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Articles from trainer-writer team Jonathan and Lisa Price. Ideas and services for web writers, editors, and content managers.
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Resources at Hot Text Web Writing that Works Ideas and services for web writers, editors, and content managers New! Our Job Aid! A complete list of our guidelines. The gist of our recommendations on web writing that works. How to be brief, scannable, chunky, and easy to understand....An Interview with JavaScript Guru, Mr. Danny Goodman on how JavaScript can make a web site easier to use.
http://webword.com/interviews/goodman.html
Jakob Nielsen's bi-weekly column on current issues in Web usability, focusing on simple and minimalist design based on real user needs.
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/
Collection of links and accompanying information about human factors, user interface issues, and usable design specific to the World Wide Web.
http://usableweb.com/
A simple, understandable navigation scheme is a critical aspect of site design and has a direct effect on the bottom line.
http://wdvl.com/Location/Navigation/101/
Learn good web page design by looking at bad web pages.
http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/
WWWSIA is a subgroup of the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI). It focuses on the human factors of the World Wide Web.
http://www.acm.org/sigchi/webhci/
A commentary on web usability, design, and direction aimed at the beginning web developer.
http://www.magnetic-media.com/webinmotion/
Tips and techniques for building reader-friendly Web pages.
http://www.pantos.org/atw/usable.html
Web design resources, Usableword newsletter, and web usability guidelines to make web sites faster, more educational, and usable.
http://patsula.com/usefo/
Delorie Software provides a number of free services to the web community to assist web authors who wish to make their information available to the largest audience. These tools provide alternate ways of viewing your pages, so that you can ensure that your content is received properly by all viewers.
http://www.delorie.com/web/
Web page viewer presents a site as it might be seen by visitors with different browsers.
http://www.anybrowser.com/
The key to being Lynx Friendly is to be consciously aware of the HTML which goes into creating a web page and to ensure that those using a non-graphical browser are not ignored.
http://www.cs.umanitoba.ca/~djc/personal/lynxfriend.html
Tips for building pages which are visually pleasing, and yet still download quickly and make information easy to access. From Webdeveloper.com.
http://www.webdeveloper.com/html/html_something_4_nothing.html
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. Special issue of WWW Usability arising from a symposium entitled "The Missing Link: Hypermedia Usability Research and The Web".
http://ijhcs.open.ac.uk/
Usability and human factors for the Internet. Including book list, expert articles articles and interviews, recommended Web sites.
http://www.webword.com
A forum for sharing information among a community of human factors engineers, designers, and developers who are interested in producing web sites that are more useful and usable. Site contains proceedings of the most recent (3/Jun/1999) conference and archives of all previous conferences.
http://zing.ncsl.nist.gov/hfweb/index.html
Alan Flavell discusses HTML usability and provides links to many style and usability sites.
http://ppewww.ph.gla.ac.uk/~flavell/www/
Avoid common web page mistakes. Learn about proper alignment, coloring and typography, plus how to put your best foot forward when you have two left feet.
http://internetbrothers.com/layout.htm
W3 Consortium publication.
http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/wai-pageauth.html
Expanding web community by offering free tips and tutorials about HTML and DHTML, graphics editing, site promotion, digital photography, and desktop publishing. Presented often with a touch of humor, and always with examples.
http://internetbrothers.com/
Before you can design avant-garde Web pages, you have to know what the rules are before you try to break, bend or amend them.
http://wdvl.com/Authoring/Design/Pages/
A behavioral research, usability testing, and customer experience evaluation firm.
http://www.webehavior.com/
Good usability is vital to the success of any web site. This site has downloadable sets of web evaluation tools to assist in analysis of a web page based on numerous usability guidelines. Registration is required (free).
http://zing.ncsl.nist.gov/WebTools/
A weekly column by Adam Baker that discusses web usability, interface, and interaction design. Includes previous columns for review.
http://www.merges.net/theory/
Provided by the National Cancer Institute. Includes information and resources on making web sites and other user interfaces more useful, usable, and accessible. News and current publications and additional links are provided.
http://www.usability.gov/
List of several (actually, eight) ways to make a more user-friendly site. Also has other reader comments on the same topic.
http://philip.greenspun.com/wtr/100-things
Showcases examples of poor web interface design from real web sites. The aim is to teach good (user-centered) design by showing what not to do.
http://deyalexander.com/blooper/
Suggestions and guidelines for putting together a usable and attractive web site.
http://www.tlc-systems.com/webtips.shtml
Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB) of the National Research Council convened a steering committee to evaluate and suggest fruitful directions for progress in user interfaces to computing and communications systems. A very informative site.
http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/screen/index.html#contents
"Designing for Ease Use", Article written by Corporate Solutions Consulting (UK)on usability engineering.
