Skip to main content
Design for Context
MENU
  • Services
  • Insights
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • office@designforcontext.com
  • 202.719.0222
  • Washington

Insights

Highlights

Presentation

Enabling Exploratory Discovery Through Taxonomy

Taxonomy Boot Camp 2024

Not everything can just be searched. “Aha!” moments deliver value. Exploration leads to insights and surfaces contexts. How do you prepare your content for these user experiences?

Presentation

AI Explanations as Two-Way Experiences, Led by Users

User Experience Professionals Association (UXPA) conference

How do we craft designs that "explain" concepts and respond to users’ intent? Can AI identify, elicit and apply relevant user contexts, to help us understand AI outputs? How do explanations become two-way?

Presentation

Menu Mania: What's Wrong With Menus

User Experience Professionals Association (UXPA) conference

Menus are ubiquitous in websites and applications of all types. They are critical to accessing the information and actions that users need. In this presentation we share best practices for designing menus.

Presentation

Connecting Art & Archives for Research, Discovery, and Storytelling

MuseumNext (virtual)

The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum and Design for Context have developed a scalable infrastructure supporting integrated information from art, archival, library, historic home collections and exhibitions. Exploring rich relationships reveals a wealth of contexts, perspectives, events, and places. Learn about how the Museum is envisioning the future of its publishing and collections-based storytelling.

Our insights

  • Presentation

    Menu Mania: What's Wrong With Menus and How to Fix Them

    UXPA 2024 Conference, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida – June 25, 2024

    Lisa Battle, Rachel Sengers

    Menus are ubiquitous in websites and applications of all types. They are critical to accessing the information and actions that users need, yet they can be very frustrating to use. In this presentation we review what we have learned about best practices for designing mega menus, context menus, hamburger menus, full page menus and other types, and share case studies of menu redesigns for enterprise applications, mobile apps, and information-rich websites.

    Read more
  • Presentation

    Guiding Users Towards Action: Empowering Decisions Through Effective Data Design

    UXPA International Conference, Baltimore, MD – September 1, 2021

    Lisa Battle, Laura Chessman

    Good design can help users quickly grasp a situation, make better decisions, and take productive actions. In this session, we provide a framework that describes a progressive evolution of data displays and actions, and share a broad range of examples, from consumer products to enterprise web applications, to discuss ways to design effective data displays and integrate actions.

    Read more
  • Presentation

    Big Data in Small Graphics: Micro-Visualizations in SaaS and Enterprise Applications

    UXPA Conference, Puerto Rico – June 26, 2018

    Lisa Battle, Rachel Sengers

    In this UXPA session, Lisa Battle and Rachel Sengers explored the use of micro-visualizations to enhance user experience and how to best design effective visualizations. 

    Read more
  • Workshop

    How to Design Great Dashboards and Visualizations for SaaS and Enterprise Applications

    UXPA 2018 Conference in Puerto Rico -- June 25, 2018

    Lisa Battle, Rachel Sengers

    In their UXPA 2018 workshop, Lisa Battle and Rachel Sengers discussed how to ensure a good user experience for dashboards, brainstorm together on the common building blocks of dashboard design, and generate ideas for visualizations to quickly communicate data.

    Read more
  • Presentation

    Split Focus: Designing Applications for Multiple Monitor Setups

    UXPA 2017 Conference, Toronto, Ontario – June 8, 2017

    Lisa Battle, Rachel Sengers, Michael Owens

    In this UXPA 2017 session, Lisa Battle, Michael Owens, and Rachel Sengers discuss new UX design patterns and challenges that arise in software and web-based application design for multiple monitors, illustrating them with real project examples.

    Read more
  • Presentation

    Micro-Visualizations: Small Visualizations That Make A Big Impact

    UXDC Conference, Washington, DC – April 15, 2017

    Lisa Battle, Rachel Sengers

    In this UXDC session, Lisa Battle and Rachel Sengers present examples of several different types of micro-visualizations and discuss how they can be used effectively to improve user experience. 

