#26883
Keyboards, mice, windows--essentially, they have the same design. This month, the cranky user explores options that have looked beyond the box for innovative designs that users can really use.
Seebach, Peter. IBM (2006). Articles>Usability
#26890
Use Data URIs to Include Media in XML
There are many ways to link to non-XML content within XML, including binary content. Sometimes you need to roll all such external content directly into the XML. Data scheme URIs are one way to specify a full resource within a URI, which you can then use in XML constructs. In this tip, Uche Ogbuji shows how to use this to bundle related media into a single file.
Ogbuji, Uche. IBM (2006). Articles>Information Design>Multimedia>XML
#21620
Use Language-Specific Tools for XML Processing
DOM and SAX are the two best known systems for XML processing, but they are really compromises across programming languages. As such, they do not take advantage of any language's particular strengths. Often it is better to duck conventional wisdom and use special APIs that take advantage of particular strengths.
Ogbuji, Uche. IBM (2004). Design>Information Design>XML
#26881
Use PHP to Build a Search Engine Optimization Application
PHP, a dynamic Web-based programming language, takes a variety of input formats and uses a built-in SOAP client to obtain information from the Web. PHP, combined with applications using search engine optimization (SEO), is a powerful tool for obtaining information from major search engines, allowing this information to guide a webmaster's online marketing and SEO strategies.
Anderson, Tyler. IBM (2006). Articles>Web Design>Search>Search Engine Optimization
#29960
Use PHP to create XForms, Part 1: Creating a PHP XForms library
This two-part article series is designed to get PHP developers up to speed in leveraging Web 2.0 XForms forms for their PHP forms development so that they can finally put their outdated Web 1.0 HTML forms away. This will be accomplished by creating a library of functions that generate XForms elements when called upon. In this article, Part 1 of a two-part series, developers will create the XForms library using PHP, allowing each function to take in parameters and output XForm elements.
Anderson, Tyler. IBM (2007). Articles>Information Design>XML>XSL
#29959
Use PHP to create XForms, Part 2: Using the PHP XForms Library to Create Useful XForms
This two-part article seriess is designed to get PHP developers up to speed in leveraging Web 2.0 XForms forms for their PHP forms development so that they can finally put their outdated Web 1.0 HTML forms away. In Part 1, you created the PHP XForms library. In this article, Part 2, you will enhance the library to include some error checking and convenience functions to help make using the library more manageable, and lastly you'll demo the library by creating a proof of concept XForm.
Anderson, Tyler. IBM (2007). Articles>Information Design>XML>XSL
#26888
Use the Unicode Database to Find Characters for XML Documents
The Unicode consortium is dedicated to maintaining a character set that allows computers to deal with the vast array of human writing systems. When you think of computers that manage such a large and complex data set, you think databases, and this is precisely what the consortium provides for computer access to versions of the Unicode standard. The Unicode Character Database comprises files that present detailed information for each character and class of character. The strong tie between XML and Unicode means this database is very valuable to XML developers and authors. In this article Uche Ogbuji introduces the Unicode Character Database and shows how XML developers can put it to use.
Ogbuji, Uche. IBM (2006). Articles>Language>Localization>Unicode
#26893
The ability to add notes and comments to your Web site can be a powerful and attractive feature for users. This tutorial demonstrates how to implement an Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX)-based user annotation system in the form of yellow sticky notes that sit on top of regular Web page content. The only additional, required configuration is a back-end Perl script that stores the annotations.
Travis, Greg. IBM (2006). Articles>Web Design>DHTML>Ajax
#10631
An IBM Ease of Use poster with the message User Friendly, Friendly User.
IBM (1999). Design>Presentations>Posters>Usability
#18567
User-Centered Design is a well established process that has been widely adopted by many organizations to deliver products that meet users' expectations. IBM has regularly enhanced this process, which has now been consolidated within the broader framework of User Engineering.
#18568
User-Centered Design: Cost Justifying Ease of Use 
At any instant, millions of people around the world are trying to use or do something that is difficult or confusing. They may be trying to find a product, trying to figure out how a product works, trying to get service for a product, or trying to replace it. Eventually and inevitably, they will begin to lose time and patience. And, no matter what particular answer they are looking for, the question they pose will be the same: 'Why would anyone make something this confusing?' It's a good question. At IBM, we wonder the same thing ourselves. We know consumers benefit greatly from ease of use; we know making a product easy makes it easier on the customer. We know that making it easier on the customer increases customer loyalty. Products that are easy to use lead to increased customer satisfaction, and satisfied customers return again and again. So ease of use actually increases business. On the other hand, we're also aware that consumers aren't the only ones who reap rewards from usable products. Companies that invest in ease of use enjoy benefits of their own. Around the globe, across a range of industries, studies have proven it time and again. Whether you are in the business of producing products, or purchasing product for your employees, usability equals profitability. And, that's the bottom line.
IBM (2002). Design>User Centered Design
#10627
User-Centered Design/Ease of Use Guidelines
The most compelling design solutions are ones that are simple, natural to use, and completely in tune with users' needs and experiences. Achieving these solutions in the design of technology products and e-business applications requires building a multi-disciplinary team, tapping resources such as published research, guidelines, and standards, and involving users throughout the design process. Here we outline a process and provide resources for achieving compelling designs.
