Interviews

• A conversation with Jef Raskin
  Jef Raskin created the Macintosh computer project and is the author of "The Humane Interface" (Addison-Wesley, 2000). He is also, among a great many other things, musician, mathematician, professor, and ... well, read the interview.

• Ambient Findability - talking with Peter Morville
  " Peter’s latest book, Ambient Findability, was published in 2005. He takes a moment to chat with Boxes and Arrows about what he’s been thinking on findability since the book was published."
  (Liz Danzico - Boxes and Arrows)

• An interview with Dick Berry, Distinguished Engineer, IBM Ease of Use
  Dick Berry is a Distinguished Engineer with the Ease of Use Architecture and Design team at IBM in Austin, Texas. Having a software background, along with some hardware experience, his focus since 1980 has been the design of human-computer interfaces, user object models, and methodologies for IBM ease of use design and development.

• An interview with Donald A Norman
  "As a prominent advocate for the users of consumer technologies, Donald A. Norman has influenced thinking and research in many fields, including product design, usability, and technical communication. Arguably the best-known popular voice for user- centered design in the United States, Norman has shaped the language people employ to talk about technologies ranging from teapots to robots. He is, for example, largely responsible for popularizing the concepts of affordances and constraints in how people think about the design of user interfaces."
  (Mark Zachry)

• An interview with Douglas Bowman of Wired News
  Douglas Bowman talks about redesigning Wired News using web standards.

• An interview with Dr. Jakob Nielsen, usability expert
  Meryl K. Evans and Nick Finck interview Jakob Nielsen for Digital Web Magazine.

• An interview with Joe Clark
  Digital Web Magazine interviews Joe Clark on accessibility issues and techniques.

• An interview with Kelly Goto
  In the lean-and-mean times of the post-dot-com period, return on investment has become much more important. Digital Web magazine asks Kelly Goto "What are some of the immediate effects of this on Web development?"

• An interview with Peter Merholz and Nathan Shedroff on user-centered design
  An interview by Meryl K. Evans for Digital Web Magazine.

• An interview with Peter Morville and Lou Rosenfeld
  An interview on 'little' and 'big' IA, IA as design, and the role and tasks involved in IA in the web development process.

• Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture: The V-2 interview
  Confusion, as well as excitement, greeted the announcement last year of this professional advocacy group for IAs. Adam Greenfield interviews two of the founders of the Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture in an attempt to clarify some of the issues surrounding the setting up of AIFIA.

• A visit with a digital architect
  An interview with Matt Jones, an information architect who has been building spaces for news online since 1995.

• Brenda Laurel on design research
  "Brenda Laurel is the Chair of the Graduate Media Design Program of Art Center College of Design as well as a Distinguished Engineer at Sun Microsystems. She has written and edited several seminal interaction design books, including Computers as Theater, The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design, and, most recently, Design Research."
  (Dan Saffer)

• Building the beast: talking with Peter Morville
  Back in 1998 Peter Morville and co-author Louis Rosenfeld wrote what many considered to be the book on the subject Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, which helped make information architect into a new job title. Morville and Rosenfeld also helped spearhead the field during the seven years they headed Argus Associates, one of the leading IA consultancies. As the 'Polar Bear book', goes into its second edition, Morville talks about the making of the new release and his thoughts about how the field has changed since the book was first published.

• Champions of web: an interview with Jakob Nielsen
  The world's leading expert on website usability speaks his mind on the future of web publishing.

• Changing lives through technology
  David Nagel, CEO of PalmSource, talks about his work at NASA, Apple and AT&T, and gives examples of success and failure in human factors design.

• Checking in with Ben Bederson
  By focusing on the user experience, the University of Maryland's Human-Computer Interaction Lab aims to improve lives through projects such as the International Children's Digital Library.

• Content management systems, hot out of kindergarden, look set to make the grade
  An interview with Tony Byrne of CMS Watch (www.cmswatch.com), who says content management systems are where the web was five years ago, but are catching up fast.

