Definitive Usability/User Centered Design/Information Architecture resource list

anode · January 22, 2003, 5:42pm

Well, every other forum has one, so I figured I’d get this one kickstarted.

Usability
Usability Grand Poobah Jakob Nielsen
Usability Views - Article Aggregator
Usability News from Wichita State University
Web Developer’s Reference Library- Usability Contains quite a few book excerpts.
Usable Web
WebWord
UsabilityNews
Jeffrey Zeldman’s [i]Daily Report[/i]

User Experience
Good Experience
37 Signals

Accessibility
Joe Clark’s Building Accessible Websites (serialized.)
Dive Into Accessibility
Validate your accessibility guideline compliance with Bobby
Web Accessibility Initiative
Accessify
Web-Savvy
WAVE-Web Accessibilty Validator

Information Architecture

IAWiki
Jesse James Garrett- featuring “The Elements of User Experience” diagram and “Visual Vocabulary” sitemapping standard.
IASlash
Adam Greenfield’s v-2 Organization
Christina Wodtke’s Elegant Hack

Webzines
Digital Web
Evolt
Boxes and Arrows
A List Apart

Mailing Lists
Sigia - L
CHI-WEB
“TheList” at Evolt

And last but not least…
Usability@SitePoint

I know it’s incomplete, but it’s a start.

Daz · January 23, 2003, 9:34am

Accessibility
Web-Savvy
WAVE analysis

JordanG · January 25, 2003, 8:14pm

Usability & User Experience

37signals Resources - Design Not Found, 37Better Project, etc
Evolt’s Usability Directory

lloydi · February 13, 2003, 3:21pm

If I may be so bold, Accessify has a number of tools to make creating accessible pages a little easier:

http://www.accessify.com/tools-and-wizards/default.asp

For usability articles:

http://www.usabilitynews.com/ (obvious)
http://www.usabilityviews.com/latest_by_date.html (links to usability articles)
http://webword.com/index.html (excellent usability blog)

Ian_Glass · February 27, 2003, 8:15am

Don’t forget the Web Accessibility Initiative from the standards people.

~~Ian

anode · February 27, 2003, 9:30am

Original post has been updated. Keep 'em coming!

lkantrov · March 11, 2003, 7:06am

Usability:

[list][*]Croc O’ Lyle - Lyle Kantrovich’s blog (hey, that me!)[][url=http://www.upassoc.org/]UPA - Usability Professional’s Association[][url=http://jthom.best.vwh.net/usability/]The Usability Methods Toolbox[][url=http://www-3.ibm.com/ibm/easy/]IBM’s Ease of Use site[][url=http://world.std.com/~uieweb/index.html]UIE - Jared Spool’s Team[/list]Great Idea - keep it going!

Lyle

marcus · May 2, 2003, 11:58am

Usability

“Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug

http://www.sensible.com/

A must read if you ask me. Easy to read in about five hours and really helps you get your head in the right place regarding usability.

Jixxy · June 2, 2003, 12:43am

BOOKS

Information Architecture for the world wide web

Amazing book and a must read for anyone serious about it.

Webnauts · June 16, 2003, 9:18pm

Some books I would also recommend:

Usability: The Site Speaks for Itself, from Kelly Braun and others
User-Centred Web Design, form John Cato
Web Style Guide, 2nd Edition, from Patrick J. Lynch and Sarah Horton

Webnauts · June 16, 2003, 9:22pm

I would recommend as the best acceessibility free tutorial on the Web:

Free registration required.

Another very valuable tutorial:

Webnauts · June 16, 2003, 9:33pm

Two best links for usability I know on the web are:

National Cancer Institute: http://www.usability.gov

University of Wichita: http://psychology.wichita.edu/optimalweb/default.htm

I have more links like that, if anyone is interested in.

TheOriginalH · June 17, 2003, 3:17pm

More from Webnauts:

10 Web usability tips (HFI): http://www.humanfactors.com/downloads/10tips.asp
Advanced User Interface and Usability: http://www.cre8pc.com/ui_adv.html
Assuring usability: http://www.usability.serco.com/trump/methods/integration/assurance.htm
Cognitive Walkthrough for the Web: http://staff.aist.go.jp/kitajima.muneo/English/PAPERS(E)/CHI2002.html
Cost effective “User Centred Design”: http://www.usability.serco.com/trump/index.htm
Creating a website - step by step: http://www.jessett.com/web_sites/usability/index.shtml
Criteria for optimal web design (SURL): http://psychology.wichita.edu/optimalweb/position.htm
Designing Help Text: http://infocentre.frontend.com/servlet/Infocentre?access=no&page=article&rows=5&id=167
Designing Scalable Interfaces: http://infocentre.frontend.com/servlet/Infocentre?access=no&page=article&rows=5&id=221
Effective Form Design: http://infocentre.frontend.com/servlet/Infocentre?access=no&page=article&rows=5&id=116
First Aid Manual for Usable Flash Sites: http://www.flash99good.com/
How do Develop an Effective GUI Standard: http://www.humanfactors.com/downloads/guistandards.pdf
How to Make a Good Design Brilliant: http://www.coolhomepages.com/cda/usability/
IBM Usability Tutorials: http://www-105.ibm.com/developerworks/education.nsf/dw/usability-onlinecourse-bynewest?OpenDocument&Count=500
Improving Web Site Usability and Appeal: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnsiteplan/html/improvingsiteusa.asp
Information & Design - Usability Toolkit: http://www.infodesign.com.au/usability/toolkit.html
International standards for HCI and usability: http://www.hostserver150.com/usabilit/tools/r_international.htm
ISO and Industry Standards for UID: http://www.usability.serco.com/trump/documents/Usability_standards.ppt.pdf
List of Usability Methods: http://jthom.best.vwh.net/usability/toc.htm

Webnauts · July 4, 2003, 12:24am

I thought I should bring to the consideration of all usability fans and professionals this link bellow

http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/pub/webprouse/

before it would be too late for someone(s)…

Webnauts · July 26, 2003, 11:48pm

The Church of Usability:

http://builder.cnet.com/webbuilding/0-3881-8-5069140-1.html

Webnauts · July 26, 2003, 11:50pm

To usability testing and more:

http://www.infodesign.com.au/usabilityresources/evaluation/usabilitytesting.asp

marcoBR · October 24, 2003, 4:06am

Design and Usability best practices. :tup:

http://www.webdesignpractices.com/index.html

Anim8d_Life · November 1, 2003, 2:45pm

The Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture

http://www.aifia.org

Hormone · November 27, 2003, 7:16pm

An often overlooked aspect of usability is the web through the eyes of the color blind. I’ve taken to running many sites through these filters and it’s amazing how terrible some are.

(1) My favorite and most useful online tool to see color effects for Protans, Deutans and Tritans. There are also other helpful tools on screen. I’ve used this site regularly during development to see the side effects.
http://colorfilter.wickline.org/

Since many of you are used to what Sitepoint looks like on a daily basis, see what it looks like here (Good Job!). http://colorfilter.wickline.org/index.cgi?a=1;r=;l=9;j=1;u=www.sitepoint.com/%3FSID%3D7aac32cdc04ced10e21ca0438a99bb02;t=p

(2) Simulations and Daltonize corrections:
http://www.vischeck.com/

(3) Short but informative article on color vision and color deficiency:
http://www.firelily.com/opinions/color.html

DmS · January 22, 2004, 10:16am

'ello there
I recently did an in deapth accessabillity review on a hospitals website, except for the WAI guidelines I also used this which was a great help:
http://aprompt.snow.utoronto.ca/download.html
/Dan