May 12, 2008
How to Use a Storyboard 'Comic' to Help Design Your Web Site (Video)
That one-day crash course I'm teaching on B2B Web design had an unexpected highlight with participants: We did an interactive session on "design comics," which are a quick way of plotting out web experiences and including a human touch. And then we showed how to put together PowerPoint comics based on the session, like the one below:
This was a big hit, so I thought I would share the technique with our Cisco.com audience.
You can use design comics in a couple of ways. With our class we did one example where we storyboarded a future web site idea. We did another example, shown in the team picture below, where we documented a current experience that needed improving.
That's me (far left), co-instructor Marilyn Salzman (far right), and some members of the class with a story about online registration.
So, how does the technique work? It's pretty simple. Here's a seven-minute video I put together with Janet Wallin from Cisco (playing "Mary" in the video) showing how to plot out a storyboard and then make a PowerPoint video:
P.S. Here's a closeup of one of the sheets from the class, showing a slightly different notation style than we used in the video:
P. P. S. I should mention also that we have a couple of additional runs of our course ahead as part of the Nielsen Norman Usability Week conferences in London (May 23rd) or San Francisco (June 20th).
Technorati Tags: Cisco Design Web-Design CustomerExperience
Posted by Martin Hardee at 06:04 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
May 07, 2008
Web Design is Like Building a House
People often ask me to explain why there are different Web design roles and how they fit in creating a Web experience: "Martin," they say, "can I just go find an artist somewhere to redesign the experience on the business-to-business section of the Web sites that I just inherited?"
Unfortunately, usually not. For anything complex, you probably need to have more talent on board than just the proverbial 'artist with purple hair.' Creating a Web site or even a section of one is a lot like building a house, where you need an architect, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, etc. who come on board during the life of the project as needed.
For Cisco.com, we call on many different roles in designing different areas of the site; even if you have a much smaller web site, you will find that there's a mix of roles needed to create the end experience (and if you use a vendor for web design or hosting or development, they will fill these various roles even if it's just a few people wearing many different hats.)
Here is how I describe some common design and development roles compared to building a house:
User Researchers describe your housing and lifestyle needs and desires based on the fact that you have a small family and 4 dogs.
Business Analysts tell you whether you need a bungalow, a house or a cathedral.
Experience Designers and Information Architects determine that you probably need a 2,900-sqft ranch, and determine that it has a living room, kitchen, two bedrooms, etc and then provide the blueprints and maybe a 3D simulation
Visual Designers paint the walls and specify a tasteful decorating scheme.
Producers / Site Strategists determine what furniture you need in the different rooms, and maybe get to choose the color within the visual designers guidelines (probably working with a visual design)
Engineers are the ones who actually build the frame, install the plumbing and electric, hang the drywall.
Quality Assurance experts make sure everything is to code.
Publishers are the room stagers who not only deliver furniture into the house but set it up in the rooms (over and over again every day!)
RSS is the paper boy who throws the newspaper in your front yard.
Photo credit: Concrete Forums
Technorati Tags: Cisco Design Web-Design CustomerExperience
Posted by Martin Hardee at 06:30 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
