Peter Merholz discusses sources of value to justify investment in design.

Kathy Sierra discusses how to balance interface design between letting users do what they want, and making them do what you know they want - in the way you want them to.

Provides comparison and understanding of looking at products in terms of what the products can do, versus what the user can do with the products.

Amy Hillman and the Boxes & Arrows staff walk through how to approach, justify and manage the first UX project for your company

Lists and explains seven guiding precepts of good interface design.

Peter Morville on information architecture and the user-experience honeycomb

I've been practicing information architecture since 1994, and from Gopher to Google have seen dramatic changes in the landscape of organization, search and retrieval.

Through these ten tempestuous years, I've found the infamous three circle diagram to be a great tool for explaining how and why we must strike a unique balance on each project between business goals and context, user needs and behavior, and the available mix of content.

 

Good article in a Q&A format.

The Question: Are there any usability issues with using drag and drop controls in a web application?

The Answer: Good discussion - links to examples and other discussions

Very detailed analysis of how usability can be a key component of agile methodologies. Explores the misconceptions and challenges of both schools with respect to the other. Details the agile development methodology. Contrasts the philosophies of both agile and UEX approaches. Discusses user-experience modeling in an agile framework with great examples and explanations.

Great introduction, overview, and explanation of personas by Tina Calabria of Step Two. This is a long article, and also includes a great 6-page pdf version for free download. Great introduction to the topic and how and why to create personas. Also suggests some uses for personas.

Presents philosophy that there are four classes of software:

• MeWare:  The developer creates software.  The developer uses it.  Nobody else does.
• ThemWare:  The developer creates software.  Other people use it.  The developer does not.
• UsWare:  The developer creates software.  Other people use it.  The developer uses it too.
• NobodyWare:  The developer creates software.  Nobody uses it.

Includes detailed real-world analysis of City Desk, a software package - applying the ideas