WebAbility

My del.icio.us Bookmarks

2005-11-19T20:27:00.000-08:00

http://del.icio.us/nozicka/

Assistive Technology in Higher Education Survey Report

2005-11-14T20:27:00.000-08:00

Assistive Technology in Higher Education Survey Report

Feature vs. Function

2005-06-09T12:30:00.000-07:00

When it comes to the design of what people use there are many variables that must be considered. If you were to ask some one what they thought were some of the most important things to consider you would get answers like ‘the ability to do this,’ or ‘capable of such-and-such,’ or ‘I want to be able to…’

Often times these are referred to as the “functionality” of the product. However, this is an erroneous label as these are actually “capability features”. One may consider the difference between the two to be purely a matter of semantics but it is much more. The difference between what is a function and what is a feature can even be considered a philosophical debate.

Let’s forego the philosophical aspect at this time and simply consider a couple of scenarios. First, let’s look at the automobile. Specifically, let’s look at an automobiles ability to stop. This feature (the ability to stop) is agreeably important, thus, all automobiles must have this feature or we would all be living in Bedrock stopping our cars like the Flintstones. Now, if we analyze how the braking feature functions this is a completely different set of considerations. Brakes are activated via a pedal. Why? Because, requiring the driving to say, open the glove compartment and depress a red button to stop the car, isn’t that usable. In fact, it’s a liability. A pedal simply makes sense because based on how a driver operates (uses) a car activating the braking mechanism via a pedal requires the least amount of effort (and thought) while providing the greatest amount of functionality (usability).

The second scenario to consider is how a house in constructed. Houses built properly utilize a team of experts. From architects, designers, general contractors, construction workers, plumbers, electricians, painters, landscapers, etc. Why? Because we have evolved into a society of experts and by using a team of experts the sum of their collective knowledge results in a final product that meets all requirements, user desires, legal requirements/regulations, etc. and ultimately exceeds all expectations.

Imagine what would happen if a plumber attempted to perform the work that the electrician should be performing or an architect drew up plans for a construction worker that didn’t meet OSHA standards. The final product would be deficient. Not only would it not meet legal requirements, it would not meet the home owner’s needs and would therefore be unusable.

Features are a product’s capabilities and must meet user requirements, resource limitations and business objectives. Functionality on the other hand, is how these features are actually implemented.

The Web has evolved to a point of maturity where not only are there industry standards (adopted by manufacturers and followed by designers and developers), but there are also specialists – experts in the various areas of web design and development. The presence of specialized roles isn’t really something that resulted from the big bang (and bust) of the web. It isn’t something new. It has been adopted from software engineering.

There is a distinct difference between a designer and a developer as it applies to human-computer interfaces. The developer is the person who codes, they are the programmers. Then there are the designers, the people who make things look pretty. There is also a third role – the information architect. This is the person who must understand end-user behavior patterns and things like usability and accessibility. This is the person who must ensure that a site’s (web application or web-based service) features are as easy to use (function) as possible.

It should not be up to the developer to decide how to implement a feature. This should be defined by the information architect and then built to spec by the developer. It is very easy to see the various sites that run the vast spectrum from designer-built to developer-built. Sites built by a designer tend to be extremely aesthetically pleasing, but lacking in overall features (or the features implemented are not based on direct end-user needs). Sites built by a developer tend to be rich in features, but difficult to use for end-users. Sites built from either end of the continuum are deficient and ultimately unusable.

In comes the information architect. The information architect will take the UI from the designer and review it to ensure that the proper visual hierarchy is obtained, that the design can be implemented (and where modifications need to be made), and that usability and accessibility concerns are addressed. This same person will then work with the developers to spec out how the features will be implemented so that they afford the most functionality.

The design and development process for web-based user interfaces has matured but it is also cyclic in nature. The goal of the initial launch of a web-based service or site is to maximize the amount of time between go-live and the next version. In order to do so all things must be properly considered and industry niche experts properly utilized. By doing so usability and accessibility concerns will be minimized and functionality maximized thereby minimizing the necessity of working on “fixes.”

When decisions need to be made proper time and due diligence should be given to what is in the end-users best interest. Trade-offs in the interest of budgets or resources should never be made at the expense of the end-user. The bottom-line is that if the product doesn’t meet the end-users needs and work in way the end-user expects, it is a failed product. The number of features a product has is ultimately a moot point if the end-user doesn’t, won’t, or can’t use them.

