Week 6

During these two chapters, the main focus was really on giving the user what they are looking for, and understanding how important it is to make sure your webpage is accessible. You want to give your user what they are looking for! There is no question about this. Your user is visiting your site for a reason, so provide them with what they want, and need. Something important to remember is to provide them with the information they want, and do not hide any details you may want to. This includes prices and what not. Your user wants to find things upfront, so make it easier for them. You are the designer. The next chapter talked about accessibility. This is important because not everyone is the same. There are many different disabilities out there, and there are plenty of web users of that sort. You can't neglect any user, so keep that in mind! Remembering accessibility is the right thing to do. In the book there was a link he recommended we read, http://redish.net/content/papers/interactions.html.

Some key points he made in chapter 11 were:

1.     fix the usability problems that confuse everyone

a.     test it often

2.     read an article 

a.     blind listen with their ears

3.     read a book

a.     building accessible websites by joe clark

b.     constructing accessible websites by jim thatcher et al

c.      maximum accessibility: making your website more usable for everyone by john slatin and sharron rush

4.     Start using cascading style sheets

a.     CSS Zen Garden!

b.     Learn by watching someone do a markover for you

5.     Go for the low-hanging fruit

a.     Add appropriate alt text to every image

b.     Make your forms work with screen readers

c.      Create a “skip to main content” link at the beginning of each page

d.     Make all content accessible by keyboard

e.     Don’t use javascript without a good reason

f.      Use client-side (not server-side) image maps