THE WEB CAN BE A BETTER PLACE TO SURF AND DO BUSINESS !
Last Updated: October 30, 2004
[June 29, 2002]
Detroit Free Press: Addicted to technology? Plan some off-line time - "The measure of our ability to manage stress in this technological age is directly related to our ability to disengage, to become human beings rather than human doings."
dive into mark: Using color safely - "This tip is a general rule that applies to many areas of web design, but I will focus on a specific example that is common among weblogs: link text."
Linux.org takes a look at web browsers available for Linux. (via Root Prompt)
[June 28, 2002]
TaskZ.com (Deborah J. Mayhew, Ph.D.): Usability Testing: You Get What You Pay For - "A valid and useful usability test takes time and expertise. Shortcuts and lack of rigorous controls invariably reduce the validity and usefulness of the data generated by the test. Here I offer a description of some of the key ingredients of a good usability test, and some examples of poorly designed or run testing."
Should you reply to spam and follow the unsubscribe instructions (if there are any)?
[June 25, 2002]
IBM: Using Web Widgets Wisely, Part 1 - "This article is the first in a two-part series about Web widgets -- controls that can be incorporated in Web forms, dialogs, and wizards to elicit information from users. Here in Part 1, Jodi Bollaert defines several basic HTML Web widgets, shows graphic examples, and discusses common usability problems and solutions."
[June 24, 2002]
Usability News: Response: Invention is 98% Problem Determination - "Usability is the most essential tool in the innovator's kit bag. Usability work allows you to clearly identify what the problem is; to find the point in the system where the innovation is needed."
Peter Van Dijck: "Jakob [Nielsen] on drugs?"
Guardian Online: "Yet computer manufacturers continue to turn out absurdly powerful machines, and customers continue to buy them. Why?"
[June 22, 2002]
BBC: Olympic website targets disabled - "At 2004 we don't intend to exclude applications based on visual media. But we do want to find ways such as text commentaries and audio to offer alternatives as well."
Nora Paul and Christina Fiebich (University of Minnesota): 5 Elements of Digital Storytelling - "For the most part, Web content is simply print content delivered online. Until the full capabilities of the technology are applied to creation and use, the medium is still in a development stage. In its current state of development, there are three main issues that need to be addressed.
- Establishment of a vocabulary
- Analysis of current practices
- Measurement of affects"
[June 18, 2002]
Taskz.com (Carol Righi, Ph.D.): Measuring the Value of Usability Engineering - "If proof of the value of usability is so desirable, why don't usability engineers spend more time measuring it? Here are seven reasons I have observed why usability engineers don't measure the value of usability efforts, rebuttals to each argument, and suggestions for how to remedy them. At the conclusion of this discussion, I will identify and examine a commonality among the reasons that may be the single most problematic barrier to the measurement of the value of usability."
[June 17, 2002]
Mark Howells: Professionalism in web design - "Making your site 'accessible' doesn't necessarily mean that you have to provide people using a Lynx text browser with the full content of your site. It means allowing the majority of users (probably with IE) full access to your site, while providing users with minority browsers sufficient content to make the site worthwhile or functionally successful."
[June 15, 2002]
AnchorDesk: Can a Windows user learn to love Linux? We'll see
Journal of Design Science: A Web Site is a Public Place - "An efficient signage system reflects the site's structure, orients viewers, helps them to navigate, and is a powerful way to streamline the design process."
"The disciplines of human-computer interaction, product design, and architectural design are converging."
[June 14, 2002]
Eric Picard (via Flazoom.com): Flash Flood Rising - "Today we're very HTML-centric about how the Web works. Even nontechnical people are affected by the limitations of HTML -- they just don't realize it. Let's look at some of these limitations -- and the changes that Flash makes to alleviate each problem."
UIUC: User Interface Design - "... good design always involves a process of compromise."
BBC: Web design 'causes confusion' - "A gap between how web designers and ordinary surfers think is causing frustration on the net."
[June 13, 2002]
Bunnyfoot: Perceptual factors in Information Visualisation - "Computer technology has now reached the stage where even a modest desktop computer can output vast and complex bodies of information. This information needs to be communicated to us appropriately if we are to make best use of it. This can be accomplished, in part, by producing information visualisations that best exploit the powerful human visual system. In order to do this, information visualisation products should utilise the knowledge gained from research into how human visual perception actually works."
NY Times (free registration required): Helping Businesses Evaluate Their Internet Presence - "Companies need to know that links and buttons are easy to use and positioned correctly as well as whether the design or color scheme evokes positive feelings. ... You can look at the Web log reports and metrics but until you ask the customer what they're thinking you're probably wrong."
[June 10, 2002]
Gerry McGovern: Iterative design can be lazy design - "People behave conservatively on the Web. They select a few websites and they stick with them. When they visit your website they expect everything to work right first time. Approach website design like you are carrying out heart surgery. If you make too many mistakes, you lose the customer."
BrainJar.com: Using Style Sheets - "HTML (hypertext markup language) defines the structure of a document, the organization of text and images and other data into individual elements (via tags). CSS does not affect that. What CSS does is to define how these elements are displayed in terms of typography, color, spacing, etc."
