No Quick Fixes Where Search Engine Optimization is Concerned

There are simply no quick fixes regarding search engine optimization. Adding META tags on your site neither a quick fix nor a slow fix. It won't fix anything and it won't have any effect on your search engine traffic.

Whalen, Jill. High Rankings Advisor (2006). Articles>Web Design>Search>Search Engine Optimization

Not All Web Sites Are Alike

Many people have a hard time talking about the distinctions between different kinds of Web development, which makes it difficult to decide how to proceed. This article offers a quick survey of various Web projects and of the techniques that address them.

Korman, Jonathan. Cooper Interaction Design (2003). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Heuristic Evaluation

Not Getting Personal: Assessing Website Effectiveness  

Websites are sometimes evaluated primarily on first impressions or personal preference. More difficult to ascertain is their success in terms of communication. Assessments of websites can benefit from research and developments from fields such as usability studies, linguistics, professional writing, and rhetoric.

Durham, Marsha. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Web Design>Assessment>Usability

Nourish Old Writing Skills, Add New Ones for the Web

The Web requires many of the same writing skills as print, but successful writers develop new ways of breaking up and linking.

Writing that Works (2003). Articles>Writing>Web Design

Novice vs. Expert Users

Web usability has traditionally been focused on increasing ease of learning for the novice users. This makes great sense and should continue to be the main goal. Remember Jakob's Law of the Internet user experience: users spend most of their time on other sites than your own. Thus, users rarely learn enough about any given site to become true expert users.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2000). Articles>Web Design>Usability

Now Serving Interactive Information Units  

Interactive information units (IIUs) are online, interactive HTML documents that modify their content based on user input. You can use IIUs to document tasks that are not performed frequently enough to merit a wizard and are too complex for traditional documentation. Content is essential in IIUs and appearance varies. You can provide interactive function with a variety of languages. HTML makes production faster and cost efficient. The Internet makes updating transparent. IIUs are just another example of a great idea brought about by new technology.

Cromarty, Valerie Christensen. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Web Design>Interaction Design

O'Reilly Indexing Guru

Turn to the index in the back of any O'Reilly book published in the last five years and chances are you're looking at the handiwork of O'Reilly's resident indexing guru, Seth Maislin. Though indexes are the most frequently fingered section of any computer book, they remain the one element most taken for granted. Those ostensibly logical, orderly columns of subject-page references belie the complexity of indexing. The craft of indexing involves much more than the mere alphabetization of a book's key words. It requires something that is at once science and art form, the product of someone painstakingly fleshing out a book's information design while copiously accounting for nuances of language and word associations. You might say an index is like a fingerprint: intricate, revealing, utterly unique.

Houston, Lori. O'Reilly and Associates (2001). Articles>Indexing>Web Design

Omniweb and Standards

How does Omniweb fare when it comes to web standards? Earlier versions, while highly praised for an elegant user interface and strong support of international character sets, fell drastically short in CSS and W3C DOM support.

Waferbaby. List Apart, A (2002). Articles>Web Design>Standards>Web Browsers

On a Scale of 1 to 5: Understanding Risk Improves Rating and Reputation Systems

Where would we be without rating and reputation systems these days? Take them away, and we wouldn’t know who to trust on eBay, what movies to pick on Netflix, or what books to buy on Amazon. Reputation systems (essentially a rating system for people) also help guide us through the labyrinth of individuals who make up our social web. Is he or she worthwhile to spend my time on? For pity’s sake, please don’t check out our reputation points before deciding whether to read this article.

Kirtland, Alex. Boxes and Arrows (2008). Articles>Web Design>User Experience>Social Networking

On Connecting to SQL Databases

This article deals only with connecting to databases on a SQL2000 server. Various connection options are discussed and their implementation details are shown. Data retrieval and data manipulation will be discussed in a future article. Only very simple, but basic code to test the connection is used, and each case uses a different ASPX page. This article is self-contained and complete, a copy of the projects in zip format is provided for download.

Code Project, The (2006). Articles>Web Design>Server Side Includes>SQL

One Billion Internet Users

The Internet is growing at an annualized rate of 18% and now has one billion users. A second billion users will follow in the next ten years, bringing a dramatic change in worldwide usability needs.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2005). Articles>Web Design>Usability

One Hundred Million Websites

The early Web's explosive growth rate has slowed, but even the mature Web is still expanding and recently crossed the 100 million websites mark.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2006). Articles>Usability>Web Design

Online Triple Play: Three Tools for Implementing Multiplatform Online Documents  

Using currently available products, technical communicators can produce a single hypertext file which can be read on the Windows, Macintosh, and UNIX platforms. Three multiplatform online document solutions will be demonstrated during the session, and a tool selection methodology will also be presented.

