Animer son Site

Un internaute fait très vite la différence entre un site qui vit et un autre qui croupit! Un site qui donne l'impression d'être abandonné, ou d'avoir été conçu de manière trop statique, a peu de chances de générer de nombreuses visites ! Pour inciter les gens à venir prendre régulièrement le pouls de votre site, pour qu'il aient confiance dans la fraîcheur de l'information, pour qu'ils se sentent accueillis, il faut que votre site respire!

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

Anonymity and Online Community: Identity Matters

While anonymity may allow people to feel more free and disinhibited to discuss otherwise embarrassing or stigmatizing topics, it can also be a community's biggest enemy.

Grohol, John M. List Apart, A (2006). Articles>Web Design>Community Building

Anonymous Personalization: Part I

Personalization versus privacy. It's not a question of which will ultimately prevail. But rather, how can we have both?

Allen, Cliff. Allen.com (2003). Design>Web Design>Adaptive

Anonymous Personalization: Part II

Personalization doesn't always require that you obtain personally identifiable information about a visitor -- many times you can personalize your Web content by only knowing their interests and preferences.

Allen, Cliff. Allen.com (2003). Design>Web Design>Adaptive

Another Way of Looking at Accessibility

Lorraine Ireland writes about her experiences of learning about web accessibility, having been in the business of selling adaptive technology for a number of years.

Ireland, Lorraine. Accessify (2003). Design>Web Design>Accessibility

Anvendelighed som Succeskriterie

Normalt arbejder man i en velkendt kontekst på sin lokale computer, hvad enten der er tale om Windows, Kde, RedHat, Mac os X m.fl. men når vi åbner døren til Internet bliver disse rutiner ødelagt af noget som ikke altid er til at sætte fingeren på. Hvad er det som gør webløsninger svære at arbejde med og finde rundt i? Når man første gang sætter sig foran en computer er det som oftest med et mål. Nysgerrighed, at komme på Internet og shoppe, at skrive et brev og mange andre ting. Oftest er det denne drivkraft som får os til at tage de første slidsomme uger med styresystemet som man langsomt kommer til at forstå, og som man på sigt bliver fortroligt med idet det er den platform som giver og adgang til alle de digitale oplevelser. Kan man ikke arbejde på platformen vil man med sikkerhed heller ikke kunne opnå sine mål med arbejdet.

Orgaard Larsen, Thomas. Quark, The (2002). (Danish) Design>Web Design>Assessment

Apache HTTP Status Codes

Those familiar with Apache will be used to the luxury of being able to specify redirects on the fly, without having to write programs to catch errors, and ensure they return the correct HTTP status codes. Being new to Apache, I was amazed at just how easy it is. The following provides an overview of the Apache Redirect directive.

Lemon, Gez. Juicy Studio (2005). Design>Web Design>Server Side Includes

The Applicability of the ADA to the Internet

As the Internet has increased in prominence in all sectors of society, interested individuals have begun to question whether or not the Internet should be included in the regulations set forth by the Americans with Disabilities Act. Right now there is no explicit reference to the Internet in any of the language of the act.

Bohman, Paul. WebAIM (2000). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Policies and Procedures

Applied Theory: Working Toward an Accessible Web Site

With the passage of Section 508 and the efforts of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), interest in Web site accessibility continues to increase. Web designers and Web content developers are finding that knowledge in Web accessibility is becoming essential to be marketable to government contracts and private industry since accessibility is becoming a best practice, and in some cases a legal requirement, in Web development. This article is written for those who already have a general knowledge about the reasons for, and the techniques of, designing accessible Web sites. In this article, I will share the steps that I have taken to work toward transforming a Web site that I manage to one that is accessible according to the W3C recommendations.

McConnell, Kim. Usability Interface (2003). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Section 508

Applying CSS to Forms

Learn how to lay out and format your forms with the power of CSS.

Moss, Trenton. Webcredible (2004). Design>Web Design>CSS

Applying Object-Oriented Design Concepts to Web Publishing  

This is a story of how one internal project at Sun Microsystems migrated printed user and reference documentation to an internal Web site. The principle architect of this site discusses how she applied object-oriented design concepts to the Web architecture to accommodate many learning styles simultaneously. As important as the successes of this project are its failures, which offer some insight into when and how to use the World Wide Web as a communication vehicle in your overall communication strategy.

Hoft, Nancy L. STC Proceedings (1996). Design>Documentation>Web Design

Applying Personalization to the Purchase Decision Process

The idea of personalizing Web and e-mail content is becoming well accepted because most of us already personalize the person-to-person communications that we use every day. However, planning a personalized web site has proven to be more of a challenge than many marketers had imagined.

