1. Use clean CSS (cascading style sheets) codes
2. If websites are built on a dynamic platform, make sure that your Content Management System is search engine friendly
3. Keep your codes clean by calling all java scripts and CSS using an include file
4.Use keyword rich H1 TAGS
5.Use ALT Tags for images to enable your site to be read by visitors with visual/hearing impairments and name all your images keyword rich
6. Keep the download time low by reducing images on the site
7. Float the content right at the top and make it easy for the crawler to index your page
8. Make sure phone numbers and address are on every page as text
9. Use Absolute Links, no relative links
10. Check for browser compatibility so the site appears the same across all platforms
Source : Top 10 Website Programming Guidelines
Friday, November 30, 2007
Monday, November 19, 2007
Great Design Requires Good Listening: Six Keys To Become An Empathic Designer
Design and usability expert Joshua Porter, looks at this very issue and at the traits required to become what one would call "an empathic designer".
How To Be an Empathic Designer
"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.” - Douglas Adams
Part of being a web designer is trying to understand and make sense of how people are using your design. Therefore, being empathic, or having the ability to share and understand the feelings of another, is a valuable trait to have.
The more empathic you are, the more you can understand how people are using your design, how they think and feel about it, and what you need to do to make it great.
But How Do You Become Empathic ?
What if you’re not naturally an empathic person ? Here are a few things I try to keep in mind when I feel like I’m getting too far away from the people I design for.
1) Keep an Open Mind
It is a great irony that the people who claim to have open minds probably have closed ones, and the people who fear most a closed mind probably have the most open ones. But fear in this case is an enabler, as it allows the designer to keep up their energy and watchfulness for something new, something they didn’t understand before, something that is key to the success of their design. Once you have everything figured out, it’s time to stop designing.
2) Realize that People Make Sense to Themselves
No matter what people do, however irrational it may appear, they probably make sense to themselves. So even if they do something that seems completely off the wall, try to understand it, at least from their perspective and in their context. Often this has the effect of changing the way you see what you’re working on, not temporarily but permanently.
3) Take a Partnership Role
Too often we take an expert or specialist role in what we’re doing. This is normal, as it reinforces our need to be there. But if we can take a partnership role, especially with the people who we design for, then we open ourselves up to many more opportunities to learn. This is partly because we are more ready for it, and partly because most people like being in a partnership more than other types of relationships. One of the tricks of usability testing facilitation is to always talk in terms of partnership…as in “we need your help and together we can make this product better”.
4) Keep Truth as a Mistress
President James Garfield said “truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.” I think he was referring to the difficulty that Truth sometimes has in getting into our head. We first observe to fit what we see into what we know, and if it doesn’t fit then we have a choice. We either accept something new or we dismiss it. The more we accept truth, the easier it is to accept the idiosyncrasies of others, and therefore become more empathic toward them.
5) Everybody has a Story to Tell
I’ve got a friend who is as quiet as a mouse. In public situations he rarely says a word. He would probably be horrible to try to design for because he doesn’t say much at all. Getting feedback or insight from him would be like pulling teeth. But once you accept that and let him unfold as he wants to, he becomes an entirely different person. He’s got a story, and an interesting one, and I think most people do, too. Life is interesting! Even if it doesn’t look like it at first.
6) Record Things you Don’t Understand
One of our unfortunate tendencies in life is to dismiss things we don’t understand. We ignore them because we can’t figure them out at the moment. This, however, is the wrong move. Instead, we should take note of them, write them down and perhaps come back to them later.
If we accept that there are things outside of our understanding, then we become more empathic to those who have a different view of the world.
Originally written by Joshua Porter
Source : http://www.masternewmedia.org/interface_and_navigation_design/design-methods/great-design-requires-good-listening-how-to-be-empathic-designer-20071110.htm
How To Be an Empathic Designer
"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.” - Douglas Adams
Part of being a web designer is trying to understand and make sense of how people are using your design. Therefore, being empathic, or having the ability to share and understand the feelings of another, is a valuable trait to have.
The more empathic you are, the more you can understand how people are using your design, how they think and feel about it, and what you need to do to make it great.
But How Do You Become Empathic ?
What if you’re not naturally an empathic person ? Here are a few things I try to keep in mind when I feel like I’m getting too far away from the people I design for.
1) Keep an Open Mind
It is a great irony that the people who claim to have open minds probably have closed ones, and the people who fear most a closed mind probably have the most open ones. But fear in this case is an enabler, as it allows the designer to keep up their energy and watchfulness for something new, something they didn’t understand before, something that is key to the success of their design. Once you have everything figured out, it’s time to stop designing.
