.NET mag is a magazine which I but every month. Well calling it a magazine makes it sound cheap and tacky and it is anything but that. .NET is mainly aimed at the web development/design community and is always full of rich content. Don’t mistake this with an advertisement as its not what I do. As you may know if you have read any of my previous blogs one of my main interests in web development is Accessibility and Usability.
This months issue contained a 7 page article by Dr Jacob Nielsen who is a very respected Accessibility and Usability expert. This article is pure gold it goes into many areas of usability. One of the areas Nielsen talks about how people view screens. This does not simply mean using their eyes.
It is talks about eye tracking. Where you look on a web page when you first look at it. Nielsen explains about most people look view websites in a F shape. they Read the top banner followed by the line below it and look down the left side. This is why most websites have navigation horizontally across the top or to the left.
Some interesting statistical figures some up in the article. 64% of the usability issues on websites are because of Findability, Page Design and Information Architecture. These are all things we as developers have full control over and it is us who make the decisions about these areas. I know sometimes we are forced to make bad ones because our clients are set on having a website in a certain way but we should use our knowledge of the web to encourage them to help them self. A very common mistake is using technical terms for navigation. Language you use isn’t likely to be the same language a client uses to try to find an item on your site.
Heres an example: You sell DIY products online someone is looking for wallpaper paste. You may store this under adhesives but a customer would be more than likely be looking for a wallpapering section then a paste section.
Obviously if you were developing an Intranet for your company this would not apply as your staff would be expected to know these technical terms.
Accessibility is becoming a bigger and bigger issue on the web. For years websites have been getting away with discrimination on the internet but this is coming to a halt. Currently their is a Law Suit in America with a large e-commerce website being sued by a blind person on behalf of all the people in America who are blind. This type of lawsuit is going to become more an more common. But we as web developers/designers need to remember a disability isn’t just being in a wheel chair or a clear noticeable disability. Something as simple as being colour blind can be a disability and restrict a person from viewing a badly designed website.
References:
.NET MAG
USA Today Article