Usability Articles

1). The Secret Benefit Of Search Engine Optimisation: Increased Usability By : Trenton Moss
A higher search ranking is what many website owners dream of. What they don't realise is that by optimising their site for the search engines, if done correctly, they can also optimise it for their site visitors. Ultimately this means more people finding your website and increased sales and lead generation. But are search engine optimisation and usability.
Article Related to: usability, accessibility, web usability, web credibility, web accessibility, css, website, accessible web design

2). How To Ensure The Search Engines Find Your Website By : Craig Broadbent
One of the most fundamental aspects of search engine optimisation (SEO) is ensuring that the pages within your website are as accessible as possible to the search engines. It's not only the homepage of a website that can be indexed, but also the internal pages within a site's structure. The internal pages of a site often contain important content such as products, services or general information, and therefore can be uniquely optimised for related terms.
Article Related to: internet, seo, search, engine, optimisation, optimization, usability, robots, crawling, marketing

3). Tell me what your website does! By : Trenton Moss
You know exactly what your organisation does and what your website offers its users. This information has probably become second nature to you, but first-time visitors to your site won't know this. As such, make sure you don't forget to tell them what you do. As soon as new site visitors arrive at your website the first thing they need to know, before anything else, is what you do.
Article Related to: usability, accessibility, web usability, web credibility, web accessibility, css, website, accessible web design

4). Writing Effective ALT Text For Images By : Trenton Moss
Anyone who knows anything about web accessibility knows that images need alternative, or ALT, text assigned to them. This is because screen readers can't understand images, but rather read aloud the alternative text assigned to them. In Internet Explorer we can see this ALT text, simply by mousing over the image and looking at the yellow tooltip that appears.
Article Related to: usability, accessibility, web usability, web credibility, web accessibility, css, website, accessible web design

5). Separate text-only version? No thanks! By : Trenton Moss
In an attempt to make their sites accessible to all, more and more websites are now offering text-only versions of their sites. With the huge number of inaccessible websites out there, any attempt to make a website accessible to one and all is highly commendable. But is text-only the way forward? The W3C have this to say about alternative accessible sites: And if all else fails.
Article Related to: usability, accessibility, web usability, web credibility, web accessibility, css, website, accessible web design

6). Using the Web Accessibility Toolbar By : Trenton Moss
Testing a website for accessibility can be a time-consuming and laborious process. The free Web Accessibility Toolbar can do most of the hard work for you though and is an indispensable tool for anyone interested in accessibility. The toolbar is not an automated testing tool so does require manual work from you. It's therefore able to avoid the many problems with automated accessibility testing tools.
Article Related to: usability, accessibility, web usability, web credibility, web accessibility, css, website, accessible web design

7). Things to consider before redesigning or redeveloping a website By : zuricka
Its 2006 and you have made a few resolutions. You need your website to perform so that you reap the rewards. This article will be more useful to companies who have a web based business or a portal. Does this sound familiar: 1. We have a website and have spent a lot of money but it�s too clunky. 2. It served us well when we had a tight budget and needed to have a website but its not performing.
Article Related to: redesign, redevelop, website, web application, web portal, web development, web application development, usability, website audit

8). Web accessibility for screen magnifier users By : Trenton Moss
The needs of screen magnifier users are overlooked when implementing web accessibility on to a website. Screen magnifiers are used by partially sighted web users to increase the size of on-screen elements. Some users will magnify the screen so that only three to four words are able to appear on the screen at any one time. You can try using a screen magnifier yourself by downloading the Zoomtext screen magnifier from http://www.
Article Related to: usability, accessibility, web usability, web credibility, web accessibility, css, website, accessible web design

9). The problem with automated accessibility testing tools By : Trenton Moss
An automated accessibility tool is a piece of software which can test a web page, or even an entire website, for accessibility. Automated accessibility tools are useful because they can save you a huge amount of time. Don't want to check images for alt text on each and every page on your website? Run the site through an automated tester and it'll do it all for you! Automated accessibility testing tools have been around for a long time and have historically been a useful way of checking websites for accessibility.
Article Related to: usability, accessibility, web usability, web credibility, web accessibility, css, website, accessible web design

10). Launch your site, before it is finished By : raoul dobal
Launch your site, before it is finished. When you launch a site, you face three major problems: The search engines don't know you, the users don't know you and you might not have any meaningful amount of content. These problems can cost you time, before your site starts to pay off. Three solutions to hit the ground running on launch day. Waiting for the search engines Telling �Google� your new web-address is only getting you a spot in its sandbox.
Article Related to: internet, web, online marketing, website, usability

11). Improving usability for screen reader users By : Trenton Moss
Simply ensuring your website is accessible to screen reader users is unfortunately not enough to ensure these users can find what they're looking for in a reasonably quick and efficient manner. Even if your site is accessible to screen reader users, its usability could be so incredibly poor that they needn't have bothered coming to your site. Fortunately, there are plenty of simple-to-implement guidelines you can follow, which not only drastically improve usability for screen reader users, but for all web users: 1.
Article Related to: usability, accessibility, web usability, web credibility, web accessibility, css, website, accessible web design