    Read more
  • Presentation

    Designing Great Dashboards for SaaS and Enterprise Applications

    UXPA Conference, Seattle, WA - June 3, 2016

    Lisa Battle

    Dashboards present a great opportunity to improve user experience by providing quick answers to users’ common questions, but they are also full of potential pitfalls for design. In this session, Lisa Battle will discuss our approach to ensuring a good user experience for dashboards, focusing on 8 principles of UX design that are particularly relevant and illustrating them with real project examples.

    Read more
  • Presentation

    First Impressions Matter: Onboarding for First Time Users

    UXPA Conference, Seattle, WA - June 1, 2016

    Lisa Battle

    First time user experience, while critical to product success, may not be getting the attention it deserves. In this talk, Lisa Battle presents design principles for great onboarding experiences that engage and inform new users, helping them become productive quickly.

    Read more
  • Presentation

    Designing the Next Generation of Search User Experience

    User Experience Professionals Association (UXPA) Conference, San Diego, CA - June 24, 2015

    Duane Degler, Lisa Battle

    Design is coming to the forefront of effective search applications, to help make sense of mobile search, data search, semantic search, enterprise search, federated search, and embedded search. So what do we need to know about designing for search? In this UXPA 2015 session, Duane Degler and Lisa Battle dive into the essentials for a new generation of search design.

    Read more
  • Presentation

    Simplicity in Web Application Design

    User Experience Professionals Association (UXPA) Conference, San Diego, CA - June 23, 2015

    Lisa Battle, Laura Chessman

    Simplicity is one of the most important principles of design. But, realistically, simplicity isn’t always simple. This talk covers what to try when removing functionality or features isn’t an option, provides practical questions to ask when deciding whether and how to simplify an application, and summarizes proven design techniques to use when simplifying applications.

    Read more
  • Presentation
    Sketching application design

    Keeping the Vision Alive: Techniques for Communication Throughout the Project Lifecycle

    Interaction15, the IxDA conference, San Francisco, CA - February 9, 2015

    Lisa Battle, Duane Degler

    As UX practitioners, we often face challenges “keeping the vision alive” as projects get caught up in constraints, details, and politics. Also, as consultants there is much we can do to prepare the project team to hold the line on needed improvements, advocate for user needs, and build on the “big picture” over the long haul after the UX work is completed. In this talk, we discuss strategies and practical techniques to help teams stay focused on meeting long-term goals, while addressing short-term needs and facing the circumstances and challenges that arise through the design and implementation process, and beyond.

    Sketching application design
    Read more
  • Presentation
    User holding tablet

    Keeping the Vision Alive: UX Leadership in Long-Term Projects

    User Focus, the UXPA DC Chapter conference in Washington, DC – October 17, 2014

    Lisa Battle, Laura Chessman

    As UX practitioners, we often face challenges “keeping the vision alive” as projects get caught up in constraints, details, and politics. But we cannot let those things derail us or take things too far from that solid, long-term vision. In this talk, we discuss strategies and practical techniques to help teams stay focused on meeting long-term goals, while addressing short-term needs and facing the circumstances and challenges that arise through the design and implementation process. Topics include: maintaining the rationale behind “blue-sky” thinking, methods for questioning constraints to get to innovative ideas, working with interim designs as intermediate steps to the final vision, and creating shared understanding and buy-in across the team for the long-term vision.

    User holding tablet
    Read more
  • Presentation
    Communicating status

    Red Alert! Communicating Status Through Great UX, Graphics and Accessibility

    User Experience Professional Association (UXPA) Conference, London, England – July 24, 2014

    Lisa Battle, Jennifer Chaffee, Marguerite Bergel

    Effective visual design is essential for communicating system and workflow status, alerts, notifications, categories, and prioritization that often must be understood at a glance. Some people believe they can’t use graphics or color for important cues because of accessibility, which is not true. At UXPA’s 2014 conference, we discuss how to create great, visually appealing UX designs that optimize communication of status information for all users.