Additionally, if for all intent and purposes said product (that is deficient in usability) is the only one available for users the result will be in elevated costs across the board for the institution. These avoidable costs will come in the way of customer service and support (ie. helpdesk) and in the need to redevelop shortly after launch to address usability issues and product deficiencies. Unfortunately, all too often people don’t take the time to do things properly the first time. In essence it appears that they don’t have the time (resources) to do things right the first time; yet, they always seem to find both when things have to be done a second time.

There are two things that greatly increase the chance of having a successful web-based product to launch. The first is the use of user-profiles. A fictitious (and well-thought out) user profile should be created for each identified end-user segment. These user-profiles will enable the team to ask how said user would use the system rather than asking the team to attempt to conceptualize how they think a user would use it.

Second and probably more important is usability testing. This is not the same as beta testing. Usability testing involves users from the various identified end-user segments and who are not involved with the project. Usability testing should occur at various points during the product development process to ensure that things are being built properly to meet end-user needs. Studies have shown that a single usability test with as few as three users can identify 80% of usability issues.

Frankly, quite often the way that results in the most effort and time from the development and design team will be the solution that works best for the user. In some ways this is simple logic. The more time taken to properly develop and implement functionality the less effort that will be required on the part of the end-user when they actually use the system.

Why XHTML with CSS matters

2005-04-15T22:38:00.000-07:00

From you can sleep when you're dead

The IE/Netscape browser war is over, and most web users are using standards-compliant browsers like Firefox, Safari, and IE 6. The old table-based layout techniques are no longer necessary.

Read more...

The Music of Wireframes

2005-04-15T22:31:00.000-07:00

From UXCentric

Think about it. A score isn't music, just as a wireframe isn't a Web page. A score tells the musician what notes to play, when to play them, how to play them. A wireframe tells the project team what content to include, its placement and how it behaves.

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Penn State Adopts WebStandards Policy

2005-04-13T13:09:00.000-07:00

Found on Web Standards Projects

News from Pennsylvania State University, New Web Policy to Affect all of Penn State's Public Web Sites, gives a target date of August 15, 2005 for compliance to standards, guidelines, and accessibility. Major changes to the web policy were the result of consultation with the Faculty Senate, Web developers and designers, and administrators.

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Interaction-Design.org

2005-04-02T17:21:00.000-08:00

Found on ColumnTwo

A new site has been launched: Interaction-Design.org

To quote:

So far, this website features the beginnings of a free, open-content, peer-reviewed Encyclopedia covering terms from the disciplines of Interaction Design, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Design, Human Factors, Usability, Information Architecture, and related fields. By using the Creative Commons Copyright Licence, the Encyclopedia is in effect the property of the Interaction Design community, not of this specific website.

Access Matters - Seeking Best Practices

2005-03-29T10:56:00.000-08:00

From Access Matters
Found on Web Standards Project

Bob Easton is the man behind Access Matters, a weblog that offers up advice regarding web accessibility and best practises. Quiz items are presented as blog or journal entries and answers by others follow in the comments or replies often offering up additional key information.

Read More...
Visit Access Matters

Accessible Folksonomies: Accessibility, Usability and Web Standards

2005-03-19T12:35:00.000-08:00

Folksonomy (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Folksonomy is a neologism for a practice of collaborative categorization using freely chosen keywords. This feature began appearing in a variety of social software in 2004. Some examples of online folksonomies being social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us and Jots (http://jots.com/) which are bookmark sharing sites, Flickr, for photo sharing, 43 Things, for goal sharing, GenieLab and Upto11, for music recommendations and associations, and Tagsurf (http://tagsurf.com/), for tag-based discussions. Gmail's labeling system is somewhat similar to the use of tags, but it is not a folksonomy as users cannot share their categorizations. Folksonomy is not directly related to the concept of faceted classification from library science.

Folksonomy is currently understood somewhat narrowly as "tagging." Social sciences and anthropology have long studied "folk classifications"—how average people (non-experts) classify the world around them.

Found on alt tags
Accessible Folksonomies: Accessibility, Usability and Web Standards

The Journal of IA Failures

2005-03-16T10:57:00.000-08:00

Found on Column Two
From LouisRosenfeld.com

Something I'd like to see: reporting on IA failures, and what was learned from the carnage. Failure stories are a literary genre in and of themselves; even the most dispassionate, technical ones are hard to put down. That's what makes them such great learning tools.

Read more...

