Now, while I’m just beginning to explore the way the system is set up, it’s certainly an exciting concept. And here’s why: we need to explore innovative ways to encourage design discourse in more dynamic environments. Design is not like business, mathematics, or other scientific, quantitative disciplines. Design requires qualitative (as well as quantitative) data from which we can draw information. We need stories and narratives, visually and aurally stimulating media, foreign and fresh environments for our solutions to come to us. This is very tough to do in a virtual environment like a Web site because the personal touch and face-time is imperative to meaningful dialogue and design thinking.

An organization with the merits of IDEO stepping up to bring innovation to this space is a big deal in my mind, but what are your thoughts?

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was a little reluctant at first, but have to say this was a rather insightful read.
My main takeaway: We do need to infuse user-centricity into the culture at our organizations, but more importantly- an understanding that it is the context in which our audience lives, works, and plays is how they ascribe meaning to the products and services they use, but even more importantly still is that this context can be changed, or designed.

With this in mind, we can create markets and ecosystems of innovative products and services by proposing solutions they didn’t even know they wanted.

View all my reviews

To keep scaling and moving easy, I’ve done my best to be smart about what shapes to combine as unions, group as objects, keep editable text, or keep separate. I’m sure is a place to improve, please leave a comment or suggestion.

Page Utilities

Page Utilities are common to many editorial sites for encouraging sharing and downloading. Typically, site visitors will find them in close proximity to the main content.

Social Interaction

Common interactions in social sites are to tag, comment, favorite, subscribe, and link, etc. These controls help site members interact with other site members and non-members. Additionally, there are icons for mobile media and messaging.

Friending Objects

“Friending” is a key interaction to all social media sites. Use these UI components to build a “Friend Farm” or a profile page.

Media Interaction

Use this collection of rich media elements when building audio and video social objects. Additionally, I’ve included the common Starring Pattern used for ranking objects.

General User Interface

Use these common UI elements in combination with icons and other elements to build up any social object you can imagine.

Download

Social Media Objects_Palle?.zip

The idea to do this didn’t just come to me while standing in the shower thinking… actually, I think it did, *but* that was because I found some really helpful, freely available stencils I was using. So, big thanks to:

• Michael Angeles for making an awesome collection of standard wireframe objects for free.
• Yahoo Pattern Library
• All the social media sites I use out there on the interwebs.

Questions:

How can I support this project?
So glad you asked. :-) There are several ways:

• Use it and leave a comment or suggestion. Even if you don’t use it, please, tell me what could use improvement.
• Use the “Share this” Link and share with your favorite sites.
• Tweet about it
• Blog about it
• Vote for it on Graffletopia
• Give it away, but please keep my contact information or Web site address intact
• Visit a sponsor on the right.

Why are there no typical wireframe objects like boxes, arrows, etc.?
There really isn’t a need since there are several very good stencils that already do this.

Coming Soon

• More Icons
• More Logos
• 960 Grid integration
• More Media Objects
• Weblog Objects
• Anything you recommend (so, leave a comment ;-)

Recently (Well, June 11th, eons in Internet time) they went through a revamp. So, don’t forget to stop by Meetup.com and see what’s new.

Also, check out their new campaign: Unplug Your Friends

This video is brilliant.

Update: If you’re looking for the video conference. There ya go!

Another Tick for Webkit

First Safari and iPhone as well as Nokia and Adobe took Webkit to mainstream adoption, but Google has also announced their use of it. I called it months ago. Now is great time to start using Webkit as a primary starting point for Web design and development. Using design principles such as Progressive Enhancement and Graceful Degradation, browser inconsistencies can be mitigated.

Google is also using Webkit in Android. So, mark another.

A New Experience for Home and Search

Tech aspects are all good and well, but I’m most intrigued with the experience Google is proposing.

First, the UI for Chrome will give visual prominence to the tab. Each tab will have its own URL or address box. Functionally, that’s really not much different from what we have now, it’s just flipped.

The URL address bar does get interesting though. Called the “Omnibox” this new approach will be – from what I can tell – an amalgamation of QuickSilver, Spotlight, Google Search, and Autocomplete from history. Oh, with a cross-reference to create personalized suggestions from multiple resources such as Wikipedia and Amazon. Anything that combines that many features frightens me, but it could work out.