    Communicating status
    Read more
  • Presentation
    Whiteboard sketches

    Designing Configurable and Customizable Applications

    User Experience Professionals Association (UXPA) Conference, Las Vegas, NV – June 5, 2012

    Lisa Battle, Laura Chessman

    In complex applications, such as claims processing, learning management, scheduling systems, engineering software, and other such tools, it is common to provide flexibility to modify the user interface (and the underlying processing) to meet widely varying needs, rather than assuming that one size fits all. When working on the user experience design for such products, we need to ensure that it is easy for clients or users to configure the product as they wish, and be mindful of impacts on the overall user experience.

    Whiteboard sketches
    Read more
  • Publication

    Usability Knowledge Online: Discover the BoK

    Usability Professionals’ Association (UPA) Conference, Munich, Germany – May 26, 2010

    Lisa Battle, Duane Degler

    Every professional discipline builds a framework that outlines the overall practice, techniques, and standards. This paper discusses how a framework guides individual practitioners and educators, providing a way of identifying that the professional discipline is delivering on its service aims. The UPA Usability Body of Knowledge site is the source for methods, design techniques, management advice, emerging research, and more! Members provide content, links and ideas; the site features make it easy and relevant.

    Read more
  • Publication

    Preliminary Analysis of Users and Tasks for the Semantic Web

    Semantic Web User Interaction Workshop, International Semantic Web Conference, Athens, GA – 2006

     

    Lisa Battle

    This position paper raises the importance of understanding the users of the Semantic Web and the tasks that will bring them to the Semantic Web. It proposes a high-level framework for categorizing those users and tasks, and provides implications to be considered in end-user interaction design.

    Read more
  • Presentation

    Applying User-Centered Methods to Inform New Product Selection and Strategic Planning

    Usability Professionals’ Association (UPA) 15th Annual Conference, Broomfield, CO – 2006

    Lisa Battle, Tim Herbst, Bill Dixon, Sean Wheeler

    Usability professionals always say the best time to start user-centered design is at the beginning of a project. But what about starting even earlier, when the vision or concept is first considered? This presentation discusses integrating UCD with marketing methods to inform/support executive decision-making and strategic prioritization of projects.

      

      

      

  • Presentation

    Integrating UCD with Requirements Engineering: Improving Processes, Formats, and Communication

    Usability Professionals’ Association (UPA) 15th Annual Conference, Bloomfield, CO – June 2006

     

    Lisa Battle, Rebecca Ray, Karen Bachmann

    User-centered design practitioners are skilled in eliciting user needs and translating them into design. However, our methods are sometimes poorly integrated with requirements engineering. This panel discussion presents practical approaches to coordinating UCD with other types of activities involved in the creation of requirements.

    Read more
  • Publication

    Emerging issues, solutions & challenges from the top 20 issues affecting web application accessibility

    Poster presented at ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Assistive Technologies, Baltimore, MD – 2005

    Lisa Battle, David Hoffman

    We describe emerging accessible design issues, based on a second in-depth analysis of hundreds of accessibility issues documented in real projects, and a comparison of those results to a prior study of 1000+ accessibility issues. This poster demonstrates recent trends in the top 20 UI design situations that are likely to pose problems for users with disabilities; highlights several creative design solutions; and identifies several challenges that lack adequate solutions.

    Read more
  • Presentation

    Top 20 Design Recommendations for Accessible (and Usable) Web Applications

    Usability Professionals’ Association (UPA) 14th Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada – 2005

    Lisa Battle, David Hoffman

    This paper describes common challenges and solutions for accessible design, based on an in-depth analysis of 1000+ accessibility issues documented in real projects.

