Usability

How to adjust an iframe element’s height to fit its content

In some cases JavaScript can be used to resize an iframe element to make it as tall as its content, making it look like the content is part of the parent page.

Posted on December 16, 2011

Please provide a usable fallback for Flash content

The number of people browsing the web without Flash Player installed is non-negligible, so if you use Flash it is worth your time to give them a better impression.

Posted on October 20, 2011

Writing useful page titles

A few simple guidelines that will help you create readable, usable, and accessible titles for your web pages.

Posted on February 8, 2011

Use uppercase text judiciously

Text set in all uppercase letters may slow readers down and may cause some screen readers to spell words out letter by letter. Use good judgement when capitalising text.

Posted on December 13, 2010

Frustrated by the Web

During my time off from work I’ve still been using the Web. It makes me very frustrated more often than it should.

Posted on August 10, 2010

Reverse chronological order comments

A few suggestions for sites that display reader comments in reverse chronological order, especially in combination with paging.

Posted on March 11, 2010

Use a background image in your CSS? Remember to specify a backup colour.

Whenever you place text on top of a background image, check if the text is readable if the image is missing and specify a background colour if necessary.

Posted on December 3, 2009

Användbarhetsboken – a free online book on usability

If you can read Swedish, here’s an opportunity to read a good book on usability for free.

Posted on September 16, 2009

Let your links look like links

Don’t make your users waste their time by hiding links. If you can’t stand the look of blue and underlined links, there are other ways of making them obvious. But do not rely on colour alone.

Posted on April 22, 2009

Remember to specify a background colour

There is no guarantee that web browsers always use a white background, so if your design needs a white background, remember to specify it in your CSS.

Posted on November 13, 2008

Make sure your website works with or without www

Make sure your website is available whether or not the visitor has typed www in front of your domain name.

Posted on February 12, 2008

Does advanced search sound too advanced?

Should advanced search be called something else to sound more friendly and inviting, and would it make more people to use it when they need to?

Posted on November 21, 2007

Indicating language choice: flags, text, both, neither?

Do not use flag icons to indicate language choice. Instead use the name of the language as text in the language itself.

Posted on April 18, 2006

Usability testing without a budget

How to do usability testing of websites even if you have no time and no money.

Posted on May 2, 2005

Who framed the web: Frames and usability

Back in the nineties, using frames to split a browser window into several independent parts was very popular. Much due to the increased aw…

Posted on November 18, 2004

Document titles and title separators

I came across an interesting discussion on title separators the other day: What’s your favourite blip? at The Man in Blue. It made me star…

Posted on October 19, 2004

Practices and Patterns

When you’re trying to come up with a good way of solving a design problem looking at how others have done is often very useful. While work…

Posted on October 2, 2003

Verdana bad?

Why you should avoid the Verdana font is an interesting article by Stephen Poley. His opinion is that Verdana may not be the great screen …

Posted on September 24, 2003

The cost of usability

Those of us working in the web industry who believe that usability testing is something that should be done in every project often are not…

Posted on May 20, 2003