WebWord

Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud is, without any doubt, the best book I’ve ever read on the topic of comic books. It is a masterpiece.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki is also an excellent book. While most people would call it a book on personal finance I would call it a book on […]

OK/Cancel — “If our process is too usability heavy, we are not able to explore the space widely enough. The testing prematurely optimizes on a region and we end up doing many design tweaks, but comparatively few significant changes. If our process is too design heavy, we can zip all around the space, but there’s […]

Adaptive Path (Jesse James Garrett) — “An Ajax application eliminates the start-stop-start-stop nature of interaction on the Web by introducing an intermediary — an Ajax engine — between the user and the server.”
I don’t think “Ajax” will gain much traction however I think it might spawn some excellent discussions on the usability of web applications. […]

evolt — “We don’t need to use only boring colors or limit our designs to imitations of Jakob Nielsen’s UseIt. Once the problem is better defined, talented designers can come up with their creative solutions. So with that goal in mind, let’s review the research on color and accessibility—from theory and practice to testing and […]

Cool Home Pages — “If the site has strong usability, more people will notice how great the design is because they won’t be wasting time trying to figure out how the site works.”
Interesting point of view. This is thinking of usability as a subtractive force. That is, usability removes barriers leaving the important stuff in […]

“Ian Peacock explores how the fonts we choose are sending secret subliminal messages about who we are. The fonts we dress our words in are arguably as much of a fashion statement as the clothes we wear.”
Learn more and then listen…

Apple vs. Napster

I’m getting a lot of traffic from courses.help.com, which is run by CNET. Unfortunately, I can’t get into the classes to see the class content or the links to WebWord.

Check them out…

“Practicing SEM [Search Engine Marketing] without addressing usability issues is like buying ad space during the Super Bowl and then turning the lights off. It’s hard to do business when your customers can’t find what you’re selling”
Read the article…

“Howtoons are one-page cartoons showing 5-to-15 year-old kids “How To” build things. Each illustrated episode is a stand-alone fun adventure accessible to all, including the pre-literate.”
Slick.
Visit the site…

Business Logs — “Difficulties arise when performing usability tests on subjects who are very familiar with their scenario and can breeze right through it based on learned interaction sequences. When you stop attending to the interface you are using and simply go on subconscious learned activities, the usability testing (and eye-tracking) is now biased and […]