They gave a real-world example in which they compared Ajax and Flex as the Ninja versus the Sumo, respectively. They talked about a design process of the future that would combine current practices to form a best-of-both-worlds process, in which workflow is central and the interactive prototype acts as the hub for all ideas. And their conclusion was that designers should think holistically, stop focusing on pages, and focus instead on design and data. All in all, the panelists brought a lot of energy to this presentation and their ideas had their foundation in real-world experience and practical thinking.
Content Analysis: Methods and Mentoring
Presenter: Chiara Fox
I was initially disappointed in the subject-matter of Chiara Fox’s presentation.
I was hoping to find some insights into analyzing the content of a complex Web application, but the focus of this presentation was solely on analyzing the content of a Web site. However, I spoke with another attendee afterward who thought the presentation was great and met all expectations. With that said, Chiara did a great job of explaining a simple, practical process for cataloging Web sites. She detailed three primary deliverables: the content audit—a sampling of content that gives its flavor; the content inventory—a meticulously detailed accounting of everything on a Web site; and the content map—a graphical representation of a site. She included real examples and walked through the steps for creating each deliverable. She then discussed the analysis phase that follows data collection and described what she does with the information she’s collected. Content analysis is all about patterns and relationships. Interestingly, Chiara used Microsoft Excel to record her data and produce many of the deliverables. Ironically, this made me think she knew what she was doing; more often than not, fancy tools don’t get you much further than a basic spreadsheet.