• Crafting a revolution
  Aza Raskin talks about The Humane Environment, his father (inventor of the Macintosh), and challenging the status quo. This apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

• Deconstructing web applications
  "Hagan Rivers is a recognized pioneer in the area of Web Application Design. Hagan worked on some of the very first web based interfaces and she continues to push the envelope of web application design in her current role as a partner at Two Rivers Consulting. UIE's Christine Perfetti recently had the opportunity to talk with Hagan about some of the biggest challenges in the web application space."
  (Christine Perfetti)

• Designed for life
  Hands up if you still have trouble opening the door to your office first time, figuring out the dashboard controls of your car or navigating your computer. Sadly, that'll be most of us, says Donald Norman. He's the guru's guru of a world in which people really care whether everyday gadgets work intuitively. New Scientist's Wendy M. Grossman talks to him about why gadgets in the real world are still so hard to use, and why computers need emotions.

• Designing products that work the way people work: an interview with Kate Gomoll
  Kate Gomoll is a recognised expert in the area of field research and usability testing. Christine Perfetti recently had the opportunity to talk with Kate about how she and her team at Gomoll Research & Design conduct field studies. Here is what Kate had to say about her experiences.

• Developer spotlight: Jakob Nielsen
  Builder.au interviews Jakob Nielsen about the web, open source software, the future of 3D interfaces and mobile devices.

• Digital Web Magazine interviews Derek Featherstone
  "Many people attempt to make their sites accessible by simply complying with items on a checklist. But when designers aren’t doing accessibility testing with real people they can end up with some misconceptions, can’t they? What accessibility myths have you encountered?"
  (Carolyn Wood - Digital Web Magazine)

• Digital Web Magazine interviews Jeffrey Veen
  "The Web has been following an enormous pendulum swing for some time now. Back about five years ago, when I was still at HotWired, we could do no wrong. Every stupid idea was a new paradigm and the foundations of a new economy. Now, things are just as silly. Nobody will touch the Web, and everyone is running away screaming".

• Donald Norman on Powerpoint usability: an interview with Cliff Atkinson
  As cofounder of the Nielsen Norman Group and author of the classic The Design of Everyday Things, Donald Norman is a strong advocate of user-centered design and simplicity. Surprisingly, Norman disagrees with Powerpoint's most vocal critic, information design guru Edward Tufte.

• Elizabeth Peaslee, Travelocity
  Elizabeth Peaslee, VP, Customer Experience, is interviewed by Mark Hurst of Good Experience.

• Emotional about design
  Former Apple fellow and design guru Don Norman has been influential on and offline. He tells Jack Schofield why products should now start making us smile.

• Emotion and affect
  Don Norman on the value of beauty, fun and pleasure in design.

• Eric Meyer interview on web standards
  Edited transcript of an interview with Eric Meyer on Digital Life, a Radio New Zealand program.

• Experience design: an interview with Nathan Shedroff
  Nathan Shedroff has been working as an information and interface designer for over twelve years. He co-founded vivid studios, one of the leading interactive media companies of the 1990s.

• Eye-tracking web usability
  "User interface guru Jakob Nielsen of the Nielsen Norman Group is on the road, giving seminars based on a recently completed an eye-tracking study that indicates how users consume Web pages–such as where people start browsing on a page, whether they have banner and text link blindness, where users look for navigation, how they react to different text types, relative attention allocated to text vs. pictures and more. I caught up with Nielsen via phone in New York to talk about the eyetracking research."
  (Dan Farber - ZDNet)

• Guiding users with persuasive design: an interview with Andrew Chak
  An easy way to define persuasive web design is to contrast it with usable design. Usability focuses on giving users the ability to complete a transaction if they so desire. A usable site makes it easy for users to complete transactions, from buying products to convincing users to read featured articles.

