Participatory design is an approach to design that attempts to actively involve end users in the design process to help ensure that the product designed meets their needs and is usable. This approach is focused on process and is not a design style. For some, this approach has a political dimension of user empowerment and democratisation. For others, it is seen as a way of abrogating design responsibility and innovation by designers.
#13267
Web documents are nothing more than Source. For all of the inspiration, thought, and sweat that might go into a page, it is merely a mess of characters that happens to contain a lot of brackets. After five and a half years of actively building pages, it's occurring to me that a lot of developers haven't figured this out. What I see is not what they get.
Henick, Ben. List Apart, A (2001). Design>Web Design>HTML
#27930
Background Positioning vs. Centered Elements
When the browser is told to center a background image within that container, it has to decide where the actual center lies. In the case of an odd total pixel width, the browser must select one side or the other of the central odd pixel as the "center" of the container.
Bergevin, Holly and John Gallant. Position is Everything (2006). Design>Web Design>Document Design>CSS
#20225
A Backward-Compatible Style Sheet Switcher
You asked for it, you’ve got it: an Open Source alternate Style Sheet switcher that even works in Netscape Navigator 4.
Ludwin, Daniel. List Apart, A (2002). Design>Web Design>CSS>DHTML
#25462
When people design Web forms, they often overlook some great sources of professional expertise in the world -- the existence of form design techniques with which nearly all users are familiar. This month, the cranky user looks at form design and management.
Seebach, Peter. IBM (2005). Design>Web Design>Forms
#14260
A scrapbook of illustrated examples of things that are hard to use because they do not follow human factors principles.
Darnell, Michael J. baddesigns.com. Design>Human Computer Interaction>Usability
#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
#30192
Baking up a Batch of PDF Files 
Customize how Acrobat works for you by building and using batch sequences. The beauty of a batch sequence is that you can modify or run it as you like.
Baker, Donna L. Adobe (2007). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat
#14416
Balancing Act: Keeping Your Screen Movies Small and Beautiful
Screen recordings are a valuable tool for enhancing training, tutorials, manuals and websites. Companies use this technique to produce streaming and downloadable content. The recording tools are readily available and affordable. In this article, we explore some techniques, tips and tricks for recording sound, mouse movement and happenings from your screen to an AVI file. We will talk in both general terms and use specific examples. The examples pertain to HyperCam, a downloadable screen recording application from Hyperionics Technology. Like most screen recording applications, HyperCam captures the action from your Windows screen -- including cursor movements and sound -- and saves it to an AVI movie file.
Rice, William H. IV. WilliamRice.com (2002). Design>Documentation>Multimedia>Screencasting
#13327
Balancing Image Quality and Speed: How to Shave Seconds off Your Download Time
The Internet has changed the way information is displayed. According to Weinman and Heavin, (1997) “It is no longer necessary to only create compelling visuals and information - the speed with which your site is viewed is also subject to critique,” (p. 36). Internet audiences are not captive. They can leave, and often do, at any time. It is the daunting task of web designers to not only draw the audience into a page, but to keep them there. One way to attract and keep an audience is by maximizing image quality while minimizing download time. This can be accomplished by choosing appropriate graphic file formats and by utilizing a variety of file size reduction techniques.
Larsen, Laurie and Christine Phillips. Usability News (2001). Design>Web Design>Assessment
#23280
Balancing Visual and Structural Complexity in Interaction Design
Usability is based on principles such as 'Less is more' and 'Keep it simple, stupid'. But there is more to simplicity than meets the eye. By reducing visual complexity at the cost of structural simplicity, you will give your users a hard time understanding and navigating the content of a web site.
GUUUI (2003). Design>Web Design>Interactive>User Centered Design
#27899
We call on the common man to rise up in revolt against this evil of typographical ignorance.
#27617
As more Web designers begin transforming their sites from the tables-fonttags-single-pixel-gifs concoctions to stripped-down CSS chic, more observers are asking the questions: if the promise of CSS and standards was liberation from the tyranny of warring browser lords, why do all the CSS designs look the same? If this is the radical shift that will allow the Web to realize its potential, why does it appear so dull? Implicit in these questions is an increasing consensus that, in the words of Chris Casciano, 'Your CSS Bores Me'.
