No matter what program or tool one uses to create wireframes, a good set of stencils always helps. In the organizations I’ve worked at, I’ve used everything from PowerPoint, Illustrator, OminGraffle, and Visio. From my discussions with other UX Designers, OmniGraffle (for the Mac) and Visio (for the PC) seem to be the most popular.

If you don’t want to create your own stencils, a good place to start is the Yahoo! Design Pattern Library. They have a set of stencils for Photoshop, Illustrator, OmniGraffle, and Visio. In addition, OmniGraffle users should check out Graffletopia, which has stencils for just about anything. URLGREYHOT also has some for Visio and OmniGraffle that I’ve used before with much success.

A good set of stencils will save you time and help make your wireframes look beautiful and consistent.

Web 2.0 brought about user-generated content and as such, an interesting phenomena occurred – instead of information architects coming up with the terminology and labels of a website, the actual users helped define and create part of the information architecture through user-defined tags. The term is known as Folksonomy and was developed by Thomas Vander Wal during a mailing list conversation from the Information Architecture Institute. Wikipedia defines it as the practice and method of collaboratively creating and managing tags to annotate and categorize content and has been called everything from collaborative tagging, social classification, social indexing, social tagging, and more.

Perhaps the best examples of folksonomies at work can be seen at Del.icio.us and Flickr.

Del.icio.us, a social bookmarking manager, allows Users to tag keywords that describe and organize content with any vocabulary and words of their choice.

Flickr, a photo management web application, allows users and friends/family to tag their photos with their own keywords.

Folksomomies directly reflect the vocabulary of the users but critics argue that it lacks a hierarchical structure and the uncontrolled vocabulary leads to ambiguity. At a time where social networks and communities are growing, folksomonies are here to stay. They encourage users to participate and organize information based on their needs and vocabulary. While I do expect to see more sites utilizing them, there is a still a need to shape and organize other information and navigation on a website. Thus, while the role of the information architect may shift a little, they should embrace folksomonies for what they are and what they can become.

Today I became a member of SIGCHI, the Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction. Truth be told, I really just wanted to subscribe to the Interactions Magazine but the subscription included a complimentary membership which also allows for discounts to events and access to other material.

Last night I attended the LA User Experience Meetup event entitled Tools of the UX Trade hosted at the historic Los Angeles Times building. Here’s what the people were talking about when I was at their table:

1. User Research
Everyone agreed it was useful and important. Some had bad experiences with surveys. I personally like ethnographic interviews.

2. Brainstorming
Some said this happens before anything goes on paper. One person’s definition was it should be used to get together people that need to work with one another in order to accomplish a goal. Whiteboarding sessions was a tool some mentioned.

3. Early Design
Typical responses was sketching with plain old paper and pencil. I overheard someone say story telling was an early design. I like that one.

4. Sitemaps/Flows
Not everyone at my table did them. Those who did agreed iit takes a long time but it’s a good way to have a complete understanding of the architecture of the system.

5. Wireframes
Most people use Visio or OmniGraffle. Two person even said Photoshop. Axure seemed to be a hit among those who have used it but it’s iRise pricey.

6. Mockups
There was confusion about what was a mockup. People seemed to agree that it was somewhere between a wireframe and a more high fidelity screen.

7. Comps
Photoshop was the popular tool choice. No surprise here.

8. Lo-Fi Prototypes
People mentioned paper prototyping, as well as using wireframes as prototypes.

9. Hi-Fi Prototypes
There was a few ways to look at this. Does it mean hi-fi graphics, hi-fi interaction, or both? While it is nice to have, it takes a long time compared to a lo-fi one so it is hard to justify.

10. Usability Testing
Very useful and important but expensive. One person felt we should be doing it at an iterative approach sections at a time so in the end you are not kicking yourself for not having time to test a particular portion.

Overall, it was a very fun, interesting night and I can’t wait for the next one.

As a fan of Apple products and software, we often don’t hear about who is behind the great designs and user centered features. An article in BusinessWeek gives a small glimpse of Apple’s Design Process from Michael Lopp, senior engineering manager at Apple.

Pixel Perfect Mockups
Taking the time in the beginning to get it right will cause less problems (and expenses) down the line and “removes all ambiguity” upfront.

10 to 3 to 1
Apple designers come up with 10 entirely different mock ups, designed without any restrictions of any new feature. They eventually decide on three and spend more months on them before finally ending up with one strong decision.

Paired Design Meetings
Two meetings each week. One to brainstorm and think freely of any restrictions. The sky’s the limit. And another production meeting which is the opposite and the engineers and designers try and work out all the details.

Pony Meeting
Everyone thinks they want a pony, but is that what the Users want (or need)? The best ideas from the paired design meetings are presented to leadership to transform the pony into requirements and deliverables everyone can agree upon.

—
Having done high fidelity mockups before, it really does take an enormous amount of time. However, it does give you results and removes a lot of questions and ambiguity. The 10 to 3 to 1 design process is great. I love the unfiltered creativity and Loop’s quote of the designs not being “seven in order to make three look good.” I’ve experienced it before. The paired design meetings are also a great idea. I remember having a creative no restrictions type of meeting before and the ideas that came out of it were spectacular (and even patentable). It is difficult for people to be creative when still thinking about the constraints. I read a good analogy for “The Pony.” A person may like ice cream and he may like pickles but that doesn’t mean he’ll like pickle-flavored ice cream.

All in all, it is nice to see that Apple takes the time to really think outside the box. Now if only other companies can be convinced to invest their time and money on the User Experience.