The ‘worldwide’ bit of the web made many of us realise that our web designs have the potential to reach the whole world. Some of us work for organisations that explicitly want to attract audiences from many different countries. AndContinue reading… Colours and Culture – don’t always believe what you read
Category: Articles
Reading with Glaucoma
This article, by Cathy, was originally part of a collection of personal stories published on the Design to Read website. I suffer from glaucoma (Primary, Open-Angle Glaucoma) and have first-hand experience of visual field defects. Most damage has occurred inContinue reading… Reading with Glaucoma
Designing for search: making information easy to find
Today, search is not a design failure, but part of the user experience, one of many ways that people find information on the web. This paper – co-authored with Whitney Quesenbery, Ian Roddis, Sarah Allen and Viki Stirling – looksContinue reading… Designing for search: making information easy to find
What’s in it for me? Rewarding course evaluators
Everyone likes to be rewarded for their efforts. Course evaluators are no exception. We get asked often to look at new online courses and sometimes even get offered a login name and password to a course that other people wouldContinue reading… What’s in it for me? Rewarding course evaluators
Buttons on forms – where to put them, and what to call them
Here’s a question that I get asked quite often: “Should we put ‘OK’ button to the left or the right of the ‘Cancel’ button?” A common variant is to ask the same question with ‘Back’ or ‘Previous’ instead of ‘Cancel’,Continue reading… Buttons on forms – where to put them, and what to call them
A whole industry sector’s websites rated according to their usability
Back in March, 2008, Usability News noted the publication of the 10th annual ‘Better Connected’ report. If you work on websites for local government, this won’t have passed you by: Better Connected’s annual assessment is the point each year whenContinue reading… A whole industry sector’s websites rated according to their usability
Usability of content is plain language: the USA Plain Language Act
An exciting thing happened in the USA on 14th April 2008. It didn’t quite manage to make it onto the national news – that day, we were mostly hearing about the Pope’s visit to the United States. Any ideas? Any clueContinue reading… Usability of content is plain language: the USA Plain Language Act
How to do ‘Contact Us’ badly (and some tips for doing it well)
My email started playing up. I noticed that I was getting items out of sequence, sometimes very late. I tried the usual things: clearing the spam folders, powering the computer down, you know. But there was nothing for it: I’dContinue reading… How to do ‘Contact Us’ badly (and some tips for doing it well)
When more data really isn’t the issue
A few years ago, a rather dull conference speaker spoke one phrase that stuck in my mind. He said: “I was at this meeting, and I heard a voice going ‘blah blah blah’. And then I realised: it was me”.Continue reading… When more data really isn’t the issue
Adding fun and engagement to purposeful systems using augmented reality and other techniques: report from OzCHI 2007
A warm Australian November, a friendly, collaborative conference: what’s not to like? OzCHI always attracts a proportion of Scandinavians and Brits who are happy to escape to the sun. And to add to the attraction, the theme of OzCHI 2007Continue reading… Adding fun and engagement to purposeful systems using augmented reality and other techniques: report from OzCHI 2007