• Honing your usability testing skills: an interview with Ginny Redish
  If you've ever done any usability testing, then you've been affected by Ginny Redish's pioneering work. Ginny is a world-renowned usability expert and co-author of the books, A Practical Guide to Usability Testing and User and Task Analysis for Interface Design. Christine Perfetti had the opportunity to ask Ginny about her thoughts on the best practices surrounding usability testing. Here is what Ginny had to say about her experiences.

• Information architecture meets usability
  Lou Rosenfeld is an information architecture consultant and coauthor of O'Reilly's Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, 2nd Edition. Steve Krug is a web usability expert and the author of Don't Make Me Think. They both lead seminars in their respective fields, and recently decided to pair-up to offer back-to-back sessions of their symposiums. We spoke with both Lou and Steve about the advantages of their joint seminars, the common pitfalls of web usability and information architecture, and the state of the web industry today.

• Information architecture the Adaptive Path way: an interview with Indi Young
  Indi Young, a Founding Partner of Adaptive Path, specializes in task analysis and navigation repair. She is also the creator of the mental model diagram and gap analysis process. User Interface Engineering's Josh Porter recently sat down with Indi to talk about Adaptive Path's methodology for developing a solid information architecture.

• Innovation by design: understanding IDEO now
  Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO talks about IDEO's human-centered approach across a broad range of industries and problems.
  (GK Van Patter - NextDesign Leadership Institute)

• Interview - Bob Regan, Accessibility Product Manager, Macromedia
  Bob Regan is the Accessibility Product Manager at Macromedia, creators of a range of high profile web development, graphics, and animation products including Dreamweaver, Flash and Director. Sitepoint interviewed him recently to see what's happening at Macromedia with regards to accessibility.

• Interview: Barry Schwartz, author, "The Paradox of Choice"
  "Barry Schwartz is the author of "The Paradox of Choice," an outstanding book just released in paperback; a psychology professor at Swarthmore College. He spoke with me about the paradox of choice and how it affects the customer experience."
  (Mark Hurst)

• Interview: Steve Krug
  Boxes and Arrows interviews Steve Krug, author of the popular usability book, Don't Make Me Think.

• Interview with Alan Kay
  Alan Kay is the inventor of everything from the graphical user interface to the mouse. So what is he working on now?

• Interview with Amazon's Maryam Mohit
  Mark Hurst of Good Experience interviews Maryam Mohit on Amazon's approach to user experience.

• Interview with Andre Haddad, eBay
  Andre Haddad is the Vice President of eBay's Design Labs. He's in charge of the user experience for eBay's 114 million registered users.

• Interview with Ben Schneiderman (PDF)
  Ben Schneiderman is interviewed by Ivo Weevers and Wouter Sluis during the "Interaction Design and Children" conference at the University of Maryland.

• Interview with Donald Norman on mental models
  Don Norman's goal is to help companies make products that appeal to the emotions as well as to reason. Norman is co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group, an executive consulting firm that helps companies produce human-centered products and services. He serves on numerous boards and advisory committees for companies and education. He is Prof. of Computer Science and Psychology at Northwestern University and former Vice President of Apple Computer's Advanced Technology Group. Norman is the author of The Design of Everyday Things, Things That Make Us Smart and The Invisible Computer. His newest book Emotional Design emphasises the role of emotions in product design.

• Interview with Microsoft ethnographer Tracey Lovejoy
  "Lately, it seems the terms anthropology and ethnography are the new buzzwords for innovation in the technology industry. How has this type of research helped global organizations such as Intel, Microsoft, Apple and Adobe create better products and services? In this interview, we ask Ethnographer Tracey Lovejoy to detail some of the ways her team's research practice has directly integrated into the design and development cycles at Microsoft. In this interview, Tracey reveals how designers, developers, technologists and strategists in the technology field and beyond can most effectively utilize ethnographic-based research in their daily practices."
  (Kelly Goto)

