The content model is one of the most important content strategy tools at your disposal. It allows you to represent content in a way that translates the intention, stakeholder needs, and functional requirements from the user experience design into something that can be built by developers implementing a CMS. A good content model helps ensure that your content vision will become a reality. Lovinger explains how to craft a strong content model and use it to foster communication and align efforts between the UX design, editorial, and technical team members on your project.
There are number of nasty traps to avoid when making your site responsive. Brad Frost of R/GA reveals five of the biggest ones and how to sidestep them.
This is what clarity is all about. It’s about eliminating “I’m confused” answers. Lots of people think simplicity is the opposite of confusion (“It’s confusing, let’s make this simpler”). It’s not. The opposite of confusion is clarity.
This is the kind of ministry that has been my heart for years. I’ve seen myself go closer to and further from it, but it’s always where I want to be. I don’t think I’ve ever seen its focus said so well in such a small space.
Once you decide to go down that road [of user research], the first thing you’ll realize is how rich your choices are of research methods. Usability audits, heuristic evaluations, usability testing, field research – which one do you choose first? Which are the most effective?
Categorizr is a modern device detection script [PHP] that helps categorize different web capable devices into 4 categories, desktop, tv, tablet, or mobile. It takes traditional device detection and flips it on its end, assuming devices are mobile first, unless otherwise detected as tablet or desktop.
Ethan Marcotte answers some questions about his current responsive methods. He discusses the image issue, and (I think) makes the article worth a save just by saying, “I’m a big fan of percentage-based measurements for horizontal margins and padding, and ems for their vertical equivalents.”