Newsletter issue #53 - 1st August 2008
This issue
Hello and welcome to the August edition of the Webcredible newsletter!
In this issue:
- Feature article: User interviews - A basic introduction
- Top tip: Allow text to gracefully (and legibly) resize
- Useful program: WebAnywhere
- Top link: The Wayback Machine
- New articles in July
- Webcredible news in July
Enjoy!
Feature article: User interviews - A basic introduction
It's surprising how few people have a real understanding of who's using their site. You can collect demographic data on your site visitors but to really know your users you must have direct contact with them. Knowing your users means you know what to do to keep them happy and returning to your site. This month's feature article offers a basic introduction to user interviews - a great way to gain insights into user behaviour and help improve the usability of your site.
Read this article in full at www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/web-usability/user-interviews.shtml.
Top tip: Allow text to gracefully (and legibly) resize
One of the first accessibility guidelines we all learn is that text needs to be resizable. This isn't enough though, as text can often overlap or disappear when resized, as well as the page becoming difficult to use. Follow these tips and your site will work for all users, regardless of whether or not they resize text.
- Use minimum heights When resized, text can often overlap on to below items. This is usually caused by containers having fixed heights assigned to them, so the resized text spills out of its container. By using minimum heights instead of fixed heights, containers will increase in height when text size increases, pushing the below content downwards and avoiding any overlap.
- Avoid horizontal scrolling Web users generally hate scrolling horizontally - this of course includes users that resize text, so do try to avoid forcing them to scroll left and right (at least for the first 2-3 resizes). Horizontal scrolling is usually caused by containers having their widths specified in variable units such as em, meaning that when text increases the widths also increase.
- Use background colours with background images When light text on a dark background image is increased, the text can sometimes spill out over the background image as it becomes larger. This can cause the light text to be on a regular white background and become illegible. The simple solution is to use a dark background colour, so when the background image finishes the dark background colour will go behind the rest of the light text.
- Provide a visible font resizer Getting users to resize text through a visible font resizer is far preferable to them doing it through their browser (for you anyway). A visible font resizer essentially pulls in another stylesheet that specifies larger font sizes. It can however also specify increased heights and widths to allow for the larger text, meaning you have total control over the page design when the text is resized.
- Don't embed text within images Text embedded within images can't be resized by users. If any key content on your web pages is text within images then do convert this to real text, if possible.
Useful program: WebAnywhere
WebAnywhere is a web-based screen reader that requires no special software. This means that blind people can access the web from any computer without having to pay for and download software on to that computer.
Download this useful program at webanywhere.cs.washington.edu
Top link: The Wayback Machine
Can't remember how your website used to look? The Wayback Machine lets you browse through 85 billion web pages archived from 1996, up to a few months ago.
Check it out at www.archive.org/web/web.php.
New articles in July
Read these and many other articles at www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources.
Webcredible news in July
- Webcredible appoints PR and marketing manager
- Council report available for free download
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 September, October & November:
- Web writing training - Monday 21st September, Monday 6th October & Monday 3rd November. For more information and to reserve your place before it fills up please consult our intermediate web writing training page.
- Web usability training - Tuesday 2nd September, Tuesday 7th October & Tuesday 4th November. For more information and to reserve your place before it fills up please consult our web usability training page.
- Usability testing training - Wednesday 3rd September, Wednesday 8th October & Wednesday 5th November. For more information and to reserve your place before it fills up please consult our usability testing training page.
- Web accessibility training - Wednesday 3rd September, Wednesday 8th October & Wednesday 5th November. For more information and to reserve your place before it fills up please consult our web accessibility training page.
- Intermediate CSS training - Thursday 4th September, Thursday 9th October & Thursday 6th November. For more information and to reserve your place before it fills up please consult our intermediate CSS training page.
- Advanced CSS training - Friday 5th September, Friday 10th October & Friday 7th November. 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 research
- User-centered design
- Accessible CSS web design
- Training courses & support
- Website reviews
- Usability lab hire
Please contact us on 020 7423 6320 or info at webcredible.co.uk, or consult www.webcredible.co.uk for further information.
