Web Usability's Journal (original) (raw)
I think we all know the safe, standard, usability-approved ways to navigate a web site:
1. Tabs (or their functional equivalent, with or without dropdown menus) across the top.
2. Links down the left side.
I'm not saying a web designer wouldn't be stark swallowing insane to deviate from this dichotomy. But if one were, what other choices would he have?
What I'm asking is whether anyone is aware of any alternatives -- any dangerously unorthodox navigation schemes/widgets/methods out there, whether they're being used in an actual live web site or just sizzling in a petri dish in a design lab somewhere. I've been looking around at different sites and I can't seem to find anything that doesn't conform to one or both of those two paradigms.
Thanks in advance for any info you might be willing to share on this topic!
Target.com sued by blind student under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Case is still in court.
"A blind student at the University of California-Berkeley is suing national retailer Target over the design of the company's web site, which is allegedly unusable by the blind. "
I'm curious what are some books you could recommend me on web usability? Just any direction about where I can get good info about usability would be really appreciated.
I saw a Lynda tutorial on the topic, but it wasn't very comprehensive...
Is this community alive?
1 year between 2 posts - Long time, isn't it?
Say you want to by an Australian hat. Apparently this site thought it would be fun to have the navigation of their main page require playing a game of hide and seek. Imagine walking into a store: "Oh, we don't put our products on display, they're hidden. You have to FIND them!"
And that's after a useless splash page that touts the site as "another innovation" from a company called, ironically, WebEase. What were they thinking?
For the longest time, I've had this idea for a new feature I would love to see added to GoogleMaps: Waypoints.
Normally you just map directions from one location to another. But say there are alternate routes and you want to specify "the back way" or something. You would enter a Waypoint choosing the "Waypoint Tool" and clicking on the map to stick a "pin" at a particular spot. Alternately, you could enter a Waypoint Address into a text field. Then the directions would be recalculated to pass through that point you specified. Even better, perhaps a user could click on the highlighted route and drag it interactively. The route would snap to roads that are a viable route between your chosen start and end point, and pass through whatever Waypoint Pins you've placed. Or users could enter start and end points and begin "drawing" a path that "autocompletes", snapping to roads as you go. Think Photoshop's magnetic lasso tool.
( How it would work and how it would be useful...Collapse )
Anyone have any ideas of how practical it would be to have that kind of added functionality? I'd love some input on the idea.
x-posted to personal journal
Dear friends!
Have you ever heard about any alternatives to Internet? About any new projects of networks, that can be used as original telecommunication and information resource (as Internet is used)?
Particularly, it is very interesting to know about any European projects.
Thank you!
| Poster: |  spearman |
|---|---|
| Date: | 2005-06-07 13:47 |
| Subject: | |
| Security: | Public |
Navigation Blindness is an article about how web-users don't look at navigation elements. I assume they mean on quick visits to a site.
Skimmers, note the end section: "Facilitating explorative navigation" regarding the "seducible moment"
I am suddenly getting an alarming deluge of virussy crap from my website's addresses to my website's addresses. Has some malicious bastards got it in for me or is this a common occurence?
I didn't disguise the addresses on my website to keep them more user friendly, would something like meATmy websiteDOTcom made a difference?
Say, one has a small website with 200 visitors a day. Apparently, 20% of the visitors has a screen resolution of 800x600... 80% has a higher resolution. A redesign is planned and they are thinking of using the standard of minimum 1024x 768. Meaning, 40 visitors a day will have to scroll (horizontally and/or vertically) or miss a part of the site on first sight. What if the site has 3000 visitors? ... 600 visitors with an 800x600 resolution a day.
I would like to know what your opinions on this are in general. Should we consider every visitor? In theory, I say yes... of course, we design for the users, every user. But I have heard from fellow designers that they think the people should use a higher screen resolution by now... that the times have changed. Personally I still design for 800x600... but have you made the change to a higher standard resolution?
What percentage of users should we consider? How many users should we consider?
