Friday, February 27, 2004

Usability: drawing outside the lines Molly Holzschlag writes about the tension between usability heuristics and real-world needs. To quote: Although one-size-fits-all usability concepts provide a good foundation for designers interested in creating usable sites, a great user experience has far more to do with what you know about your users than what the books tell you. Molly Holzschlag shows you how to draw outside the usability lines and create sites that address the true needs of your site visitors. [Thanks to InfoDesign.] [Column Two] 9:58:50 AM    Trackback []

User centered information retrieval Marcel van Mackelenbergh has created a fascinating site on user centered information retrieval. This answers a range of common questions, such as "How to test information retrieval" and "How to improve metadata?". A good site, well worth visiting.[Column Two] 9:57:52 AM    Trackback []

Building better teams MITSloan Management Review has published the results of research into knowledge sharing in teams. To quote: There were two major findings. First, teams that shared knowledge, both intragroup and externally, tended to perform better. This result confirmed much earlier research. Second, as the diversity of teams increased so did the correlation between external knowledge sharing and performance. That is, structurally diverse teams did not necessarily perform better (or worse) than their homogeneous counterparts. But structurally diverse groups did appear to be better equipped to take advantage of knowledge shared with outsiders. [Thanks to Thomas Collins.] [Column Two] 9:57:10 AM    Trackback []