Notebook | Web Style Guide

Where's the strategy in higher ed web decision making?

2010-10-16T14:34:29Z

Those of you who are responsible for higher education websites will appreciate this Fast Company article, Why Are Colleges Flunking Web Strategy 101? While it hits hard and perhaps a bit too close for comfort, the author, Jeff Cram, highlights helpful strategies for getting strategy into the decision making process.

Follow me on Twitter: @patrlynch

2010-04-02T00:15:25Z

While I will continue to use this space occasionally for comments tightly linked to the Web Style Guide, see my Twitter posts for most of my daily comments, observations, and link pointers: @patrlynch

New insights on scrolling

2010-03-22T14:42:16Z

"Web users spend 80% of their time looking at information above the page fold. Although users do scroll, they allocate only 20% of their attention below the fold."

The latest usability data on scrolling, from Jakob Nielsen.

Superb visualization of the history of web browsers

2010-01-26T17:10:07Z

Elegant, and informative.

Free first chapter of Peter Morville's new book "Search Patterns"

2010-01-16T16:06:35Z

Peter Morville has released a free copy of the first chapter of his new book Search Patterns, due from O'Reilly in mid-February. Peter's seminars on search patterns are excellent, and I'm really looking forward to getting the new book.

Great free stock image reources

2010-01-12T14:32:10Z

Great free stock image resources, and don't forget WikiMedia Commons as well.

The power of a superb infographic

2010-01-03T17:39:58Z

Everything you need to know about how screwed up our current healthcare system is in the U.S., in one devastating graphic, from National Geographic.

What could kill an elegant, high-value participatory project?

2009-12-31T17:14:44Z

A valuable parable and warning for many kinds of highly participatory enterprise projects like "Web 2.0" blogs and wikis, implementing a CMS, or really any kind of project that aims at changing the behaviors of large numbers of people. Even a project that the target audience loves may be doomed without adequate logistics and staff support.

A great philosophy on image making

2009-12-31T17:07:13Z

"The best camera is the one you have with you." Agreed. Some of my best photos were taken with equipment that photo gearheads would sneer at.

Three great resources for diagram junkies

2009-12-24T16:33:13Z

The language of strategic design

2009-11-17T02:28:35Z

In my second article on research-directed design I discuss the importance of establishing a project definition, with a defined purpose, goals, target audience, and success metrics, before diving into wireframes, navigation, and especially visual design.

User research makes for better design decisions

2009-11-10T01:26:52Z

There was a point in my career as a designer of interfaces when I realized that my role was not to divine or intuit designs that would be delightful and easy to use, and for all people. My role was to ask questions and make observations, and then, from knowledge gained from this research, derive solutions. For me this realization was liberating, as my constitution was never one that would lead me to believe that I have all the right answers.

In my experience, many of the people who are put in the position of making design decisions about websites and user interfaces feel unprepared, particularly in the area of visual design. Recently I started a series of articles geared toward this audience of accidental website designers on Peachpit.com. I call the series "research directed design," and my hope is that widespread adoption of a few, simple, low-cost research techniques will result in more confident website designers making better informed design decisions, leading to a better web experience all around.

Please have a look at my first article, Why Research-Directed Website Design Will Make Your Website Better, and share your feedback here or on the Peachpit site.

WebAIM Screen Reader User Survey Results

2009-11-06T13:52:23Z

WebAIM is an amazing resource for web designers who are concerned with the accessibility of their designs — optimistically speaking, all web designers! They do the hard work of research and testing to determine best practices for universal usability, and then publish their findings for our benefit.

One of their most useful projects is the screen reader user survey. Many of us designing websites do not have ready access to or facility with screen reader software, or know screen reader users who can test our designs. This makes the WebAIM screen reader user survey especially helpful in determining best practices for designing for screen reader users. The results of this survey provide insights into, for example, when to provide alt text for images and when to leave it off, or whether to provide "skip" links.

Many thanks to WebAM for their work in "expanding the web's potential for people with disabilities."

Long-tail distribution in the real world

2009-10-27T17:25:18Z

We mention long-tail phenomena often in the latest version of the Web Style Guide, so I thought I'd post these analyses from the Wharton School and from author Chris Anderson on real-world distribution data from Netflix. The long tail indisputably exists - the core question is how much should you base a business or content strategy on the availability of seldom-used products or content.

This isn't just a business problem: it's the crux of the issue for the fate of large university libraries, for example. How many books must remain on our (expensive) shelves to remain a credible research institution, and how many could be more economically warehoused offsite?

An excellent summary of An Event Apart-Chicago

2009-10-17T13:23:51Z

Great summary write-ups on the talks, with useful links.