Know what I’d love to see? A design/usability study of (or a gallery of) design, web and IA shops’ client extranet pages — the ones where we manage projects, post our sketches and mockups and upload final files. But they’re so private. Anyone know of a collection, or want to share? Let me know.

“The Oblique Strategies are a deck of cards… The deck itself had its origins in the discovery by Brian Eno that both he and his friend Peter Schmidt … tended to keep a set of basic working principles which guided them through the kinds of moments of pressure — either working through a heavy painting session or watching the clock tick while you’re running up a big buck studio bill. Both Schmidt and Eno realized that the pressures of time tended to steer them away from the ways of thinking they found most productive when the pressure was off. The Strategies were, then, a way to remind themselves of those habits of thinking — to jog the mind.”

“Despite our rhetoric about form following function (well, maybe it’s just the old folk like me that bother making those noises anymore), print graphic design is often just a veneer of style. In most other cases a few people make the basic choices about structure, look, end-user experience, and the like. On large web projects, teams or team leaders make basic decisions about the nature of the project. Graphic designers often find themselves in the role of visual dishwashers for the Information Architect chefs.”

“Several respondents noted that they miss critiques now that they are in the professional world. As one person said, ‘Unfortunately, in my professional experience, so far, critique is a tool that is not used enough. I’m not sure why. Perhaps for fear of losing ownership of one’s design. Or possibly as ‘professional designers,’ we should know it all by now. Or simply, a lack of time.” (The original column.)

“There’s a known fact in application development: ‘Developers are not users.’ Making an application that meets the goals and expectations of its users is a pretty hard task — you really need to know a lot about the potential users. On top of that, novice users will expect to be helped by the documentation, should they ever run into obstacles while using your software. Documentation can come in many formats: printed manuals, PDF/standalone documents, and online help systems. In this article, I’ll cover the online help systems provided by Apple and discuss how to develop online help for your applications.”

“Despite our rhetoric about form following function (well, maybe it’s just the old folk like me that bother making those noises anymore), print graphic design is often just a veneer of style. In most other cases a few people make the basic choices about structure, look, end-user experience, and the like. On large web projects, teams or team leaders make basic decisions about the nature of the project. Graphic designers often find themselves in the role of visual dishwashers for the Information Architect chefs.”