#10637
An IBM Ease of Use poster with the message Users Love Simplicity.
IBM (1999). Design>Presentations>Posters>Minimalism
#28039
In this series, follow along as the IBM Internet Technology Group team designs, develops, and deploys a closed community Web site using a suite of software that is freely available. The open source community provides various tools that, when plugged together, begin to create a useful development and production environment for complex Web applications. Using these tools as a foundation, we provide a methodology and set of enhancements to help you simplify the production process. Although customization is still necessary, this series shows you the tools and techniques to get relatively complicated Web sites up and running quickly using open source tools, including Drupal, MySQL, PHP, Apache, and Eclipse technologies. In this first article, you'll compare our approach with other software tools available and explore the enhancements we made.
Lewis-Bowen, Alister, Stephen Evanchik and Louis Weitzman. IBM (2006). Design>Web Design>Collaboration>Open Source
#28038
In this series, you follow along as the IBM Internet Technology Group designs, develops, and deploys a closed community Web site using a suite of software that is freely available. Most of this series focuses on the actual implementation of the Web site, but this second article is a bit more generic. Read it to explore our design process, which can help you to create user experiences for applications, other interfaces, or Web sites. Part 1 discusses the team's requirements, compares several open source content management systems, and provides the rationale for choosing Drupal.
Lewis-Bowen, Alister, Stephen Evanchik and Louis Weitzman. IBM (2006). Design>Web Design>Collaboration>Open Source
#27748
If you're a Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) developer, you'll want to preview the SQLXML technology, currently in development. Check out procedures to create an XML document, store an XML document in a relational database, retrieve an XML document from a database, and navigate an XML document with the SQLXML Java data type.
Vohra, Deepak. IBM (2006). Articles>Information Design>Databases>XML
#30679
Using Web 2.0 Architecture for a More Flexible Enterprise
Web 2.0 repositories can help you create a flexible software architecture, which can easily be plugged into Web 2.0 communities and extranets. Creating a fluid system that also works in accordance with requirements for modifiability, performance, security, scalability, and reusability can be challenging. In this article, learn techniques to help ensure your Enterprise Web 2.0 architecture meets your quality requirements.
Morris, Stephen B. IBM (2007). Articles>Web Design>Community Building
#21754
Using XSLT for Content Management
Introduces XM (XSLT Make), a simple and affordable Web publishing content-management solution that takes advantage of XML and XSLT. Code samples show the development of a wrapper for the XSLT to make it easy for a nonprogrammer to use. XM project code is available by link.
Marchal, Benoit. IBM (2001). Articles>Content Management>XML>XSL
#25465
Voice-Enable Your Web Page with Multimodal 4.3.2
Become fluent in X+V, today's versatile Web markup language (WML). X+V, short for XHTML+Voice, is a Web markup language that is comprised of voice and visual elements used for developing multimodal applications. This article provides the novice developer of Multimodal X+V, Web pages, and handheld devices with a process for creating and testing an X+V application. This article uses the IBM® Multimodal Toolkit 4.3.2 running on WebSphere® Studio Site Developer (Site Developer) or on WebSphere Studio Application Developer (Application Developer) 5.1.2.
Celi, Miriam. IBM (2005). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Audio
#28855
The W3C Multimodal Architecture, Part 2: The XML Specification Stack
Gerald McCobb continues his introduction to the forthcoming W3C Multimodal Architecture with a survey of the many XML languages that you can use to author multimodal applications. He then shows how several specifications -- SCXML, XHTML, REX, and XML Events -- could work together in a complete multimodal application.
McCobb, Gerald. IBM (2007). Design>Multimedia>Standards>XML
#31074
Software that dynamically adapts Web pages to meet the needs of individuals with visual, motor, and print limitations.
IBM (2005). Resources>Software>Accessibility>Microsoft Windows
#26889
Web Clients Fatten Up with OpenLaszlo
OpenLaszlo is a rich client application architecture that uses Macromedia Flash as a deployment vehicle. Declarative in design, OpenLaszlo relies upon JavaScript for logic and offers advantages over traditional Flash development, including an advanced UI constraints system, an object-oriented design methodology, and built-in support for Web services and a variety of flavors of Remote Procedure Call (RPC). This article details the basic concepts of OpenLaszlo, and gives examples of situations in which an OpenLaszlo solution might be beneficial.
Woods, Joshua M. IBM (2006). Articles>Web Design>Standards>Flash
#30678
What Ever Happened to Web Engineering?
Does it ever occur to you that today's Web developers could learn a thing or two from traditional computer programming? The cranky user talks about the foundations of software engineering and asks where in the Web those best practices have disappeared to.
Seebach, Peter. IBM (2007). Articles>Web Design>Programming
#23505
When users complain about sites, webmasters frequently respond with hostility, derision, condescension, or just plain silence. No wonder users rarely bother to complain. Bad attitudes stand between the site you created and the site your users want to use.
Seebach, Peter. IBM (2001). Design>Web Design>Correspondence>User Centered Design
#19340
Puzzled why your site is not living up to your expectations? The problem may not lie with your content or products, but rather in your site's user experience. Find out what common pitfalls to avoid by following a few simple guidelines to improve the user experience and transform surfers into customers.
Paul, Chris. IBM (2000). Design>Web Design>User Experience>Usability