Underused IA tools

2005-03-16T10:54:00.000-08:00

Found on Column Two
From Peter Van Dijck's Guide to Ease

Us IA’s have a lot of tools at our disposal (personas, sitemaps, task analysis, …), most of them taken and adapted from other disciplines. But I have the feeling we’re somehow selective in which tools we appropriate. Here are some tools that we don’t seem to use much, even though they can be extremely useful.

More info...

information aesthetics weblog

2005-03-11T12:07:00.000-08:00

information aesthetics weblog

"information aesthetics form follows data - artistic ambient information visualization design weblog"

The First and Second Laws of Simplicity

2005-03-11T12:05:00.000-08:00

Found on InfoDesign
From Maeda's SIMPLICITY blog

'(1) A complex system of many functions can be simplified by carefully grouping related functions. (2) The positive emotional response derived from a simplicity experience has less to do with utility, and more to do with saving time.' (John Maeda - Simplicity)"

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WebDevTips - Making accessible forms part 2

2005-03-11T11:06:00.000-08:00

Found on WebDevTips

As outlined in part 1 of this article, forms are one of the most crucial parts of your website. They're used to complete important tasks such as buying products and contacting you so their accessibility is crucial. This second part of our two-part article outlines some more ways to optimise the accessibility of your forms.

Read more...: "

WebDevTips - Making accessible forms part 1

2005-03-11T11:05:00.000-08:00

Found on WebDevTips

Forms are one of the most crucial parts of your website. Forms are used to:

* Buy products
* Sign up to newsletters
* Contact you

These are the goals of your website! When a web user fills out a form they're doing something you want them to do. Unless you make sure they're accessible to one and all, some of your site visitors may not be able to perform some of these crucial tasks.

Read more...: "

Microsoft Commits to Better Standars Support in Internet Explorer 7

2005-03-11T10:49:00.000-08:00

Found on The Web Standards Project

Lead program manager for IE Chris Wilson has committed to improving standards support in Internet Explorer 7.

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Stylesheets for Handheld Devices

2005-03-10T21:30:00.000-08:00

Found on The Web Standards Project
From CSS-Discuss

This document describes some of the issues concerning the use of CSS for handheld devices (using the media type 'handheld'). See also MediaStylesheets for practical media stylesheet strategies.

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WebDevTips - Increased usability

2005-03-04T10:41:00.000-08:00

Found on WebDevTips

"Web accessibility has so many benefits that I really do wonder why such a large number of websites have such diabolically bad accessibility. One of the main benefits is increased usability, which according to usability guru, Jakob Nielson, can increase the sales/conversion rate of a website by 100% and traffic by 150%.

At which point you must surely be asking, “So if I make my website accessible its usability will increase and I'll make more money out of it?”. Well, not quite. An accessible website is not automatically more usable but there are many areas of overlap..."

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A quick way to test accessibility

2005-03-04T10:36:00.000-08:00

Found on O-jounalism Blog

...hugely grateful to Niel Eyde for his post highlighting two great tools for testing the accessibility of your website - one for Internet Explorer and one for Firefox. On first use it seems a very quick way to see what needs improving about your website to make it more accessible - including spotting images missing alt tags, missing coding, and colour blindness. With these to hand there really is no excuse.

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WebDevTips - A higher search engine ranking

2005-03-04T10:34:00.000-08:00

Found on WebDevTips

"An additional benefit of website accessibility is an improved performance in search engines. The more accessible it is to search engines, the more accurately they can predict what the site's about, and the higher your site will appear in the rankings."

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Developing sites for users with cognitive disabilities and learning difficulties

2005-03-04T10:30:00.000-08:00

Found on karmakars.com

SUMMARY: This post discusses some of the the points raised at tonights WebstandardsGroup meeting on “Developing sites for users with cognitive disabilities and learning difficulties”. It also contains links to the presentation material and some related reading.

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Accessible Folksonomies: Accessibility, Usability and Web Standards

2005-03-04T10:26:00.000-08:00

Found on alttags.org

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the term, a folksonomy is basically a taxonomy created by the people and for the people. A community of users collaborates by “tagging” various types of content with user created keywords. This concept is flourishing on a handful of community driven sites that all seem to have a certain addictive quality.

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A Concise Guide to the Major Internet Bodies

2005-03-03T14:38:00.000-08:00

Found on The Web Standards Project
From Ubiquity: An ACM IT Magazine and Forum

The bodies responsible for the Internet's protocols and parameters can be said to steer the Internet in a significant sense. This document, by Alex Simonelis of Dawson College in Montreal, is a summary of those bodies and their most important characteristics.