Obviously, this is pretty exciting. Maybe it’s not Aurora from Adaptive Path and it’s still the same old browsing paradigm, but frankly too much change just irritates people.

There’s a lot more to Chrome in terms of features such as better security and handling of pop-up windows as well as Gears integration (of course). So, go check it out for your self: Read the Google Chrome Comic there is also a blog post. 

(update: Melanie from AideRSS had indicated this is an solution provided by ID Selector.)

AideRSS’ Initial OpenID Log-in Region

Clicking the OpenID button reveals a layer with a selection of various OpenID access methods:

When you click on your OpenID Provider, a “username” field appears. Where you just enter your user name, hit return, and proceed through normal process.

Interestingly, Facebook is missing… Maybe that will come later.

What is OpenID?

From OpenID.net, “OpenID eliminates the need for multiple usernames across different websites, simplifying your online experience.”

Yahoo!’s Allen Tom gives a well-balanced view and explanation:

Have you seen cool OpenID implementations in the wild? What are your thoughts on OpenID?

Linkage

1. Yahoo! Developers Network for OpenID
2. OpenID.net
3. AideRSS

This is exemplary of the “Craft of {human} Experience.” There is certainly more to it than this, but UX designers like Chris from Cultured Code warrants the acknowledgment of being a “craftsman;” that is, talented designers who put passion into their work to take it up a level (or two ;-).

Nice work gents. Look forward to the final release.

Linkage

Cultured Code: iPhone App Coming Soon

This time it’s for those fortunate enough to have a widescreen. Always looking for ways to declutterize my life, I try to find solutions to make best use of the space around me. This includes my frequented physical space such as desk and office area, but as a UI designer, maximizing my computer’s screen real estate is part and parcel to the job. Unfortunately for me, I’m much better at the latter, but for you, someone looking to squeak a little more user-friendliness out of your feed-reading experience, I can impart this tip to help you make better use of that additional lateral screen space.

When It’s A Bad Time for the Horizontal-Split Screen

Many programs work in a three-pane layout where there is a side bar with a horizontal split-view next to it.

Example:

Now in a widescreen scenario, these layouts don’t always make sense. Especially when you have two levels of vertical lists that control a vertical content area. That’s three vertical regions and so a horizontal split has no real business being there when you can expand out laterally. (Think Mail.app)

NetNewsWire is an exemplary app for this scenario and here are three ways to get into “Widescreen Layout”:

1. Cmd-2
2. From the Menu Bar under View > Layout > “Widescreen Layout”
3. Customizing the toolbar by adding the “Layout” module

Customize Layouts with the Toolbar Module

The third approach was the little surprise. After poking around the menu bar, I couldn’t find what I was looking for easily so I checked the contextual menu from the toolbar area; that is, right click or ctrl-click in the top area of the main NNW window. Then just drag-and-drop the layout module from array of custom options. (It’s awesome that customizing applications can be this easy.)

Some may argue that making this module visible would not be the best option because the need to change the layout is likely a fringe case. However, there is plenty of horizontal space and actually, I’ve found that switching between two of three layouts may be useful for some research writers.

Three-Panes – Ideal for Scanning Feed Collections or Many Entries

The middle option, 3-panes, is good for scanning high-level collections (folders, custom searches, smart lists, etc.) where there could be hundreds of headings. Scrolling and scanning then selecting an item would take place in the middle pane. The item would then open in the right-hand pane leaving the middle pane open for further scanning.

Two-Panes – Ideal for Scanning Entries in Single Feed

The third option, 2-panes, is good for starting on a specific feed then scanning its entries. I probably won’t make much use of the first option (horizontal split) on a widescreen monitor, but for a standard monitor –or if I connect to an external, standard monitor–that layout would be appropriate.

Isn’t Having a 100+ Feeds a Bit Much?

From a bit literacy perspective, having this many feeds may be an overload, but I’m thinking about research writers; that is, people who would most benefit from an app like NNW. The Layout Switcher is an advanced feature, but worth using when you need to browse through mad amounts of subscriptions frequently.

Incidentally, many Macs these days are widescreen so the experience designers at Newsgator Technologies may want to take that extra step in detecting resolution and setting a default accordingly. It’s an advanced feature, for advanced users, but is certainly a time-saver no doubt.

Hope tip helps out!

Linkage

1. In case you’re not using NetNewsWire and want to check it out: NetNewsWire Free Download – NewsGator Technologies