[June 8, 2002]
CNET News.com: Yahoo to give home page a makeover - "Yahoo is planning to launch a newly redesigned home page that features a cleaner layout and a better showcase for advertisers, according to sources familiar with the changes."
Alexandra Mack: "Learning to interview like an anthropologist leads to better customer data and better designs" (via UXblog)
Christopher Koch and Walter Bubie: Logical Design for Human/Computer Interaction in Web-based Applications
Matthew Trump, Ph.D.: "RSS 0.92: A Step-by-Step Beginner's Guide to Creating Your First Document"
[June 7, 2002]
Startup Journal: Tailor Your Web Site To Customers' Skills - "The Web is a medium where the impact of your message depends as much on the skills of your audience as the experience of your Web team. Creating an effective Web site requires you to plan around the characteristics that make your customers and prospects unique. This means all of your customers and prospects -- those who are Web experts, as well as those who aren't, and the folks who've been customers for years, as well as those who've never visited you before. ... Your site must be in sync with the interests and skills of the people you want to reach."
Communication Arts: Information Design A Graphic Designer's Salvation - "But the difference between Graphic Design (with initial caps) and Information Design (ditto) is a whole cultural leap. In this context, the former is more to do with the notion of graphic design as applying graphic style to information, while the latter is more to do with the study of how information is perceived and processed by an audience, and the formulation not only of the graphic form of that information, but often also of the actual content; all the while doing so with a clear understanding of all the processes, both physiological and psychological, that are involved. In other words, it is more a distinction of process, than of product."
In My Experience: No, blogs won't replace CNN.
CNET News.com: Kazaa users often expose personal files - "The researchers blamed shortcomings in the Kazaa installation software for making it easy for people to configure their software improperly and unknowingly share private information."
NY Times (free registration required): Why Doctors Don't E-Mail - "The doctors' concerns are many. Some are worried about the risks to doctor-patient confidentiality, while others are concerned that an electronic paper trail might increase their exposure to malpractice liability."
Charles A Upsdell: Browser News - "This weekly newsletter offers news about web browsers and their standards, gives an overview of the browsers and their futures, helps you find browsers both old and new, presents design resources, and reports Internet statistics."
[June 6, 2002]
BrianDigital: Treatise on Design - "Design is not the center of the solar system of communications, although many times we'd like to think it is. Just like the Earth, it's not the center, but it's very important to us. Exploration of the rest of the encompassing system allows us understand our sphere more comprehensively. That's what information designers bring to the art and science of design."
"Interaction design - is a new discipline: a fusion of aesthetics and culture, technology and the human sciences. It concerns the design both of the services these technologies might offer, and the quality of our experience of interacting with them. ... Interaction design will shape the development of information and communication technologies - one of today's key economic and social challenges." (Interaction Design Institute Ivrea)
[June 5, 2002]
CNET News.com: Linux contract treads on Microsoft turf - "The German government has signed a deal with IBM and Linux company SuSE that makes it easier for government offices to use the open-source operating system, a move that addresses concerns about relying too heavily on Microsoft products. ... It's a first step by the German government to put Linux in information technology systems at the national, state and local level."
Boxes and Arrows: Building Brand into Structure - "If you followed usability gurus like Jakob Nielsen blindly, brand would have little to no place in information and interaction design. Logo goes here, they argue. Shopping cart goes there. Users don't want an experience, they want to find information and to do things as quickly and simply as possible. But what if the client's (or your own company's) brand doesn't support these dictums?"
[June 4, 2002]
BBC: Computer predicts World Cup result - "The simulation was run 2000 times and the result was a Brazil-Italy final, with the South Americans coming out triumphant. The aim of the study is to find out whether computers are better than humans when it comes to prediction."
Builder.com: Don't explain an idea to a deer in headlights - "If you will be discussing new technical topics with a nontechnical group, then you might consider creating a one-page glossary with key words, descriptions, and hyperlinks to more information. The list of hyperlinks to industry publications can empower the group you are trying to relate to."
[June 3, 2002]
NY Times (free registration required): Menus Behaving Badly - "IDrive is capable of managing more than 700 functions, but I can't imagine more than a few dozen things I'd want a car to do. Even if a modern automobile is essentially a mobile computer, its operator's first concern is to keep it from crashing."
[June 1, 2002]
Beki Rosenthal: We must design Web sites with the thought in mind that these sites are replacing real-life experiences, and are viable social spaces.
University of Washington: World Wide Access: Accessible Web Design
WebmasterBase: Do-It-Yourself Accessibility - "Accessibility is no longer a nice-to-have -- it's essential to the Web's evolution."
The Seattle Times: Work sight woes? A few changes at desk may put eyes at ease - "If you walk around a room full of people using PCs, you'll notice more than a few who seem to be craning their necks and squinting at their screens. This is a sure sign that they're not comfortable using their computers, and that's bad news. Eyestrain is the No. 1 ergonomic hazard involved with extended computer use. Fortunately, it's a problem that's relatively easy to fix with a few simple adjustments to your hardware, software and headgear."
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