Jakob Nielsen – five concepts: Learnability – system ease of use. Efficiency – how well system maps interface to user interaction. Memorability – how easy it is for users to remember how to do something. Errors – how well errors are handled and prevented. Satisfaction – user satisfaction with system. Continue Reading
John
Design for usability
User Centred Design – identify users needs & requirements. Define purpose of website. Perform User Requirements Analysis – define users assumptions & future behaviour on site. Implement these steps when designing & producing objects & functions. Become familiar with general rules & guidelines for website usability such as: Web Site Continue Reading
Usability
Generic term – design features enable=ing something to be user-friendly. Measure of quality of user experience with product or system such as: website mobile device software application Usability problem WRT WWW: Millions of users with different skills, knowledge, experience and expectations International & multicultural make-up of users & websites Billions of Continue Reading
Accessibility validation tools
508 accessibility suite for Dreamweaver (download free from macromedia) available at http://www.adobe.com/macromedia/accessibility/508standards.html Markup test available at http://validator.w3.org/ Wave free accessibility check at http://wave.webaim.org/
Designing for accessibility
Compliant websites do not have to be dull. Do not rely on colour to convey information. Text colour should contrast background colour. Font size defined in CSS should be customisable by user. Important images should have a meaningful ‘alt’ attribute & description. Provide text-based alternative to audio or video content. Continue Reading
Guidelines
There are several resources regarding accessibility guidelines, including: W3C: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 14 guidelines with checkpoints available at http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/ Full checklist available at http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/full-checklist.html WCAG 2.0 (draft) available at http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/ More guidelines available at http://usableweb.com/topics/000262-0-0.html
The Need to Design for Accessibility/Usability
Web accessibility – “people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate and interact with the Web, and that they can contribute to the Web”. W3C provide guidelines through Web Accessibility Initiative (WIA). Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) – UK law – accessibility issues. Organisation can be subject to serious legal liabilities for Continue Reading
Summarising the PARC Principles
Don’t be afraid to create your design with plenty of blank space. Also make sure you have plenty of white space between elements and visual units. Don’t be afraid to make words very large or very small. Don’t be afraid to speak loudly or to whisper. Contrast is an essential element Continue Reading
Principles of User Interface Design
PARC principles – four basic principles do UI design: Proximity Alignment Repetition Contrast Proximity Group related items together – one cohesive, visual unit. Non-related items should not be grouped together – causes confusion. If more than 3 to 5 items on page, try to group elements. Don’t spread separate elements Continue Reading
Check for folders and files where access is denied with Powershell
The following script is from another blog that was slightly adapted by someone who left a comment there: $errors=@() gci -recurse -Path “C:\test” -ea SilentlyContinue -ErrorVariable +errors | Out-Null $errors.Count $errors | select -expand categoryinfo | select reason,targetname | export-csv -NoTypeInformation -Delimiter “;” ErrorList.csv I created a folder on the Continue Reading