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Category Archives: usability

Useful Links: 28 HTML5 Features, Longdesc, Gender & Usability, Net Neutrality

28 HTML5 Features, Tips, and Techniques you Must Know is an excellent list from Jeffrey Way. Longdesc may be dropped from the HTML5 spec. Right now it’s in the “let’s argue about it” phase. WebAxe has a discussion by podcast with some folks who examine the issue. The Fate of Longdesc in HTML5. What’s the [...]

Optimize your writing for users with impaired vision

Users with screen reader devices will scan and skim your web page in a manner somewhat similar to the way a visual user will. Screen readers can be programmed to read only headings, subheadings and links. When something of interest pops out from this “skimming” process, the user can stop and have all the information [...]

Useful links: Usability, graphic design, HTML5 Rocks

The You-Don’t-Matter Website is a look at usability and accessibility for some large brands. Graphic Design Theory: 50 Resources and Articles is from noupe. Apple’s attempt to wow the world with HTML5 flopped. Now Google is trying a similar thing with HTML5 Rocks. There are tutorials, Chrome developer tools, and the promise that the material [...]

Now Available! InterACT with Web Standards: A Holistic Approach to Web Design

InterACT with Web Standards: a Holistic Approach to Web Design is available today. This announcement is a BIG DEAL. This book puts everything you need to teach a class in web design or development with web standards into your hands. The book is easy to use in connection with InterACT’s 17 courses in 6 learning [...]

Useful links: Funny stuff, press Enter, VoiceOver

Need a laugh? How to Successfully Educate Your Clients on Web Development at Smashing Magazine is really funny. Who moved my Enter key? from Know IT describes the role muscle memory plays in keyboarding. Personally, I’m still waiting for Mac and Windows to agree on the location and function of the Ctrl/Cmd keys. Moving from [...]

Useful links: online learning, browser basics, the personal blog

Usability Issues that Impact Online Learning from Faculty Focus doesn’t mention specific tools that meet some of the standards suggested for good usability in online learning, but it does tell you some things to strive for: Good usability for online learning materials means the site, content, and media are easy to find, use, and navigate. [...]

Improve readability with line-height

The CSS line-height property determines the distance or spacing between the lines of text on the page. In the print world, this property is called leading. Line-height can be applied to any text element, but it’s probably best to set it in the CSS rule for body in your stylesheet. All the textual elements on [...]

Useful Links: Open Letter, Blog Action Day, Free Culture, Usability, HTML5

An Open Letter to Mark Shuttleworth at Geek Feminism Blog points the spotlight at another incident in this year’s round of dismissive-to-women conference remarks. The topic for Blog Action Day this year is Climate Change. Hope all you bloggers out there will participate. .eduGuru reviews Lawrence Lessig’s Free Culture and says, This is not a [...]

Useful Links: Snow Leopard and AT, HTML5 and RDFa, Flash accessibility, and writing tips

Snow Leopard Assistive Technology Compatibility List is a very helpful compilation of what works and what doesn’t work on Snow Leopard. From ATMac. There are so many posts about HTML 5 and RDFa flying around these days that it’s hard to keep up with them all. But here’s one that takes a different approach, Burningbird’s [...]

Useful links: usability in tweets, net neutrality, copyrights

Twitter Postings: Iterative Design from Nielsen’s alertbox takes aim at usability in tweets. Obama’s FCC to support Net Neutrality at The Hill. So far it’s just a promise, not a behavior. Your copyright questions answered is a handy summary of copyright basics. Written by a copyright lawyer and published at Book by Its Cover.