Calculating Documentation Cruft

It's easy to describe documentation cruft, and often easy to identify it once you see it, but it's hard to estimate how 'crufty' a document actually is. Furthermore, it's often hard to convince the creators of a document that 'their baby' isn't as beatiful as they believe it to be.

Ambler, Scott W. Dr. Dobb's (2007). Articles>Documentation>Assessment>Minimalism

The Myth of 'Seven, Plus or Minus 2'

This article proposes that the optimal number of menu items cannot be reduced to the generalized 'Magic Seven, Plus or Minus Two' (7±2). The author proposes that instead, when planning a site information architecture, the two most important considerations are breadth versus depth and the display of information.

Kalbach, James. Dr. Dobb's (2002). Articles>Information Design>History>Cognitive Psychology

Silverlight 1.0: Getting Started

Silverlight facilitates the creation of rich web content and applications using a lightweight add-on that is friendly to both designers and developers.

Nathan, Adam. Dr. Dobb's (2007). Design>Web Design>Standards>Silverlight

Tools for Distributed Development

When it comes to working on distributed teams or one with global development partners spread around the world, you need to use every tool you can to make interaction easier.

Mawdsley, Jason. Dr. Dobb's (2007). Articles>Collaboration>Technology

XQuery Your Office Documents

New office document standards like the OpenDocument Format(ODF) and Office Open XML (OOXML), however, are making office document integration in business processes a reality. A key benefit of ODF and OOXML for developers is the reuse of existing standards.

Van Cappellen, Marc. Dr. Dobb's (2007). Design>Information Design>Software>XML

Building a Barrier-Free Web

Perhaps you're not legally required to make your site friendly to disabled users, but it's still good business.

Kuchinskas, Susan. Dr. Dobb's (2002). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility

Are You Cultured?

When a company decides to globalize its site, the Web team often learns the taboo colors and appropriate dress codes of a given culture, translates the text, and launches. But cultural differences run deeper than visual appearance or language; they reflect strong values. Rarely do globalized sites incorporate the nuances of a culture's social hierarchy, individualism, gender roles, time-orientation, or truth-seeking attributes.

Marcus, Aaron. Dr. Dobb's (2003). Articles>Web Design>Globalization>Localization