• Interview with Peter Morville
  "I recently had the opportunity to participate in an online interview with Peter Morville regarding his new book 'Ambient Findability'. Morville, information architect evangelist and Founder of Semantic Studios, identifies connections between wayfinding, nanotechnology, evolutionary psychology, librarianship, authority, and information literacy for their power to guide us toward making informed decisions. In a world filled with ubiquitous computing, wireless interdependent networks and applications, the user context is hard to predict. According to Morville, it is not enough to concentrate on usability, but important to evaluate a company's findability. Findability plays a key role in the user experience. If you can't find it, you can't use it."
  (Juan Luis Izquierdo Anes)

• Interview with Tony Byrne
  "The more I talk to companies, the more I feel that their real business problems concern content--their content sucks, or there’s too much of it, or too little or whatever. You can get people to acknowledge that, but in the back of their minds they keep some hope that a CMS will fix their content deficiency, or at least help fix it. Certainly, some corporate cultures require a major technology project just to justify shaking things up."
  (Lou Rosenfeld - Digital Web Magazine)

• Jared Spool on user research methods
  Adaptive Path's Peter Merholz recently talked to the founder of User Interface Engineering Jared Spool about user research.

• Jared Spool: the InfoDesign interview
  Jared is one of the most important and best-recognised voices in the field of usability. User Interface Engineering, the firm that he founded in 1988, is the world's largest research, training and consulting firm specialising in website and product usability.

• Joseph Konstan on human-computer interaction
  Ubiquity interviews Joseph Konstan an associate professor of computer science at the University of Minnesota. His principal interests are human-computer interaction, recommender systems, multimedia systems, information visualization, internet applications and interfaces.

• Karen A Schriver: the InfoDesign interview
  "Karen is the author of Dynamics in Document Design: Creating texts for readers (John Wiley, 1997), an extensive, multidimensional portrait of what readers need from documents and of ways to integrate word and image in order to better meet those needs."
  (Peter J Bogaards)

• Larry Tesler on 'the laws' of interaction design
  "Larry Tesler’s resume reads like the history of interaction design. He’s worked at Xerox PARC, Apple, Amazon, and is now at Yahoo! as Vice President of their User Experience and Design Group. While at Xerox PARC, he helped develop some of the language of interaction design including pop-up menus and cut-and-paste. His law of the Conservation of Complexity is known to programmers and designers alike."
  (Dan Saffer)

• Learning to haggle - moving information architecture from design to implementation
  David Moore talks to information architecture expert Louis Rosenfeld about the problems with search features, why CMS Silver Bullets don't work, and why information architects need to be better at horsetrading.

• Listening with respect: David Greenberger interviews
  David's work shows the power of listening with respect--not scripting or forcing the interaction, but rather setting some context and then letting the interviewee lead. As you'll see, this leads to unexpected moments. Included is Mark Hurt's interview of David Greenberger.

• Louis Rosenfeld: the InfoDesign interview
  Dirk Knemeyer interviews Louis Rosenfeld who helped create the profession of information architecture, co-authored its leading text, was president of its best-known consulting firm for seven years, and is now a director and co-founder of the Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture.

• Lou Rosenfeld and Steve Krug on the user experience consulting experience
  Lou Rosenfeld and Steve Krug have authored best-selling books and both now speak together on a new tour in the U.S. We talked to this unlikely couple about the new all-encompassing rubric "User Experience Design" to find out more from the front lines.

• Luke Wroblewski on visual interaction design
  "Luke Wroblewski is an interface designer, strategist, and author of the book Site-Seeing: A Visual Approach to Web Usability as well as numerous articles on software interface design. He sits on the board of directors of the Interaction Design Association and is a frequent presenter on topics related to interface design."
  (Dan Saffer)

• Making your content management system work for you: an interview with Jeff Veen
  Adaptive Path's Jeffrey Veen is a recognised expert in the area of web design and content management systems. UIE's Christine Perfetti recently had the opportunity to talk with Jeff about the reasons why many content management systems fail and what designers can do to avoid the common pitfalls associated with CMS installations. Here is what Jeffrey had to say about his experiences.

