In 2008, Entertainment Weekly magazine began efforts spiff up EW.com. Despite this website’s dated look and ad hoc information architecture, readers loyally consume and comment on the snarky writings of EW’s writers. Google likes EW, too – consistently ranking EW among the first natural results for terms like, “American Idol,” and “Twilight.” The challenge was to fix the problems and keep the Google juice. (more…)

As a User Interface Designer, I always crave seeing my designs being used by real people. Ideally, every project I work on would have a user testing sessions before, during and after design. But not all clients have a budget for this kind of research. That’s why I’m keen on some good, ‘ole fashioned usability research from Kansas. (more…)

A few people have been asking me about how I approach a big redesign. Putting aside the “waterfall vs. agile vs. iterative” design process, there are a few background documents that I find useful when beginning a big redesign. In the coming weeks, I will be writing more about these documents.

When I get new a project, I start by researching the client and their competitors. So, I create a Bookmarks Toolbar Folder in Firefox where I drag all related web sites. When I want to research a particular item, I just click on the last option in the Bookmarks Toolbar Folder “Open in Tabs.” Viola! All of my research items are opened instantly.

Another cool thing is that I can export that bookmarks folder as an HTML file (File > Manage Bookmarks. Then once you’re in the Bookmarks Manager it’s – File > Export). That way I can easily pass along my sites to anyone on the project.