#30604
ATAG (Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines) Assessment of WordPress
This document assesses WordPress 2.01 against the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 1.0.
Clark, Joe. JoeClark.org (2006). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Content Management
#22738
Although blogs are generally linked with business, personal, and entertainment sites, Eugene Volokh, a professor of law at the University of California at Los Angeles, thinks that blogs are evolving into a major academic tool for universities. Members of the academic community have discovered that blogs offer the classroom a cheap, sociable, and fast way for everyone in the class to actively participate in discussion.
Lisson, Kristin. Techniques (2003). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Blogging
#26440
You can keep copy from turning zombie by starting with a clear idea of exactly what you want to say. It's tempting to just start writing, but this approach can leave your pages vulnerable to zombification, because it's easier to sound like you’re making sense than to actually make sense. Outlines can serve as an effective vaccine against living death.
Kissane, Erin. List Apart, A (2005). Articles>Web Design>Writing
#30873
Few usability professionals are as well-rounded as Avi Parush. Avi has worked in industry and academia, testing and design, the Old World and the New, with web applications and airplane cockpits, in operating rooms and on the bridges of ships.
Anderson, Clifford. Usability Professionals Association (2008). Articles>Interviews>Web Design>Usability
#30661
Avoid Unnecessary Ajax Traffic with Session State
Where possible, creating Web applications -- including Ajax-based applications -- in a RESTful way avoids a large class of bugs. However, a pitfall of REST (REpresentational State Transfer) is sending duplicate data across similar XMLHttpRequests. This tip shows how the moderate use of session cookies can maintain just enough server-side state to significantly reduce client-server traffic, while still allowing fallback to cookie-free operation.
Mertz, David. IBM (2007). Articles>Web Design>Programming>Ajax
#21012
Avoiding Bias from the Survivor Effect
Only a few of the survey sites we analyzed in 2000 are still around. We can safely assume that the surviving sites are not a random sample of the original group, but rather that significant differences exist between the sites that made it and those that died. Survival might be due partly to luck, but it is mainly a result of good management and an understanding of Internet fundamentals. Thus, the surviving sites are likely to be disproportionately clued-in about what it takes to run an online business.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2002). Articles>Usability>Methods>Web Design
#24577
A Bad Site: Martha Stewart Gets "Vasperized"
Even public relations web sites must be user-centered in design and content. Narcissistic, arrogant PR sites are counter-productive in the digital age of transparency, fault-admission, and altruism via shared information. Find out why Martha Talks is a web site failure from a usability and ethics point of view.
Streight, Steven. Blogger.com (2004). Articles>Web Design>Public Relations>Marketing
#24589
Freedom of expression is not ruling the blogosphere, because insecure bloggers will block your attempt to post comments, or even read their blog, should they decide you are "too controversial" or "too different from me". Opinionated blogs are the worst culprits of cowardly post blocking.
Streight, Steven. Blogger.com (2004). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Blogging
#27158
Basic Search Engine Optimization Guide And Tips
Search engine optimization or SEO is very important to get your website listed in search engines. Even if this is the first website you have built there are a few basic and easy steps that will help you with optimizing your website without being a pro.
DevBay (2005). Articles>Web Design>Search>Search Engine Optimization
#25435
Battlecat Then, Battlecat Now: Temporal Shifts, Hyperlinking and Database Subjectivities
Like all media forms, the blog is not transparent. The technological code of the software contains affordances that filter and, in part, determine the constitution of the private/public Self represented in any weblog. And so, what kind of Self (or Selves) are made possible or enabled by typical blogging practice?
Jarrett, Kylie. Into the Blogosphere (2004). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Blogging
#20866
Be Succinct! (Writing for the Web)
The three main guidelines for writing for the Web are: be succinct: write no more than 50% of the text you would have used in a hardcopy publication; write for scannability: don't require users to read long continuous blocks of text; use hypertext to split up long information into multiple pages.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1997). Articles>Web Design>Writing
#22869
Answers to questions like: where do Web pages come from? What are all those brackets in the text, anyway? How much HTML do I have to learn? How can I get started quickly? What kinds of HTML authoring tools are available to me?
Quesenbery, Whitney. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Web Design>HTML
#30133
A Beginner's Guide to HTML and Web Design 
The best place to learn about HTML is on the Web itself. A few of the best resources for exploring HTML design are listed here.