  • Presentation

    Delivering Services Online: It’s More Than Forms

    Usability Professionals’ Association (UPA) 14th Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada – 2005

    Lisa Battle, Linda Elengold

    New technologies, reduced workforces, and higher expectations from the public are transforming the way that businesses and government agencies deliver online services. However, online services are not just forms. We describe ways to improve user experience by providing integrated services, preventing errors, using appropriate tone and language, and structuring the interaction.

  • Workshop

    Requirements in User-Centered Design and Software Engineering: Tools for Bridging Design Cultures

    Usability Professionals’ Association (UPA) UPA 14th Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada – 2005

    Lisa Battle, Ahmed Seffah, Daniel Engelberg

    This workshop explored various formats for documenting user needs, and discussed approaches to better integrating UCD and traditional requirements engineering approaches for interactive systems.

  • Presentation

    Supporting Aging Citizens and Employees at the Social Security Administration

    Aging by Design II Conference, Bentley College, Boston, MA – 2005

    Lisa Battle, Duane Degler, Sean Wheeler

    Both to meet the needs of an aging public and to ensure that staff members nearing retirement age can continue to work productively, information technology must be usable for older adults. Usability specialists have been at the heart of analysis, design and testing activities that help the agency respond, both internally and externally.

  • Publication

    Patterns of Integration: Bringing User Centered Design into the Software Development Lifecycle

    User-Centered Systems Design and Software Engineering Integration: Institutionalizing Usability in the Development Process, eds. Ahmed Seffah, Michel Desmarais, and Jan Gulliksen – 2005

    Lisa Battle

    Faced with a need to integrate user-centered methods into existing software development lifecycles, many practitioners lack clear direction and continue to negotiate the scope of their involvement on a project-by-project basis. There are best practices that can be adopted, however. This book chapter distills the experiences of many practitioners into a collection of process patterns that describe an evolutionary path towards full integration.

    Read more
  • Publication

    Designing Software Architectures to Facilitate Accessible Web Applications

    IBM Systems Journal – 2005

    Lisa Battle, David Hoffman, Eric Grivel

    The web application is increasingly a platform of choice for complex business software, as well as for Internet online services. We are beginning to identify guidelines for web application architectures that support accessibility. This paper describes common accessibility problems encountered in web applications and explains how architecture can help address these problems through reusable accessible objects; supplementing information in links, buttons and labels; providing comparable access to signposting; handling errors; and providing time-out notification and recovery. It also discusses the critical role of architecture in supporting what we believe is the best way of meeting the needs of diverse user groups: multiple dynamic views of the user interface.

    Read more
  • Presentation

    Design Patterns and Guidelines for Usable and Accessible Web Applications

    Usability Professionals’ Association (UPA) 13th Annual Conference, Minneapolis, MN – 2004

    Lisa Battle, David Hoffman

    Because we are committed to achieving ease of use for all users, we have encountered challenges on real projects that have led us to question the common belief that accessibility benefits all users. Although the user experience goals of accessibility and usability often complement each other, sometimes they are incompatible—the best solution for one user group compromises the needs of another group. This presentation introduces design patterns that specifically address accessibility, and identifies design tradeoffs that suggest the need for alternate views of the user interface.

      

  • Presentation

    When Your Group Can’t Do It All: Investing UCD Resources Wisely

    Usability Professionals’ Association (UPA) 13th Annual Conference, Minneapolis, MN – 2004

    Lisa Battle

    When an organization’s internal UCD group is too small to support all projects that request its services, management is faced with a need to prioritize and invest its limited resources wisely. This is how one UCD group defined different levels of service and implemented criteria for evaluating project requests.

    Matt Oliphant’s blog on this presentation

      

      

  • Workshop
    Sketching

    How to Design User Interfaces to Support Users and Their Tasks

    GSA Workshop on Usability and the Federal Enterprise Architecture – October 28, 2003

    Lisa Battle, Sean Wheeler

    An analysis of users and their tasks typically generates a lot of rich information… but the process of translating that information into design solutions may seem like “magic.” The truth is that user-centered design is iterative, and requires a mixture of art and science — it takes a series of small steps that both transform and refine the collected information into design solutions. This presentation uses the analogy of building a house to illustrate the process from high-level visioning all the way through detailed design.

