. We performed a quick card sort to get a feel for how information was organized on the site. Had we not done a card sort, it might’ve taken longer for us to hit upon that very crucial piece of information. Let’s Get Our Card Sort On Doing a card sort isn’t too hard. Organize!
Tri de cartes et ergonomie web Introduction L'architecture de l'information est le fondement de la structure d'une application. Pour optimiser cette architecture, plusieurs méthodes sont utilisées. Cet article décrit l'une d'entre elles, le tri de cartes. Nous détaillerons les caractéristiques des différents types de tris, le déroulement classique d'une session de tri, ainsi que le rapport entre les caractéristiques de la méthode et les besoins et contraintes de l'ergonomie web. Cet article sera volontairement orienté vers le domaine web, car c'est celui dans lequel nous disposons du plus d'exemples concrets. 1. 1.1. Il est essentiel de travailler sur l'organisation des contenus lorsque l'on conçoit une interface informatique. Travailler sur l'architecture de l'information d'un système informatisé, c'est réfléchir aux endroits où l'on va placer les contenus et à leurs appellations, afin que l'utilisateur soit susceptible de les retrouver facilement. 1.2. ETAPE 1. Etape 1 d'un tri de cartes. ETAPE 2. ETAPE 3. ETAPE 4.
Anthony Stonehouse's Blog - User interface design in video games The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company. User interface design in games differs from other UI design because it involves an additional element -- fiction. The fiction involves an avatar of the actual user, or player. The player becomes an invisible, but key element to the story, much like a narrator in a novel or film. Diegetic Diegetic user interface elements exist within the game world (fiction and geometry) so the player and avatar can interact with them through visual, audible or haptic means. Metro 2033 uses a complete Diegetic UI with no HUD elements to help to support the game's narrative. Many games get away with using Diegetic patterns because their narrative is set in the future, where UI overlays in daily life are commonly accepted. The game uses it's eagle vision to highlight enemies and their patrol track. Meta Spatial