Quesenbery, Whitney. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Web Design>Standards>HTML
#26489
Better Readability for Improving the Number of Site Viewers
Web content readability is an often underestimated aspect for a web site. There are design rules for designers to follow, and there are SEO tips and tricks for SEO experts to use. But this is not all. Though beautiful designs and search engine optimization are extremely important, there are also other issues that a web marketer needs to consider in order to run the site successfully. Readability is one of them.
Stoyanova, Tsvetanka. SEOchat (2005). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Search
#25001
Better Search Engine Design: Beyond Algorithms
Search engine accuracy is important, but convenience may be more important than squeezing the last few ounces of performance out of your system. Peter Van Dijck demonstrates simple but effective query analysis, best bets, and controlled vocabularies -- tools to make your search engines more effective.
Van Dijck, Peter. O'Reilly and Associates (2004). Articles>Web Design>Search>Controlled Vocabulary
#19549
Beyond "Couch Potatoes": From Consumers to Designers and Active Contributors 
The fundamental challenge for computational media is to contribute to the invention and design of cultures in which humans can express themselves and engage in personally meaningful activities. Cultures are substantially defined by their media and tools for thinking, working, learning, and collaborating. New media change (1) the structure and contents of our interests; (2) the nature of our cognitive and collaborative tools; and, (3) the social environment in which thoughts originate and evolve, and mindsets develop.
Fischer, Gerhard. First Monday (2002). Articles>Cyberculture>Web Design>Community
#22185
Review: Beyond Borders: Web Globalization Strategies 
While the potential return on investment may indeed be worth the effort, globalization and personalization come with substantial cost. To ensure you’re heading down the right path (and that you avoid the expensive mistakes of the trailblazers before you), it’s best to have a roadmap.
Abel, Scott. STC Hoosier (2003). Articles>Reviews>Web Design
#24015
Editing must change for the Web, but perhaps not so much as you think. In paper publishing, different documents require different rules and procedures: An annual report requires more editing and more attention to detail than an office memo. Similarly, not all Web documents are equal.
Ivey, Keith C. Editorial Eye, The (1996). Articles>Web Design>Editing>Writing
#25056
Beyond the Blog: Wikis and Blikis
Blogs are about to give way to a new development. Wikis are web sites within which any user can quickly and easily edit much of the content, without HTML. This idea regarding user-generated online content goes beyond the comment posting of a standard blog. Blikis are blogs that have wiki support, so that users can edit the comments posted.
Streight, Steven. Blogger.com (2005). Articles>Web Design>Wikis>Blogging
#21727
Big Architect, Little Architect
First came the primordial soup. Thousands of relatively simple single-celled web sites appeared on the scene, and each one was quickly claimed by a multi-functional organism called a "webmaster." A symbiotic relationship quickly became apparent. Webmaster fed web site. Web site got bigger and more important. So did the role of the webmaster. Life was good. Then, bad things started to happen. The size and complexity and importance of the web sites began to spiral out of control. Mutations started cropping up. Strange new organisms with names like interaction designer, usability engineer, customer experience analyst, and information architect began competing with the webmaster and each other for responsibilities and rewards. Equilibrium had been punctuated and we entered the current era of rapid speciation and specialization.
Morville, Peter. Argus Center (2000). Articles>Web Design>Interaction Design>Project Management
#25440
Big List of Blog Search Engines
My new theory on blogging is that whenever I can't find a particular piece of information on Google I should just create it myself. What's the point of all this easy-to-use publishing technology if you don't publish stuff, right?
Aripaparo.com (2002). Articles>Web Design>Search>Blogging
#29941
Blah-Blah Text: Keep, Cut, or Kill?
Introductory text on Web pages is usually too long, so users skip it. But short intros can increase usability by explaining the remaining content's purpose.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2007). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Usability
#27486
Making the web accessible by disabled people doesn't necessarily make it usable. Does simplicity always make for ideal usability - or are there instances where an innovative website might be difficult to use, but also hold usability dividends for users prepared to meet the technology halfway?
Starr, Sandy. Spiked Online (2002). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility
#25441
The Blog Realm: RSS, Aggregators, and Reading the Blog Fantastic
The content management capabilities of blog software and the search options from Daypop provide incentives for information professionals to be aware, at least, of blogging. But for every blogger out there, there are probably a dozen or more others who prefer reading to writing.
Notess, Greg R. Online Magazine (2002). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Blogging
#25447
Blog Survey: Expectations of Privacy and Accountability
Reports the findings from an online survey conducted between January 14th and January 21st, 2004. During that time, 486 respondents answered questions about their blogging practices and their expectations of privacy and accountability for the entries they publish online.
Fernanda, Viégas. MIT (2004). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Blogging
