Web Design Topic
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Usability
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Canadian relief sites clogged
The Globe and Mail listed five sites accepting donations to help ease the horrors occuring as a result of the South Asian earthquake and tsunami, half are slow or not responding. Although it could be coincidental, I’d like to believe Canadians are flooding humanitarian aid sites. -
Coulda been blogmarks
The project consuming most of my time got a one-week extension, meaning I had a long weekend to enjoy a few days ago, but also meaning my focus is still concentrated elsewhere. So, once again, is a list of worthy links (in my mythical next design I’ll have blogmarks to deal with this): -
Making space
The latest issue of Usability News has two studies on the use of white space. -
Purple numbers
Joe Clark famously did it when moving his incredible book, Building Accessible Websites online, and Eugene Eric Kim made them visible with “Purple.” Chris Dent turned Tim Bray onto them, and, in turn, Simon Willison made the technique dynamic while improving it visually. The purple numbers idea makes Joe’s work usable and will most likely be seen on the new version of this site -
Nielsen’s visited links
Guru Nielsen has already received well-argued flak over his latest column on visited-link colours, but don’t dismiss it outright; there’s a kernel of truth to be found there. Normal users do rely on links changing state once visited, especially in non-navigational elements (such as the content of a page) — I’ve seen the email to prove it -
EPpys and eyes
The finalists for Editor & Publisher’s annual EPpy Awards have been announced. There’s nothing too surprising in the list of all-American nominees (except maybe Google’s nod). -
“Real” bad design
Wired News explains how bad Web design can potentially destroy a dominant product. -
Better 404s and CSS illustrations
Help the lost and confused at your site by following the advice at A List Apart. (Yes, I know this site doesn’t have a proper 404 page — long story — but if it did, the page would look something like the one suggested in the article). -
Mozilla news; AdsML; Usability 101
This post was delayed due to the Blogger upgrades that have now prevented me from even using this service. As a result, this has been posted manually and future posts may be sporadic until the problem is fixed. (Note to self: must hurry development on new site.) -
Canadian New Media Awards; usability guidelines; content management design;access keys
The first week in June is “new media week” here in Toronto, timed to coincide with the Canadian New Media Awards. This year, the CNMA is a full-day event featuring a series of workshops. Interesting note, the awards (at least last year) are partially funded by nominees paying a $25 fee to be considered. -
Preventing linkrot
Came across this error message at the location of a major site’s marketing page: -
JSP errors
You think? -
Moving briefs; CSS menus
Some good reading I found over the weekend (unfortunately, since we’re moving in less than two weeks reading time is at a premium): -
The elements of user experience
Boxes and Arrows has a good review of Jesse James Garrett’s The Elements of User Experience, which includes links to the must have one-page diagram the book was named for and a sample chapter which expands on that diagram. -
Introducing ia/
A lot of usability information sites I’ve seen are quite dull. Perhaps it’s because I'm not purely an Information Architect. Nonetheless, I stumbled across ia/ [eye-eh slash] today. Not only was the site nicely designed, it four annotated links to articles from the (typically dull-looking) that I immediately read. Three were from SURL’s Usability News and were about the best place for link locations (embedded in the text), the best use of online fonts, and why liquid multi-column Web page layouts are preferred. The fourth was a PDF explaining, in detail why all sites should have a comprehensive style guide. -
Navigating Web sites
Found (via antenna) a fantastic resource on navigating Web sites. The site — done in a crisp, low-fi design — was created by Elizabeth Boling, who teaches graduate students in Instructional Systems Technology at Indiana University. -
Exit ads are just bad
Why its a bad idea to advertise to users when they leave the site. -
Macs, frames, and usablility
The problems inherit in designing a usable site, especially with frames. -
Should I use drop-down menus for navigation?