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Web Site Accessibility Design for Business Blogs

2005-03-03T11:40:00.000-08:00

Found on Land of Opportunity - Arkansas small business blog

Web site accessibility design is an after thought for most business blogs. And, that’s being generous, if you get my drift.

Few business bloggers, and even most conventional web masters with traditional websites, have given even scant attention to ensuring their sites are accessible to handicap visitors. Everyone assumes that all visitors will be able to see the flashy graphics, watch a video, hear an audio message, and then move a mouse to open additional eye and ear candy.

Read monre...

Design and Strategy: Nobody Knows Anything

2005-03-03T11:38:00.000-08:00

From peterme.com

Yesterday afternoon I attended the Institute of Design's Strategy Workshop. It was their first attempt at trying to bring their design strategy message to people outside of Chicago. They had expected about 30 people to register. They sold out at 100, and who knows how many more would have come.

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Website Design and Optimization News: AltaModal Design and Optimization Daily Update

2005-03-02T22:04:00.000-08:00

Providing Updates and News on WebSite Design, Search Engines, Site Optimization Methods and Strategies as well as resources and tools for developing a strong internet presence.

Visit site/blog

Use Cases Part II: Taming Scope: A List Apart

2005-03-02T21:33:00.000-08:00

Found on A List Apart
by Norm Carr and Tim Meehan

When web projects go wrong, the cause can often be traced to misunderstanding and miscommunication about scope: what you thought your client wanted and what they thought they were getting doesn’t match. The later in a project this is discovered, the costlier for someone it can become.

To manage scope effectively, we have to define what the site must contain, what optional features would be good to have, and what features are irrelevant – and then we have to deal with newly requested or discovered needs and enhancements.

The use-case model can be a powerful tool for controlling scope throughout a project’s lifecycle. Because a simplified use-case model can be understood by all project participants, it can also serve as a framework for ongoing collaboration as well as a visual map of all agreed-upon functionality. It can, therefore, be a precious reference during later negotiations that might affect the project’s scope.

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Functioning Form - User Experience Diagrams

2005-02-27T17:13:00.000-08:00

From Functioning Form

Functioning Form is where art and technology emerge as experience, where message and medium meld, and where interactions are useful, usable, and enjoyable. Functioning Form is the interface.

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Conference Proceedings - Designing for the 21st Century III

2005-02-27T17:10:00.000-08:00

From designfor21st.org conference procedings
By Bob Rega, Macromedia

"Web Accessibility and Web Design are two disciplines with a common theory and divergent practices. Both endeavors rely on a standard set of techniques to ensure a consistent experience of data and content across a diverse set of end users. Both rely on creative individuals to build and deliver great sites and great experiences that have an impact on the user. Both seek to extend the reach of the end user and link individuals together to form a stronger collective whole. However, despite the common theory that links them, web accessibility and web design do not share a common set of practices. Sites hailed for their accessibility are rarely noted for their design. Sites hailed for their design are rarely noteworthy as models of accessibility. Few sites are ever held up as models of both great accessibility and great design."

Read more...:

Integrated Web Design: The Meaning of Semantics (Take I)

2005-02-27T17:03:00.000-08:00

Found on molly.com
From informit.com

If you haven't heard of or don't know much about the sematic web this article by Molly Holzschlag (molly.com) is a good place to start your quest for knowledge.

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Zen of CSS Design, The: Visual Enlightenment for the Web

2005-02-26T08:55:00.000-08:00

Co authored by Dave Shea and Molly Holzschlag (molly.com) this book is a must for standard-compliant designers who are looking for way to design engaging visual user interfaces.

For all of you traditional graphic designers doing work on the web keep in mind that a web site's design is more than a pretty layout....it's a user interface, so don't think that just because you have extensive graphic design experience or a degree or anything else that "qualifies" you it is impossible to simply translate your existing skill set to the webspace and design effective and usable web sites. You must learn new design theories that will allow you to adopt your existing skill set to the websphere.

Zen of CSS Design, The: Visual Enlightenment for the Web - $29.99

The Accessibility Challenge

2005-02-25T13:58:00.000-08:00

Found on alt tags

A story from the trenches.