• Mark Rettig on the history (and future) of interaction design
  "Marc Rettig is a designer, educator, and researcher, as well as founder and principal of Fit Associates. He has taught at Carnegie Mellon’s Graduate School of Design (where he held the 2003 Nierenberg Distinguished Chair of Design) and the Institute of Design, IIT, in Chicago. Marc served as chief experience officer of the user experience consultancy HannaHodge, and was a director of user experience at Cambridge Technology Partners. "
  (Dan Saffer)

• Mark Stefik on invention and innovation
  Mark Stefik and Barbara Stefik are the co-authors of the new MIT Press book, Breakthrough: Stories and Strategies of Radical Innovation. Barbara has a doctorate in transpersonal psychology and is in private practice. Mark is an inventor at the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), where he directs the Information Sciences and Technologies Laboratory.

• Nathan Shedroff: the InfoDesign interview
  Nathan is one of the pioneers of experience design and popularised the term with the first dedicated book on the topic. He is an expert and leader in the fields of information architecture, interaction design and online and interactive media, with extensive professional experience as an innovator.

• Nathan Shedroff: the V-2 interview
  Interview with Nathan Shedroff on experience design.

• Nigel Holmes: simplifying the complex
  Nigel Holmes creates graphics, illustrations and animations that try to explain things. He is principal of Explanation Graphics, a graphic design firm located just outside of New York City. His projects include advertising, books, charts and diagrams, corporate identity, logos, branding, and websites.

• Patterns in motion: examining design's reconstruction
  An interview with Harold G. Nelson, President, co-founding Director of Advanced Design Institute and co-author of The Design Way: Intentional Change in an Unpredictable World.
  (GK Van Patter - NextDesign Leadership Institute)

• People development: an interview with Susan Mills
  Susan Mills, Director, User Technologies, plays an important role with IBM’s development of user technologies that includes the ever important issue of globalisation through her day-to-day work. Here, Susan speaks on how user technologies have improved over time, IBM’s role in the globalisation marketplace and shares some advice for fellow females at IBM.

• Peoplewatch: Lou Rosenfeld
  Lou Rosenfeld is an independent information architecture consultant. He has been instrumental in helping establish the field of information architecture, serving as president of Argus Associates consulting firm from 1994-2001. Here, he is interviewed by CMSWatch on the relationship between information architecture and content management.

• Personas and goal-directed design: an interview with Kim Goodwin
  Kim Goodwin is Director of Design at Cooper. She uses and teaches a design methodology known as goal-directed design, which emphasises identifying goals of users before doing any formal design.

• Pete Gordon on portable usability labs
  Pete Gordon, who created Visual Mark, shares his thoughts on portable usability labs.

• Q and A - Edward Tufte
  The information-design guru offers a few choice words about PowerPoint.

• Refining the search engine
  The vast amount of information on the Internet is growing every day--it's enough to gag a Google search. Researcher Ramesh Jain offers up new strategies for information retrieval in this interview with Ubiquity.

• Richard Saul Wurman: the InfoDesign interview
  Dirk Knemeyer interviews Richard Saul Wurman who coined the term 'information architecture' almost 30 years ago. While 'information architecture' has a different connotation today, for the purposes of this interview, it is treated as synonymous with 'information design'.

• Robert Reimann on personas
  "Robert Reimann is the president of the Interaction Design Association and is the user-experience manager at Bose, the maker of high-end stereo equipment. He helped write the book on interaction design--literally, with Alan Cooper: About Face 2.0: The Essentials of Interaction Design."
  (Dan Saffer)

• S Joy Mountford on interface design
  The ultimate technology world will be soft, flexible and addressable. But the issues will remain the same, according to interface designer S. Joy Mountford: What do people like and what do people want?

