The Benefits of an Accessible Website - Part 2: the Business Case

The Disability Discrimination Act states that service providers must not discriminate against disabled people. A website is regarded as a service and therefore falls under this law. Some organisations are changing their websites, but many are seemingly not making the adjustments. Disabled people don't access their website, they say, so why should they care? There are, however, two very good reasons as to why businesses should start taking these issues seriously: an accessible website will make you more money; an accessible website will save you money.

Moss, Trenton. Webcredible (2004). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>United Kingdom

Benutzertests durch Spurenverwertung  

In most cases a technical writer cannot do any user tests. If you have access to the user log of a web server you can derive quite interesting facts like how often and how long a specific page was viewed and how the surfers navigated.

von Obert, Alexander. Techwriter.de (2003). (German) Design>Web Design>User Centered Design>Log Analysis

The Best of CHI-WEB and SIGIA-L

The chi-web and sig-ia mailing lists are two email based discussion groups on the topics of web usability, design and human computer interaction (the later with a heavier emphasis on information architecture). To subscribe to chi-web, read the info page or to get a better flavor for what happens there, use its full searchable archive. Alternatively, you can join sigia-l from here or view the sigia-l archive . Using the archives for each mailing list, I've compiled a list of the summary postings from useful threads, and a few personally selected favorite postings. Please note: my list below is not an exhaustive list of summary postings. I just picked the ones I found most salient and valuable for reference. Also, these summaries are collections of contributing posts: they are a mixture of opinions and commentary, with some references to reports, usability data, websites or books.

Berkun, Scott. UIWeb. Resources>Mailing Lists>Web Design>Multimedia

Best Practices: A Case Study at Kohler  

The plumbing division of Kohler Co. is no stranger to managing their content. They had been using BroadVision's document-management system, Relation Document Manager (RDM), for three years and authoring in Interleaf since 1989. But when BroadVision stopped supporting RDM, Mark Peterson, the technical publications manager at Kohler, was desperate to find a replacement. BroadVision offered BladeRunner, but that tool didn't sufficiently support the heavy and stringent print requirements of Mark's department. Plumbers don't always have adequate or readily available access to the Internet.

Hedlund, Tina. ComTech Services (2003). Design>Web Design>Intranets>Case Studies

Best Practices and Future Visions for Search User Interfaces: Position Paper

The author argues that progress in search requires vigorous inquiry into how search can be embedded into application environments such as those for decision-making, personal information collecting, and designing.

Hendry, David G. Earthlink (2003). Design>Web Design>Search

Best Practices and Future Visions for Search User Interfaces: Position Paper  

The author argues that progress in search requires vigorous inquiry into how search can be embedded into application environments such as those for decision-making, personal information collecting, and designing.

Hendry, David G. Earthlink (2003). Design>Web Design>User Interface>Search

Best Practices For Successful Intranets

Thinking big in the first phase of intranet planning is the nature of e-business, but then it's time to start asking the tough questions. One needs to figure out where the business goals and the user goals need to meet in order to create an intranet that offers the most value.

Barnes, Hank. Intranet Journal (2001). Design>Web Design>Intranets

A Better Image Rotator

About a year ago, I wrote an article, introducing a method for displaying a random image every time someone visits a web page. Administration was simple: just add or remove images from a folder on the server, and they would appear (or disappear, respectively) from the pool of random images being displayed on that page.

Benjamin, Dan. List Apart, A (2004). Design>Web Design>Graphic Design>DHTML

Better Invoices for Better Business

Invoices that obfuscate information, incorrectly state terms or arrive incomplete can be a massive headache for all parties. These mistakes will only delay the payment process, so it is critical you produce invoices that clearly deliver information your client will need.

Potts, Kevin. List Apart, A (2004). Design>Web Design>Forms>Usability

Better Living Through XHTML

Everything you wanted to know about converting from HTML to XHTML, including why you’d want to, tools that help, changes in the way browsers display XHTML pages, shortcuts, bugs, workarounds, and other tips you won’t find elsewhere.

Zeldman, Jeffrey. List Apart, A (2002). Design>Web Design>XHTML

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

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

Better Web Forms: Redesigning eBay's Registration

Even the smallest adjustments to a page's design, layout, and content can make a major improvement in the overall quality of the page. Taking a fresh look at sections of a site that have been ignored for a while can give you an entirely new perspective. By making small incremental changes and testing them against real world scenarios, we can more easily focus on continuous improvement without going back to square one every time.

Dimon, Garrett. Digital Web Magazine (2007). Design>Web Design>Forms>E Commerce

Beware of Opening Links in a New Window

Find out why opening a link in a new window is not generally a good idea.

Turner, Neil. Webcredible (2004). Design>Web Design>Usability

Beyond Accessibility: Treating Users with Disabilities as People

With current Web design practices, users without disabilities experience three times higher usability than users who are blind or have low vision. Usability guidelines can substantially improve the matter by making websites and intranets support task performance for users with disabilities.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2001). Design>Accessibility>Web Design>Universal Usability

Review: Beyond Borders: Web Globalization Strategies

If your Web site is not designed for or understood by a global audience, you are excluding an estimated 200 million people, according to John Yunker in Beyond Borders: Web Globalization Strategies.

Staples, Jeff. Usability Interface (2004). Resources>Reviews>Web Design>Localization

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

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

Beyond Functionality

Some organisations still take a function-centric approach to their online transactions with customers. Functionality is king, and interactions with the customer are seen as secondary.

Usability by Design (2005). Design>Web Design>Usability>E Commerce

Beyond Guidelines: Advanced Accessibility Techniques

Find out how to go beyond the W3C accessibility guidelines and offer a truly accessible web experience.

Moss, Trenton. Webcredible (2006). Design>Web Design>Accessibility

Beyond Gutenberg

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

Beyond Text and Graphics: XML Makes Web Pages Function Like Applications

XML is displacing the traditional 'web page'--generally a static document, created with HTML. Most traditional web pages offer only slim interactivity and rely on an overworked server and CGI script. XML is promoting the concept of a 'weblication' (web application) that can work wonders on the web client without generating so much Internet traffic.

Freter, Todd. Sun Microsystems (1998). Design>Web Design>Metadata>XML

Beyond the Browser

At the risk of repeating an old saw, when you only have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Our hammer has been the Web browser. It has been crippling the software industry for the past eight years and it will kill productivity at any company that introduces major enterprise applications on its intranet. Should we get rid of the browser? No, no more than we should get rid of the hammer. The browser is a useful tool. It needs to cease being the only tool, and it could use some improvement.

Tognazzini, Bruce and Jakob Nielsen. eWeek (2001). Design>Web Design>Usability

Beyond the Browser: Technologies to Watch

The Internet is not the World Wide Web. So what exactly lies beyond the browser? Eisenberg fearlessly predicts technologies to watch.

Eisenberg, J. David. List Apart, A (2000). Design>Web Design>Technology>Web Browsers

Beyond the Buy Button in E-Commerce

The best way for e-commerce sites to increase subsequent orders is to treat customers well after they place their initial order.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2004). Design>Web Design>Usability>E Commerce