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Cisco.com User Experience Guidelines and Standards

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Join the UE Community

Subscribe yourself through Cisco Mailer to ciscodotcom-ue@cisco.com to receive all communications regarding the Cisco.com design.

Have a quick question?

Please send an email to cdc_guidelines_feeback@cisco.com.

UE Team
UE Role Function/Responsibilities
User Experience Architect
  • Develops and communicates the user experience vision and strategy; directs and oversees all user experience efforts for Cisco.com
User Experience Program Manager
  • Coordinates UE projects and design support.
User Experience Designer/Information Architect
  • Plans, prioritizes, coordinates, and conducts user requirements analysis, task analysis, conceptual modeling, brand analysis, visual and interaction design, and usability testing.
  • Designs and specifies information architecture using participatory and iterative design techniques, including observational studies, customer interviews, usability testing, and other forms of user input.
  • Provides IA input and recommendations to Cisco.com stakeholders when supporting Alliance operational requests, and edits sitemaps accordingly.
  • Produces conceptual schematics/wireframes, detailed screen layouts, design prototypes, and design specifications.
  • Documents user experience guidelines and specifications for the Cisco.com Interface Guidelines.
  • Leads design reviews and usability testing during various phases of the product development process to evaluate and iterate designs.
  • Works closely with development team to ensure that design specifications are implemented.
Visual Designer
  • Produces visual mockups and page compositions, detailed screen layouts, design prototypes, and visual design specifications.
Usability Program Manager
  • Assists in determining what methodologies to use when gathering user input to help increase user satisfaction and success on Cisco.com.
  • Manages and runs web surveys and online usability studies.
  • Areas of expertise: In person usability, focus groups, phone interviews, data analysis, statistics, and advisory boards.
Web Metrics Analyst
  • Web metric analysis and reporting.


Offered Services


Training

There is one UE training session scheduled a month. These training sessions include an overview of the CUEG, including page layout, visual design and information design. Additionally these sessions provide an introduction to Cisco.com editorial standards and best practices. Cisco.com "Site Copy" CSS is offered by the Interface Development Team to correspond to the CUEG training. Email ask-ue@cisco.com to be added to the next available CUEG training. Email cdc-content-css@cisco.com to attend the CSS training.

Design Clinics

Design Clinics provide Cisco.com stakeholders with user experience design support above and beyond the CUEG. These can range from the design of a specific page to helping plan the redesign of an entire section of the web site. Reviewing sites in the process of being redesigned are also valuable Design Clinics.

Before attending a Design Clinic it is recommended that you participate in the CUEG training. Check the meeting minutes from previous design clinics to see if your questions have already been discussed.

Scheduling a Design Clinic is done on a first come, first served basis; however scheduling is subject to change. Factors which are often taken into consideration when scheduling a Clinic include the site area's impact on Cisco's business objectives, revenue opportunities or overall customer and partner satisfaction with Cisco and Cisco.com.

When planning your Design Clinic please be prepared to discuss the following information:

  1. A brief description of the site including who uses the site and how much traffic it gets (best estimate), the reason behind the redesign, and an approximate number of pages affected.
  2. What do you want to accomplish through the design clinic? Is there a specific design issue, if so, what is it?
  3. The desired timeframe (for example, when do you hope to roll out an improved design). What is driving this timeframe?
  4. List of attendees from your team who should be invited to the clinic. Include user experience designers or HTML developers if they are part of your team.

To schedule a clinic, send an email to ask-ue@cisco.com with the information above.

Extended Engagements

The UE team is available to support design projects that expand beyond the scope of what can reasonably be resolved through email, training, or a design clinic in two ways:

  1. Formal UE Design Engagement
    The UE team will help you design or redesign your site or application on Cisco.com. We provide the following skillets: Information Architecture, UI/Interaction Design, and Visual Design.
  2. Identify a Suitable Certified Vendor
    It is requested that external vendors attend the CUEG training as well as the CSS implementation training.

Requesting Design Changes to the CSS

First, understand the process we follow to design and incorporate new elements into the Cisco.com CSS by reviewing the CSS Iteration Process.

To recommend a modification to an existing element, or ask for an element to be reviewed, submit your proposal or request to cdc_guidelines_feedback@cisco.com.