Documentation Guidelines

Design

Design for the Workflow

Design a Courteous Site

Design Attribute Checklist

Process

Project Scenario

The User Experience Role

In a Nutshell

Documentation

Guidelines for Success

Good Documentation

Being Helpful

UxP Task List

Guidelines for Success

Documents allow you to formulate your concepts effectively. Shared libraries provide a common ground of knowledge sharing among your team. Templates give you consistency and stability. Here are some document guidelines & examples that I've found usefu:

Infrastructure = Process + Documentation

UxP Task List	What's the scale & scope of the engagement? Here are some of "The Usual Suspects".
Site Evaluation	Do you know what you want? Let's figure out what needs to be done and how to go about doing it.
Content Inventory	What Do We Have to Work With? This inventory gives us a starting point for understanding client needs - and moving on to appropriate redesign.
Business Requirements	*Define the "WHAT"* - The goals and functional baseline for the site/software you're creating.
Design Specifications	*Define the "HOW". Development calls this "tech specs". The Business sometimes calls it Functional Specifications*. Screenshots & Workflows.
Best Practices	It's really important to define The Rules of the Road: All of those assumptions about how things are supposed to work.
Sitemap	This high-level view of The Vision Thing is often the first step towards a sign-off on the proposed solution path.
Wireframes	Early on in the process everybody wants to see examples of What it will look like and How it will work.
Demo Site Model	Your project team members and stakeholders need quick, easy access to the site model.
User Assistance	Real "user-friendliness" is determined by effective customer self-service, online help and user guides.
Personas	Understanding the customer, users and stakeholders is essential to successful design.
Information Architecture	Organize the content so that it can be managed. Here's a technique for handling shared info across the application.
Stylesheet Themes	The Brand & Style "coat of paint" is often a critical attribute of providing the client with a successful Look & Feel.
CSS Style Guide	The CSS Tags are common design elements that are shared across multiple applications within the site.
Design Workshop	Once you get into actual design, it's always useful to have a reality check with clients and stakeholders.
Project Team Roles	It's useful to have a shared understanding of who does what on the design team: Expectations / Limits / Responsibilities.
The Design Resource Center	A shared library of standards provides valuable infrastructure that supports the design process. If you build it, they will come.
Private Label	Many enterprise IT shops are now repackaging their software applications so that clients can both self-market and self-service.