What are your opinions on this?
| Poster: | jen_shumate |
|---|---|
| Date: | 2005-06-01 15:20 |
| Subject: | |
| Security: | Public |
hey, something ive ment to fix for a long time, and never really found the answer to: is there any sort of default color callibration profile for moniters? especially those aimed towards internet compatibility and not printing.
I heard that there is an online service that allows you to not only find out how many visitors come to your website, but also to know how they got into your website, like where was the link they clicked on to get to your website, and even which part of the globe was this visitor from.
I've been using eXTReMe Tracking but it doesn't seem to be working. It only seems to have worked on the day I put their link on my website. I know of some friends who've come there, but the tracker doesn't say any of that at all.
So, my question, does anyone know of any other services I can try? I posted this here because
web design
was in the interest list for the community.
Greetings,
I am redesigning the following site to make it more user friendly and visually apealing starting with the home page.
It is an subscription based online research library who's primary audience is college students, professors/teachers and professionals. You can use some of the features without joining by chosing to read one of the free books.
I am looking for comments as to what you like or dislike about the site and how easy it is to find basic information.
Please rank your responses to the question how easy is it to find basic information: very easy, easy, difficult, very difficult
I would appreciate your participation and comments and ask that when you post you identify yourself in one of the following categories:
college student, professor/teacher, professional or other so that I can quantify the responses.
Your comments would provide valuable input in the redesign process. Thanks for participating.
Господа!
Извините, что вмешиваюсь, но есть очень горящая вакансия в нашей компании. (разработка, поддержка и продвижение веб-сайтов на западном рынке).
Постановщик задач.
Обязанности: проектирование пользовательских интерфейсов, юзабилити-экспертиза готовых проектов (анализ и оценка usability), разработка корпоративных стандартов на проектирование UI и т.д.
Требования: опыт работы в данной сфере, англ.яз. - на достаточно хорошем уровне.
З/п - конкурентная, обсуждается с кандидатом персонально, т.к. нужен именно не выпускник ВУЗа, а профессионал.
С уважением.
any idea what the most common screen res is?
i know pretty little about web design, but i'm a graphic design student trying to finish up my online portfolio, i have a few little motion graphics pieces that i would like to include.
currently, they are in mp4 format, but that can be changed.
i usually work in dreamweaver, and i can't seem to figure out how to make this come together.
any information?
what am i doing wrong? what am i missing?
is there an easier way?
thanks very much in advance.
apologies for minor cross-posting
| Poster: | treno |
|---|---|
| Date: | 2004-06-04 20:32 |
| Subject: | |
| Security: | Public |
Hello - just popping by to see if anybody here would be interested in a domain + hosting deal? I'm not a reseller, just a regular ol' person trying to get rid of a domain she bought on impulse -
retroavantgarde.net
, to be exact. It has about 10 months left for both domain name and hosting and I'm willing to let it go for a great price. If you're interested and/or would like more information, just email me! Thanks! :D
| Poster: | hfx_ben |
|---|---|
| Date: | 2004-02-12 17:08 |
| Subject: | |
| Security: | Public |
You do PHP/MySQL?
Can be in NYC?
I see that D I G I T A L L Y I M P O R T E D is hiring.
how's this for a navigation bar (meant for the top of the page) for a "retro"-themed site? (the current section is the tile "sticking out", the audio tile in the upper right is to toggle background music on and off, the mail tile is to send email, and the gauge tile in the lower right is to see site stats/history/colophon)
it presents all the sections of the site at once, kind of like a compact sitemap. because of this, every section is directly accessible from every other section (i.e., the two organizational axes are presented orthogonally).
plus i just think the legos look cool :-)
for those wondering, this was all done on the computer, no photography involved... thanks to Mac Brick CAD (a lego construction program which exports pov-ray files), POV-ray (a renderer), and Photoshop Elements (this makes redoing it a snap, just re-CAD and re-render to try something new).
comments, questions? good/bad color choices? please drop some feedback.