Readings for Week #5

Why should I make my web site more accessible? How can I make my web site more accessible?
How do users actually view your website?

Readings on Usability and Accessibility

1. CNN Article on Web Accessibility
2. "How we really use the Web," a chapter from Steve Krug's wonderful book, Don't Make Me Think!
3. Jakob Nielsen's "Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2003" and "Ten Most Violated Homepage Design Guidelines"

Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools

1. The Wave - http://wave.webaim.org/
2. Cynthia Says Report - http://www.cynthiasays.com/
3. Why 'Bobby Approved' is not Enough - http://www.evolt.org/article/Why_Bobby_Approved_is_not_Enough/4090/9278/
4. For IE/Windows only - The web Accessibility Toolbar -
   http://www.visionaustralia.org.au/ais/toolbar/
   

The 10-Second Usability test

I often refer to this disabling of CSS as the "10-second usability test." This is most definitely not a scientific method for determining the true usability of a site, but by taking away the design, you'll find it easier to get a handle on how the core of this page is going to be presented to the world.

If the browser or device happens to NOT support CSS, the page's design goes away, but the content and functionality remains. Think: phones, PDA's hand-held computers, small-screened devices, screen-reading software, and text-only browsers. Although some of these may support the user of style sheets in some capacity, many do not.

The Dig Dug Test

A quick integrity test of a designs can be easily achieved by bumping up and down the text size using the browser's controls to see the the page reacts.

Lynx testing http://www.delorie.com/web/lynxview.html

This service allows web authors to see what their pages will look like (sort of) when viewed with Lynx, a text-mode web browser.

FireBug

Fire bug http://getfirebug.com is a browser extension for Firefox that provides an interface designer a magnifying glass into the HTML, CSS and JavaScript of any page on the Web.