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Blog Transition from SharePoint to User Experience Design

As time goes on we learn, grow and explore in new areas that make us happy and inspired. I am very lucky to have found that path. Since 2003 I focused on providing great experiences to my clients around a specific tool known as Microsoft SharePoint. I was so invested in this tool that I even wrote a book on how to stretch the limits on customizing it. Over the last couple of years SharePoint has changed to be more stand alone through Office 365.

Within the last few years I have had the pleasure to not only wok for the best company Slalom Consulting but also work for some really amazing clients! My most recent projects have been outside of the world of SharePoint and in all honesty I could not be happier. It is sad to see it go but I think it is time to pass the torch to other great and amazing bloggers that will keep posting technical posts on how to configure and explore new ways of making SharePoint do what they need to present the right information to users at the right time.

My plan is to transition this blog from a technical reference point around a specific technology to a more organic discussion around User Experience Design, Research, and Information Architecture topics. In all honesty this is really what I have been doing for the last 15 years of my career anyways. I am not going to remove or delete any previous post since some of them still can provide value to others that still support SharePoint both in the cloud on Prem.

I have some great UX topics in mind that I think all will gather some insights from. Thanks to all that have supported me over the years and I hope to inspire many others in the future to think outside of the box and create amazing experiences that matter!

Erik Swenson
Principal Experience Designer

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How To: Create Hyperlink to Modal Pop-Up Form

I was asked by a client recently if there was a way to create a hyperlink to a New Item Form anywhere within a site but still get the rich experience of the Modal pop-up window that grays out the background. (Note this is for SharePoint 2010 Only…) I basically took the code directly from the “Add new item” and the “Add Document” link within the list view. What this allows you to do is simply add in the following code to any content editor web part, Master page, or Page Layout in any site collection and display the form to be filled out. The user will get the nice experience of the modal window and not have to navigate away from their current page. This could be used for example a feedback form that is included in the master page so whenever someone wants to give feedback it is always going back to a central list. The only that is required for you to know is the List ID and the site name. Full Code For a List Item: <a onclick="javascript:NewItem2(event, &quot

SharePoint 2010 Base CSS Classes

This will be the first of many SharePoint 2010 posts. I will be focusing on a few of the main CSS classes used for SharePoint 2010 Public Beta. As the product becomes more final there might be some changes to the class names but I will be sure to create a new post if that happens. This will be quite a lengthy but it should be helpful. The default CSS given below are just highlights of the full CSS attributes for that class. I will be using a basic team site as my base for the screenshots. Here is a basic structure of the main areas that I will cover. Ribbon Row Table Row Left Site Actions Navigate Up Edit Tab List Browse Page Table Row Right Give Feedback Welcome Menu Workspace Body Container Title Row Title

SharePoint 2013 Responsive Table Columns

I have been wanting to write this one for a while now. It is really amazing how UX is really finding is way into everything that we use and interact with. From Custom applications both mobile and on a desktop to document management or large data visualizations. There is always room for better usability and new concepts. SharePoint lists and library functionality really has not changed much for the past 10 years... I remember back in 2003 when I saw the same table/grid based views of documents and list items that exists in SharePoint 2013. But now we can look at them in a whole new way! In this video blog you will see how to create a responsive CSS table so that when the browser size is reduced it will hide specific columns. However hiding data is not always the right thing to do. What if a user needed those columns to filter on or to use for comparison to another document? Well that is where the custom jQuery Column chooser comes in. It allows you to see what columns are displ