12). User-centered design (UCD) - 6 methods By : Tim Fidgeon
User-centered design (UCD) is a project approach that puts the intended users of a site at the centre of its design and development. It does this by talking directly to the user at key points in the project to make sure the site will deliver upon their requirements. The stages are carried out in an iterative fashion, with the cycle being repeated until the project's usability objectives have been attained.
Article Related to: usability, accessibility, web usability, web credibility, web accessibility, css, website, accessible web design

13). 8 Guidelines For Usability Testing By : Tim Fidgeon
In professional web design circles, the usability testing session has become an essential component of any major project. Similar to focus groups in brand development and product launches, usability testing offers a rare opportunity to receive feedback from the very people the website is aimed at - before it's too late to do anything about it. But how can you get the most from these usability testing sessions? 1.
Article Related to: usability, accessibility, web usability, web credibility, web accessibility, css, website, accessible web design

14). The Secret Benefit Of Accessibility Part 2: A Higher Search Engine Ranking By : Trenton Moss
An additional benefit of website accessibility is an improved performance in search engines. The more accessible it is to search engines, the more accurately they can predict what the site's about, and the higher your site will appear in the rankings. Not all of the accessibility guidelines will help with your search engine rankings, but there are certainly numerous areas of overlap: 1.
Article Related to: usability, accessibility, web usability, web credibility, web accessibility, css, website, accessible web design

15). The Secret Benefit Of Accessibility Part 1: Increased Usability By : Trenton Moss
Web accessibility has so many benefits that I really do wonder why such a large number of websites have such diabolically bad accessibility. One of the main benefits is increased usability, which according to usability guru, Jakob Nielson, can increase the sales/conversion rate of a website by 100% and traffic by 150%. At which point you must surely be asking, "So if I make my website accessible its usability will increase and I'll make more money out of it?".
Article Related to: usability, accessibility, web usability, web credibility, web accessibility, css, website, accessible web design

16). How to Choose a Shopping Cart Program By : Horace Lai
Using the right shopping cart program can have a drastic effect on the success of your e-business. If you have a poorly designed shopping cart system, you will lose customers regardless of how great your website is. Consider the factors below when choosing your ideal shopping cart. How many items do you have to sell? Many people make the mistake of using shopping carts when there are only a couple of products being sold on the website.
Article Related to: shopping carts, shopping cart program, shopping cart system, choose shopping cart, choose items to buy, buy from website, website user interface, usability, website usability, usability easiness

17). Benefits Of An Accessible Website: Part 1 - Increase In Reach By : Trenton Moss
The DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) states that service providers must not discriminate against disabled people. A website is regarded as a service and therefore falls under this law, and as such must be made accessible to everyone. Some organisations are making accessibility improvements to their websites, but many are seemingly not making the accessibility adjustments.
Article Related to: usability, accessibility, web usability, web credibility, web accessibility, css, website, accessible web design

18). Search Engine Results and the PDF USER TRAP By : Craig Geis
This article pertains to a potential usability issue of using PDF files on a website and offers suggestions on how to prevent this from happening.
Article Related to: pdf, usability, user friendly, articles

19). The DRC Blew It By : Trenton Moss
The DRC (Disability Rights Commission) recently announced the results of their year-long investigation into the accessibility of 1000 websites. The DRC's report (http://www.drc-gb.org/publicationsandreports/2.pdf) concluded that most websites are highly inaccessible, with over 81% not even meeting basic standards of accessibility. There's been a wave of publicity surrounding the DRC announcement, with national press such as The Times reporting on the story.
Article Related to: usability, accessibility, web usability, web credibility, web accessibility, css, website, accessible web design

20). Website content & usability By : Trenton Moss
Writing for the web is totally different to writing for printed matter. We tend to scan content on the web hunting for the information we're after, as opposed to reading word-for-word. As a result of this, there are certain guidelines you should be sure to follow when writing copy for your website: 1. Use clear and simple language Reading from computer screens is tiring for the eyes and about 25% slower than reading from printed matter.
Article Related to: usability, accessibility, web usability, web credibility, web accessibility, css, website, accessible web design

21). Good Links: 7 guidelines how to improve usability By : raoul dobal
How you write and design your links is crucial to your visitors clicking them or not. Write them badly and they leave, write them well and they stay. Who knows, they might even do exactly that what you created your site for. Following are 7 guidelines how links should be written to improve the usability of your site. Do it consistently Visitors learn for example how a website marks the links or where the "related-content box" can be found.
Article Related to: link creation, usability, writing, online authoring, web

22). Increasing Traffic Conversion Rates By : Poyel Nelson
Web Marketing all too often exclusively focuses on acquiring traffic. However, traffic alone does not guarantee any income; it is the conversion from a casual visitor into paying customer that generates money. This article sheds light on factors increasing conversion rates on websites.
Article Related to: internet traffic, conversion rate, web marketing, make money online, usability

23). Getting Web Site Landing Pages Right By : Poyel Nelson
Getting web site landing pages right ultimately determines the success of a web site. This article offers some considerations to improve the effectiveness of landing pages.
Article Related to: landing page, usability, conversion, web site, make money online, internet marketing

24). Usability; The Future Of SEO? By : Thomas Pretty
A look at how usability of a site can be as important as efficient SEO services.
Article Related to: seo, seo industry, seo methods, usability