Usability & Accessibility Archive

During a workshop on accessibility and WAI yesterday, the issue of proper use of HTML headings came up.

Lots of sites fall short when it comes to using HTML headings (and other elements) properly, something that can affect accessibility, search engine ranking, as well as code maintenance [not to forget future re-use on the grand Semantic Web].

How - and where - to properly use the elements might not always be that clear, and some of the questions raised during the discussion can be rephrased as:

• Do all web sites/documents have a clearly defined heading?
• Do all documents have to specify a H1?
  
• Is it really OK to put the logo inside H1?

What follows is my 2 cents on the subject.

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Scientific Web Design: 23 Actionable Lessons from Eye-Tracking Studies.

I wonder how many of Windows Live Hotmail’s members knows how to delete the temporary Internet files in their browser’s cache.

“What’s ‘cache’, anyways?”, I’m sure thousands of users ask themselves.

Screen shot of Windows Live Hotmail not loading.

Haha! They brought this one on themselves.

(I still remember the e-mails we used to receive at Lingo)

Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think, a quick and good read btw, made me aware of an article entitled Guidelines for Accessible and Usable Web Sites: Observing Users Who Work.

The article gives good insight into why it is important to do things right on the front end (Norwegian literates should read Kuttisme.no’s checklist on good quality UIs).

Recently, we’ve been searching for a new place to live. Apart from the sky-high prices ($350.000 - $400.000 or so for 700-800ft apartments), what has come to annoy me is the lack of functionality on Norway’s leading online marketplace (where we search for apartments to look at in-person). (more…)

Earlier this week, Jakob Nielsen claimed that “Web 2.0 is making web firms neglect the basics of good design“.

Guess the nice looking web 2.0 logos (joke, yes), fancy icons and shiny colors weren’t enough? Shooot!

Other interesting reads:

• Web 2.0 Usability.
• Web Application Page Hierarchy.

The lack of self-awareness and usable solutions, even for large companies or public sectors / -providers, is sometimes astonishing.

We just recently bought our first car. Since it’s quite common that you have to pay toll when driving on Norwegian high (and low) ways, we signed up for a service called AutoPass. Being an AutoPass subscriber, you can pass through all of Norway’s AutoPass toll posts without having to stop (you also get a discount). The alternative is to pay by coins — perhaps multiple times a day.

Signing up on-line wasn’t very easy, though. (more…)