Taxonomies and Mental Models

One of the biggest challenges to maintaining quality and value in a taxonomy lies in keeping interests aligned and resolving conflicting perspectives. By its nature, a taxonomy attempts to reconcile diverse perspectives – those of various types of users, engaging in diverse tasks. It also needs to support the needs of merchandisers who [...]

Taxonomies and change: the nature of the beast

An interesting problem was posed to a mailing list I am a part of…
Imagine that you have been using a single hierarchy to structure and organize your information for years, and it has been very successful up until now…
But now it is time to move to a different content management system, and not only that [...]

Bizzare (effective? ) interfaces

Dan Linski of ad agency Slingshot (www.davidandgoliath.com) posted some interesting and unusual user interfaces.
http://dontclick.it
http://www.pixelgasoline.com
http://www.agencynet.com
http://www.matthewmahon.com
Though the first one had technical problems, the others are interesting and compelling (at least from a curiosity perspective). Perhaps what a consumer products company needs for audiences used to lots of graphics and stimulation. Or the type of thing that appeals [...]