Hayhoe, George F. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Web Design

Open New Windows for PDF and other Non-Web Documents

When using PC-native file formats such as PDF or spreadsheets, users feel like they're interacting with a PC application. Because users are no longer browsing a website, they shouldn't be given a browser UI.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2005). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Adobe Acrobat

Opening the Door to Cyberspace: Teaching Web Page Construction in the Classroom  

This article shows how to move students from paper-bound text to hypertext. We explain why the web is an important new communication medium--with numbers and testimony to substantiate our opinion; discuss techniques for teaching web-page construction--samples, HTML coding, and document design; show how traditional resumes, proposals, manuals, and newsletters can go online in the classroom, and examine the benefits of teaching online documentation, including instant gratification, new skills, and problem-solving opportunities.

Gerson, Steven M. and Sharon J. Gerson. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Education>Web Design

Opera's Lie Blasts Microsoft on IE and Web Standards Support

Take a look at how Opera's Hakon Lie publicly blasted Microsoft for it's lack of support of Web Standards! Lie states. While this isn't new, I think it's important for accessibility developers to continue supporting the Mac accessibility community.

Paciello, Mike. Paciello Group, The (2007). Articles>Web Design>Standards>Blogs

Optimized and Predictable Ajax Applications

Wouldn't it be nice for developers if all browsers, computer models, and Ajax application users were the same? Maybe, but the reality is that they are not. Developers face a myriad of challenges when developing applications that behave predictably across browsers, computers, and individual user settings. When users transfer Ajax applications from one browser type to another (and especially when they transfer an Ajax application into a Web service portal), they're not guaranteed the same browser experience because of each browser's inherent limitations. In this article, author Judith Myerson gives a brief discussion of these limitations and what pitfalls to avoid, including some helpful solutions for optimizing browser differences.

Myerson, Judith. IBM (2007). Articles>Web Design>Standards>Ajax

Organization in the Way: How Decentralization Hobbles the User Experience

Contrary to all the books, articles, Web sites, and workshops that suggest otherwise, the biggest problem in user experience design today is not one of practice. Any competent practitioner can dip into the current toolbox of methods and create a satisfactory product. Right now, the biggest obstacle to good design is poor organizational structure. The fundamental makeup of most organizations runs contrary to producing quality designs, and as organizations get larger, this becomes increasingly apparent.

Merholz, Peter. Adaptive Path (2004). Articles>Collaboration>Web Design

The Organized Web

This document discusses the evolution of the Internet from an unorganized collection of web pages to an organized collection of data. It outlines how XML is at the center of that transformation, and how organizations can take advantage of this evolution with the development of web based services.

Duffy, Scott. XGuru (2001). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>XML

The Page as a Map: Multiple Pathways for Multiple Users  

Can our users and what they need quickly, with the least amount of effort and frustration? How can we make information work for different types of users? We know that 'visual is easier,' but we need to understand how people actually use documents to harness the visual power. This session focuses on a core task:page design for impatient, goal-oriented users. It proposes that visual designs which provide a clear 'map' to the information make user orientation and navigation easier, and provide access options for different users. While the focus is on print, the principles also apply to the electronic environment.

Keyes, Elizabeth. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Information Design>Web Design>Personalization

Pandora's Portal

Is the portal a task-oriented platform for applications, e-services and cross-functional business process integration or a tool for enterprise-wide knowledge management? Is it a bottom-up enabler of communication and collaboration or a top-down channel for broadcasting official corporate propaganda? Inevitable consensus answer? It's all of these things and more, and the IT folks better be ready to support this exciting new paradigm!

Morville, Peter. Semantic Studios (2001). Articles>Knowledge Management>Intranets>Web Design

The Paper Mountain Goes Online

Ample research has proved that companies can save many thousands of dollars by rewriting key documents in plain English. Poor communication on the Web and intranet are squandering the time and money of many an organisation.

McAlpine, Rachel. Quality Web Content (2004). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>Minimalism

Passion Matters

In creating the site for a client, the magic ingredient was passion. My client's passion added fuel to my own, and I was immediately catapulted to an even higher energy level than usual designing his site. This magic ingredient was being reflected in the client's web site.

Kaiser, Shirley E. Wise-Women (2004). Articles>Collaboration>Web Design

Passive Voice Is Redeemed For Web Headings

Active voice is best for most Web content, but using passive voice can let you front-load important keywords in headings, blurbs, and lead sentences. This enhances scannability and thus SEO effectiveness.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2007). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Grammar