On loan this week from Wakefield Library, “Jakob Nielsen, Prioritizing Web Usability”, reading this re-confirmed my thoughts about usability. The book includes factual information and human psychomotor behaviours such as Fitts' law and explores many hidden factors that need significant consideration in order to build an engaging user experience. This week I have discovered that a websites’ appearance is determined by it’s user, unlike print where WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) an interesting comparison to comprehend with my background in printing.
Some of these web considerations included:
- Links that change colour when visited
Vital for people who suffer with short-term memory loss
- CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) CSS allows the user to alter the appearance of the site, very useful for users with different types of colour blindness
- Only 40% of users view the second screen of a webpage
- CGI (Common Gateway Interface) – Is Just Magic!
Common = Interacts with many different operating systems.
Gateway = Provides users with a way to gain access to different programs, such as databases or picture generators.
Interface = Uses a well-defined method to interact with a Web server
http://www.oreilly.com/openbook/cgi/ch01_01.html
- A site built using HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language)
It will create a small size site compared to a site created with images as blocks of text.
- RNIB Not considered ?
To ensure that standard print is legible for as wide an audience as possible RNIB (The Royal National Institute of Blind People) recommend a minimum type size of 12 pt Arial, for all printed documents. This is not as restrictive on the web because the user can determine the type size, interesting debate!
http://www.typophile.com/node/28764
Following my second tutorial, I realised that whilst it is a positive thing to research and collect evidence for my sketch blog, it is also imperative to collaborate my findings within a written report. Concentrating my effort this week, I have produced a thorough written evaluation of my Project Goals, Target Audience and delivery requirements. It is my intention to start the design process next week.
8 comments:
Like yourself, I've been looking into issues around usability this week, and I, personally, have found it fascinating: all the considerations that must be taken into account whilst creating a website.
I've been analysing the BBC site as part of my competitive analysis, and their accessibility guidelines are very thorough. Well worth a look.
Sounds like you've been busy with the research! Although some stuff that Jakob says needs to be taken with a pinch of salt.
p.s Just thought I'd point out to you that CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets, and not Creative Style Sheets.
Thank you for leaving the link to Web accessibility guidelines, it has being very helpful, i dint know there were so many of them, its alot to take in.
Allot of reasearch there, thanks for the links they will definatly come in handey.
with such a huge amount of work to do for the assignment, i have nothing but respect for you doing this in the short time each week that you have
You're completely right about the five W3C standards, they're the ones that our blogs have to comply with. But for my assignment i decided to push myself a little and try to make the website i'm designing conform to at least 12 of them.
Thanks for the comment
I really like the new design for the blog, it looks very professional.
Still can't believe how you get all the work done whilst still having a full-time job.
Keep up the good work.
Hi Suzanne,
Thank you for your comment. I realise it is going to be hard however I am determined it will not beat me. We'll "That's the plan!".
Kind Regards,
Mark
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