Tag Archives: design tools

Wireframing & Prototyping Tools: Balsamiq & Friends

By Georgia Otto | Published: 11.12.2009
For last month’s meeting of the NHUPA, a number of people did short presentations and demos of a variety of wireframing and prototyping tools. I presented Balsamiq, a low-fidelity wireframing tool best used for capturing ideas quickly, keeping people focused on concepts/layout or for teaching new user experience designers about wireframing. I figured someone might find it [...]
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Webitect ~ Conducting Collaborative Design Sessions – Part 4: Maintain

By Georgia Otto | Published: 08.17.2009
Make sure you never leave your participants hanging after an important meeting. Part 4 of this series will help you maintain a long term relationship with your participants. Part 1 of this series gave an overview of the purpose behind collaborative design sessions and how to prepare to conduct your own. In Part 2, we showed you how to [...]
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Webitect ~ Conducting Collaborative Design Sessions – Part 3: Facilitate

By Georgia Otto | Published: 08.10.2009
Clients and users need guidance when contributing their design ideas. Part 3 of this series will prepare you for the challenges inherent in facilitating collaborative meetings. In Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, we explained how to prepare in advance for collaborative design sessions and how to begin your meetings with a solid focus [...]
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Webitect ~ Conducting Collaborative Design Sessions – Part 2: Inform

By Georgia Otto | Published: 08.4.2009
Getting the most out of your users requires that you take the initiative. In Part 2 of this series, you’ll learn how to begin your design session in a goal-oriented manner. In Part 1 of this series, we discussed the benefits of collaboration with users and clients at various stages throughout the design process. We also provided [...]
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Webitect ~ Conducting Collaborative Design Sessions – Part 1: Prepare

By Georgia Otto | Published: 07.27.2009
Read “Conducting Collaborative Design Sessions – Part 1: Prepare” on Webitect.net » Perhaps someone noticed I haven’t been posting at my normal rate. Or perhaps no one cares. For anyone who actually noticed the lapse, I appreciate your patience and support. The fact is, I’ve been working on my first paid blogging job! I’ll be [...]
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Tutorial: Turn Your Sketches Into Clean, Sharp Vector Art

By Georgia Otto | Published: 03.25.2009
When you scan a sketch into your computer, the lines are often light and have fuzzy edges. Resizing the scan blurs or pixelates the image. You can use Photoshop to darken the lines, but they’re still not going to be as clean and sharp as if you vectored the sketch. Vectoring your scanned sketches is great [...]
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Two Card Sorting Tools For User Experience Design

By Georgia Otto | Published: 01.19.2009
Following from last week’s discussion about UX design tools, here are a couple of free webapps that allow you to set up card sorting exercises and analyze the results. For those who may not know, a card sort is an exercise often used by Information Architects and other UX professionals to reveal natural patterns in the [...]
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Improving User Experience Design Tools – The Spirit is Willing, But the Flesh is Weak

By Georgia Otto | Published: 01.15.2009
User Experience professionals are frequently concerned with bridging the gap between themselves and the users of systems they design. However, there is a parallel gap that needs to be closed between UX designers and the developers of UX design tools. A series of surveys conducted in 2006 by associates of The Information Architecture Institute revealed [...]
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Three Tools to Generate Background Patterns

By Georgia Otto | Published: 01.7.2009
If you’re looking for a quick way to add a nice looking background pattern to your website, blog or twitter profile, here are a few options – besides the Tartan Maker and Stripe Generator I mentioned in an earlier entry: PatternCooler – With over 31,000 designs to browse, you’re sure to find something here that will [...]
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Web Design Superheroes: Download Your Superpowers Here!

By Georgia Otto | Published: 12.22.2008
With x-ray vision, photographic memory and the cure for color blindness, now you too can enhance your web design ability to superhero level! Simply download your desired superpowers from the list below to get started.
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Setting the Stage – Thoughts on “Web 2.0″

By Georgia Otto | Published: 12.1.2008
Let’s get this Web 2.0 talk out of the way – does anyone else feel like it might be just a little bit out of control? I figured I’d use the special occasion of my first post as an excuse to lay down some ground rules. Well, really just one: This blog is not about [...]
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