UX & IA Design Thinking

During the creation of the CSS, Master Pages, and Page layouts its critical to stay on top of your Front End Development testing. As you know many classes in SharePoint are shared classes so when you make a modification to one element you have to test, test, test. Below are some helpful things to review before giving that oh so critical demo… Hopefully these will help you out during your development process and testing. Create and test all OOTB SharePoint templates Publishing Sites Publishing Toolbar Page Layouts (All that are available) My Sites My Profile Organization Hierarchy web part In Common with you web part Team Sites Meeting Workspaces Tabs Recurring Meeting Workspaces Quick Launch Blog Unique Quick Launch Post date, title, content, and links Wiki Functional Links (Edit, History, Incomin...

Rounded corners have become a staple in website design. But they come with a price. Don't get me wrong I really like the look of them and they really help soften the look of the site. In most cases you can create this look by using the method below. Later on in this post I will highlight some of the things you can do and some of the things not technically possible without major custom development. Design 1: Rounded corners to frame a site: Open up your master page and add 1 <div> tag right before the ms-main table to represent the site container (This is used to position the site and give it its width) Add 4 more <div> tags before the ms-main table to represent your 4 corners (top left, top right, bottom left, bottom right) <div id="xyz-content-corner-tl"> <div id="xyz-content-corner-tr"> <div id="xyz-content-corner-bl"> <div id="xyz-content-corner-br"> Add in the followin...

Click to watch the video presentation (36MB WMV), thanks to my friend Paul Galvin for taking the video. Update: For some reason the link was not good. I have updated it and it should work now.

I want to thank everyone for attending my presentation. It was a great success! I had a co-worker video record the session but it will take a little while to get that uploaded/edited for the masses. Here is the link to my presentation. I have included notes on each slide for the dialog. Download: http://cid-ed1a37150dabcd2d.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/IA%20and%20Branding%20Process%7C_ErikSwenson.pptx?ccr=80 Thanks again, enjoy and please add your comments to this post!

As a teaser, I would like to provide a sample of my upcoming session at the SharePoint Summit 2009. Roles: Information Architecture –Much of the interface navigation and page structure will be driven by the Information Architect. Designer – Skill depends on several factors, if leveraging native features, skill is very dependent on knowledge of SharePoint. SharePoint Front-End Development – MOSS-FED highly specialized skill set, especially if doing CSS-based changes. UXD Process:

Here is the final agenda for my presentation for the SharePoint Summit in Montreal on April 8th from 9:15 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. I only have 45mins to get it all in so wish me luck. Anything is possible Roles Design process Gathering Branding Requirements Create Sitemap & Navigation Create Wireframes Create Visual Design Tools for building the design Implementation methods options Additional guides/references Q/A Note : I will post my slide deck after the conference. Thanks for whoever posted that question in the comment area.

As I prepare my slides and agenda for my presentation at the SharePoint Summit in Montreal Canada I would like your input.  Please provide your feedback/comments and if you plan on attending my session! " IA and Branding Process: Sketches to Wireframes to Hi-Fidelity Designs". Methods to gathering requirements Benefits of a creative brief and Style guide Understand what functional concepts are and how they can be used Explore options on creating wireframes Creating the Design Composition (Differences between design adaptation and custom design) Building the design (CSS, Images, Master Pages, Page layouts, testing for multiple browsers and Mobile devices) Thanks!