UX & IA Design Thinking

I can pretty much say I know my way around SharePoint… But every once in a while you learn about a feature that you never knew was there… Most of the time its those annoying bugs that we call “features” but are true head against the wall things that make you go hmmmm… But this time its a good thing… I was tasked with finding a way to create a header and footer for a publishing site. This header and footer would be consistent across all pages within the content area of the site. My First thought was ok I need a custom page layout, but this would not work since it needs to be easily updated via the SharePoint Interface. So after some investigation I found out that SharePoint has a built in feature called “Reusable Content” Basically all you need to do is simply edit the page of your publishing site and click on a content editor control. If you look at the image below there is a icon next to the image icon. The icon is not very obvious hence the reason why I never noticed it befo...

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.