Information architecture is the science (some would insist art) of defining the structure, organization, navigation, labeling and indexing of a Website.
It is the role of the information architect to decide how a site should be structured, what kind of content it should host, and how to accommodate future growth. In short, information architecture defines the backbone of a Website.
Subha Subramanian writes...
An Introduction to Information Architecture
March 26, 2006
Quantify - User Experience
Many look to the user experience as an overall indicator of Website success. Analyzing how effectively a Website provides for a net positive user experience can often turn into a subjective affair, rife with opinion and short on objectivity.
Robert Rubinoff outlines a quick-and-dirty methodology for quantifying the user experience, which I've found to be very useful in providing clients with a quick, objective, visual representation of where their site stands vis-à-vis the competition or past development efforts.
How To Quantify The User Experience
Robert Rubinoff outlines a quick-and-dirty methodology for quantifying the user experience, which I've found to be very useful in providing clients with a quick, objective, visual representation of where their site stands vis-à-vis the competition or past development efforts.
How To Quantify The User Experience
Improve Usability for Older Users
According to the 2001 UK census, the UK now has more people aged over 60 than under 16. It also revealed that there are now 1.1 million people aged over 85 in the UK -- and the trend toward an ageing population is common in many other western countries.
Tim Fidgeon writes: The 40-minute 'talk-aloud' sessions involved our asking participants to find information on a range of government web sites. The results of this research provided insights into the ways older users differ from their younger counterparts when it comes to using the Internet.
Improve Usability for Older Users
Tim Fidgeon writes: The 40-minute 'talk-aloud' sessions involved our asking participants to find information on a range of government web sites. The results of this research provided insights into the ways older users differ from their younger counterparts when it comes to using the Internet.
Improve Usability for Older Users
Usability: Why Consistency is Critical
Consistency can be something that you can use to your advantage, rather than a straitjacket that constricts you unnecessarily.
It can help minimize your development and maintenance costs, free you from having to be concerned about relatively trivial design issues, and provide an enhanced user experience for your customers.
Gerry Gaffney writes..
Why Consistency is Critical
It can help minimize your development and maintenance costs, free you from having to be concerned about relatively trivial design issues, and provide an enhanced user experience for your customers.
Gerry Gaffney writes..
Why Consistency is Critical
Seven Screen Reader Usability Tips
Simply ensuring that your Website is accessible to screen reader users is, unfortunately, not enough to guarantee that these users can find what they're looking for in a reasonably quick and efficient manner. Even if your site is accessible to screen reader users, its usability could be so poor that they needn't have bothered stooping by in the first place.
Fortunately, there are plenty of simple-to-implement guidelines that you can follow. Trenton Moss lists down seven easy tips that will drastically improve a site's usability for screen reader users, as well as all other visitors.
7 Screen Reader Usability Tips
Fortunately, there are plenty of simple-to-implement guidelines that you can follow. Trenton Moss lists down seven easy tips that will drastically improve a site's usability for screen reader users, as well as all other visitors.
7 Screen Reader Usability Tips
Usable Interactivity with Remote Scripting
Usable Interactivity with Remote Scripting
Cameron Adams explains what is remote scripting and its advantages, Remote Scripting and Accessibility advantage ans much more...
If your bookmarks contain even one Web development blog, you'll undoubtedly know that remote scripting is being touted as the new "future of the Web".
Cameron Adams explains what is remote scripting and its advantages, Remote Scripting and Accessibility advantage ans much more...
If your bookmarks contain even one Web development blog, you'll undoubtedly know that remote scripting is being touted as the new "future of the Web".
Browser-Specific CSS Hacks
Introduction to Browser-Specific CSS Hacks
More and more Web developers are ditching tables and coming round to the idea of using CSS to control the layouts of sites. And, given the many benefits of using CSS, such as quicker download time, improved accessibility and easier site management... An article by Trenton Moss.
More and more Web developers are ditching tables and coming round to the idea of using CSS to control the layouts of sites. And, given the many benefits of using CSS, such as quicker download time, improved accessibility and easier site management... An article by Trenton Moss.
