We’ve reached a transition point in this course.

So far we have been talking about the information structures that are needed to meet user goals.  We have explored various techniques for uncovering the information structures lurking in user stories, business requirements, process diagrams, and flat visual representations.

We will now turn to information presentation, the different ways that information can be organized into user experiences. There is also the whole other issue of searching for information, and this is the subject of a sister series of posts on Search.

What will we be talking about?

• Predictable Exploration – where do we think the user might want to go from their current location
• Predictable Focus – what other information could be pulled in that would be useful to the user right now
• Information Complexes – a common pattern for rich, reusable content
• Nested Contexts – broadening the perspective from one instance of abstracted user interaction to include other contexts that might be useful

Stay tuned.