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Accessibility Features in Adobe Reader 7

2005-02-25T13:51:00.000-08:00

Found on WebAIM

PDF files are nortorious for lack of accessibility. Even worse, many college and university professors (and even administrative assistants) think that converted Word files to PDF files is the quick and easiest way to post content to the web. Well it is, but it is also not the best way. Since Section 508 became law manufacturers have scrambled to incorporate accessibility hooks into their products. PDF files are still a pain to make accessibility but with version 7 of Acrobat Reader out things will be a bit easier. Now if we can just get people to make to actually use these new features to create accessible PDFs!

Read more...

Prioritize Usability Testing and Web Analytics

2005-02-25T13:29:00.000-08:00

Found on Column Two
From Clickz.com
By Bryan Eisenberg | February 18, 2005

If you've performed usability tests and tried to reconcile those results with your current site metrics, you've probably been left scratching your head. Usability respondents find something wrong on a particular page, yet the same "problem" isn't evident in the site analytics.

This leaves you with a rather big question: How do you justify Web analytics and usability, and what role does each play in the conversion equation?

Information Architecture as an Extension of Web Design

2005-02-24T18:43:00.000-08:00

Found on InfoDesign
From Digital Web Magazine

"(...) the line between Web design and information architecture doesn't have to be as clear as we may have imagined. There are many opportunities for Web designers to fill the role of information architect in every project. This is not to say that information architects are no longer needed. On the contrary, with Web sites becoming more dynamic and complex every day, information architects are needed more than ever. But as an information architect who transitioned from a Web design role, I can assure you that information architects aren't the only ones who can organize things." (Joshua Kaufman - Digital Web Magazine) - The recurring theme of structure and presentation, of cognition and perception, or of architecture and design.

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So Where are all the Information Designers?

2005-02-24T18:39:00.000-08:00

Found on InfoDesign
From Online-Learning.com

"Over time, we believe that this combination of skills will become the norm and may even become mandatory for many Information Design positions. Given the current economic climate, employers are already demanding more from their prospective new hires. As evidence of this trend, look at the career section in your local newspaper and you will see that employers are now asking for combination skill sets for many jobs. Companies are looking for people who can simultaneously write, design and develop websites. With a small amount of cross-training, many of today's Information Designers could position themselves for these multi-skilled jobs." (Online Learning)

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Web Analytics: The Voice of Users in Information Architecture Projects

2005-02-24T18:38:00.000-08:00

Found on InfoDesign
From Hurol Inan

"An information architecture project will uncover the very heart of internal politics in any organisation. In most cases, content owners, department heads and product managers all fight for prime 'real estate' and prominence within the website structure - resulting in a site design that looks like a 'truce' rather than an effective solution." (Hurol Inan) - courtesy of digital web magazine.

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Seven Common Usability Mistakes

2005-02-24T00:02:00.000-08:00

Jared M. Spool has written an article which highlights seven common usability testing mistakes. These are:

Do You Know Why You're Testing?
Not Bringing the Team Together
Not Recruiting the Right Participants
Not Designing the Right Tasks
Not Facilitating the Test Effectively
Not Planning How You'll Disseminate the Results
Not Iterating to Test Potential Solutions

Information Architecture Exercises

2005-02-23T23:58:00.000-08:00

Found on Column Two
From Poor But Happy

Peter Van Dijck has posted a collection of ideas for information architecture exercises, to use during a workshop. To quote:

I am preparing some information architecture workshops, and I’m collecting various types of exercises. I've managed to identify some general rules for developing workshop exercises as well.

To add to these suggestions, in our IA Fundamentals workshops (running in Canberra and Sydney), we base the day around the design of a mock "snowfields website". Using this type of example, we can then construct examples around:

brainstorming the types of visitors to this site (thereby introducing personas)
types of tasks they might want to complete (task analysis)
types of information required (content modeling)
overall structure for the site (card sorting)
confirming the final design (card-based classification evaluation)

It makes for a fun day, and the use of a single site throughout the day makes it both concrete and easy to explore IA concepts and techniques...

Role of design and usability

2005-02-23T23:54:00.000-08:00

Found on Column Two
From OK/Cancel

Tom Chi has written an article that provides an interesting perspective on the role of design and usability in a project. It even has diagrams! To quote:

If our process is too usability heavy, we are not able to explore the space widely enough. The testing prematurely optimizes on a region and we end up doing many design tweaks, but comparatively few significant changes.
If our process is too design heavy, we can zip all around the space, but there's no way to know when to stop. A designer might hit a workable solution and iterate right past it. There is also no way to know which directions to prune, so we use up design time on failing directions, and this can cause our team to optimize too late.