March 01, 2006
All about Web Accessibility
- Day 6: Choosing a DOCTYPE
- Day 7: Identifying your language
- Day 8: Constructing meaningful page titles
- Day 9: Providing additional navigation aids
- Day 10: Presenting your main content first
- Day 11: Skipping over navigation links
- Day 12: Using color safely
- Day 13: Using real links
- Day 14: Adding titles to links
- Day 15: Defining keyboard shortcuts
- Day 21: Ignoring spacer images
- Day 22: Using real lists (or faking them properly)
- Day 23: Providing text equivalents for images
- Day 24: Providing text equivalents for image maps
- Day 25: Using real horizontal rules (or faking them properly)
- Day 26: Using relative font sizes
- Day 27: Using real headers
- Day 28: Labeling form elements
- Day 29: Making everything searchable
- Day 30: Creating an accessibility statement
- Conclusion
February 19, 2006
Overlay images on a webpage
Lightbox JS
Lightbox JS by Lokesh Dhakar is a simple, unobtrusive script used to to overlay images on the current page. It's a snap to setup and works on all modern browsers.
Benefits
Places images above your current page, not within. This frees you from the constraints of the layout, particularly column widths.
Keeps users on the same page. Clicking to view an image and then having to click the back button to return to your site is bad for continuity.
http://www.huddletogether.com/projects/lightbox/
Lightbox JS by Lokesh Dhakar is a simple, unobtrusive script used to to overlay images on the current page. It's a snap to setup and works on all modern browsers.
Benefits
Places images above your current page, not within. This frees you from the constraints of the layout, particularly column widths.
Keeps users on the same page. Clicking to view an image and then having to click the back button to return to your site is bad for continuity.
http://www.huddletogether.com/projects/lightbox/
February 16, 2006
Yahoo User Interface Library
http://developer.yahoo.net/yui/
The Yahoo! User Interface Library is a set of utilities and controls, written in JavaScript, for building richly interactive web applications using techniques such as DOM scripting, HTML and AJAX.
The UI Library Utilities facilitate the implementation of rich client-side features by enhancing and normalizing the developer's interface to important elements of the browser infrastructure (such as events, in-page HTTP requests and the DOM).
The Yahoo UI Library Controls produce visual, interactive user interface elements on the page with just a few lines of code and an included CSS file. All the components in the Yahoo! User Interface Library have been released as open source under a BSD license and are free for all uses.
If there is one thing to love about this library, it's the documentation. From day one, every available component has full API documentation as well as a short "Getting Started" guide complete with working examples. No trawling through the developers' blogs, no pulling apart complex applications: this toolkit has all the spit and polish of a commercial product.
For now, the library's scope is somewhat limited. Beyond the core utilities for animation, remote scripting (AJAX), event handling, DOM manipulation, and drag-and-drop (which are certainly nothing to sneeze at!), the library currently offers only three actual widgets for building user interfaces:
Calendar for selecting dates
Slider for visually choosing from a range of values
TreeView for browsing through a hierarchy of items
Though the selection isn't overwhelming, these three widgets alone already solve some problems that have traditionally taken a lot of work to overcome. No doubt future widget releases will address some of the more mundane needs of web application user interfaces.
It's particularly refreshing to see Yahoo! opening up its box of goodies and sharing them with the web development community. This move contrasts sharply with Google's approach of protecting its JavaScript assets by hiding them away in obfuscated code.
The Yahoo! User Interface Library is a set of utilities and controls, written in JavaScript, for building richly interactive web applications using techniques such as DOM scripting, HTML and AJAX.
The UI Library Utilities facilitate the implementation of rich client-side features by enhancing and normalizing the developer's interface to important elements of the browser infrastructure (such as events, in-page HTTP requests and the DOM).
The Yahoo UI Library Controls produce visual, interactive user interface elements on the page with just a few lines of code and an included CSS file. All the components in the Yahoo! User Interface Library have been released as open source under a BSD license and are free for all uses.
If there is one thing to love about this library, it's the documentation. From day one, every available component has full API documentation as well as a short "Getting Started" guide complete with working examples. No trawling through the developers' blogs, no pulling apart complex applications: this toolkit has all the spit and polish of a commercial product.
For now, the library's scope is somewhat limited. Beyond the core utilities for animation, remote scripting (AJAX), event handling, DOM manipulation, and drag-and-drop (which are certainly nothing to sneeze at!), the library currently offers only three actual widgets for building user interfaces:
Calendar for selecting dates
Slider for visually choosing from a range of values
TreeView for browsing through a hierarchy of items
Though the selection isn't overwhelming, these three widgets alone already solve some problems that have traditionally taken a lot of work to overcome. No doubt future widget releases will address some of the more mundane needs of web application user interfaces.
It's particularly refreshing to see Yahoo! opening up its box of goodies and sharing them with the web development community. This move contrasts sharply with Google's approach of protecting its JavaScript assets by hiding them away in obfuscated code.
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