http://www.consult-me.co.uk/csc-usability-engineering-page.htm
Diamond Bullet Design offers their experience and knowledge on website and software usability.
http://www.usabilityfirst.com/
Information on basic web usability principles, including hints on helping search engines find your site. Web usability assessments and content development are available.
http://www.usablewebs.com/
Pages collected by the University of Maryland, Masters of Software Engineering. These guidelines will assist software engineers to create effective user interfaces.
http://otal.umd.edu/guse/
A monthly web zine for professional web writers and editors who create content for the web. This archived article, April 1999, is a follow-up of the April 1998 "Cut the Fluff" in designing web sites and suggest not to "lose sight of usability and functionality".
http://www.contentious.com/archive-main.html#1999-04
Interesting definition of Accessible Web Design. For use by "anyone, any web browsing technology and any site".
http://www.starlingweb.com/webac.htm
Trace Research and Development Center at the University of Wisconsin. Excellent guidelines for universal web design.
http://trace.wisc.edu/world/
Covers every area of good site design as well as what not to do. Steers you away from hype and towards more practical, user-friendly Web design. Based in Australia.
http://www.shorewalker.com/
Case study of usability. A sidebar to Jakob Nielsen's article on Sun's new Web design.
http://www.sun.com/980113/sunonnet/concepts.html
From the Usability Matters Group at the Linköping University in Sweden. Their goal is to make computer systems more usable. The 1995 essay "Perspectives on Usability" by Jonas Löwgren is available for download in PDF format.
http://www.ida.liu.se/labs/aslab/groups/um/
A summary from the conference sponsored by AT&T Labs. The goal is to develop software tools and techniques for evaluating the usability of web sites.
http://www.research.att.com/conf...b/proceedings/scholtz/index.html
Illnesses make websites inefficient. The cures, by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson:Web Marketing Today, Issue 41, February 1, 1998.
http://www.wilsonweb.com/articles/7diseases.htm
This article is extracted and adapted from Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction 3rd edn., Reading, MA: Addison Wesley (forthcoming). Longman Publishers, Copyright 1998.
http://ijhcs.open.ac.uk/shneiderman/
Experiment by the Bureau of Labor Statistics(BLS)finding a large number of usability problems that were identified and suggestions for correction.
http://stats.bls.gov/ore/htm_papers/st960160.htm
A paper, by Florian N. Egger, presents a model of trust that informs the human-computer interaction (HCI) design of electronic commerce systems.
http://www.zurich.ibm.com/~mrs/chi2000/contributions/egger.html
A summary of the complete life cycle of web development: planning, analysis, design, implementation, and promotion. Key practices and online resources are given for each process. By John December, author of numerous material for web development methodology.
http://www.december.com/web/develop.html
Compilation of surveys of web usability engineering and test results.
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bing/oversite/webusefind.html
A comprehensive resource page on UI Design, maintained by Craig Marion, the webmaster of Chester County Internet Services.
http://www.chesco.com/~cmarion/Design/UIDesign.html
Guidelines for businesses, developers and web designers on how to make their web sites more user-friendly and accessable for the adult community. A white paper issued by Microsoft, "Effective Web Design Considerations for Older Adults." is available for download.
http://www.microsoft.com/PressPa...press/1999/May99/GuidelinePR.asp
Focuses on furthering the education of web related topics, including web design and navigation tips, advice and techniques.
http://www.stevesdomain.net/
Examines what's wrong with the usability movement, with some humour, and experiences from the coal face of software design.
http://www.usabilitymustdie.com
Provides design and usability information and advice on how to convert browsers into buyers and keep them, analysis and trends. Free fortnightly newsletter.
http://www.eshopability.com
Resources and links on web design and usability.
http://www.missinform.net
Describes the many business and technical benefits that are realised by applying the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to Web applications.
http://www.w3.org/WAI/bcase/benefits.html
Reveals one company's usability testing practices and procesures.
http://wdvl.internet.com/Authoring/Design/UsabilityTesting/
1997 psychology research project by Alyson L. Hill at Stephen F. Austin State University. Participants scanned simulated websites for a target word; readability was inferred from reaction time.
http://hubel.sfasu.edu/research/AHNCUR.html
The design of some of the leading online stores is mediocre at best, but, according to a new study, it is improving.
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-931274.html
Usability tips, examples, test case, quotes, related articles and a Flash forum for site developers.
http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/productinfo/usability/
Resourcs for discovering user-centered design, guidelines, and technologies to help improve the total user experience for web-based products and services.
http://www-3.ibm.com/ibm/easy/eou_ext.nsf/Publish/558
Following key guidelines for homepage usability is well worth the investment.
