The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative is an open organization engaged in the development of interoperable online metadata standards that support a broad range of purposes and business models. DCMI's activities include work on architecture and modeling, discussions and collaborative work in DCMI Communities and DCMI Task Groups, annual conferences and workshops, standards liaison, and educational efforts to promote widespread acceptance of metadata standards and practices. - Read more

Who would of thought that the Department of Energy would have such an extensive web site on Information Architecture. Actually, this site contains all of the DOE's published documents regarding their initiative to implement an Information Architecture structure in facilitation of government agencies sharing information. Some of the content contained here is rather complex for the layperson, but it's a great web site nonetheless. - Read more

Edward Tufte home page for books, posters, sculpture, fine art and one-day course: Presenting Data and Information. (This directory wouldn't be complete without a link to his site!) - Read more

The HiSoftware Cynthia Say Portal is a web content accessibility validation solution. It is designed to identify errors in design related to Section 508 standards and the WCAG guidelines. The main purpose of this portal is to educate web site developers in the development of Web Based content that is accessible to all. - Read more

Boxes and Arrows is devoted to the practice, innovation, and discussion of design; including graphic design, interaction design, information architecture and the design of business. Since 2001, it’s been a peer-written journal promoting contributors who want to provoke thinking, push limits, and teach a few things along the way. - Read more

In this post-Ajaxian Web 2.0 world of wikis, folksonomies, and mashups, well-planned information architecture has never been more essential. This classic primer shows information architects, designers, and web site developers how to build large-scale and maintainable web sites that are easy to navigate and appealing to users. The third edition is updated to address emerging technologies while maintaining its focus on fundamentals. - Read more

This document specifies usage scenarios for XQuery. - Read more

To be effective agile modelers should know a wide variety of modeling techniques. Unfortunately this is easier said than done. This page links to summary descriptions of a wide variety of modeling artifacts. One level up from here is the main site Agile Modeling (AM) Home Page Effective Practices for Modeling and Documentation, an unquestionably useful resource. - Read more

The Creating Passionate Users bloggers are all fascinated by brains, minds and what science can tell us about the practice of making users passionate about their lives and tools. Have a look at their work. - Read more

Design Interact was created to be the premiere source of information and inspiration for the field of interactive media. Directed toward information architects, designers and programmers, a combination of news and feature articles explore the creativity and technology necessary for the completion of successful interactive media projects. - Read more

Heuristic evaluation is a usability engineering method for finding the usability problems in a user interface design so that they can be attended to as part of an iterative design process. Heuristic evaluation involves having a small set of evaluators examine the interface and judge its compliance with recognized usability principles (the "heuristics"). - Read more

Welcome to the Usability Methods Toolbox! I've attempted to compile information about almost all of the methods and techniques (well, ok, a lot of them) used in usability evaluation. I hope you find helpful information here, or at least a pointer to additional information that will help you find what you need (last updated 10/98). - Read more

In reality, products aren’t perfect, and users need assistance through different stages of their use. User assistance (UA)—in the form of manuals or online Help—guides users in their tasks, suggests better ways of getting their work done, and provides directions for troubleshooting their problems. Here are ten best practices for creating effective user assistance... - Read more

Thoughts and observations about design, information architecture and design history. - Read more

A great listing of resources for the Information Architect. - Read more

A large list of links to various SGML/XML initiatives. - Read more

This Use Case Fundamentals mini-document provides the following information: A brief description of Use Cases, Actors and how they are used in the development process; A section on the Use Case methodology used along with a description of the terms used; A detailed description of the Use Case Reports generated during the Use Case analysis of the proposed system; A brief description of how to validate these Use Cases. - Read more

Use cases are wonderful but confusing. People, when asked to write them, do not know what to include or how to structure them. There is no published theory for them. This paper introduces a theory based on a small model of communication, distinguishing "goals" as a key element of use cases. The result is an easily used, scalable, recursive model that provides benefits outside requirements gathering: goals and goal failures can be explicitly discussed and tracked; the goals structure is useful... - Read more

The template has the sections: name (which is the goal), goal in context, scope, level, trigger, pre- and postconditions, main course, extensions, sub-variations, and other characteristic data for the use case. You may easily graft more information on to the end, or omit information. To help you decide when to omit information, I include a section on [#TAILORING Using, Staging, Tailoring the Template]. - Read more

Our understanding of use cases has evolved a great deal over the last decade (Jacobson first described them to the public in 1987; my first description of them, "Structuring use cases with goals" appeared in 1995). The purpose of this article is to show how knowing this evolution informs you about the way people use, abuse and simply misunderstand them today, and about how to better use them yourself. - Read more