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Web Design & Usability

Web design and usability issues are critical considerations if you are building or specifying a website. Navigation, clarity, download speed and colours are all important. So is making your web site accessible to people with disabilities.

The resouces on this page have been selected to cover a wide range of design and usability issues.

Links to Web Design and Usability Sites

• AgeLight Institute - Guidelines written for webmasters, communicators and marketers to assist with website design for maximum usability for seniors and older internet users.
• AnyBrowser.com - The place to find out how to make your web site viewable, usable and informative for the majority of your visitors. Their web page viewer allows you to see your page as it might be seen by visitors with different browsers.
• Bobby - Online testing of your site to see if it meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
• Daily Blooper - Showcases examples of poor web interface design from real web sites. The aim is to teach good (user-centered) design by showing what not to do.
• eShopability - Provides design and usability information and advice on how to convert browsers into buyers and keep them, analysis and trends. Free fortnightly newsletter.
• Home of the GUIguy® - GUI Design and Usability consulting for Windows applications and Web sites. Classes and seminars available emphasizing usability, GUI design, web site design.
• HTML Style Issues - Alan Flavell discusses HTML usability and provides links to many style and usability sites.
• JavaScript and Web Site Usability - An Interview with JavaScript Guru, Mr. Danny Goodman on how JavaScript can make a web site easier to use.
• Navigation 101 - A simple, understandable navigation scheme is a critical aspect of site design and has a direct effect on the bottom line.
• Royal National Institute for the Blind: Hints for designing accessible websites - A guide to some of the basic issues to consider in order to create web pages which are accessible to everyone.
• Something 4 Nothing Web Pages - Tips for building pages which are visually pleasing, and yet still download quickly and make information easy to access. From Webdeveloper.com.
• Stickygoo - An educational and commentary site for anyone interested in the improvement of customer experience and usability on the Web.
• A Style Guide for Those With No Style - Crafting A Nifty Personal Web Site: Basic tips on building web pages. Especially useful is the section on "How Not To Be Annoying", (aka Make It Usable!).
• 100 Things to Do to Make a Better Site - List of several (actually, eight) ways to make a more user-friendly site. Also has other reader comments on the same topic.
• Usable Web   - Collection of links and accompanying information about human factors, user interface issues, and usable design specific to the World Wide Web.
• Useit.com - Jakob Nielsen shares his thoughts on usability.
• Web Pages That Suck - Learn good web page design by looking at bad web pages.