Great article on Social Media Today. Six Ways to Search-Optimize a Blog.
Book Review: “Designing the Obvious”
August 15, 2011
“Designing the Obvious, a common sense approach to web & mobile application design” (Second Edition) by Robert Hoekman, Jr. is small book, only 282 pages, full of easy to understand concepts regarding web and application design. Keeping things simple is a main theme through the book, but keeping it simple needs to have a strategy.
Hoekman’s favorite quote “What follows, why” stresses the importance of understanding your customers and their needs and how this understanding can help you design the best experience. “When you start with Why, you get the right What.”
This is a great web design and usability book that everyone should have on their bookshelf whether you are a novice or an experienced designer.
Find out more about Robert Hoekman, Jr. @ www.rhjr.net
Need a Faster Process When Designing a Web Site?
June 26, 2011
I have studied and have had specific training on how to step through the whole process when it comes to the design of a web site. The whole process can take as little as a few months if your stakeholders aren’t too difficult or potentially years if they are.
I’ll admit, I change the process as necessary depending upon the project launch date and the type of client. Recently, I read an article at SixRevisions.com which discusses the agile project management method and how to apply it to web design. It’s a great article and good to confirm that what I was doing can be an accepted practice.
Plan for problems on your site
May 30, 2011
Of course we would all like to think our designs are perfect. After all, we are professionals and we know our stuff, right? Unfortunately, many sites launch without user testing for whatever reason (there could be many) and we have no idea that a particular point in the process people will be just dropping off. This can indicate a flaw and depending upon what it is could lead to a decrease in sales.
This is where defensive design comes in. Remember, we can’t possibly plan for ever single scenario, but we can plan how to handle problems that may arise. Smashing Magazine has a great article on Getting Started with Defensive Web Design
Accessibility … What does it mean to your web site?
May 15, 2011
Accessibility can mean a lot of different things and encompass many different people. Wikipedia defines accessibility as “… a general term used to describe the degree to which a product, device, service, or environment is available to as many people as possible.”
Courtesy of: www.inorbital.com
So what does this mean to a web site?
While usability and accessibility may seem like they can be interchangeable, they really are two different things. Just because a web site may be easy to use for a sighted person (usability), it may not be accessible to a visually impaired person because it hasn’t been code correctly for the screen reader to work (accessibility). However, in many cases, when you fix one of these the other one tends to increase as well providing an overall better user experience for everyone.
There is a significant list of things dictated by Section 508, which need to be done in order to make a web site 100% compliant. However, at this time only Federal Government web sites must comply with these standards. Non-government sites are not required by law to be compliant, but it’s a good business practice and there are some very simple things that can make a big difference.
Simple things to consider
- Add Alt & Title tags to all images. Screen readers use these to describe the images to a person. These items also help with search engine optimization (SEO).
- Add a “Skip Navigation” link. When a screen reader “reads” through the code because the navigation is typically at the top, the navigation is repeated on every page. Adding this link allows the person to skip to the main content on the page.
- Keep your code clean and organized. Remember screen readers “read” in a linear fashion.
- Don’t rely on color. Make sure you have a pattern or label that also provides the details. Color-blind people may not be able to see the difference and therefore aren’t able to interrupt your information.
Conclusion
There are many web sites out there that can provide information and tools to make usability and accessibility part if your standard designs so fire up Google and start searching.
Additional References
http://www.w3.org/
http://www.w3.org/WAI/
http://www.section508.gov/