The Guild of Accessible Web Designers

2005-02-23T23:48:00.000-08:00

A world-wide association of organisations and accessible web designers and developers - designed to both promote and protect standards - not technical standards - but accessible design standards.

"Promoting a vision of the future that assumes accessible web design to be, relevant, obtainable, and not at odds with successfull business practice or good visual and usable design."

Join now if you are an accessible web designer or developer, or a supporter of accessible web design.

http://www.gawds.org/

Selling Standards the Sweet Way

2005-02-23T18:41:00.000-08:00

Found on: The Web Standards Project
Feb 23, 2005

If you find yourself having to explain for the umpteenth time to a client why building web pages to web standards is a good thing, you might feel a trifle annoyed. Trifle, you say? Aha, now there's the answer! So, let Andy Clarke explain what his dessert-based explanation is all about - Web Standards Trifle.

WebAIM.org

2005-02-14T09:15:00.000-08:00

WebAIM.org, an incredible site for web accessibility-related information has an RSS feed.
(http://rss.webaim.org/webaim.xml). At a minimum you should bookmark the site (www.webaim.org) for future use. It is a must-have online resource.

Accessibility Features in Dreamweaver

2005-02-14T09:13:00.000-08:00

From Webaim.org
Author: Jared Smith
Date: September 2004

Dreamweaver MX, developed by Macromedia, is one of the most popular and powerful Web development applications available today. Macromedia has greatly improved the accessibility features of Dreamweaver MX over previous versions. MX and MX 2004 now allow developers to be prompted when inserting certain Web elements that may need accessibility attributes added to them. Dreamweaver includes many new tools, features, and reference materials to help developers in developing accessible Web content.

Read more...

Developing with Web Standards: Recommendations and Best Practices

2005-02-13T10:58:00.000-08:00

By PJB on Technology

"This document explains how and why using web standards will let you build websites in a way that saves time and money for the developer and provides a better experience for the visitor. Also discussed are other methods, guidelines and best practices that will help produce high-quality websites that are accessible to as many as possible." (Roger Johansson - 456 Berea Street)

Read more...

Why XHTML with CSS matters

2005-02-12T23:20:00.000-08:00

From youcansleepwhenyouredead.com
January 22, 2005

The IE/Netscape browser war is over, and most web users are using standards-compliant browsers like Firefox, Safari, and IE 6. The old table-based layout techniques are no longer necessary.

Read more...

The new breed of "anti-design" websites

2005-02-12T23:15:00.000-08:00

From youcansleepwhenyouredead.com
January 05, 2005

Maybe it started with craigslist, google or maybe ebay. Or if we go way back, it could have been unix itself, but 2004's most popular sites have a nearly "anti-design" approach to online site branding. Gmail, Flickr, del.icio.us, and 43things are conspicuously devoid of design, yet are intensely popular because they focus on speed and serviceability.

PubSub: "web accessibility" feed

2005-02-12T20:25:00.000-08:00

I have a search feed on PubSub for web accessibility. I'm getting some good results from it and it's already becoming a lot to post all the great stuff I find. So I decided to provide you with the RSS URL so you can individually watch it.

PubSub: web accessibility search feed | http://rss.pubsub.com/52/26/a00cf513230118a76d8afdf9bf.xml

LIFT Text Transcoder is not the answer

2005-02-12T20:15:00.000-08:00

When it comes to accessibility LIFT text-transcoder should be considered a component of a solution (if considered at all) and not the answer to being accessible and 508 compliant. As far as I'm concerned LIFTs text-transcoder only gives you a printer-friendly page...IT IS NOT A REPAIR TOOL! The text transcoder can not add ALT text when there is no text; it can't make poor ALT tag syntax (ex. photo) better (ex. photo: headshot of Bill Gates).

Basically, with the text-transcoder you are going to get a linearized version of the page with the same acccessibility hurdles and roadblocks that existed before. Think I'm mistaken? Read this post from alttags.com about the Sacramento County website and it's use of LIFT text-transcoder.

Do You Care About Accessibility? | 3/31/2004

Free Usability Toolkit

2005-02-12T09:44:00.000-08:00

The AIfIA Tools project aims to disseminate new IA tools from the community in order to learn from each other. Below you will find document templates, process map posters and other tools to help you in your practice. The documents have been donated by the community, by people just like you.

