Usabilty

Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design
Jakob Nielsen has been a voice of reason since the beginning of the Web (way back in 1996). I have constantly found his ideas to be correct. This article is highly recommended reading and was updated in 2007.

 

 

Writing for the Web

The 1998 Writing Guidelines recommend that web style be concise, easy to scan, and objective (rather than promotional). The aim is to reduces the cognitive load placed on the user and 'enhance speed and efficiency' of reading and processing (and hopefully retaining information).

 

This is a page in which I can focus and collect my musings on web design and also host links to pages that I find useful and interesting and want to share with people (although you probably will have to put up with it being in a permanent state of flux due to me being an amateur and all that).

I've been messing around with websites since 1998. I had a very barren period mid noughties where I fell out of love wih all things electronic, but now (April 2010) I feel I am getting back into it.

I have dragged myself into the 21st century a decade late by learning about CSS*. This is necessary because usability has always been a topic close to my heart and old style web pages built with tables are a definate no-no in this day and age. (Along with the 'dragged' above I should have added kicking and screaming because it has been very hard!).

Here's to the XHTML, CSS future.

*PS. I also like CSS the band - Cansei de Ser Sexy. They are a Brazilian rock band from São Paulo. I especially recommend their first international self-titled album.

Cansei de Ser Sexy official website