| Adhering to 'better practice' development techniques | | | | Keeping your site real estate compact will therefore |
| such as CSS will go a long way to improving your | | | | help to deliver things in short bursts and will also |
| site's usability potential. While not necessarily ensuring | | | | ensure that important navigational controls are always |
| a more user-centred design, this will be beneficial to | | | | clearly visible. |
| the kind of regular maintenance you may need to | | | | Guiding visitors effectively around the site has to be |
| perform on your pages. | | | | considered a priority, and requires a narrative |
| The great thing about using style sheets in particular | | | | structure that reassures the user as they go about |
| is that you don't have to rip out inline tag formatting | | | | their business. This needn't demand much from a |
| to tweak how everything looks or behaves. | | | | coding perspective, and can easily be achieved with a |
| Remember that the production formula for a 100 per | | | | good use of headings and a consistent instructional |
| cent usable site that will never require any changes | | | | voice. However, more sophisticated aids like |
| certainly hasn't been found as yet, and you'll more | | | | dedicated help or FAQ pages will go a long way to |
| than likely want to gradually hone a live design in | | | | raising user confidence if things go awry. |
| accordance with user response. CSS will provide | | | | You might also want to consider the implementation |
| much of the flexibility needed this without going all | | | | of dynamic tools like rollover tips or info dialogs. |
| the way back to the drawing board, while also | | | | JavaScript driven layers are perfect for quickly |
| enabling you to explore other avenues of user | | | | realising these kinds of features, with many online |
| provision and support. | | | | code libraries happy to let you download the listings |
| A popular solution in accessibility circles is to build | | | | with no fuss at all. As long as you remember to stick |
| multiple style sheets into the design of every page | | | | to the established conventions that characterise most |
| so that colours, layouts and text styles can be | | | | of the interfaces your users will be familiar with, it's |
| switched to suit the needs of a diverse audience. | | | | unlikely your designs will go far wrong. |
| This can also be a technique for improving usability, | | | | The Road Ahead |
| because it gives more choice and control over how | | | | As far as navigation goes, the roots of how well it |
| the user views the site itself. Rather than focusing | | | | works should be traceable to the planning put into |
| merely on making content more legible for disabled | | | | the original site map. It's here that you should have |
| visitors, the logical extension of this idea would be to | | | | ironed out any inadequacies in the way page links are |
| mirror the many usability mechanisms that feature | | | | structured, before translating it for real. But this isn't |
| within an Operating System such as Windows. | | | | to say that errors or oversights won't be made |
| The desktop metaphor has continued to evolve in a | | | | during the practical process. |
| direction that makes the personalisation of a | | | | Take advantage of Dreamweaver's built in checking |
| workspace paramount, with menus, interface | | | | and reporting tools for analysing link tags, browser |
| schemes, wallpapers and icons all able to be tailored | | | | support, code syntax and spelling. The last thing any |
| independently. This has resulted in an environment | | | | designer wants to do is lose visitors to bad links or |
| that isn't constrained by one universal view, and can | | | | find the flow is interrupted by a page loophole that |
| be adapted to meet the needs of different | | | | can't be escaped. |
| workloads, moods, tastes, requirements and abilities. | | | | In this instance, alternative routes of navigation may |
| Translating this kind of capability onto the Web may | | | | prove both beneficial and more troublesome as you |
| not be the simplest trick in the world, but the | | | | increase the site's complexity. Giving visitors a |
| potential for letting users configure a design that | | | | number of different pathways to the same |
| works best for them shouldn't be overlooked. | | | | destination is sure to give you a bigger headache, but |
| Role Playing Games | | | | the impact on usability will be immeasurable. Visitors |
| Anyone familiar with 'user centred design' will know | | | | will appreciate the option of either leaping to the info |
| that working with 'personas', of pen portraits of | | | | directly or taking a more roundabout journey when |
| potential users, helps you apply abstract principles of | | | | casually surfing. |
| Web usability to a site. Personas are also great for | | | | This is something that a good many commercial sites, |
| translating accessibility guidelines, because they force | | | | and particularly search engines, will do whenever they |
| you to think about how your target users, including | | | | decide a general revamp is called for. Kelkoo's recent |
| those who are blind or unable to use a mouse, would | | | | re jig to their pan European domains made a real |
| perform the most common or crucial tasks within | | | | point of cutting back on the number of pages |
| your site, such as ~gating a menu or checking out an | | | | shoppers would have to traverse to reach the |
| order. Of course, it's only an approximation of how all | | | | products they wanted. By allowing direct keyword |
| people use the Web, but by having these issues in | | | | searches, along with general category fishing, multiple |
| mind when you start building pages, you're less likely | | | | results listings and the selection of suggested items |
| to end up with messy 'retrofits' to include further | | | | from their database, they consciously thought about |
| usability or accessibility features. | | | | how best to cater for their market, and have gone |
| Holding The Users Hand | | | | some way to improve usability in the process. |
| Many of the most basic practical design tips are | | | | Access All Areas |
| actually the most important when it comes to | | | | There are still too many misconceptions surrounding |
| usability. Apart from developing solutions for the | | | | Web accessibility. it isn't just a 'disabled thing', it's not |
| specific expectations of the users you're trying to | | | | simply a question of providing text only alternatives, |
| target, it will be equally important to ensure that | | | | and most of all it doesn't mean sacrificing the look |
| nobody gets lost among all the content. | | | | and feel of your site. if done properly, the result is a |
| Doing your best to counteract this can range from | | | | site that's easier to maintain, leaner on bandwidth, |
| remembering to give every page an accurate and | | | | and will evolve gracefully as the Web itself continues |
| appropriate title, to carefully modularising everything | | | | to evolve and widen its scope. |
| into more palatable sections. Text heavy content | | | | Think of accessibility as the next stage of evolution, |
| should be presented in a way that pushes the most | | | | reflecting the ever widening reach of the Web and |
| valuable info to the fore without battling of | | | | the maturation of browser technology. The online |
| overwhelming anyone. | | | | world these days is far more representative of the |
| Similarly, you'd be surprised how easy it is to lose | | | | offline world, and the special circumstances of many |
| novice users when pages extend beyond the length | | | | users can't be ignored. At the same time, the |
| of the screen. Many people fail to realise that the | | | | coalescence of browser standards, especially CSS, |
| browser's scrollbar is there to help gain access to | | | | means it's possible to create sites that adapt to |
| document areas that otherwise would be ignored. | | | | personal circumstances and preferences. |