2) Realize that People Make Sense to Themselves
No matter what people do, however irrational it may appear, they probably make sense to themselves. So even if they do something that seems completely off the wall, try to understand it, at least from their perspective and in their context. Often this has the effect of changing the way you see what you’re working on, not temporarily but permanently.
3) Take a Partnership Role
Too often we take an expert or specialist role in what we’re doing. This is normal, as it reinforces our need to be there. But if we can take a partnership role, especially with the people who we design for, then we open ourselves up to many more opportunities to learn. This is partly because we are more ready for it, and partly because most people like being in a partnership more than other types of relationships. One of the tricks of usability testing facilitation is to always talk in terms of partnership…as in “we need your help and together we can make this product better”.
4) Keep Truth as a Mistress
President James Garfield said “truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.” I think he was referring to the difficulty that Truth sometimes has in getting into our head. We first observe to fit what we see into what we know, and if it doesn’t fit then we have a choice. We either accept something new or we dismiss it. The more we accept truth, the easier it is to accept the idiosyncrasies of others, and therefore become more empathic toward them.
5) Everybody has a Story to Tell
I’ve got a friend who is as quiet as a mouse. In public situations he rarely says a word. He would probably be horrible to try to design for because he doesn’t say much at all. Getting feedback or insight from him would be like pulling teeth. But once you accept that and let him unfold as he wants to, he becomes an entirely different person. He’s got a story, and an interesting one, and I think most people do, too. Life is interesting! Even if it doesn’t look like it at first.
6) Record Things you Don’t Understand
One of our unfortunate tendencies in life is to dismiss things we don’t understand. We ignore them because we can’t figure them out at the moment. This, however, is the wrong move. Instead, we should take note of them, write them down and perhaps come back to them later.
If we accept that there are things outside of our understanding, then we become more empathic to those who have a different view of the world.
Originally written by Joshua Porter
Source : http://www.masternewmedia.org/interface_and_navigation_design/design-methods/great-design-requires-good-listening-how-to-be-empathic-designer-20071110.htm
Friday, November 2, 2007
Automate Your Design Process with These 13 Tools and Tips
These tools and tips will show you how to quicken your workflow when designing or editing a website.
Quicker Text Editing
Use search and replace so you don’t have to manually open up all those files anymore! Let these programs do that for you.
- TurboSR Search And Replace
This free utility allows you to search through text, .html and xml files and replace text. It works on multiple files too, no need to open each one. - ReplaceEm
ReplaceEm is a search and replace utility that supports multiple files. The best part about this one is that it can use regular expressions. - Search And Replace
Another lightweight and fast text replacement utility. This one allows you to search through and entire folder and choose only certain extensions (html, dll, etc). Requires the .net framework. - TexRep 2.0
TexRep is another text replacement tool, but this one allows you to make copies of the original while replacing text. Handy for when you want to change something but change you mind back.
Put Your Photoshop To Work
Over are the days of opening an image, resizing that image and finally saving. Set Photoshop to run a batch for you and sit back and relax.
- Using The Photoshop Batch Command
If you are unfamiliar with the batch command in Photoshop, this is a good place to start. It breaks down what each option in the batch dialogue means. - How To Batch Rename Files In Photoshop
Using Photoshop’s File Browser (called Bridge in CS3) you can batch rename all your files. Ideal for organizing your images for uploading. - Advanced Batch Processing - Video Tutorial
This video tutorial shows you how to resize an image and add a border with only one action. Any image size is dynamically adjusted to not exceed a certain width (while retaining its aspect ration) and a 3px border is added. - Batch Watermark Images With Different Dimensions/Orientations
Create a watermark and apply it to the same spot on all your iamges, regardless of dimensions and orientation! - SampsonVideos - Image Resizing
This screencast by SampsonVideos shows you how to batch resize a folder of images and export them to another folder, thus preserving your original files.
Appreciate The Little Things In Dreamweaver
Even though I never use the WYSIWYG portion of Dreamweaver, I still find it to be a huge time saver. Find out the ways you too can save time.
- Templates In Dreamweaver
Dreamweaver allows you to create templates. That is, if you start a new document it will retain your site’s structure so all you have to do is decide what content you would like to add. This is a great time-saver. - Dreamweaver’s Search & Replace
This video tutorial will quickly get you up to speed on how to use the powerful search and replace dialogue in Dreamweaver. - Dreamweaver’s Assets Panel
Another video tutorial showing you how you can save time in Dreamweaver using the assets panel. - Setting Up Dreamweaver’s FTP Connection
Adobe’s instructions for connecting to your site’s FTP through Dreamweaver. This is a huge time-save because you can edit and upload within Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver retains your site’s structure so you don’t have to specify and upload folder, you just click “put” and you’re done.
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