indistinct chatter

Emerging from the rabbit hole of the working mom. A new client hired me as a subcontractor through Onward Search, an agency that hires out individual contractors who work in UX and tech in general, to do work for their client, who cannot be named until after May 15. The work is interesting, the client relationship is challenging and satisfying, and life is extremely busy. So busy, that the things that I would have blogged about at an earlier mommy blog didn’t make it to publication. Of course, I would have published it all here.

Soooooo….

We had Halloween, Thanksgiving, Chanukah, Christmas, visited the my folks in Florida, and had Purim. Somewhere in there I got a new gig. Charlie had minor oral surgery and was put under anesthesia for the first time. He came out of it fine, and healed like a champ. It rained and rained and rained. And now Spring is here, and with it, Passover, Spring cleaning, and that feeling of wanting to re-evaluate everything you’ve done in the last 6 months. And you wonder if you’re doing the right thing, and if it’s all worth it.

Yeah, it is.

Salon.com – way to go on the lovely redesign beta release. Your brand integration is top notch, layout and colors look lovely. A coupla tips from the IA lady, based on first glance –

1. you have a whitespace problem on the upper right of the content area of the home page. Either fill the column completely, or eliminate it.
2. if you’re going to add elements that look like modules, make them function as such. Don’t tempt me with header bars that aren’t draggable, especially when you have varying types of content. Adding this modular functionality gives me a sense of control over what information I’m going to see. If google can do it, you can too!
3. give me some kind of preview of what’s under the tabs. I have no idea what’s under your entertainment tab, and you have too many types of content to make me guess. a tooltip would work wonders here.
4. your homepage organization doesn’t work well on your inner category pages. Make it apparent to me how you’re organizing your information. Having some kind of context was handy in the previous version of salon…it will be missed in the new version. Right now, the category pages feel chaotic. Article pages make me feel lost as well.
5. Navigating from the homepage to a feature is well done, but once I’m at the feature, I have no idea where I’m going. Give me some guidance as to where I am and why.
6. Make your featured item on the home page bolder. Right now, it doesn’t serve the same purpose as the previous version of Salon, setting the tone for the day’s publication. Consider using a three column approach – it may even fix the whitespace problem noted in the first bullet.

And that’s my first glance. A more in depth analysis to come…if I can get out from under the elementary school class mailing list.

So many people have asked me how to make the transition from visual designer to interaction designer. Starting as a visual designer gives these people a step up that I never had, but making the leap from flat to transactional design can be a challenge for some. For these people, I start them with my top 5 resources for interaction design/ux tips, tools, and trends:

Userfocus, the creators of the ubiquitous 247 Web Guidelines has tons of resources to help with the business of designing web sites, from the latest usability standards to a detailed explanation of why accessibility matters.

A favorite in the web designer/developer community, web design tools list keeps abreast of the latest tools and tips. Their rundown of the best designs on the web is kept fresh, and they are great at finding great resources for fonts and code tidbits. Keep on the look out for this blog.

The Information Architecture Institute is a community resource for UX professionals. It has an active job board, discussion lists, and a mentoring program, but to me the best resource on the site, by far, is their library. It has links to tons of online resources, and some of the best design blogs out there.

This one certainly doesn’t even need mention, but useit.com is the place to start if you’re looking for the basics of user experience methods. I don’t always agree with Jakob Nielsen, but he’s been the go to guru for so long in this industry, that he should never be left out of anyone’s top 5. His site isn’t pretty, but as we IA types know, that doesn’t matter

Jared Spool is a local UX celebrity. His insights about methods, style, and focus inspire user interface designers of all types. And if they don’t, they should. His company, User Interface Engineering and his blog, Brainsparks, are great reads. I always look to Jared Spool when thinking about methods for defining user flow and sketching.

There are many that deserve mention (I’m looking at you Smashing and Mashable) that don’t focus entirely on UI, but are great resources nonetheless, but if I had mentioned them, it wouldn’t be a top 5 list, would it?

I recently signed up to be a class parent for my son’s kindergarten classroom.  I always thought I’d do something with a title – teacher, professional something or other, boss – but class mom? This is new territory.

Tonight was the first meeting of the class parents for Countryside Elementary School. Some 20 people got together with the president of the Parent Teacher Organization (from here on known as the PTO) to discuss what class parents actually do. I envisioned having to participate in and organize every event, so it was a relief to hear that class parents are expected to communicate with the rest of the parents in the class, and let everyone know what’s going on. I can do that. I’m good at that.

Some observations from this evening:

• There are no class dads.
• You don’t have to know what you’re doing to be a class parent. Enthusiasm goes a long way.
• Our PTO president has never participated in a football pool. This is going to change.
• No one eats the refreshments at these meetings.
• Selling pies is an acceptable form of fundraising.

I just hope I can live up to my own expectations.