Strange Systems has penned a good article about using wireframes. This FAQ-style article talks about the importance of wireframing, it's do's and don'ts. Plenty of contextual examples and loads of links to external resources.

There's been a lot of chatter today about managing e-mail and exporting e-mail. Normally, I wouldn't read into it, but the soup vendor I bought my lunch from earlier told me to "be safe" as she handed me my change. I'm backing my inbox up as I post this...

Google does it again, this time with a CTI/VR voice search demo. I got through on the first try (perfect!), spoke in my search request ("information architecture usability"), clicked on a link and saw the results returned. Voiced another query, the browser automatically refreshed and presented results to the new search request. Hrrmm.... did I say that?

My first thought was "this is cool". My second thought was "either the VR on this thing needs some work or I need speech lessons". Third thought was "This is really cool. Hey, come look at this!". And so on and so forth...

Imagine this scenario. On your way to a meeting, you want to gather some information on a particular subject pertaining to that meeting. You know you'll have a few minutes prior to that meeting to read up on the topic. You dial the Google VR search and say your request, a link to the results is emailed to you. Many more scenarios bubbling around in my head that could benefit from this CTI/web convergence - research librarians, call center reps, paralegal, etc.

Usability-wise, the VR needs work. With rock solid VR and speech more than twice as fast as keyboard entry, this interface could become more economical than it's web counterpart. What do you think? (props to Webword for the link)

All work and no play would make Google a dull website. Point your browser at www.monstor.com and chuckle at where you end up.

A small win for our internet radio brethren - the U.S. Copyright Office rejected a proposed webcasting royalty plan. Now we'll just have to wait and see what copyright royalty mechanism is decided upon come June 20th.

With a good portion of the community talk of late revolving around defining this and that, one might wonder whatever happened to quality. Must be everyone has read and practices what philosophe.com preaches. If you're not, you should be. "Conceiving, designing, building, and publishing a web site is the easy part."

Having resorted to developing fictitious ROI case studies for eager colleagues to push my IA agenda and educate people in the process, I wholeheartedly agree that IA ROI cases are bullshit. Unfortunately, describing the importance of a well-designed, well-implemented information architecture and what one begets is often difficult without numbers - made up or not.

Off to the Hamptons for the weekend to attend a friend's wedding. It's supposed to rain the entire time, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. More when I return.

Just read a well-written case study on Webmasterbase about building a usable website. Information architecture, human factors, user interface issues, and usable design will always be of paramount importance, regardless of advances in technology and tools. If a site isn't usable, it won't be used.

Hey all you freelancers out there - time to take Sales Proposals 101. Not only will a concise, well-written sales proposal improve your close rate, it'll also help you better understand the business problem and your solution.

Hrrrmmm... I wonder what Heather was so mad about.

Now, I may not be a woman, but I found Harriet Rubin's article chock full of good information about the art of mentoring. (props to eleganthack for the link)

As one who has actively participated in this "assigned mentoring", more often than not, neither the mentor or mentee get's much out of the deal. In my opinion, such mandated corporate mentoring programs are less about skill building and career development than they are about placating employee satisfaction and sheepishly reinforcing employee hierarchies. My opinions aside, whether you're a corporate type or a freelancer, Rubin's mantra of learning to rely on yourself as a mentor is a poignant one.

This year's 5k contest is open for entries. The deadline for submissions is June 16th and I'm still not locked in on what to enter this year.

I'm in the beginning stages of performing an intranet IA analysis for my employer and am impressed by the wealth of information that Intranet Journal houses. An excellent resource if you're looking for intranet best practices and/or case studies.

I've been able to accomplish each of the 5 not-so-e-z steps to website consistency that Adaptive Path has suggested since joining my current employer, except for step 1. I'm not sure which has been the most difficult step for most, but for me, obtaining corporate buy-in to create an organizationally independent web department has been a struggle, especially given the sour economic climate. What's been hardest for you?

mudclub.org is taking a project-based approach to putting the global design and art community in touch with each other. Project_01, an 11x17 poster design, is the first in a series of these projects aimed at making this happen. Oh, the ideas for this are a swirling...

No doubt you have upgraded/rebuilt a computer or two at some point in time, only to find that you're missing hardware drivers. Drivers Planet to the rescue. They claim to have links to over 25,000 drivers by over 500 manufacturers. I have counted them, but I'll take their word for it.

Nominees for the sixth annual Webby Awards have been announced. Go vote!