It has been a week since I published my Visio template for designing SharePoint sites for everyone to use freely. Judging on the many positive referrals to the article, the many Google search queries for ‘visio + template + sharepoint’ and the massive increase of traffic to my weblog, people seem to appreciate this design aid. And I’m glad for that.

But of course there are enough SharePoint architects who don’t have the need for modeling tools (or at least mine), and that’s fine. But today I stumbled upon an article by Lois & Clark called “Should we model?”, questioning the need for modeling SharePoint sites in detail. (more…)

This is no longer the most up-to-date version of this article. Please refer to the new article: Visio template and stencil for designing SharePoint 2003 portals and sites (update).

I also have a Visio template and stencil for SharePoint (MOSS) 2007.

I am sharing my Visio template (with stencil) for designing SharePoint sites. They are designed to assist interaction designers in prototyping wireframes, together with all the other Visio stencils you can find online.

The template and stencil are free to use, just don’t re-sell them or distribute them under your own name. Because this is the first time that I publish these tools, I release them as ‘beta’. I will be adding more shapes in the nearby future. If you have any suggestions for improvements, please drop me a note. (more…)

Last week a marketing writer of TechSmith contacted me through my blog, just one day after I positively mentioned their product Morae. I was asked for an interview, to be used as a testimonial in their e-newsletter and on their website.

What fascinated me was that this marketeer had in fact found the article on my moderately visited blog and acted on it, in less than a day after publication. That moment I realized that this had been a perfect example of using meta-syndication as a PR / marketing instrument. (more…)

“Even though business decision-makers of all stripes acknowledge the merits of design, it’s the designers and usability professionals who are the first to get jettisoned from a project plan when the going gets rough.”

Steve Calde, Cooper

As a user experience designer I see this scenario happen all to often. In practice, designers and usability professionals are required to constantly justify their role in projects, especially - as Steve Calde also mentions - when budgets and/or deadlines are challenging.

There are plenty facts and figures regarding the ROI of usability, but in my experience finding them is not that easy. (more…)

I know, it’s been very quiet on this blog lately. Last time I wrote I had just missed a fine cocktail hour with the local IA’s in Amsterdam (and special guest Jesse James Garrett). In the meantime, I’ve had some intensive months with lots of designing, usability testing and writing. Unfortunately that meant less time (actually none) for blogging and reading Peter Morvilles latest book. I did however manage to fit in the 34′th IA cocktail hour last December (thanks Peter Boersma and Info.nl for organizing). (more…)