Newsletter issue #33 - 1st December 2006
This issue
Hello and welcome to the December edition of the Webcredible newsletter!
In this issue:
- Feature article: Expert usability review vs. usability testing
- Top tip: Don't embed text within images
- Useful program: Total Validator
- Top link: Ecommerce usability for high street retailers report
- New articles in November
- Webcredible news in November
Enjoy!
Feature article: Expert usability review vs. usability testing
In the usability world there are two ways of evaluating an existing website: expert usability reviews and usability testing. But what's the difference? And which one's better? All is revealed in this month's feature article...
Read this article in full at www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/web-usability/website-review.shtml.
Top tip: Don't embed text within images
Nowadays there's usually no need to embed text within images, as advanced effects can easily be created with CSS and background images. The only real reason for embedding text within images is if you absolutely have to use a specific font that site visitors are very unlikely to have on their computers. Do think twice about doing this though, as usually users don't care which font you use to display text and there are a number of benefits of avoiding embedding text within images:
- Better accessibility Text embedded within images can cause real problems for users with poor vision. These users will be unable to resize or reformat the text as it's embedded within the image, and the text may appear blurry and pixelated in a screen magnifier. (Contrary to popular belief, provided it has good ALT text, this is no problem at all for screen reader users.)
- Improved search engine ranking Search engines can't understand text embedded within images. They can read ALT text for images but place very little importance on ALT text as it's been so heavily abused in the past by unethical website owners. This is a particularly important point if navigation and/or headings (two of the most important items for search engine optimisation) are text embedded within images.
- Quicker download speeds An image can be up to 1000 times larger in file size than its text equivalent. Use lots of images on the page (when you could have used text) and the download speed of the page will obviously be far slower than it need be. With almost one third of UK users still on dial-up connections don't underestimate the importance of this.
Useful program: Total Validator
Total Validator is a free all-in-one HTML, accessibility, spelling and broken links validator. It also lets you take screenshots with different browsers to see what your web pages really look like.
You can download this handy program from www.totalvalidator.com.
Top link: Ecommerce usability for high street retailers report
Our latest web usability report assesses the websites of 20 of the UK's most popular high street retailers. The report outlines 20 essential guidelines that all ecommerce websites should adhere to and was even reviewed on the BBC website.
Check out this site at www.webcredible.co.uk/highstreet.
New articles in November
Read this and many other articles at www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources.
Webcredible news in November
- BBC and many others report on our latest research
- Ecommerce usability for high street retailers report available
- Two new Webcredibles cartoons go live
- Webcredible writes for New Media Age
- New viewing options available for this website
Read these news stories in full at www.webcredible.co.uk/about-us/latest-news.shtml.
Training courses
Courses continue to sell out well in advance! Our next training courses will take place in our training centre in Aldgate, London in December and December:
- Usability testing training - Monday 4th December. For more information and to reserve your place before it fills up please consult our usability testing training page.
- Writing for the web training - Tuesday 5th December & Tuesday 16th January. For more information and to reserve your place before it fills up please consult our writing for the web training page.
- Web usability training - Wednesday 6th December & Wednesday 17th January. For more information and to reserve your place before it fills up please consult our web usability training page.
- Web accessibility training - Thursday 7th December & Thursday 18th January. For more information and to reserve your place before it fills up please consult our web accessibility training page.
- Advanced CSS training - Friday 10th December & Friday 19th January. For more information and to reserve your place before it fills up please consult our advanced CSS training page.
About Webcredible
Based in London, UK, Webcredible is a user experience consultancy. Tailor-made usability, accessibility & design solutions include:
- User-centered design
- Accessible web design
- CMS services
- Usability
- Accessibility
- Training
- Website review lite
Please contact us on 0870 242 6095 or info at webcredible.co.uk, or consult www.webcredible.co.uk for further information.