THE WEB CAN BE A BETTER PLACE TO SURF AND DO BUSINESS !
Last Updated: October 30, 2004
[August 31, 2001]
Top XML: Is the Net supposed to be free? - "Microsoft is being criticized for trying to turn the Net into services that it can charge money for. Is this a new idea? No. Is it a bad idea? Not necessarily. Are other major companies going to do it? Probably."
Rob Rosenberger: Why doesn't Microsoft sell a secure operating system?
"... Googling is a different kind of sampling, making chance finds amongst an impossibly huge amount of information."
[August 30, 2001]
John S. Rhodes: Some Thoughts on Usability and the Economy - "Usability and information architecture it will definitely make a come back. Technology will come back. The economy will come back. Don't worry about that. Instead, worry about what form it will take when it comes back. Know what usability is for, know what information architecture is for. Know the tools, know the theories, know the methods. Be ready to apply them."
Dr. Ralph F. Wilson: HTML E-Mail: Text Font Readability Study
[August 24, 2001]
Nick Denton: "Microsoft's domination of the web has become first inevitable and, now, even convenient."
Bohmann Usability: Microsoft's So-Called Monopoly - "Web users prefer Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser to competing browsers for one reason: It's a better product."
Wired News: Sun Microsystems is quietly readying an alternative to Microsoft's Passport
Mum's the Word - Effective Methods to Protect Your Passwords
[August 22, 2001]
Color Vision Simulator - "Vischeck's color vision model allows you to simulate how the world looks to people with various sorts of color deficiency. ... You can use it on a single image or on a web page. You can also download programs to let you run it on your own computer."
Secretaries use Linux, taxpayers save millions
Frederick M. Avolio: The Rise and Fall of Internet Security - "Every time we learn more about the user requirements, we can pull a little less hard, in terms of designing security devices such that they take requirements into consideration without adding undue complexity and hampering usability, and the users will follow suit. Equilibrium is good. It works. Security and usability. Security with usability."
Applying Usability Testing And Techniques To Develop User-Centered Security - "This paper explores the requirements and development methods for user-centered security and it's impact on the human computer interface." (by Robert Stocker)
Usability of Computer Security: A Bibliography
[August 20, 2001]
Designmeme.com: Understanding Your Web Site - "Planning your site goes far beyond navigation, interface and structure. Understanding your audience, your purpose, your goals and your methodology to get there will help you make the right decisions when developing your web site."
[August 19, 2001]
Wired News: "... systems are designed with far too many unneeded fancy features intended to woo the reluctant buyer but skimp on basic 'boring' security."
Jakob Nielsen: Did Poor Usability Kill E-Commerce? - "User success rates on e-commerce sites are only 56%, and most sites comply with only a third of documented usability guidelines. Given this, improving a site's usability can substantially increase both sales and a site's odds of survival."
CMSWatch: Content Management Systems research and analysis - "The goal of CMSWatch is to educate and inform users about current and emerging content management trends, and to empower them to identify, evaluate and select content management solutions that are appropriate for their needs."
AlterNet: Microsoft Goes McCarthy in War Against Linux
[August 18, 2001]
Gerry McGovern: Broken links and poor information architecture design - "The Web is eight years old. The basic rules of website design are now in place (or should be). It is time that information architecture should be treated as if it were 'written in stone' rather than designed on the back of a beer mat."
Wired News: Does XP Have Firewall or Not?
[August 17, 2001]
Web Techniques: Registration Revamp - "When you're redesigning a registration system, your job is to negotiate a balance. Acknowledge real engineering concerns, reduce data requirements to the minimum set, and employ basic user-centered design principles." (by Janice Crotty Fraser)
WebmasterBase: Review - Netscape 6.1
webmonkey: IE 6 Overview
[August 16, 2001]
NY Times (free registration required): 'Web Bugs' Are Tracking Use of Internet - "... The use of bugs to track people and to create profiles of them becomes more powerful - and, some privacy advocates argue, more problematic - when the technology is used by a network of sites linked to some third party."
WebWord: Password Usability - "Poor password usability can ruin your web registration process. While passwords are a painful fact of life, there are ways to minimize the problems that users face. This article contains suggestions on how to best collect passwords during the registration process, and it will help you determine if you should allow users to save their passwords."
New Scientist: Computer program raises possibility of voice theft - "Scientists who have built a computer program capable of mimicking human voices are also developing watermarking technology to prevent the system from being misused."
"We worry about an Internet meltdown. People who live near Mt. Etna worry about molten lava. Guess who worries more about their plight?"
[August 11, 2001]
NetMechanic: Design Tip: Limit Your Line Length (1999) - "... This makes the content easier to read and allows space for related links and navigation elements in the other columns. Keep that in mind when building text-rich pages. Sometimes less is more."
"Vivisimo wants to change the way search results are displayed on computer screens everywhere. Organized search results with document clustering. No more long, tedious lists."
[August 10, 2001]
eCommerceBase: Plain Text or HTML? The Great Email Debate.
Web Techniques: Clean Up, Flatten Out - "I'm convinced that the best designs use only graphics that are absolutely necessary. If you limit your use of graphics, the ones you do use will grab much more attention, especially if they're well planned and well placed." (by Molly E. Holzschlag)
Robert X. Cringely: The Death of TCP/IP - "The wonder of all these Internet security problems is that they are continually labeled as 'e-mail viruses' or 'Internet worms', rather than the more correct designation of 'Windows viruses' or 'Microsoft Outlook viruses'. It is to the credit of the Microsoft public relations team that Redmond has somehow escaped blame, because nearly all the data security problems of recent years have been Windows-specific, taking advantage of the glaring security loopholes that exist in these Microsoft products."
Usability Pilot Test Documents
Intranet Journal: Why an Intranet Must Constantly be Updated - And Steps to Take to Make Sure It Is
[August 7, 2001]
Flazoom.com: The Keys to Improving Flash Usability
[August 6, 2001]
Jakob Nielsen: First Rule of Usability? Don't Listen to Users - "To design an easy-to-use interface, pay attention to what users do, not what they say. Self-reported claims are unreliable, as are user speculations about future behavior."
WebmasterBase: Step-by-Step Web Testing - "Testing a Website is a long and tedious task, but it's perhaps the most important of all. In this article, we'll explore the basics of Website testing, reveal some unique resources, and give you a step-by-step guide about how to test your site so that it doesn't fail." (by Anthony Williams)
Cameron Barrett: CMS Workflow and Collaboration
[August 4, 2001]
Web Review: "Not sure how to design for usability? Start by being considerate of your users' needs."
John S. Rhodes: Super Easy Usability Testing (1999) - "When you know your end users you can design your company to fit what they want. When you know your users you can solve their problems. When you know your users, you can test them and improve your company."
BW Online: Bite-Size Apple - "The company doesn't need to rival Microsoft to justify its existence. As a niche player, Apple has everything it takes to remain healthy." (by Charles Haddad)
[August 3, 2001]
The Register: IE 6 to launch on 15 August - "As notable as what's included with the browser is the omission of Smart Tags, which turn words on Web sites into links pointed towards more detailed information."
iBoost Journal: The Art of Information Architecture - "Planning and architecting a site can be one of the most daunting tasks a designer can face, yet the results are usually a better site and a smoother project. Find out how you can easily architect your site by following a few simple steps." (by Aaron West)
Usability in Portugal
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