    Sketching
    Read more
  • Publication

    Can Topic Maps Provide Context for Enterprise-Wide Applications?

    Extreme Markup conference, Montreal, Quebec, Canada – August 4, 2003

    Lisa Battle, Duane Degler

    Topic maps provide exciting opportunities not just to make information easier to find, but to increase the usability of software. In order to provide users with the information that applies to their particular situations, in forms that they can use, software must be aware of a user’s context (in a broad, multi-dimensional sense). This paper describes how topic maps can serve as the language for linking information to software applications and for sharing information about context among applications.

    Read more
  • Publication

    Sharing the Vision = Designs that Get Built

    Usability Professionals’ Association (UPA) 12th Annual Conference, Scottsdale,
    AZ - June 2003

    Duane Degler, Lisa Battle, Darrell Taylor

    For user-centered designs to be successfully implemented, the stakeholders and members of a multidisciplinary project team must reach a shared understanding of the problem and the solution. This article explores ways of sharing information between usability specialists and technical team members who are using object modeling techniques based on the Unified Modeling Language (UML). We illustrate points where UCD deliverables can connect with UML deliverables, and vice versa, to help a project team create and communicate a shared vision.

    Read more
  • Publication

    Around the Interface in 80 Clicks

    Performance Improvement, ISPI, 40(7) – August 2001

    Duane Degler, Lisa Battle

    As more people gain access to computers and the Internet, it has become increasingly important for designers to meet the needs of a diverse international user population. “One-size-fits-all” is no longer accepted by users. This article outlines many of the things that the designer needs to consider for both internationalization of software (making an interface understandable in many cultures) and localization (changing aspects of the interface, such as language and icons, to match the local cultural expectations and experiences).

    Read more
  • Publication

    KnowledgePlanet KP2000 Learner Interface Redesign

    Award of Excellence, 2001 Performance Centered Design Competition

    Duane Degler, Lisa Battle

    KnowledgePlanet provides a learning and performance management application used by a number of Fortune 100 companies to support their organizational learning. IPGems was asked to look at the opportunities to improve the interface that hundreds of thousands of people use to plan and keep track of their learning and performance activities. The goal was to increase the user's ability to be in control without having to learn the application, and for KP's customer companies to simplify and reduce implementation time and cost. The result received the Award of Excellence at the 2001 PerformanceCentered Design Competition.

    Read more
  • Publication

    Knowledge Management in Pursuit of Performance: The Challenge of Context

    Performance Improvement, ISPI, 39(6) – July 2000

    Duane Degler, Lisa Battle

    Much of the current focus on knowledge management is on the acquisition and storage of knowledge resources. Unfortunately, because most knowledge management solutions are developed to stand alone, the context of a person’s need for information when using business applications is often left to the individual. This article discusses ways to merge the best practices of knowledge management and performance support, so that knowledge can be integrated more seamlessly within working applications, and applications can be used to solicit knowledge as a byproduct of people’s work.

    Read more
  • Presentation

    An Information Make-Over for Performance Centered Design

    Society for Technical Communication (STC) Conference, Orlando, FL – 2000

    Lisa Battle

    Many of the same types of content that have traditionally been placed in manuals or online help
    systems can actually be incorporated directly into the user interface. Connecting the necessary
    instructions and information directly to the tasks that they support helps users to perform their work
    more successfully. An analysis of existing content types can be done to identify opportunities for
    moving content into the user interface.

Let's talk

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Design for Context
  • office@designforcontext.com
  • 202.719.0222
Washington
5425 Wisconsin Ave., Suite 600
Chevy Chase, MD 20815
  • Linkedin
© 2025 Design for Context