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20020512.html
These tips are provided to help you improve the interaction between humans and computers in your web design.
http://www.humanfactors.com/downloads/10tips.asp
Users want indicators of how good (e.e., current, accurate, credible) the page's information is.
http://archives.seattletimes.nws.../display?slug=issu&date=19980329
Web design 'causes confusion' - Web designers are not on the same wavelength as surfers when it comes to creating sites, says a US study.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2041040.stm
The reason why so many people lose their way on the Web, according to usability expert Jared Spool, is because they lose the scent of the information they are looking for. Jared shares his thoughts and perspectives on the Web, usability, and the user's quest for information.
http://www.ddj.com/documents/s=3110/nam1012433977/
Guidelines written for webmasters, communicators and marketers to assist with website design for maximum usability for seniors and older internet users.
http://www.agelight.com/Resources/webdesign.htm
Quantified, peer-reviewed website design guidelines. PDF format, both in chapters or as one big (39 MB) file.
http://usability.gov/pdfs/guidelines.html
Web accessibility resources.
http://www.rnib.org/xpedio/group...site/public_webaccesscentre.hcsp
Offering tools needed to understand usability and accessibility issues. Includes materials that can help you create user-centered applications and gain insight into accessibility challenges.
http://www-136.ibm.com/developerworks/web/
A listing of the most popular methods for determining usability, including the advantages and disadvantages of each.
http://www.userdesign.com/usability_uem.html
Essential information about human interface design and usability for applications and applets written in the Java programming language.
http://java.sun.com/developer/techDocs/hi/
Directory contains over 500 links, mainly to scholarly articles.
http://www.klariti.com/information-architecture/
Reports and columns on usability and human interface design by Jakob Nielsen, Don Norman, and Bruce 'Tog' Tognazzini.
http://www.nngroup.com/reports/
Sites are getting better at using minimalist design, maintaining archives, and offering comprehensive services. However, these advances entail their own usability problems, as several prominent mistakes from 2003 show.
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20031222.html
Highlights stupid linking policies by linking to web sites that attempt to impose substantial restrictions on other sites that link to them.
http://www.dontlink.com
Forum to share information, resources and experiences on issues related to the usability and user-centered design. It is the home of the Usability Special Interest Group of the Society for Technical Communication.
http://www.stcsig.org/usability/
Spool, Jared. Excerpted from book, "Web Site Usability: A Designer's Guide". Useful links, articles and resources.
http://www.uie.com/bookdesc.htm
Ian Lloyd gives strategies for building custom 404 error pages that enhance usability.
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/perfect404/
Lane Becker writes, "Rather than a validation done once before completing a product... internal, qualitative usability testing [should be] done earlier, more frequently, and as part of the design process - not separate from it."
http://www.adaptivepath.com/publ...tions/essays/archives/000328.php
A guide to creating accessible web pages and downloadable documents. From the University of Newcastle, Australia.
http://www.newcastle.edu.au/policy/web/access/
List of design issues that pollute an overall impression of trustworthiness and dependability.
http://vaspersthegrate.blogspot..../web-credibility-destroyers.html
Insights into web writing, user-focused web design, and web credibility enhancement.
http://vaspersthegrate.blogspot.com/
A mathematics educator's view of web design. Encourages speed, accessibility, validity, and navigability. Discusses difficulties of math typesetting on the web.
http://www.cst.cmich.edu/users/chaff1ra/m132/WWW/type/
Tips from George Prociuk.
http://www.pointafter.com/Archives/nl0204.htm
News weblog covering web usability in Europe.
http://www.bohmann.dk/observations/
Weblog by a practicing User Experience Architect. Usually about usability, design information architecture and e-business.
http://crocolyle.blogspot.com
Web site designers should think hard about how to keep users from muddling around on their sites. "Users muddle when it isn’t clear what they are supposed to do in any given situation."
http://www.alttags.org/archives/2004/06/29/37/
Section 508 Accessible Menu and navbar system for those wanting compatibility with the widest group of browsers. Uses Dreamweaver MX and above.
http://www.decloak.com/Products/...lates/Browser_Compatibility.aspx
Several years of usability-related articles from Digital Web Magazine.
http://www.digital-web.com/topics/usability/
Office buildings have wheelchair ramps and TV has closed captioning, but many Web sites are inaccessible to people with disabilities. Things don't have to be that way.
http://archives.cnn.com/2000/TEC...ite.accessibility.idg/index.html
Expert columns on web usability, interaction and web design.
http://www.scottberkun.com/essays/
Guidelines for usable Flash, By Ilise Benun.
http://www.publish.com/article2/0,,1757914,00.asp
Article by Marcia Ludkin. "Again and again... usability experts discover that real people may not understand what may be obvious to a site’s designers."