Kaminski, Chuck. Western Civilization (2004). Design>Web Design>CSS
#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
#18395
Banner Blindness, Human Cognition and Web Design 
Benway and Lane have studied 'Banner Blindness' – the fact that people tend to ignore those big, flashy, colorful banners at the top of web pages. This is pretty interesting stuff, for the entire reason they are so big and obnoxious is to attract attention, yet they fail. Evidently nobody ever studied real users before -- they simply assumed that big, colorful items were visible. This paper, shows once again the importance of observations over logic when it comes to predicting human behavior. People behave the way they behave, not the way our logical analyses and wishes would have them behave. People follow their interests, their needs, their customs. They are driven by curiosity, boredom, emotion. And the 'they' refers to 'we': us.
Norman, Donald A. JND.org (1999). Design>Web Design>Usability>User Experience
#29552
Banner Blindness: Old and New Findings
Users rarely look at display advertisements on websites. Of the four design elements that do attract a few ad fixations, one is unethical and reduces the value of advertising networks.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2007). Design>Web Design>Ethics>User Centered Design
#13070
Banner Blindness: Web Searchers Often Miss 'Obvious' Links
Suppose you are designing a web page where one particular link among many is likely to be the most used by visitors. For example, perhaps you have a web page for sending text messages to pagers. 'Send a message' is likely to be a very popular link, and it is important that all users notice it. On a travel reservations page, the designer wants to be sure that users notice the link for 'make a reservation.' Web guidelines usually recommend that to make an important item stand out, it should be near the top, and be large and/or brightly colored.
Panero, Jan Benway and David M. Lane. Internetworking (1998). Design>Web Design>Usability
#22009
Las barras de mosaico (TileBars) son una técnica de visualización de búsquedas en documentos que permiten hacerse una idea más clara de lo que nos devuelve un buscador, añadiendo la serendipia (descubrimiento accidental) al concepto de relevancia.
Dursteler, Juan Carlos. InfoVis (2002). (Spanish) Design>User Interface>Human Computer Interaction
#19203
Barrierefreies Webdesign - manchmal auch Zugänglichkeit oder Accessibility genannt - ist die Kunst, Webseiten so zu programmieren, dass jeder sie lesen kann.
Hellbusch, Jan Eric. Barrierefreies-Webdesign. Design>Web Design>Accessibility
#25425
Have a character you want to animate? Let Jose show you how to use your Illustrator art to create SWF animations.
Gonzalez, Jose Luis. Illustrator World (2005). Design>Multimedia>Software>Adobe Illustrator
#20565
Basic Flash Concepts and Terms
Macromedia Flash uses a movie-making metaphor in how they define their concepts and areas of their interface. The basic terms used to describe the animation are the movie, stage and motion.
Kurtus, Ron. School for Champions (2002). Design>Web Design>Multimedia>Flash
#29257
Basic Photoshop Painting Techniques for Technical Illustrations
In this demonstration we will be approaching the entire illustration process in much the same way as was done before Photoshop or any other computer graphics programs where created. In the non-digital world, you would start with an inked line drawing on illustration board.
Hulsey, Kevin. Kevin Hulsey Illustration (2006). Design>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration>Adobe Photoshop
#21921
Basic Principles Of Perspective Drawing
Any good technical illustration starts with well-executed line art. If you are working from any type of reference other than a CAD output in the desired angle, you will need to have a strong fundamental understanding of the principles of perspective drawing.
Hulsey, Kevin. Kevin Hulsey Illustration. Design>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration>Isometric
#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
#28387
Using web sites should be easy and pleasant, just like a great experience in a shop, hotel, or library. I believe that the all Web sites can be made lovable - easy, rewarding and pleasurable to use.
Hunt, Ben. Web Design From Scratch (2006). Design>Web Design>Usability
#31069
Basics of Conducting Focus Groups
Focus groups are a powerful means to evaluate services or test new ideas. Basically, focus groups are interviews, but of 6-10 people at the same time in the same group. One can get a great deal of information during a focus group session.
McNamara, Carter. Free Management Library. Articles>User Centered Design>Methods>Focus Groups