• Science in the making: understanding generative research now
  Interview with Liz Sanders on the need for end user participation to achieve truly human-centred design.
  (GK Van Patter - NextDesign Leadership Institute)

• Stakeholder interviews as simple knowledge mapping
  Stakeholder interviews involve conducting one-on-one discussions with staff throughout the organisation. These are designed to identify key knowledge needs, gain an understanding of the organisation, and uncover major issues and problems. This technique is often used in the early stages of projects such as the redevelopment of an intranet, as part of the requirements-gathering activities. In knowledge management terms, stakeholder interviews are also a simple form of 'knowledge mapping'.

• Talking about the Elements of User Experience
  John Rhodes interviews Jesse James Garrett about his recent book.

• Talking with Jesse James Garrett
  Upon publication of his new book, The Elements of User Experience, Boxes and Arrows talks to the author, Jesse James Garrett, to discover how the diagram evolved into the book, why he only wears black and how his work as an information architect has evolved.

• Technology to make you go "wow"
  BBC interview with Donald Norman on the value of emotional design.

• The new computing
  Ben Shneiderman on how designers can help people succeed.

• The visual vocabulary three years later: an interview with Jesse James Garrett
  In October 2000, Jesse James Garrett introduced a site architecture documentation standard called the Visual Vocabulary. Since then, it has become widely adopted among information architects and user experience professionals. Boxes and Arrows interviews Jesse to see how he think the visual vocabulary is faring, three years on.

• Time for a redesign: Dr Jakob Nielsen
  Dr. Jakob Nielsen, the "King of Usability," made his name as a champion of minimal, easy-to-use web design. The Danish-born engineer believes companies can save $5 million a year and achieve 1,000 percent ROI simply by making their intranets more effective. Nielsen discusses how a solid web strategy is essential for business, and reflects on a few of his online pet peeves

• Ubiquity interviews Blade Kotelly
  Interview with speech recognition expert Blade Kotelly who explains the difference between good design and ambiguity, how good designs go bad, and why everyone is a designer.

• Understanding users through brand research: an interview with Mitch McCasland
  Mitch McCasland of Brand Inquiry Partners is an expert in brand strategy and Account Planning and has worked with such clients as Proctor & Gamble, Dr. Pepper/Seven-Up, and Verizon/GTE. User Interface Engineering's Christine Perfetti recently sat down with Mitch to talk about how Account Planning techniques can benefit designers.

• Usability guru
  Guardian Unlimited's Victor Keegan interviews Jakob Nielsen.

• Usability testing best practices: an interview with Rolf Molich
  You may have never heard of Rolf Molich. Yet, if you’ve done any usability testing, design evaluations, or heuristic inspections, then you’ve been affected by his pioneering work. Since entering the field in 1983, Rolf has produced some of the most impressive and forward-thinking research on effective discount usability techniques. Two of Rolf’s more renowned contributions include the co-invention of the Heuristic Inspection process with Jakob Nielsen and the more recent CUE (Comparative Usability Evaluation) studies. We had the opportunity to ask Rolf about some of his thoughts on the best practices surrounding usability testing.

• Web design tips and usability with Steve Krug
  Krug offered to drill down deeper into usable web design and share his take on effective navigation, the best use of images on a site, and the dichotomy of a site designer seeing their work as great literature while a site user's reality is much closer to a "billboard going by at 60 miles an hour."

• Web patterns: Q&A with John Allsopp
  "I recently had the pleasure of speaking with John Allsopp about Web patterns. John is the lead developer of the Style Master CSS Editor and founder of Webpatterns.org, a site focused on the intersection of design patterns and Web development. In John’s own words: 'The purpose of identifying patterns is to use them in our work as designers, information architects, and developers.' We chatted about doing just that."
  (Luke Wroblewski - Functioning Form)

• When Norman meets Chinese
  "Dr Norman has changed the way a generation of designers understand people and technologies. His philosophy of usability and emotion has been widely used in designing products for people's everyday life in the west and is now also starting to have an impact upon Chinese design practices. What is Dr Norman's view on Chinese design and usability industry then?"
  (uiGarden editorial team)