http://www.publish.com/article2/0,,1762078,00.asp
Home for Jeff Johnson's book "GUI Bloopers". Covers problems with text, graphics, interactive dialog and web design. Table of contents available for viewing, and Chapter 4 ("textual bloopers") available for download.
http://web-bloopers.com/gui-bloopers/
Ilise Benun elaborates on the principles of consistency, interaction, instruction, choices and control.
http://www.findarticles.com/p/ar.../mi_zd4149/is_200309/ai_n9477209
Guidelines compiled by MSN Usability Research to provide designers and producers with ideas to increase the usability and appeal of Web sites.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/librar...teplan/html/improvingsiteusa.asp
Tutorial by Andrew Pae, Technical Coordinator at the ADAPTS Office at Georgia Tech. General design principles plus resources for additional information.
http://www.adapts.gatech.edu/general_resources/webaccess.htm
How to keep web page design from interfering with communication to visitors.
http://www.newentrepreneur.com/R...icles/12_Com_Mis/12_com_mis.html
Describes an experiment carried out to monitor the eye movements of visitors to a prototype web site.
http://www.uie.com/articles/eye_tracking/
A site by and about Jef Raskin, interactive systems design expert.
http://jef.raskincenter.org/
Help users find the documents they're looking for by incorporating a 'thesaurus-like' hierarchy for your site.
http://www.ddj.com/documents/s=2879/nam1012433844/
Advice for determining a level of granularity in breaking up documents for online viewing.
http://www.ddj.com/documents/s=2604/nam1012432737/
How to collect usability data from site users, using a historical archive as the case study. Keep surveys simple, collect data from real-world usage, and get feedback from friends of the site.
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990110.html
Why frames are usually a very bad idea.
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9612.html
Guerrilla HCI: Using Discount Usability Engineering to Penetrate the Intimidation Barrier
http://www.useit.com/papers/guerrilla_hci.html
A broad set of guidelines for multimedia on the web.
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9512.html
Dr. Jakob Nielsen highlights key differences between designing for print and designing for the web.
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990124.html
Most site maps fail to convey multiple levels of the site's information architecture. In usability tests, users often overlook site maps or can't find them. Complexity is also a problem: a map should be a map, not a navigational challenge of its own.
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20020106.html
Designing for the Web is different from traditional user interface design. Fundamentally, the designer gives up a lot of control to the user - get used to it: WYSIWYG is dead
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9705a.html
Don Norman discusses the approach to usability when building his own website. This includes links to related content by Jakob Nielsen
http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/hcd_website_design.html
When it comes to the usability factor of tables of contents, is less really more?
http://www.ddj.com/documents/s=2890/nam1012433856/
Discussion on the inevitable collapse of Yahoo directory due to its size and complexity. He Predicts mini-yahoo sites within corporate intranets.
http://www.ddj.com/documents/s=3011/nam1012433819/
From the consultants of Human Factors International (www.humanfactors.com). Requires Acrobat Reader.
http://www.humanfactors.com/downloads/webstandards.pdf
From the consultants of Human Factors International (www.humanfactors.com). Requires Acrobat Reader.
http://www.humanfactors.com/downloads/guistandards.pdf
Spool uncovers the lessons his research has taught him about how best to design a site so that users don't end up thwarted
http://www.ddj.com/documents/s=2894/nam1012433859/
"The number one activity on the Web is information retrieval." In part of his tutorial, Spool explained his findings on graphic design and users' success.
http://www.ddj.com/documents/s=2894/nam1012433861/
Interview detailing the approach to web usability in Hong Kong.
http://webword.com/interviews/szuc.html
Bruce Tognazzini discusses basic prinicples of usability for both traditional applications and web services.
http://www.asktog.com/basics/firstPrinciples.html
Site includes usability articles written by John S. Rhodes. This page is a good starting point.
http://webword.com/interviews/index.html
Greg Edwards on design and content optimization through eyetrack testing: measuring what people read, look at, skip, and ignore on webpages.
http://blog.eyetools.net/
Articles on web usability, e-government, government performance, and technology tips for small businesses, nonprofits, and government.
http://millennialliving.com/weblog/
RSS feeds are surprisingly difficult for the average user to use.
http://www.veen.com/jeff/archives/000733.html
Weblog reports on the latest news on technology, design, usability and interaction.
http://www.webreakstuff.com/blog/
The UPA's purpose is to promote usability concepts and techniques worldwide.
site exerpt
UPA The Usability Professionals Association Find a usability consultant What is usability? Join UPA Renew your membership Job Bank For the Press Voting and Usability Project Voting Consultants List Ideas comments suggestions for UPA? Drop them here! Order your usability books from Amazon.com and help...