It Is Easy To Criticize But...Challenge to Find Examples of GOOD Usability

It is easy to find examples of poor usability and many books and sites devote themselves to this. We can learn from mistakes and we can laugh and feel superior about it, but what about learning from great design?

Usability Professionals Association (2004). Articles>Web Design>Usability

It Takes More than Money To Reach The Top

To get the first spot on Google, Yahoo, or MSN, all it used to take was the highest bid. Today, even the experts aren't sure exactly what it's going to take.

Janisch, Troy. Icon Interactive (2007). Articles>Web Design>Search>Search Engine Optimization

It's Only Words

Today, at least in this country, most government and corporate organisations are well aware that words online matter. A lot. Even when the technology is perfect, words can make or break the success of a web site or intranet. So sure, words now get due respect in many quarters.

McAlpine, Rachel. Quality Web Content (2004). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Government

It's Time to Invest in the Message

Business online has invested billions of dollars in the technology that delivers its messages. The trouble is, it has invested almost nothing in the messages themselves.

Usborne, Nick. ClickZ (2001). Articles>Web Design>Writing

Italy and the Internet

Italy is the fourth largest economy in Europe and the seventh largest in the world. Its status as one of the world's largest economic powers is relatively recent, however. The vast majority of Italy's economic development has occurred since the end of the Second World War. In the 55+ years since the end of WWII, Italy has moved from a primarily agrarian society to a modern post-industrial economy. This extremely rapid economic development has been unique amongst Western nations, and has had a decidedly strong impact on Italian culture and society.

Williams, Brendan J. WebWord (2001). Articles>Web Design>Regional>Italy

Joe Clark's Answers -- in Valid XHTML

An extremely interesting but rather long read -- answers each question thoroughly and, there is plenty of discourse following the piece itself.

Clark, Joe. Slashdot (2002). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>XHTML

Un Journaliste n'a pas Besoin de Connaître le XML ou le HTML?!?

Connaître les subtilités techniques du média, ses potentialités, ses limites,... va aider à rédiger et à articuler les contenus de manière plus efficace et plus appropriée. La culture technique du rédacteur apporte donc aussi un bénéfice conceptuel. En effet, c'est en maîtrisant à la fois la forme et le contenu qu'on produit les communications les plus efficaces.

Redaction (2004). (French) Articles>Web Design>Journalism

A Journey Through Accessibility

Identifies web accessibility problems throughout the web generations, and summarises where we are now, and what we can expect for the future.

Scano, Roberto. Juicy Studio (2006). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Usability

JSON on the Server Side

JSON is an easy format to use for sending (and receiving) data that maps to objects, or even arrays of objects. In this final article of the series, you'll learn how to handle data sent to a server in the JSON format and how to reply to scripts using the same format.

McLaughlin, Brett D. IBM (2007). Articles>Web Design>Server Side Includes>Ajax

Juror Information on the Web: A Usability and Design Study of Hispanic Populated Counties in Texas  

In response to the initiative of providing juror education materials online, this study proposes that unless Web sites are designed in a usable fashion, initiative could fail to enhance jury response and further aggravate the problem of under-representation by minorities. This study suggests that all online juror information Web sites be analyzed for “usability” if they are to be an effective education tool. Specifically, this study focused on online materials that will reach primarily Hispanic jurors. The state of Texas has 254 counties, of which 187 have Web sites or addresses. For this study, we selected all the counties with a Hispanic population of 50.1% or higher (34 counties). Of those 34 counties, 24 had actual Web sites. Of the 24 counties with Web sites, only five had juror education materials online and so were selected for this study. Prospective jurors were selected from each of the identified counties and were asked to evaluate the Web sites for usability. Participants were asked to visit each of the five Web sites and then complete both an evaluation instrument modified for this study but based on the work of Jonathan Palmer and a checklist of basic Web design guidelines modified for this study but based on the work of Jakob Nielsen. The resulting data will further contribute to the literature for future Web design by counties with a large percentage of Hispanic potential jurors that intend to implement No. 2188.

Jones, Irma, Jana Arney and Ann Blankenship. Association for Business Communication (2004). Articles>Web Design>Government

Just How 'Blind' Are We to Advertising Banners on the Web?

The most common medium for advertising on the Web is through the use of banners. This form of advertisement often combines animation, sophisticated graphics, and even audio to endorse product information. Currently, advertising companies test the effectiveness of banners  by calculating their 'click-through' ratio rate (Briggs & Hollis, 1997). This ratio is the number of times an ad appears on a page compared to the number of times an individual clicks on the banner. It has been argued by Nielsen (1997) that click-through ratio rates are typically about 1%, which suggests that 99% of the time Internet users don’t bother to click on advertisements.

Bayles, Michelle. Usability News (2000). Articles>Usability>Web Design

Just Say No to Dead Fragments

A dead fragment of text is what's left after a usability expert has had his or her way with some perfectly good copy. The process works a little like this... First, take some great text that engages the reader on a number of levels. Here are a few words from Martin Luther King, Jr.: 'I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.' Now cut that back to make it more 'usable': 'Have sons judged by character and not color.' What are you left with? A brief, but dead, fragment. The substance of the communication remains, but the soul has been ripped out of it.