One of the items posted is the Usability Toolkit from the Society for Technical Communication.

Another item of interest was Case Study: Digital Web Redesign. Christina Wodtke produced this set of deliverables--personas, conceptual model, site map and wireframes--for the Digital Web redesign in 2002.

Digital Web Redesign (3.3 MB)

Full text of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (1st edition)

2005-02-12T09:41:00.000-08:00

O'Rielly has generously published the full text of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web. (Note that this is the 1st edition of the book, and the 2nd edition has been substantially enhanced, expanded and improved.)

Ground Up, Accessibility

2005-02-12T00:36:00.000-08:00

From The Web Standards Project

In a Digital Web Magazine article this past week, a W3C web accessibility specialist Matt May offers up a short primer for web designers. The article, Accessibility From The Ground Up, gives a quick overview and answers key questions regarding accessible web design.

Read more...

Key steps in creating your reader persona

2005-02-12T00:32:00.000-08:00

By Gerry McGovern
February 07, 2005

The first step in developing successful reader personas is to decide what readers you are not going to focus on. Good web management is often more about what you exclude than what you include.

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alttags.org

2005-02-12T00:29:00.000-08:00

Add these to your quiver of information:

Emotional Design: People & Things

2005-02-12T00:15:00.000-08:00

From jnd.org

"(...) I proposed a framework for analyzing products in a holistic way to include their attractiveness, their behavior, and the image they present to the user -- and of the owner. In this work on design, these different aspects of a product were identified with different levels of processing by people: visceral, behavioral, and reflective. These three levels translate into three different kinds of design. Visceral design refers primarily to that initial impact, to its appearance. Behavioral design is about look and feel -- the total experience of using a product. And reflection is about ones thoughts afterwards, how it makes one feel, the image it portrays, the message it tells others about the owner's taste." (Donald Norman)

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Meet the MasterMinds: Common Sense Web Design with Steve Krug

2005-02-12T00:08:00.000-08:00

From MCNews

"When you watch a lot of people use web sites (which is what usability experts do), you realize that even minor things that are left unclear or ambiguous often lead users astray and keep them from succeeding at whatever they're trying to do on the site." (Management Consulting News) - courtesy of webword.

Steve Krug, the author of Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, is a highly respected usability consultant, and he has worked with companies like Apple, Netscape, AOL, BarnesandNoble.com, Excite@Home, and Circle.com. Krug's book is packed with practical techniques for developing a highly usable web site. Before you create or redesign your web site, make sure your designer has read Krug's book.

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InfoDesign: Understanding by Design

2005-02-12T00:07:00.000-08:00

http://www.informationdesign.org/

ROI Is Not a Silver Bullet: Five Actionable Steps for Valuing User Experience Design

2005-02-12T00:03:00.000-08:00

By Scott Hirsch | July 20, 2004

For years now, the “ROI of User Experience” has been sought as a means to justify larger corporate investments in web design. Although ROI methodology can be a useful tool for prioritizing possible web development projects, by itself ROI is not the answer to building a stronger user experience design competency. Read more...

Scott Hirsch is a consultant specializing in project finance and development processes.

Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act

2005-02-11T23:52:00.000-08:00

From: WATS.ca News
November 11, 2004

The Province of Ontario proposes new legislation to better address accessibility for people with disabilities. Read more...

A Different Web Accessibility Primer

2005-02-11T23:46:00.000-08:00

From WATS.ca News
2004-11-24T22:21:00-05:00

by Derek Featherstone

Summary: Web accessibility is just as much about philosophy as it is technical knowledge. A balance of both is needed to ensure that your web sites are as accessible as possible to as many people as possible. Read more...

UXCentric - a blog worth mentioning

2005-02-11T16:00:00.000-08:00

UXCentric: news, views and links about user experience, information architecture and all things web

What is WebAbility?

2005-02-11T15:20:00.000-08:00

Webability is a phrase that I came up with to be an umbrella term for the various components that must go into any web project to make it successful. As I looked around the web more I found that the term is also used within the context of web accessibility. Makes sense and although I am a huge advocate of web accessibility, within the confines of this part of the blogoshpere webability is my term. And here my term is a catch all for:

usability
accessibility
sustainability
scalability
measureability
marketability

There are other -bility terms that are out there but they could probably fall under one of these. If you address each of these items from initial project scope development to final product hand-off the site will be a success for client, design team, and end-user.