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Hello True Believers!

On a regular basis, there comes a time to shake things up. We want to check ourselves out of stasis and go on an adventure.

In other cases, we want to illuminate why oft-held beliefs need to be questioned, refined, or just plain ignored. In this issue we celebrate the questioners, either of ourselves or of accepted norms.

Olga Sanchez-Howard shook things up completely for two years of nonprofit work. She wanted to see how the not-for-proft world approached issues and give something back to her community. Now that is striking out in a new direction!!

Alison J. Head shows us how to deepen the impact of our findings with narrative, Andrea Wiggins gives us incredibly practical ways to back our personas with data, and Joe Lamantia continues to reveal his framework for building websites in a modular way.

Finally, Karl Groves explores the problems with using log files for usability analysis, and Jeff Parks talks to Milissa Tarquini in a continuing effort to alleviate the pressure to shove everything to the top of a web page.

Three cheers for looking in other directions!

Chris Baum


== NEW STORIES ==

Building a Data-Backed Persona
by Andrea Wiggins


While the imaginary persona is helpful in the design process, a data-backed persona lends even more depth and focus to the development process. Andrea Wiggins reveals some effective ways to back up your personas with data easily available today.



Designing for Nonprofits
by Olga Sanchez-Howard


During a two-year adventure designing websites for nonprofits, Olga Sanchez-Howard navigated waters both familiar and not. Now she shares her thoughts on what is shared and unique between the nonprofit and for-profit worlds.



Connectors for Dashboards and Portals
by Joe Lamantia


This article is the fourth in a series sharing a design framework for dashboards and portals. In this installment, Joe Lamantia demonstrates how to connect content containers to ease navigation at all levels of the architecture.



Blasting the Myth of the Fold
by Jeff Parks

Milissa and Jeff discuss how this long held rule in web design is being de-bunked by web analytics and user testing, as well as how this will impact design and development processes based on screen resolution and browser compatibility.



In Appreciation of Measures That Tell Stories
by Alison J. Head


Click streams have made room for bounce rates, search analytics, and much more. Inspire stakeholders to act by telling stories with key metrics and better supporting the narrative with data.



The Limitations of Server Log Files for Usability Analysis
by Karl Groves


In the quest to gather more data on user behavior, some researchers and designers look to server log files for usability analysis. While the logs do provide a great deal of information, Karl Groves demonstrates why they are are inappropriate for gathering usability data.




== IxDA Interaction 08 - Early Registration Open==

Interaction 08 is a new conference organized by the Interaction Design Association (IxDA) that will be held from February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, Georgia.

Join several hundred interaction designers from around the world as we address the design of interactive systems of all types. Start your year off with stimulating talk, fun parties, and smart discussions about our growing field. Interaction 08 will feature two days of inspirational and tactical sessions geared at anyone who practices interaction design, as well as a day of pre-conference workshops.

Early registration is open now until December 15, so register now!



== NEW JOBS ==

Visual Interactive Designer with BFA/MFA at Pathfinder Associates LLC in Chicago, IL


Information Architect / UI Designer at NBC Universal in New York City


Interaction Designer at HUGE in New York, NY


Senior Information Architect at Avenue A - Razorfish in San Francisco


Information Architect at Story Worldwide in Norwalk, CT


Senior Information Architect - Contractor at Sequence in San Francisco


Interaction Designer at HireSites in Telecommuting


Mid to Senior-Level Information Architect at Grafik Marketing Communications in Alexandria, VA


Lead Interaction Designer-International Team at Bank of America in Wilmington Delaware (Preferred) or East Coast


Senior Interaction Designer at Bond Art and Science in New York City


User Experience Manager at Russell in Tacoma, WA


User Experience Designer at Capstrat in Raleigh, North Carolina (RTP)


Senior UI Designer at Salesforce.com in San Francisco, CA


User Experience Director at Confluence Commons, Fuser in Boulder, CO


Interaction Designer - Contract at TD AMERITRADE in Jersey City, NJ


Senior Information Architect at Ameriprise Financial in Minneapolis


Organic is Hiring! Manager, IA & Sr. IA at Organic, Inc. in San Francisco


Sr. Interaction Designer- Experience Lead at HUGE in Los Angeles, CA


Information Architect at University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, PA


Information Architect at HUGE in Los Angeles, CA


Senior Interaction Designer at HUGE in Los Angeles, CA


Freelance Information Architect at John Wiley & Sons, Inc. in New York City Area


Information Architect / Senior UI Designer at CityRealty in New York


Experience Planner at Campbell-Ewald in Warren, MI


Sr Information Architect at Makeover Solutions, Inc. in New York City


Interactive Product Coordinator/Analyst/Specialist at nFusion in Austin, TX


Information Architect at Geary Interactive in Telecommuting





== TechSmith UX Solutions - Support Our Sponsor! ==

User experience made simple, adaptable and affordable.

Easily understand and solve your user experience problems with TechSmith's UX solutions.
With TechSmith, user experience solutions are just a click away.

Learn more and get free trials at:



== NEW EVENTS ==

Web App Summit 2008 - Coronado, California, USA - March 26 2008
Web Summit 2008 is being held March 26-28, 2008 in Coronado, CA. We've lined up fantastic speakers giving full-day seminars and short talks on the most critical issues surrounding today's web apps.


NH UX Poster Session/Holiday Social - Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA - December 05 2007
Got a design problem to solve? Working on something interesting? Using a new tool/method you want to share? Need to vent about your biggest problem? Here's a chance for you to share YOUR big ideas!


UMO2007 : : Designing for User Experience - Hyderabad, India - November 30 2007
UMO2007 a national conference on Desiging for User Experience in India. On 30th Nov.2007 UsabilityMatters.Org will mark the celebrations for World Usability Day 2007 in Hyderabad, India.



Gerry McGovern- Creating Customer-Centric Websites - Ottawa, Ontario, Canada - November 28 2007
Two day Masterclass to provide you with the knowledge and tools needed to create quality "killer Web content" and arguments to support this approach.




== Intuitect: Tools for Building Better Websites - Support Our Sponsor! ==

Intuitect develops software that helps you build better websites and web apps. Our premiere offering, Intuitect Professional, is an extraordinary design, documentation and modeling tool for the user experience design process:

sitemaps > wireframes > process flows > prototypes > specifications

A Visio 2003/2007 add-on, Intuitect Professional significantly expands Visio’s capabilities, automating many of its manual processes and enabling cascading changes throughout a single, unified project.

You save valuable design time and can focus on being creative, meeting and exceeding client expectations.

Sitemaps
*Automatic drag-and-drop hierarchy
*Multiple continuation pages document large websites
*No more individual boxes and connectors

Wireframes
*Standards-compliant UI elements
*Drag-and-drop element placement
*Fully configurable element look and feel
*Sitemap changes cascade to navigation menus

Process Flows
*Integrate standard process elements and sitemap pages
*Improved process flow documentation

Properties
*Project- , page- and element-level properties
*Rich default properties set, fully extensible

Patterns
*Re-use multiple wireframe elements, entire wireframes and process flow elements
*Share patterns with team members
*Improved design consistency
*Easily follow client brand guidelines

Templates
*Save projects as templates
*Share template files
*Save design time

HTML Prototypes
*Create fully functional prototypes with one click
*XHTML-compliant code
*Easily updated to match design changes
*No waiting for prototype development

Specifications Documentation
*Complete project documentation
*Details standard and custom properties
*References images for all sitemap, flowmap and wireframe pages
*Always up to date



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