25 Excellent Usability/UX Articles and Resources

Today I thought I’d share some of the most valuable usability and user experience articles and resources I know, in a somewhat wild mix. Since there’s presumably enough to read and talk about later, please welcome a few great articles and research papers…

Published on March 30, 2007, filed under Development and Design.

Photos Make Websites More Credible

An important finding of Stanford University’s work regarding web credibility is that photos can make websites more credible. A study by B.J. Fogg et al. showed how “a photograph of an author had significant effects on how people perceived [credibility]”…

Published on March 28, 2007, filed under Development and Design.

CSS Practice: Namespaces in Complex Projects

Working in complex projects or in projects that don’t provide a good overview of forthcoming page types and elements may require a defensive strategy for writing CSS. Such a defensive strategy rests on certain safety measures to ensure better maintainability…

Published on March 21, 2007, filed under Development.

Why I Love DreamHost

No kidding. Unconditional love. Almost.

Published on March 13, 2007, filed under Development.

“Valid CSS” and Similar Claims Are Unprofessional

You know them. “Valid CSS” here, “Valid HTML” there, complemented by a “WAI AA” button. When these website claims hold true, that’s a great thing. Unfortunately, these conformance and quality claims have no place on professional websites.

Published on March 9, 2007, filed under Development.

Hire Only Web Designers With a Website

…is a good rule of thumb when you need a web designer or developer. Though it’s not necessarily the most important criterion, the benefits are obvious. Web designers who also own websites are more likely to be close to the medium…

Published on March 6, 2007, filed under Development and Design.

HTML: Semantics of “title” Element Content

I already proposed this in October 2005 but see the need to bring it up again: It would be useful to allow other elements within the title of an HTML document. Why? You otherwise cannot mark abbreviations and other flow content elements, which means their meaning gets lost…

Published on February 26, 2007, filed under Development.

Print Style Sheets: The Basics (for No Excuses)

There are no excuses for not having at least a simple print style sheet. If you’re already on the web standards track, things are simple.

Published on February 21, 2007, filed under Development.

Weird Weekend Without Happy End: Eggebek, Flensburg, Denmark, Bremen

To be a bit more transparent to my valued readers: a brief account of a not quite optimal weekend of mine.

Published on February 18, 2007, filed under Adventure.

Word Division: On “word-break,” Soft Hyphens, and Zero-Width Spaces

Word breaks and hyphenation are sometimes a problem when it comes to little available space but long words: The longer the word and the less space available, the more a layout is at risk. English appears to be less affected than other languages, but…

Published on February 8, 2007, filed under Development.

Why “Conditional Comments” Are Bad, Repeat: Bad

“Conditional Comments” are inadvisable to use. They contradict the goal of separating structure from presentation, and because of that they will hurt you one day.

Published on February 1, 2007, filed under Development.

QA: On Errors, and Why Paying for Errors Pays Off

A pseudo-scientific approach to improve websites and services, and that is applicable almost anywhere.

Published on January 20, 2007, filed under Development and Everything Else.

1 + 1 = 3: Explaining Busyness and Background Noise on Websites

“1 + 1 = 3 (or more)” is an important design effect described by Josef Albers and Edward Tufte. It means that two elements in close proximity cause a visible interaction…

Published on January 18, 2007, filed under Design.

Web Design: 15 Important Research Findings You Should Know

A small selection of research findings related to web design, usability, and accessibility, most of them obtained from Human Factors International. With some of them being known, others may add to the understanding of our profession.

Published on January 13, 2007, filed under Development and Design.

Internet Explorer Filter or Hack Using Character Escapes

Searching for a valid and “safe” way to circumnavigate an ugly layout problem in Internet Explorer I discovered the following filter that does not work in [IE ≤6].

Published on January 9, 2007, filed under Development.

Evangelists, Focus on Standard Ad Code

On the quality of online ad code, and what we could do.

Published on January 7, 2007, filed under Development.

“nofollow” Still Considered Harmful

Well, nofollow is crap.

Published on January 6, 2007, filed under Development.