Allen, Cliff. Allen.com (2003). Design>Web Design>Adaptive

Applying Web 2.0 Technologies to Technical Documentation

This article is based on my presentation at the Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators' annual conference in October, 2006. Every now and then, there is a change in the value of what technical authors deliver. These are moments when organisations pay attention to technical documentation. This is because they recognise that these changes mean they can create something that will be of real value to the business and to their customers. In recent years, there have been three "waves of interestingness". The first wave was the introduction of Windows Help (WinHelp). The second major wave was the introduction of the Internet and intranets. This was a time when organisations looked at how they could transfer large amounts of information from paper to online. They were faced with issues such as how users could access and understand all this information easily - issues that technical communicators deal with on a day-to-day basis. I believe we're just about to approach the new wave, which we have called "Tech Writing 2.0".

Pratt, Ellis. Cherryleaf (2006). Articles>Web Design>Documentation>Technical Writing

Architecting Our Profession

The change within the interface design process over the past five to ten years has coincided with an increasing number of large companies refining an industrial style model of design instead of focusing on specialization or interaction sustainability through design accuracy.

Evans, Clifton. Boxes and Arrows (2005). Design>Web Design>History

Are Standards-Compliant Websites Better?

The adhoc way in which much of the web was developed has created a dilemma for web designers: should websites comply with standards, ensuring accessibility, or break the rules and work with older browsers? At this moment, the answer is simple: Websites should work with older browsers.

Baker, Adam. Merges.net (2001). Design>Web Design>Standards>Usability

Are the Product Lists on Your Site Reducing Sales?  

You can increase sales on your site as much as 225% by offering sufficient product information to your customers at the time they need it. One way to do this is to develop product lists that don't require shoppers to bounce back-and-forth between the list and individual product pages.

User Interface Engineering (2004). Design>Web Design>Usability>E Commerce

Are There Users Who Always Search?

Web designers often tell us that they spend a great deal of their limited time and resources working to improve their on-site search engines because, they believe, there are some people who always rely on the search engine to reach their target content. They find further support for this assumption from Jakob Nielsen who, in his book, 'Designing Web Usability,' asserts that more than half of all users demonstrate 'search-dominant' tendencies by going right to the search engine when they first visit a web site looking for content.

User Interface Engineering (2002). Design>Web Design>Usability>Search

Are We There Yet?

It's true: even simple projects get messy. Christina Wodtke comes clean on Swiss Army knives, the writing on the wall, and the untidy glory of the Boxes and Arrows redesign contest.

Wodtke, Christina. Boxes and Arrows (2006). Articles>Web Design>Project Management>Case Studies

Are You Creating a Path of Resistance?

I've been watching people type in web site addresses for a long time now. However, I only started watching people closely about 4 weeks ago. I recorded 75 observations of people typing in URLs in the address bar (I kept a notepad with a running tally). I'll be the first to admit that this was not scientific and, as you might guess, I was acting in a biased manner. Nevertheless, I think the results are somewhat useful as a starting point. I found that in about 20 of the 75 observations, when people typed in a new URL they first tried the address without the 'www'. So, my findings indicate that about 27% of the time, users did not use the 'www'.

Rhodes, John S. WebWord (1999). Design>Web Design>Usability

Are You Satisfied with Online Shopping?

How many of you use the Internet to order merchandise? Many consumers are choosing the Internet to order merchandise rather than brave the crowds and traffic snarls at shopping malls. I don’t know if you have noticed it, but the order process and ease of use varies from one web site to another. The often-confusing process is enough to make you bail out and shop elsewhere. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, 'E-tailers Try to Keep Shoppers From Bolting at Checkout Point,' (1) usability, technology, and e-commerce issues are stopping shoppers from completing their purchases. The article states that about 65% of shoppers bail out at the checkout point. Poor design has cost E-tailers over $6.1 billion in potential sales.

Dick, David J. Usability Interface (2001). Design>Web Design>Usability

Are Your Prospects Walking Out on You?

Learn how to write compelling copy that will keep your site visitors interested in what you're offering.

Gandia, Ed. Webcredible (2005). Design>Web Design>User Experience

Arquitectura de Información: Una Disciplina "De Lujo" en Chile

Un resumen de la historia y estado actual del campo de la Arquitectura de Información en Chile.

Gutierrez, Malisa and Javier Velasco. AIfIA (2003). (Spanish) Articles>Web Design>Information Design

Arrows in Our Quiver

On mailing lists, at conferences, in conversations at cocktail hours, I'm starting to see a growing awareness of how our various disciplines form a community of practice.

Olsen, George. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Articles>Web Design>Community Building

Art and Culture

This site offers a unique approach to contextual navigation, and one that has gotten the attention of many reviewers. From the site: 'ArtandCulture.com is a dynamic destination that delivers unique access to the best arts and cultural content and related products available on the web today....focused on creating the context that makes information truly meaningful.' In this review, I'll focus on some of the interesting navigation strategies the site presents.

Danzico, Liz. Bobulate (2003). Design>Web Design>User Interface>DHTML