Cisco Web Experience Blog

How to Use a Storyboard 'Comic' to Help Design Your Web Site (Video)

Mon, 12 May 2008 06:04:50 -0800

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.

Web Design is Like Building a House

Wed, 07 May 2008 06:30:07 -0800

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.

Cisco's Support Site Wins ASP Award

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:34:08 -0800

A couple of weeks after getting great reviews from the folks at Site IQ , The Cisco Support website made the Association of Support Professionals (ASP's) Top Ten Support Sites again this year. We are honored and happy to see the value we are bringing to our user base being recognized by the industry professionals.

We're a Webby Award Honoree

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 06:48:09 -0800

It's nice to be recognized, and I'm proud to say that we're a Webby Awards Honoree 5 times over this year.

How We Design for Cisco.com

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 06:54:12 -0800

Here's a video I put together showing a little bit about how we design new areas for Cisco.com (and showing quite a bit of my messy office!)

Interesting Interview on Cisco and User Experience

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 08:30:16 -0800

My colleague Cordell Ratzlaff is featured in an interesting interview about Cisco, user experience, and how he and his team are applying the magic he perfected at Apple and frog Design to create great products and end to end experiences for Cisco. Worth a read.

P.S. Cordell is a featured speaker at Adaptive Path's upcoming MX design management conference, which is also mentioned in the article.

And in case you can't get enough Cisco user experience

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 20:45:20 -0800

I should probably mention also that I am teaching a full-day course at this year's Nielsen Norman conferences about using consumer web design techniques for corporate and B2B sites.

So, you can see Cordell in San Francisco at MX (April 20-22), or Martin in New York (April 11th) or London (May 23rd) or San Francisco (June 20th) at Nielsen Norman.

Good Web Coding Advice

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 21:51:24 -0800

We on the Web team are enjoying this "Design Code" video on YouTube. Nicely done and somewhat more enjoyable than reading a W3C manual!

Wikinomic Scoblization Coming To You!

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 11:59:25 -0800

Here is a really interesting online panel coming this next week via the Cisco Interaction Network:

It's called "Applying Web 2.0 to Your Business" and features Wikinomics coauthor Don Tapscott, FastCompany.TV Director and famed business and technology blogger Robert Scoble, Social Computing Analyst Jeremiah Owyang, Forrester Research, and WebEx Connect Senior Director David Knight.

It's Thursday April 3rd, 1 PM EDT / 10 AM PDT / 1700 UCT

There's more online at the Event Sign-up Site

Cisco New Support Wiki

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:30:03 -0800

We just released a wiki for our partners and customers to add their wisdom and learnings on top of Cisco’s documents. This augmentation of knowledge gives our user community a medium to share knowledge and improve their overall effectiveness.

My Dog is in Network World (but the Support team deserves the biggest tail wag!)

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 13:30:17 -0800

Thanks to Brad Reese at Network World Blogs for the kudos on our recently updated support area and for including a picture of my dog and me on the web site. It's an honor!

In the interest of full disclosure, I should point out it wasn't my dog (or even me) that did the bulk of the work in redesigning the Cisco.com Support area, though we were cheering the team along all the way.

Nice Dissection of Cisco.com's New Support Area

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 07:44:23 -0800

Web analysts SiteIQ have some nice comments about Cisco.com's newly designed support area, which they hail as an IT industry best practice.

I wish I spoke more Chinese...

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 14:40:08 -0800

But I still love the Cisco China Human Network section, which I think is very creatively produced...

Cute Flash Movie on the New Search

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 06:00:03 -0800

This may be a little over the top, but there's a cute flash movie about our new Cisco.com search -- complete with roaming sports cars -- lurking as a kind of Easter egg on Cisco.com. Enjoy.

Your Wonderful Comments on Cisco.com's New Search

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 09:50:30 -0800

We've gotten some really nice comments and constructive critiques of our new beta search (to go live as the main search very soon). Here's a recap...