Usborne, Nick. ClickZ (2001). Articles>Writing>Usability>Web Design

Keep Your Site Competitive    

To gain a competitive edge--or even survive--in a world gone flat, a company must assert a level of uniqueness. Companies creating global Web sites can use competitive analysis and landscape analysis to analyze the market; Lee-Kim details how to add cultural analysis to this mix.

Lee-Kim, Julia. Intercom (2008). Articles>Web Design>International

Keeping Your Elements' Kids in Line with Offspring

CSS selectors are handy things. They make coding CSS easier, sure, but they can also help keep your markup clean.

Bischoff, Alex. List Apart, A (2008). Articles>Web Design>Standards>CSS

Key Steps in Creating Your Reader Persona

The Web is about self-service and self-service is about simplicity and convenience. You've got a small screen and every time you add something extra to that screen you make the world more complicated for your reader. You must make very difficult choices if you want your website to work. You can't serve everybody, and if you try to you will serve nobody.

McGovern, Gerry. uiGarden (2007). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design>Personas

Kill the 53-Day Meme

One frequently finds newspaper or magazine articles about the Internet or the World Wide Web stating that the number of servers on the WWW is doubling every 53 days, 'according to a source at Sun Microsystems.' Well, I am that source, and I don't believe the 53-day estimate any more.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1995). Articles>Web Design>History

Kinetic Energy  

Spaceships flying across your Web page? With dhtml and GoLive, you can make anything move.

Niemi, Melissa. Adobe Magazine (2000). Articles>Web Design>Software>Adobe GoLive

The Labyrinth Unbound: Weblogs as Literature

While the weblog tends toward esoterically personal content (as evidence in the examples above) and often delivers some contextual account of the author’s life and activities, the obvious exceptions to this rule preclude understanding the form simply as an online diary. Likewise, the structural and technical definitions many in the weblogging community focus on fall equally short of describing what is a complex, earnest, and distinct literary form. In other words, it is insufficient to explore the weblog exclusively at the level of content, and equally insufficient to focus wholly on the technical delivery of that content. Accounting for the diversity of weblogs and webloggers—yet still maintaining some larger sense of what they have in common—requires instead a careful look both at what weblogs do, and how they do it for both writers and readers.

Himmer, Steve. Into the Blogosphere (2004). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Blogging

The Lack of Interactivity and Hypertextuality in Online Media  

The main focus of this article is related to the forms of mediated content that are offered in online space. Two specific aspects of new cyber-textuality are discussed--the notion of hypertextuality and the potential of interactivity. Both characteristics are understood as new challenges that reflect specific communication potentials of the internet. In an empirical sense, the article tries to show the extent these significant forms of mediation are used in online media news. For this reason a comparison between media content in print and online media has been made. The findings reveal the lack of interactivity in practice and explore its diversity as a communication form between media producers and reader. Regarding the hypertextuality, the analysis shows the complexity of this concept, which in the realm of news media online is still maturing.

Oblak, Tanja. International Communication Gazette (2005). Articles>Web Design>Hypertext>Interaction Design

Language: The Ultimate User Interface

Words. Language. Meaning. They’re a nutritious part of your complete website. So why do so many webmakers treat language like an afterthought?

Hayden, Julia. List Apart, A (2000). Articles>Web Design>Writing

Laws of Web Site Management and Digital Branding

We urgently need a quick crash course on web site management; otherwise, connecting with potential customers will become a very tough challenge. Lucky are those who have a unique domain name without the additional baggage of extraneous language, numbers, dashes or slashes. Studies have shown that 90 percent of business names are problematic. These problems are serious issues for achieving higher visibility.

Javed, Naseem. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Web Design>Project Management>Marketing

Layman's Guide to Web Syndication

Syndication has taken the web industry by storm. It's used everywhere. Talk to a web developer and they'll tell you they've been using it for years. But, as with a lot of things geek, those on the cutting-edge often forget to tell others how to use the new technology.

Mercurytide (2006). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>RSS

The Lazy IA's Guide to Making Sitemaps

Sitemaps are common deliverables, desired by clients who want a visual representation of a site. Since they are rarely used to make decisions, information architects may not consider them the valuable tools they are. The effort required to make and maintain them requires time that might be better used elsewhere. In fact, I would suggest that making sure the little boxes line up is a waste of an IA's mental abilities.

Turbek, Stephen. Boxes and Arrows (2006). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>Sitemaps

Leading Your Company into the Wikis, Blogs, and Social Networks of Web 2.0

In this podcast, I talk with Alan Porter, vice president of Operations at WebWorks, about the Web 2.0 technologies they’re using to reach out to their customer base. In addition to using blogs, wikis, and social networks to connect with customers, WebWorks also uses wikis to facilitate communication and collaboration within their company.

Porter, Alan J. and Tom H. Johnson. Tech Writer Voices (2008). Articles>Interviews>Web Design>Social Networking